Peter

I do think that the Pegula era has had a terrific start. I love the Rex hire. I think that he is going to be great on and off the field. I love where this team is going. As for Russ, on the one hand, I do not think that he gets the credit that he deserves. On the other hand, I think that he was the driving force behind Marrone. He (as I did stupidly) defended Marrone to the moment he opted out. Russ must feel like Marrone not only stabbed him in the back but twisted the knife. The good news is that we upgraded our HC and coaching staff tremendously. Go Bills!!!

I was going to respond, but you said everything that I would have said. I totally agree.

Marv Levy never won one before coming to Buffalo. Bill Belichick never won one as a HC before he joined the Pats. Pete Carrol never won one in his stints with the Pats or Jets. Marv Levy never won a SB.

The horror?!?! He should be fired immediately. [by the way, I follow football pretty closely, but never heard that about Hue and wonder if he borrowed that from someone else . . . .] As an aside, we Bills fans have been calling ourselves the 12th Man for years. Are we lame because Texas A&M supposedly came up with it and have trademarked it?

It is his first week on the job. If he announced who the starting QB is (or any othe player) on opening day, people would complain that he did not bother to do his homework and get to know the players. FA season has not even started. The draft is months away. This is like Sully complaining that the Pegulas were in over their heads when they were interviewing so many (in his view) people for the HC position. Sully . . . oh, I am sorry, rumblefish, did you expect it (or any other PC introducing a HC around the league) to be like the Debbie Downer skit on SNL?!?

I am convince that Saint Doug was Tim Graham's source complaining that the staff was too old school and not cutting edge. If I am correct, it is ironic that Saint Doug would have such a complaint given the way he coached the team.

Very well said.

High and tight Russ.

There is that . . . .

This is a good example of Sully pushing a narrative. He wrote an article stating that they were over their head in their coaching search last week. This is about a year or so after writing a column suggesting that TP's wealth was lucky. In the end, the Bills (in my opinion) got the best HC for the Buffalo Bills.

There are always a million and one reasons that people give for why games are not sold out. In Miami, it is always that there is so much else to do blah, blah, blah. Whether the reasons are valid or not, whatever stadium is built, teams have to give people a reason to want to be at the stadium rather than watch games at home or do something else. That includes the product on the field as well as the fan experience and amenities at the stadium. We can go back and forth about whether a new stadium should have a retractable roof or be open air, the location, the size etc., but if it does not give people the incentive to get into their cars, drive to the stadium, contend with the traffic, want to be surrounded by the others that attend the games, enjoy the fan experience etc. . . as opposed to not doing any of that and watching the game at home or doing something else . . . what is the point? We can all have romantic notions about what it was like "in the day," but times have changed with large screen HD tvs, fantasy football, social media, and the way people live their lives now.

Regarding this, although I would sill love to have Jerry Hughes on the team, doesn't that scheme make it easier for us if he ends up leaving given our strength at linebacker - especially with Kiko coming back?

Thank you Saint Doug for making today possible. As for Sully, I love it when someone comes up with the excuse that he is a "columnist" to defend him. There are a lot of great columnists. Sully is not one of them. He basically writes the same article every time. He is lazy and pushes his own Debbie Downer narrative against whomever or whatever he is writing about. As for Sanchez, didn't a reporter bring him up in a question? It is not like Rex injected his name into the conversation.

Very good points. Sullivan and Bucky have complained about TP not being available to the media in the past, but never took advantage of the opportunity that he has so longed for. Today, instead, he makes an ass out of himself with the questions he asked of Rex. Correction: continues to make an ass out of himself. The sad thing is that the guy CAN be a gifted writer when he actually takes his allows himself to do something other than push his preconceived snark filled narratives.

You may not think he is "smooth" - but he is certainly genuine. He also loves the same city and teams I love. I do not need him to deliver the Gettysburg Address.* *Trivia: Lincoln's speech that day was not generally well received at the time. The substance lives on.

I am all for a retractable roof and natural light. That is why Lucas Oil Field is so appealing. When these issues previously were discussed many months ago, someone also posted a photo of a rugby stadium in NZ or Australia that was very appealing with all of the natural light. If it were up to me and if there is a retractable roof, the roof would be open for football unless it were below a certain temperature (say 30 degrees +/-) or it was raining or the wind had gusts of over a certain MPH. There is a way to accommodate most everyone's interests. I certainly would not want to be in an antiseptic dome stadium without any character (e.g., Rogers, the one in St. Pete), I would rather have the Ralph. But, if someone is going to spend the money and time building a stadium, I think that it should be downtown, have a retractable roof, and have lots of character and light. For those of you that have a romantic notion about sitting out in the driving rain or getting frost bite, that is where you lose me. I can do that at the Ralph without someone spending $700m +. I really would like to see something built that would be significant architecturally and otherwise - not just in Buffalo, but around the world. I really see this as an opportunity to advance the Buffalo renaissance while building a new home for the Bills. If it is going to be just another cookie cutter stadium (outdoor or otherwise), why spend the money.

Not stupid, just disagreeable. The point was just two days after the Bills played their "home" game in Detroit, the Sabres played at home. Simple as that. Clearly, roads present issues if people cannot drive. In my view, so does whether the venue is outdoors. How many tons of snow were the Bills expecting spur of the moment snow shovelers to shovel? An arena, domed stadium, or stadium with a retractable roof do not have any of those issues. They also are able to compete better with the trend of people just staying home. Just my two cents on how I would spend millions of dollars to build a stadium.

Good for Marrone. Good for Chan. He deserves to be in the league. He also is a much classier guy than Saint Doug.

Jets "at" Bills November 24 Jets at Sabres November 26 We can agree to disagree on the rest. In my view, there is no point in bothering to spend the money on a new stadium unless it is a dome or retractable roof. My vision aims higher than the status quo. I see a retractable roof and stadium like the Colts have in a downtown Buffalo location - stadium that contributes to the continued renaissance of Buffalo. A stadium filled with people who attend games (rather than stay at home on their couches in front of their big screen, HD TVs) and spill out onto the streets of downtown Buffalo before and after games and filling up the restaurants and bars of the city. Unless one does something like that, leave it where it is where it does little else other than host 8 or 10 games a year. P.S. As far as December games and attendance go, Russ Brandon (on WGR) has repeatedly talked about the challenges of selling tickets for those games not only over the past several years but when we were good, very good. As I mentioned before, the January 3 Houston Comeback game was even blacked out. A playoff game?!?

Rex = Buffalo

Stupid question (too lazy to look it up): is Manning a free agent? Was this the last year of his Denver contract?

I hope that security escorted him out of the building.

You may be correct about the Rangers (I do not recall), but the Sabres site does show two home games being played that game (Jets on Tuesday and the Montreal on Friday). You may recall that perhaps the most famous game we played in (other than Super Bowls) was not sold out - the Houston comeback game - and that was a playoff game. This past year, I could not go to the Green Bay game. I tried to sell my tickets (45 yard line, 23 row) and could not even sell them. Two days before the game, I even lowered the price to face value (earlier in the week they were about $20-30 over face). No luck whatsoever. One would have thought the Packers would have been a big draw especially with my location. I presume people preferred to watch the game in the comfort of their homes on their big screen TVs rather go to the game. I was shocked.

I have been thinking the EXACT same thing. When they do build a new stadium, they need to hire a top flight acoustics engineer to make sure that it is the loudest stadium in the NFL. No question about that. As an aside, the Dolphins are moving their stands closer to the field in the next few years so that it will be more like people remember the Orange Bowl was like both in terms of sight lines and crowd noise. It is going to be interesting to see how this is done.

I do not believe that the Sabres cancelled any of their games during or in the aftermath of the storm. I just went on their website, which appears to confirm this. Am I missing something? My view is that, if anyone (the Pegulas, the county, the state, or a combination of them) ever builds a new stadium, it makes little sense to spend that kind of money without at least a retractable roof given the weather and what I think that such a stadium could mean to the continued renaissance of Buffalo. Also, as I mentioned before, and which you did not address, the Bills have a hard enough time selling out in December (even when we were good, very good).