zonabb

Me either. The constant need for a "head" when a team fails is an unfortunate symptoms of the American mindset where everything must be immediate and perfect. I think, and obviously this is my opinion, that finding a franchise QB is the hardest thing in sports to find and coincidentally the arguably the most important single position in the four major sports. It's problematic not because a specific GM is unable to identify one, it's because the supply far outweighs the demand. It's simply that a small number actually exist, the rest of the drafted and draftable QBs are projects or likely to be mediocre QBs that stick around not because their GM can;t see the guy is mediocre, but because there are no viable replacements to improve their skill at the position. GMs will probably admit that they look like fools when they reach for QBs but at the same time recognize that sometimes you have to give it a try out of desperation. To throw out a GM who has shown the ability to identify good NFL players beyond the first round at many positions is foolish. People want to fire Whaley because he can't "find" a QB yet people, for reasons beyond my ability to understand, hold Bill Polian up to some untouchable demigod standard for having Peyton Manning fall in his lap. Does it make sense to expect, knowing how it works, another GM to "find" what Whaley can't?

Unlike the prior owners who focused on balancing budgets and profit as their only plan, the Pegula's seem to have a plan the is comprehensive, focusing on building a team for the long haul that realizes you have to spend money to make it. Their business sense, ability to make decisive decisions, and move on from players, coaches, and staff show a level of skill unseen in these two organizations.

I'm sick of it as well. I've taken graduate level stats courses and can't stomach these talk show hosts who've likely never take a single course babble on like they're statisticians. Thye have the mike so they assume instant credibility, The term analytics seems big and powerful to the average person, but to someone who wants to use stats to their fullest advantage, they should be predictive, in the case of something like wins. You should able to predict a causal relationship. Instead, these WGR guys just state probabilities, like the probability of getting a first down when going for it on 4th down. What good is the probability of going for it on 4th and 1 if you can't predict the impact it will have on winning? As a standalone stat, it's elementary and obvious. But taken in the context of the game... down and distance, score, weather, injuries, etc. it tells us nothing about whether you should go for it. Maybe some of the stats they discuss do that, but I turn the radio off if I am every listening and they discuss it because I prefer my stats lectures from PhDs. And as stated earlier, frankly I just want to watch sports for the randomness and the athleticism.

You have it backwards. No matter how hard the jocks try, they can't hang with the academics. Lots more jocks than PhDs jockeying cash registers my friend.

Link? The mixed use approach is merely a newly formulated neoliberal approach to using taxpayer dollars to make it more palatable for the general public when it's being jammed down their throats. Basically, the argument is "See it's being used more than 10 times a year so it's better use of public money." A subsidy is a subsidy is a subsidy. The issue really is that self-interested people become blindly emotional and irrational when it's something they use or like, such as Canalside, a colossal waste of public money that only benefits a small portion of the population than can and is willing to engage in conspicuous consumption. The Bills fans are the same people, many hate subsidies for the Paladinos and Terminis (this joker makes millions off the city from subsidies and has the balls to complain about a food truck on private property taking from his brick and mortar business? Talk about entitled and tone deaf) of the city but will gladly approve one for the Bills. I'm a season ticket holder, and I think it's a joke if we give a billionaire a penny for a new stadium. That's a blasphemy and a minority opinion but I'm against all these so-called economic development incentives that benefit a few while saddling the rest with more taxes without fixing the underlying problems in this state that lead to politicians saying we need subsidies in the first place. And I'll be priced out my season tickets even in a partially taxpayer funded stadium. So not only do we all get to pay for it, it'll be only for those who can afford much higher prices. PSLs, even very minimal, a few thousands a seat, are likely coming. We'll be told by the powers that be that they'd be much higher if we didn't hand them the boatload of money, but no one will ever show us the balance sheet or prove that it's necessity. The NFL has grown so big and powerful and wealthy and we're a city of poverty, horrible school, rampant crime, crumbling public infrastructure, vacancy and abandonment, polluted brownfields, and high taxes and we're expected to shun those issues to support the NFL? Take a look at your pay stubs NYers and ask how all these subsidies are helping you, personally? And one more thing. What would Buffalo look like without the Pegulas? Really? They've built one building, taken ownership of another, and rent a third. Should we anoint them King and Queen and rename all the streets and monuments after them? They've done squat to change this city. Change is holistic, not site specific. Sadly, too many WNYers are drinking the "resurgence" Kool Aid because they keep telling you to believe that. Not true, new bricks and mortar does not fix a city. All the indicators that matter are still trending the wrong way. The constant refrain is part of the narrative push by power brokers to make the people believe it's true to continue to push forth these types of public giveaways.

Wait, I'm missing a home Bills game 44 Sundays a year?

I have a lot of issues here with the NFL but my biggest one surrounds gambling. I was at White Hart Lane this year for a game when I went to London. You can walk in and place a bet on the game in the concourse. In this country, the NFL fights gambling with an iron fist, only allowing it when they have the systems in place and can profit. So they jump on board with fantasy football so they get their cut but they fight vigorously against gambling on games at the state level in casinos. You can't walk two blocks in London without passing a bookie. You can bet anything there, including the NFL. Maybe, just maybe, the interest in the NFL is connected in the massive gambling culture in the UK??? And maybe, the NFL needs to stand up and explain why it's fighting, NJ for example, against allowing people to bet on games while being a bunch of greedy hypocrites and taking their game to a country awash in legal bookies???? Oh, and how many home games are Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft and Dan Snyder going to give up or do they just plan to reap the benefits of these games while the NFL's less-than-marquee clubs get sent over seas?

If you have proof that for every single game, the ball was deflated. Doesn't the home team inflate and manage balls? If so, then how do the home vs. away fumble rates stack up to this "science." Descriptive statistics alone prove absolutely nothing. No data on the inflation rates for balls for every single game the Patriots played, home and away, from 2007 onward, does not allow one to make a causal relationship. In fact, the only way to systematically prove that inflation rates impact fumbling, at a minimum, would be to know the inflation rates of every football for every carry, along with some measures, including but not limited to the type and force of each impact to the runner causing a fumble. So their pre and post-2007 fumble rates showing nothing without the use of the scientific method. It's convenient for Patriot haters but it's about as astute and sophisticated as two 6th grade girls arguing over who is the cutest kid in the class.

Slatterys north of the Liffey and Temple Bar. One of only 7 "earlies" left in Dublin where you can get a pint of the dark with your breakfast. Temple Bar is a mess at night, sort of a Bourbon Street and where a tourists hang. Gotta go there but get out onto the side streets and neighborhoods for some local hangs.

Always been interested in the percentage of seasons that are scalpers/brokers. When you look at available tickets on third party sites like stubhub, there are listings of entire rows. My point is, the record might be broken but that its overstated by the change in NYS scalping law since the glory years when I would bet my house that more tickets were owned by actual fans than are today.

Well my experience was our beer prices are disgustingly high for garbage beer. When I went to NE, maybe 2010, you could get a Sam Adams for a few buck less than a warm bud light at RWS. Cleveland was cheaper too. New Orleans I can't recall, nursing a tough night before with double bloody mary's, which were awesome and the best drink I've ever had in a stadium.

Nothing is worse than the use of "basically" to support or make an argument. It means one of two things: the argument you are making is flimsy or you're unwilling to provide the evidence (likely because you know it won't support your platform). FSU had nine players draft in 2013 and 5 in the first 42 picks. I think most would argue it's not "basically" the same team. I'm not actually against the argument that after he left, FSU was better. But I think your argument is flimsy, and the reality is that Winston, who is a POS human being so far, was a better QB. Does that mean EJ sucks? Not really, it means relative to JW, he wasn't as good. Or put another way, if they were in the same draft with the same college records and accolades, Winston goes before Manuel. Aside from that, I'd love nothing more than EJ to turn it around. But if he doesn't. so be it. I won't call him a loser. In the real world, many people rise to a position and fail. You go from a staffer, to a project manager, to a department head to a vice president and get fired. Why? At some point everyone peaks. Not everyone is destined to be a CEO, some people are excellent project managers. Same with QBs, not everyone is destined to be an NFL start, some are just excellent college QBs.

NFL is so self-righteous and Americanly ignorant it's disturbing. The NFL in Germany, the UK, Brazil is a novelty to soccer. A team would never matter that much in the UK or Germany. Who among the Bills games would stop watching and spending on the Bills if they put a EPL team in Bflo? Not many. Plus, those heading to London in the fall who have never been there before will notice a glaring lack of people wearing any soccer jerseys, hats, shirt, etc. except at a game. The NFL is consumption based sport, concerned only with prying money from our collective wallet and maximization of profit at the detriment to the on-field product. The English have a different approach to sport than we do and they prefer class and tradition over constant rule changes. I also think the average Londoner probably would hate the 4 hour game. An EPL match is 2 hours. I love a team in the worst league in the world.

Yeah, because that bad decisions is going to have severe limitations on his employ-ability!!!!!!!!!!

+1. Never owned a jersey even as a kid, never will. Wearing some guy's name on my back never made any sense.

Would never take a child to a Bills game, ever. I would in other stadiums I've been to but not RWS. In my SH survey I commented that the stadium experience is the same as it has ever been.... a good time when people are behaving but a nightmare when they're not. Further, the rent-a-cops they hire are over zealous maniacs who think they're saving the world and more often than not act worse than the people they're dealing with. The only improvement actually has been the gates seemed to move faster last year. I will say, however, one thing I think is worse and actually a major detraction... the constant barrage of noise and commercials on the boards. I don't need it, don't want it, and find it annoying. I have a few years until I'm done so hopefully it remains tolerable.

Cheating is and always will be part of sports. People tend to focus only on the most nefarious and clandestine, like Spygate or this football issue (which I find to be mundane and its impact way overstated and am more troubled by lying and refusal to own it). But outside of these major efforts to gain an advantage, holding is cheating. It creates an unfair advantage and if caught a penalty is handed down. But it's cheating. And many times those who cheat in this manner, or pass interference, don't get caught. Often it results directly in a win for the cheater. Yet it goes away a day or so later, only carried on by the team in the short end of the outcome who cry "we got screwed" and everyone else, in the "refs can't see everything, everywhere" camp chalk it up as part of the game, rather easily accepting it. It has pissed off this town twice: No Goal and the Music City Miracle. Both clearly cheating if in fact they were illegal. Now you may say, well it's about intent. In both those case, intent is unlikely. I doubt Hull intentionally was in the crease, like his entire focus was to get in the crease and score. And the MCM was just a bad pass by a non-QB, certainly unlikely to be intentional, but again if cheating is basically the act of eluding being caught for something illegal to gain an advantage, then its cheating. I think this issue is has risen to suck meteoric levels because of who it is. If this was the Buccaneers, now one would give a crap. The Patriots are good, have been for far too long. People want to knock them down and make this into more than it is. Who cares, lets move on.

I think looking ahead if the "draft a qb every year" theory is valid, this is a good time in the third, with a pretty decent roster, to roll the dice on a qb.

Drafting is like buying a car. Ask 32 people what kind of car they want and for what purposes and with what amenities/qualities and you'll have different rankings. Darby seems to be ranked right around where he was picked so it's not a talent question as much as need, and I still would argue that CB is always a need when you have McKelvin and Graham.

Not this player but in thread early this week I called CB. Graham and McKelvin are not good.

I thnk the OL will be better and I think the team might have the same belief. I recall one OL after the season saying that there were too many coached, including the buffoon, giving too many competing directions with no common message. Yes it sucked but was it purely talent or coaching?

This. But it makes sense in the NFL..never enough CBs

I called it earlier in a thread.... Never enough CBs in this league. Scary that McShay describes him as fast but poor ball skills.. Sounds like my least favorite current Bill

What's amazing to me is the 20/20 hindsight everyone works with. I guess a one year sample size is all we need to write this off as a bad trade. And no need to suggest that Eli Manning helped ODB more than Orton did SW. I don't recall Atlanta getting as slayed as the Bills have been when they trade with Cleveland and moved up to 6th to get Julio Jones. They traded five draft picks, their 27th, 59th, and 124th that year and their 1st and 4th the following.

The point here is not to argue the dangers of weed or the merits of it as a painkiller (that's a cop out for players in my opinion) but rather the mindset of someone you're going to invest millions of dollars in. It's illegal in most states the young man would work in, as far as I know since I don't pay attention, never touched the stuff in my life. So, if I am an owner I ask myself, how committed and intelligent is this person right before the biggest day of his life if he's willing to engage in illegal activity and run the risk of arrest? I wouldn't draft the kid, I think it's indicative of a lack of maturity, intelligence, and professionalism, regards of what people think about it. It's one thing to not care about it for the guy pushing carts at Wegmans, although being high in a parking lot is a liability. Firing him costs you nothing, your business isn't impacted and you don't owe him any money. Getting a guy who smokes weed and gets caught costs your business if your a team owner. Suspensions can hurt your team. The perception can hurt your team's image. I get a chuckle out of the "who cares" crowd, mainly because they likely support legalization, and like many single issue voters, aren't willing to put themselves in the oppositions/contrary viewpoint's shoes. I'd like to see the NFL continue to ban it even if it were legal.