Peter

No luck was involved in Terry learning the business, deciding where to purchase land, and taking the financial risk that ended up with him becoming a billionaire. For Sully to condescendingly suggest that it was all luck only reveals a deep seated jealousy. There is a certain amount of luck in everything we do, but Sully's take was intended to suggest that Terry did not deserve his wealth and that he did not help create it. Being a good or bad public speaker has nothing to do with it. Kim has more experience running businesses and now sports businesses than you, me, Sully, Bucky, and Harrington combined. They also are smart in that they have surrounded themselves with good and qualified people. If you have any doubt about Kim's intelligence and abilities, read Vic's recent articles. Your post is a tad too personal. I wonder. Hmmm. As I said in another post, to paraphrase Chris Berman, no one circles the wagons like Buffalo media when one of their own is criticized. P.S. I do not need rainbows buddy, but I sure as you know what do not need someone to always find the dark cloud in the silver lining. As for Sully's "opinions," he has essentially written a variation of the same lazy and negative Nancy column for the past several years . . . and sprinkles them with gratuitous pot shots. As TBN told Sully, his BS columns (that he seemed to be phoning in) were bad for business. Apparently, Sully (despite his self professed wisdom about running sports franchises) knew about as much as Jon Snow and Sergeant Schulz do about business. God bless.

Did you ever see the end of year Sabres press conference a few years ago when Darcy and Ted Black were still with the team when the buffoons from TBN embarrassed themselves? Have you read the column wherein Sully insinuated that Terry's wealth was just dumb luck or when Sully suggested that Terry was a racist or Bucky's columns in which he suggested that Kim essentially was only good enough to pick out the color of the drapes? When the agenda of certain people is to destroy, is it any wonder that one would choose not to do interviews with them? Is it any wonder that Vic (who typically is fair) got the recent interview with Kim or that Tim Graham seems to be about the only one with enough access to actually break some sports news at the Buffalo News? Hmmm.

You probably hit at one of the root causes for their disdain. Jealousy. They always thought they knew better than anyone else and could not understand why the Pegulas should have the opportunity to own the teams.

That's fine. We also are allowed to have opinions about them. As it turns out, the Buffalo News (as Sully admitted) did not think that he was good for business. As an aside, I always thought it was ironic that these men of "opinions" were so thin skinned. Twitter exposed them for what they are. To paraphrase Chris Berman: No one circles the wagons like Buffalo News sports writers when one of their own is criticized on social media.

One of the first articles that I remember reading that Sully wrote was a "classic Sully" hit job on Bruce Smith. The Bills happened to be pretty darn good then.

I never understood their disdain for the Pegulas as well. Harrington has displayed the same condescension toward them. I grew up in Buffalo and spent most of my adult life worried that the Bills were going to move elsewhere. The Pegulas appeared out of freaking nowhere, bought the Sabres, saved the Bills from relocation forever, and transformed downtown. And yet, these three guys from the Buffalo News took every seeming opportunity to gratuitously criticize them. Let's not forget that Sully wrote an article attempting to claim that Terry was lucky to have his money and that he was a racist. Bucky wrote an article (after LaFontaine left the Sabres) that Kim basically should not be responsible for anything more serious than choosing the color of the drapes. Harrington essentially echoed this after Brandon left and Kim became president. I dare say these guys became unglued and overstayed their welcome.

There were at least two remarkable things about Sully's tweet: 1) TBN realized that Sully was bad for business and told him so; 2) Sully tried to portray himself as a martyr for the readers. Also, number 1 undermines 2 and it is not surprising that Sully's narcissism would lead him to believe that he is a martyr. The sad thing is that Sully is perfectly capable of writing great columns when he is not so filled with snark and condescension. As examples, I would refer you to his columns about the Buffalo girl who died in the balloon accident in Virginia and those that he wrote regarding the Sochi winter Olympics. Over the years, Sully, Bucky, and Harrington have become more and more snarky and very quick to tweet and write that someone should be fired, cut, drawn and quartered etc . . . and they typically have done so with the maximum amount of snark/sarcasm. Maybe . . . just maybe . . . after all that has happened with the Buffalo News, these guys will take a different and more measured (less snarky) approach to judging others. Just my two cents.

The evaluation of the draft will rise or fall with how Josh Allen ends up doing in his career. I actually hope that he does not play too much this year because whoever the QB is will likely face some adversity. It might be wise not to throw Josh in the fire. The Bills gave up a lot to make all of the moves they did to be able to pick him (starting with the trade last year). Allen clearly is not the darling of the analytics people whereas Baker Mayfield is. Allen can make throws that few people can make and struggles with some throws nearly every professional QB can make consistently. I am not sure how many drops he had (I have read some who claim that this is overstated). On the other hand, if he had only completed 10 more passes, he would have had a 60% completion rate. 10 more completions is not so many. I have no idea whether Josh Allen will end up being the "franchise QB" we have been waiting for, but I am willing to give him a chance when he is ready to play (whenever that is) . . . as we all should. He seems like a good guy and he has embraced Buffalo.

If the the Bengals/Ravens play were repeated 100 times, how many of the 100 times would 4th and 12 from the 49 result in a TD? One of 100? Two of 100? If the refs had not thrown the controversial late flag on the Colts on the two point conversion (on a play the Patriots never get a penalty), would the Bills have made the playoffs? It is great that the Bills made the playoffs, but if you think that there was not some luck involved, we disagree. I am actually happy that we had a bit of luck given that we have not seemed to have had any luck for so long. The 2018 version of the Buffalo Bills (at least on paper) is not as talented as the 2017 version (which actually performed worse than the 2016 version in point differential and relative offensive and defensive rankings). As a result, I am going into this season not expecting the team to be in the playoffs so that I will be pleasantly surprised if they do and not overly dissapointed if they do not.

Actually, I can testify to the fact that these particular improvements retain the crowd noise. I have never, never heard that stadium as loud as it was in the many games that I have attended to see any game up to the point they installed the canopy.

The Hard Rock renovation cost $425 million reportedly.

Very cool. I would love to see those plans. I think that there is a lot of potential at the existing site at a much lesser cost. As much as I think that the stadium should have been built downtown, I just don't see how a new stadium could be built with any significant contribution by the Bills that would not make the price of tickets and/or PSLs above what the market would bear. In fact, as I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, last year was the WORST year in the re-sale market that I have ever experienced. I was a long time out of town season ticket holder and ended up having to give up my great seats. I could not sell the tickets to the home opener and tickets to the Colts game were going for $6. If that is a market indicator, I just don't see how the Bills could raise ticket prices much or charge for PSLs.

I would also consider a partial roof the way the Dolphins did it. It would protect against some of the elements, it definitely holds in the crowd noise, and it could possibly help with the swirling winds (a guess). Dolphins/Hurricanes Stadium Photo Inside Dolphins/Hurricanes Stadium Photo Outside With the $425 million renovations, the Hard Rock is like a brand new stadium.

I agree John. There is no way the Pegulas are ever moving the team. I forever will be grateful that they purchased the Bills and Sabres and I will never have to worry about that again.

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but the Dolphins renovated their stadium (I have season tickets to the Miami Hurricanes who also play there). The renovations cost about $425 million and it is like going to a new stadium. I hate to say it, but the Dolphins did a very nice job. I think others who are members here have been to the stadium after it was renovated and also were impressed. Perhaps a renovation would work. I wish the stadium were downtown, but I think Kim is correct in that the market does not support higher ticket prices and people do not want to pay for PSLs. Interesting Personal Side Note re My (former) Season Tickets and Horrible Re-Sale Market Last Year I actually was a long time season ticket holder with great seats but ended up giving up my season tickets because I lost money on the re-sale market. My goal always had been to at least break even on the games I could not go to as an out-of-town season ticket holder. Last year was the worst year for the re-sale market. I could not sell the home opener against the Jets at all even though my seats were in the lower bowl on the 45 yard line and I had lowered the price to the lowest I could on the NFL ticket exchange. As you guys also know, the Colts game was going for $6 a ticket. That is crazy. On top of all that, I noticed that they inserted in the agreement that I would indemnify the Bills and the NFL for any damages caused by people using my tickets. I thought that was overreaching given that I use the NFL Ticket Exchange - a platform through which the Bills and NFL share in the selling price and I have no control over who buys the tickets.

Buddy, are you looking for a fight? Please read the beginning of my freaking sentence: "As an aside, whether you take your or my side on the Richie contract situation . . . ." I was making what I thought was a non-provocative statement to try to reach some middle ground on this issue with fellow board members. If you want to continue to argue, go ahead and argue with yourself . . . .

As an aside, whether you take your or my side on the Richie contract situation, it is clear that he would have been better off at OTA's in the structured environment of a football team. When that becomes part of your family, it is difficult not to have that anymore.

I clicked and could not help but take a look at what Cristiano Ronaldo's girlfriend was up to . . . after recently having a baby a few months ago. There also was the story about Incognito.

Maybe, but being Baker Acted for getting into an altercation is not the typical response. Getting arrested or detained would be the typical responses.

Richie's. . . . or the story is wrong.

That is why this is VERY odd and there has to be something more to the story or the story is wrong. Bizarre.

McBeanes and Franks?

The guy got into a gym altercation so they Baker Acted him . . . but the Broward Sheriff's Department could not Baker Act Nikolas Cruz (Parkland shooter)?!? Something is odd here.

This "addition by subtraction" bit is becoming as tiresome as McBeane stealing Nick Saban's "process" mantra. Ultimately, subtraction ends up being just that. There was no indication that Incognito was a bad teammate. In fact, the contrary is demonstrably true. Ask Shady or anyone else including Dawkins. In fact, while Dawkins had a good rookie year, I wonder how much of that was facilitated by the fact that he was playing next to a veteran pro bowl guard. There also is no indication that Incognito would have been unhappy with the original contract that he and the Bills signed. I also have to believe that cooler heads on both sides could have come up with a middle ground. Instead, we are down one pro bowl offensive lineman (and another starter on the line). That is not a good recipe for our QB (whoever it may be) or Shady. As for your reference to rumors about a drunken call with Pegula, they seem to be just that. What you describe as me "pissing in the wind," in actuality, is me just being realistic about the fact that we are now missing our pro bowl guard and, to add insult to injury, we have $1.15 million in yet more dead money against the cap. In any event, we disagree. God bless.

You are missing my point. People have taken the position that Incognito should have lived with contract that he signed. Based on that reasoning, the Bills should have honored the original deal and should never have approached Incognito or his agent about taking a pay cut. I am not saying that I agree with that reasoning, but, in my view, it is inconsistent to argue that Incognito should have honored the re-done contract and the Bills were free ignore the original deal and could cut him or threaten to do so if he did not take a large pay cut. Clearly, we disagree. I am not going to convince you and you are not going to convince me. Let's agree to disagree. I know you want to get the last word in so have at it.