Kirby Jackson

One more unpopular opinion: I think that it’s more likely that the Bills win the AFC East than it is that the Bills win 10+ games.

With that being said the Bills have the easiest schedule in the division. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/nfl-strength-of-schedule-2020-hardest-easiest/k6tyxtfog6uh14hb6vh59icqe

As I understand it his sacks came in bunches against bad players. Candidly, I didn’t go back and look but know he really cooled off.

Mario Addison will underachieve. He didn’t have a sack in like the last 8 games and he ate up terrible OTs other than that. I say he has less than 7 sacks which he hasn’t done in years.

The likeliest to play IMO is football based on the timeline. The NBA could also be considered 1 as their plan is, by far, further along than anyone else. I say football because they have basically 5 or 6 weeks to start the regular season after the NBA. No one else is all that close.

The tricky part is that sports and covid/social activism are so intertwined right now. They can’t operate independently of one another. These issues can actually prevent these leagues from playing.

Is anyone going to point out how sports are back up and running in the rest of the world? Our bungling of the whole Covid-19 situation will be to blame if we have no football in the fall.

I hate certain fans more than teams. Obviously I hate EVERYTHING about New England. Because I live in New Orleans, Saints fans annoy me more than Dolphins fans (for example). I’m just surrounded by them. Additionally, we see a lot of different fan bases come through as a destination city. You learn stuff like 49ers fans are OBNOXIOUS. I’m so removed from them I’d never know that. A lot of it ends up your personal experience.

The Cowboys will offer a 1st and the Jets will accept (maybe a mid-round pick ends up there too).

You’re absolutely entitled to your opinion. We just disagree on the bolded. How much talk has Colin Kapernick’s protest generated? To say that it hasn’t been impactful just isn’t true.

That dude does a really, really nice job. A little unrelated but I think Josh is going to end up being really good. I may eat those words at some point but I don’t think so. He’s going to end up one of the tops QBs in the league.

So if they kneel for the anthem you’ll still watch them play football after correct?

Do you really think that NO Bills will kneel?!? I’ll save you the 3 months of anticipation. There will 100%, definitely, without question, be Bills players kneeling for the anthem.

I had no idea. I stand corrected

Fox News throwing around “star” pretty loosely huh?

This time they’re serious though

FWIW, Kim is DESPISED by the old-timers in and around the Sabres. At least that’s how I’ve heard it. It’s been that way since LaFontaine.

I’ve heard quite a bit of it from the inside. Long story short LaFontaine believed that everyone they had was incompetent (Ted Black & company). He wanted house cleaning and authority.

I picture this playing in the background as you typed that: Thoughts and prayers ??????!!

Maybe we are. We are in agreement that the cash flow is down across the board (except the Bills). I’m simply suggesting that the cash flow issues are being overstated. You aren’t seeing other organizations skinning it to the bone. I don’t believe that’s the reason for these decisions. If they are that lean they shouldn’t own the team. The reason that i brought the Bills into the equation is that their profits from the TV contract alone are more than enough to offset all other losses. They obviously don’t have to dump money into a losing entity. I’m simply saying that they could. That is pretty inept. Buying minor league franchises is a terrible investment. You just hand money away. The Sabres, in theory, should operate in the black. They aren’t going to be a huge revenue generator but it should be a positive. They need to get a president in there ASAP. Too bad RB was banging his employees. He’s absolutely capable of fixing this problem. There are tons of others as well. Kim Pegula isn’t one.

Maybe it’s more semantical? Obviously they aren’t generating the revenue that they needed to. They are in no way “forced” to make any cuts whatsoever. If they kicked in a fraction of a fraction of their own assets they could operate at the same level. They’d never notice the difference. This isn’t a small business situation. If the sandwich shop at the corner isn’t ringing $1000 a day they can’t afford to pay staff, bills, etc... If the Pegula’s and the Sabres miss 13 games, 6 of which are home, that lost revenue isn’t going to crush their business. It’s a PR spin used to get the public to empathize. It’s a BS excuse. We aren’t talking about multi-millionaires. We are talking about people that stroked a $1.4B check for the Bills (who buy the way are still spitting out cash). If my math is right the NFL teams last year each made $50m-$55m PROFIT from the TV deal alone. Profits dropping 92% is quite different than about 15% of your home games being cancelled. This holds especially true when the player salaries go away with the unplayed games. I’m fairly certain that is the model in the NHL as it is in other sports. So you lose the revenue associated with those games but also your largest expense associated with them. It’s not apples to apples.

Again, though we are talking about a fraction of a fraction of “liquidation.” Owners crying about “tightening the belt” is just bs. That’s my point. I don’t care what decision that they make but don’t use the loss of revenue as a crutch. Cutting $2M (or whatever) on staff and infrastructure has ZERO impact on the Pegula’s lifestyle and/or financial position. FWIW, I agree that Botterill should be fired. I don’t agree with gutting everything and hiding behind the revenue not coming in. Just say, “we’ve funded a staff and system that didn’t work. We are going to go in another direction because it was a waste of money.” Owners crying poor just isn’t going to fly with me in 2020. It’s just not a real thing but it is utilized to gain empathy from the public.

Do you believe the Pegula’s to be cash poor?!? I’m sure not buying that. To be clear, they are entitled to make whatever decisions they want. I’m just not standing for the myth that they are forced to financially. This is a decision that they WANT to make not that they HAVE make.

I’m not conflating franchise value with cash revenue. Just saying, the entire cost of the people that they just cut is MAYBE $2M or so. When your net worth $5.1B that’s peanuts. He made $2M yesterday (.03% of his net worth). https://www.forbes.com/profile/terrence-pegula/#13714b983cc7

I’m sorry but I’m having a hard time with the “financial woes” of the Sabres. They paid $189M for them less than a decade ago and would get $550M+ tomorrow. The franchise value went up $25M last year alone. This isn’t like other businesses. The rarity, exclusivity and demand for sports teams by billionaires make them different. They value of the business doesn’t go up and down like a restaurant based on sales. The operating income may fluctuate some but the largest expense, player salaries, is a percentage of overall revenue. It’s not like you need to maintain the same pay without the same income. I’m not, and WILL NEVER buy into sports owners crying poor. They’ve owned the team for 6 years, had 3 HCs, 2 GMs, multiple presidents. They lost their top leadership on the business side almost across the board in both franchises (Russ, Wheat, Sinclair, Popko, etc..). That sort of attrition doesn’t happen in top organizations. Now it looks like they got it right with McDermott and Beane. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. They should do everything in their power to extend them and stay out of their way.