CA OC Bills Fan

According to this article, average face value price will be $192 with the range being $70 (behind North end zone) to $375 (behind Chargers bench). They are expecting to take in as much as a normal size stadium so obviously the prices need to be high. I've been to several LA Galaxy (soccer) games at StubHub, I've always had good seats, but I can't imagine that there are really any bad seats in the house. Last year I went to the Bills/Lambs game, paid just over $100/ticket, and was so far away I could barely see the field. Also, there was a huge Bills Backers party near the stadium. Personally, I'm really psyched to see a Bills game in this venue.

I'm in.

I only listened to the first 3 sentences or so of his introductory news conference. His first word obviously was... "Obviously".

One of the things I remember from after the game was that Harmon took no responsibility for the drop. He insisted that the pass was behind him and if it was a better pass he would have caught it. I think in my mind that's why I hated him after that and was thrilled the Bills cut him (pretty sure he went to San Diego and had a few decent seasons for them). If he had taken responsibility, probably would have forgiven the drop. While Harmon was with the Bills, Thurmon wasn't thrown to nearly as much as he was later, in fact, I think he didn't play on obvious passing downs. For the Bengals game the year before, I remember Bruce was unstoppable. Only the refs and injury could stop him. Munoz couldn't handle him. But as said by someone else, there was a fandom face mask call on a sack. And he got injured (shoulder?) in the first half and didn't return.

Showtime: Boomer, Phil Simms, Michael Irving all pick Bills to win.

This is from the Orange County Register. The article basically says that it was a stupid call and Fisher blames everyone but himself for it not working. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fisher-731631-rams-bills.html Quote from the article: "And that prompted Fisher to half-jokingly – we think – put the screws on Rams fans for tipping off Darby the fake was on."

I have no idea how many of us were there, but everywhere I went was dominated by Bills fans. My seats were in the upper stratosphere on the Bills side, I didn't go to the tailgate but parked in a structure next door to it and tailgates with 11 of us there.From the parking structure, to walking the mile to the game, to where we sat, to the walk back to the car and even the drive to the freeway, I saw more Bills colors than Lambs colors. But obviously there were many more LA fans than Buffalo fans. They were actually very loud once or twice during the game when the Bills were on defense.

I'm going with my wife and 15 year old son and two other families. Since my wife and son don't drink (or my wife doesn't and my son can't legally drink) we aren't going to the tailgate to pay $45 each for them. Anyone know where we can go before the game to tailgate?

Ulcerative colitis is very similar to Crohn's, collectively they're called IBD or irritable bowel disease. I've had ulcerative colitis since I was 12 (I'm 55 now). It's been pretty much under control since my late 20s. But, as a kid I had very frequent flair ups. I was only hospitalized once for it, when I was 24 - my weight had dropped to below 120 pounds. When I had flair ups I lost a lot of weight and had very little strength. I'd have very regular intense stomach cramps and would go to the bathroom 12 times per day. No way could I have played a sport. Also, when I had flair ups the primary medication was prednisone, a steroid which I assume would be illegal in the NFL. The prednisone actually destroyed my hips and knees enough so that one of my hips had to be replaced. No issues at all now, I take medication regularly. By the way, although he's just a kicker, I remember Rolf Bernirschke, former Chargers kicker, had ulcerative colitis badly enough that he was in the hospital during the week between games to be fed intravenously.

Yes, Rob is an assistant coach at MVHS which is 1 mile from my house. It's a perennial football powerhouse. Rob's father, Bob Johnson has won state championships at both MVHS and El Toro HS (3 miles north of MVHS) and is the only coach in CA to do that. On Bob's staff is Rob, his brother Brett (who supposedly was the better quarterback before being injured) and at least last year Keyshawn Johnson (not related ). MVHS is also where Sanchez went to HS and where he held his Jersey Jerks West Coast Camp. Back when Rob was playing for the Bills, his parents lived around the block from me. One of my daughter's first Halloween's she dressed up as a Bills cheerleader (the outfits made for toddlers, not quite the same as the real thing) and we went to their house as part of our trick or treating. I talked to his father for a few minutes, he gave us an autographed picture of Rob.

And, what happens if we don't whiff on Hunter and instead take someone else who goes later in the round: Gill Byrd, Leonard Smith (had a decent Bills career later on), Willie Gault, or Jim Jeffcoat? Do one of them win the Bills a game or two to make it so we don't get Bruce? Or, do nothing much for us for the first couple of years but are good enough to put us over the top vs. the Giants?

On Sirius XM last night, Gil Brandt and (I think) Alex Marvez were talking about the trade. Based on earlier comments, I believed Gil thought it was a bad move on Buffalo's part. He asked Alex, "Do you think they gave up too much if they make the playoffs." Then went on to say he wrote an article earlier in the day saying that he believes Buffalo will make the playoffs this year because of this trade. Alex was skeptical, saying he doesn't believe the Bills can win the division and doesn't think there will be two playoff teams from the AFC East, but Gil stuck to his opinion.

I heard the interview this morning with BP. A couple of things: - I didn't get the impression that he was completely negative on the Watkins trade, just that we gave up a lot and that we're betting a second (or third including next year) draft on EJ. If EJ works out, it's ok. - The quotes above about Gronkowski very accurately depict what he said about Gronk not being on his draft board and his comments in the draft room about it. It was very insightful. But, he went on to say that in the win now league as it is, these decisions are evolving. If the player will be good for a few years, that's ok whereas in the past you wanted longevity. - He did make the comment out "the Bills 7th round pick of the kid from Miami is a head scratcher" when he was talking about taking a chance on some kids with character flaws. He said that right after saying that it's fine to have a few. But, as Piz said, a 7th rounder, so what if he flames out. On a different note, a couple of comments about Gil Brandt. - Last week he was asked about trading up for Watkins. He replied that you never trade up high in the draft for a skill player unless it's a quarterback. I was then listening to him on Sirius XM when the Bills trade was announced. He immediately said, "the Bills pick is Mathews, you can bank on it." When it was announced as Watkins, he didn't have much to say at all. Although I never heard him say it, I don't think he liked the trade / pick.

The only non-sell out as I remember it was the Houston Wild Card game. In fact, they set NFL attendance records some of those years and topped the league in attendance pretty much every year during their Super Bowl years. For the Houston game, I know many will legitimately say these are just excuses, but in one of the smallest NFL markets they did only have one week to sell tickets as many or most fans were still expecting a first round bye. And, since they were just beaten badly the last game of the season by the same team (and Kelly was knocked out of that game and would not be playing the Wild Card game), many thought the chances would be dismal. Just like now, people don't want to sit in the cold to watch a team lose. I was at the comeback game and could have easily been talked out of leaving at halftime. In fact, it I didn't have a 3 and a half hour drive home after the game (I lived in Binghamton at the time and was working on Monday), I likely would have suggested going over my friend's house in Orchard Park and just drinking.

I think that London Fletcher was an excellent free agent pickup by Donahoe. One of Levy's major GM mistakes was letting him walk.

I live in the LA area. As I remember reading in the local papers at the time, he resigned because he had to go due to the performance of the defense. Seeing as his son is his boss, he wasn't going to force son to fire father or have the son lose his job over refusing to make the changes to his staff. The "looking to return to the NFL" excuse was just that, and excuse.

Great episode as all of them have been. I got a kick seeing Harbaugh tell his team before the game, "Where else would you rather be than right here." A Levy fan?

I haven't lived in Upstate NY since 1993 and in the blackout region since I left for college in 1978, so it has no affect on me. However, my parents, in their upper 80's and still living in Rochester, can't see any blacked out games and I think that's very unfortunate. Unfortunately, I agree that for the Bills this is probably the correct decision because of the change in revenue sharing if they change the blackout policy. However, I still have at least two concerns. First of all, the decision to extend the blackout rule to Syracuse a few years ago stinks. The farther away from Buffalo you get the more they are competing for new, young fans with the Jersey teams. I think allowing them to watch on TV will bring in new fans that may otherwise be lost for life to the Gints or Jerks. Secondly, I think the new policy from the NFL sucks. They needed to change the blackout rule. But, making the choice up to each individual team and financially penalizing teams for changing their policy is a sham. They should have either changed the policy across the board, or, they could have made it up to individual teams but not by giving a disincentive to teams to opt in to the new policy. Also, I really don't believe that many people, particularly from farther away like Rochester or Syracuse, decide to buy game tickets because they are afraid the game may be blacked out if they don't do so.

Yes, they still played 2 games against each division opponent so half of their schedule were division games. So far as why the Fish are in the AFC East, that was because of Ralph Wilson. The league wanted the Bills, Browns, Steelers, and Bengals together since we are all pretty close. We had a huge rivalry with the fish dating back to going 0 for the 70's against them and then into the Kelly / Marino years (where we owned them). Ralph would not accept any realignment that didn't include Fish / Bills in the same division. At the time, I completely agreed with him. I remember reading an article stating that it was short sighted, that if we played the other teams close to us twice a year, could go to games in their stadiums and their fans would come to Buffalo, new rivalries would arise pretty quickly. Now, a decade or so later, with the Bills and Fish afterthoughts for most of that time to the rest of the NFL, I tend to agree with that article.

I read this as meaning that LA/Anaheim and Nashville are in. It says that an owner of another major sports league team can only buy an NFL team if that team is in his home territory and home territory includes the home territories of Cleveland, LA/OC, Nashville, and Memphis.

I was listening to Ross Tucker on the NFL channel on satellite radio this morning. I just turned it on in time to hear them talking about this. They said that Garrard declined a try out. They mentioned someone else also declined a tryout, but I don't remember who. They were bashing on Miami for not having a viable backp. I didn't even know that Henne was hurt and didn't hear the extent of his injury.

Prior to May 2005, the maximum score was 1600. It was raised to 2400 at that time. The average score was around 1000 before the score was raised. 1580 is virtually perfect in both math and verbal. According to Wikipedia, scoring 1540 means you've scored better than 99.5% of test takers. No stats on 1580 but a perfect 1600 is better than 99.93% of test takers.

I agree that there aren't many blockbuster player trades, but not sure which player you're talking about (Bennett or Dickerson). Bennett had not played a down in the NFL. He was the second overall pick in the draft but wouldn't sign with the Dolts. What would have happened with Eli Manning if the Chargers didn't trade him immediately but kept trying to sign him into October and then gave up and then wanted to trade him? Of course a LB isn't a QB, but basically the Dolts were trading the 2nd overall pick in the draft. Dickerson was 3 seasons removed from the all time single season yardage record (yes, in 16 games, not 14) and led the league in rushing 3 of his first 4 seasons ('87 was his fifth season). The Dolts were desperate to get rid of the second overall pick and get the value they would have gotten on draft day for him. They got the best running back in the league when top running backs had much more value than they do today. The Lambs got a decent running back and a ton of draft picks that they wasted away.

Overall I agree. However, I remember watching that draft at the time and everyone on TV was thinking we should take Leinert. I don't think that most people had Cutler as rated higher than Leinert coming out of college. So, although of course you are correct in that had the front office had evaluated Whitner, Cutler, Losman, and Leinert correctly they would have taken Cutler. But, there's also a good chance that they would have agreed that a quarterback's value is much higher than a safety yet gone with Leinert.

Not sure if you're kidding or not, but the saying is "you can't force a square peg into a round hole". So far as your analysis, it all depends on the size of the peg and the hole. If you had a round peg with the same diameter as the length (and of course the width) of a square, the square is bigger. Of course, if the diameter of the round peg is the same as the diagonal of the square, then the circle is bigger. It's my understanding that the expression more refers to it's not a comfortable fit to have a square peg in a round hole than to mean that it can't be done. See Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_peg_in_a_round_hole In any case, I agree, Stroud is a class act who doesn't fit the 3-4.