BarleyNY

Yes. Very SEC.

Actually a bullmastiff, not a bulldog. It was misreported by Fedor and he has since corrected it.

I think his pattern of behavior shows that he actually believes what he says regarding race and that the "boys" comment from the waitress was racist. Let that sink in for a minute. No, seriously, take that minute or two. Whatever it takes to mentally get there. Not that we have a society where racism doesn't exist - we don't. Not by a longshot. But it is also the same society that netted Warren Sapp millions of dollars as a football player, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year as an ex-football player and untold admiration from football fans - including far more tail than he'd have ever dreamed of otherwise.

I'm not sure a man can sink any lower than hanging out with Justin Bieber. He's hit rock bottom, folks. Intervention, counseling and therapy await.

Brian Hoyer ‏@bhoyer6 8h @Kiko__Alonso keep your head up man and be ready to work hard. It's not the end of the world and you will come back stronger! Classy tweet from Brian Hoyer.

No Jim Kelly jersey for you, okay? He just got better. I'll be interested to see what kind of personality and attitude the defense has this season without Kiko. He seemed to not only have high energy and bad intentions personally, but those traits seemed to bleed I to the rest of the defense as well. I wonder how much was him.

I got it from here: http://football.gotnewswire.com/news/sammy-watkins-fires-back-at-donte-whitner-tells-him-to-act-like-a-vet I'm retracting my comments about this being on Watkins. This is on Whitner. The article makes it seem like Watkins said specifically that he was looking forward to playing Cleveland, but there is no quote and I can't find a quote that singles out the Browns - or any other team for that matter. Sorry, I took the article at face value. I was wrong on this one.

Watkins said "I can't wait to play Cleveland." If Whitner had said "I can't wait to play Buffalo." I can't imagine any reaction from Bills fans except anger and telling him to keep his mouth shut.

Wow. Sammie should keep his mouth shut. Players - especially rookies - shouldn't start things like this. If Whitner had started things by saying he couldn't wait to play Buffalo and Sammie (or, better yet, a vet like Mario or CJ) had responded like Whitner had, then I'd agree. But it didn't happen that way. Sammie was wrong. Still, there are 4 pages of posters ripping on the ex-Bill and sticking up for the current Bill. It probably didn't help that it was Whitner. He's hated here as much as Tom Brady. Sammie thought Cleveland was going to pick him at 4 and they traded the right to do so away so I think he carrying a grudge. He should deal with that on the field, not in the press.

I agree with what you wrote. My only additional point is that the money-focused owners are the way forward. Virtually every new owner will be cut from that cloth because this is a billionaire's game now. Eventually all of the old school owners will phase out.

lmao. Yup.

It would sure be nice to see EJ hit that FQB level. I think you'd see a lot of people downplaying some of the things they said about him and some others would bring up some of the things said about him. But ultimately the salve off wins and expectations of playoffs would make this place a love fest overall.

Agreed. Everyone should read that.

I hate that question: "Can we trust Goodell?" What does that even mean? I'm sure he would like the Bills to stay in WNY, but so what? That ultimately means very little against possible economic realities, improving the league and the wishes of new ownership. Any or all of those may come into play. Goodell works for the owners. His job is to support the agenda of the majority of the owners and keep those owners that stray in line. He's got other duties, but it mostly boils down to that. That's what we can trust him to do - support the agenda of the majority of owners.

Well stated.

I don't doubt that some prospective owners would do that. But again, their valuation of the franchise will be less than that of a prospective owner who has a good deal already worked out with LA, for instance. That's a bid that should be higher, so that's the bid that would almost certainly win. That is my concern.

My thinking is this: While there might be an owner willing to go the route you are stating I can't imagine that they would be the winning bid. An owner who can only depend upon staying in Buffalo and playing at The Ralph will have a valuation of their potential investment in the Bills that is much less than an owner who prices in moving the team to a bigger city with a better/newer stadium. The potential owners will know their options in detail before valuing the team and putting together their bid. Buffalo needs to make sure that the valuation of the team staying in Buffalo is reasonably high. Even if they aren't as high as LA or even Toronto there are relocation costs including the relocation fees to the other NFL owners to consider as well as inherent risks in moving a team. Lastly, the PR of the situation matters a great deal. If Buffalo is at the table with a quality new stadium and deal it will be tough to justify a move. If it looks like there isn't support for such measures, well, I'd use the Baltimore Colts and Cleveland Browns as examples of that. Could a new owner assume that he's going to get a good deal here or simply move in a few years? Sure. But the problem with that is that potential owners are likely to be talking deals with new cities (as well as Buffalo) now. That's dangerous territory. Art Modell was a big voice in denying Baltimore an expansion team years before he moved the Browns there. Many people think he saw what they were offering and cut a deal to move the Browns to Baltimore years before it became public. I worry that someone cuts a similar deal with LA (or maybe even Toronto). Then they drag their feet (like Modell did) on the specifics of new stadium/renovated stadium front. Lots of public griping, but slow actual progress. Then it's too late and the reason given is that the city wasn't committed to supporting the team when, in reality, it was a done deal a long time before. I am a native Clevelander. I just don't want to see Buffalo lose the Bills and this situation looks way too familiar. What will likely keep the a Bills in town is getting a deal together a few years earlier than the lease says it needs to be in some incremental amount of money. It just isn't that much different.

I have been saying the same thing since it was known that the Bills were coming up for sale. The city has to put together it's best offer now, including a bright, shiny new stadium. The difference in value between a team in Buffalo playing at the Ralph and one playing in a new stadium in Toronto or Los Angeles is far too great. Buffalo needs to make it difficult for an owner to leave even if they can't quite compete with the Los Angeles. The time to do that is now, not in three or four years because by then it will be far too late. No new owner is going to buy the team without a plan and that plan isn't going to be "Buy the Bills and Hope Everything Works Out". If Buffalo doesn't have a solid deal on the table you can bet some other city will. Another city might anyway, but if Buffalo doesn't come to the table pre-sale then they are simply conceding losing the Bills. Then the city will end up trying to lure the Jags or another team here with at least as good of a deal. A deal they should have offered the Bills to stay. That is one hell of a hand to push all your chips in on. If that is what Buffalo is going to pin its hopes on then this is over - and not in a good way. I'm sure it will be a factor if bids are reasonably close. If not, then the decision is easy.

I think that you are - forgetting what it is like to be his age - missing that the main difference between him and many other players is not their behavior, but the number of cameras pointing his way - missing that his drinking has not seemed to have had an effect on his play or preparation - missing that he has seemed to be exercising a lot more responsibility than many others who party (no positive drug tests, drunk driving, etc.) I'm not saying that his situation doesn't bear watching. It does. But Pettine is right, until his behavior impacts his job it really isn't much of the team's business. The minute it does, then it is. I'm not sold on him as an NFL QB. He's got a lot of work to do and things to improve before he is viable, but people need to get over themselves.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if Manziel fails in the NFL, it will have nothing to do with his partying. He just gives a lot of people a flashpoint to push an agenda and shout uninformed opinions.

$963M Pegula

Most of those teams have some hope (regardless of whether of not I like the young guys on the teams). Even Houston has Savage which provides a little. The Jets have Vick and Geno which qualifies as a short term possibility for some success and little to no opportunity for long term success. But Tampa Bay has neither with Glennon and McCown. TB gets my vote.

Then maybe off to Philly for a nice dinner at Del Frisco's!

I think that the implication was pretty clear. Why do you care what the players spend their money on? Do you care that Irsay uses the money he's making from owning a team to pay for his dope and booze? The fans pay for those, too. What other goods and services do you refrain from purchasing because of how employees of those companies spend their money? It just seems odd that this particular situation is such an affront to you.

The fans will pay the same regardless of whether or not athletes are "responsible" with their money or not - or even if they are well paid or not. That's just economics. The league and the owners primarily seek to maximize revenues and profits. The NFLPA joins them except in cases where it adversely effects the players (like more games). Then the owners and NFLPA fight over each's share of the take. As for how players (and even owners) spend their money I could not possibly care less. If they want to burn through it in five years and live the life of their dreams, so be it. It's their money. If they want to make it last their whole lives, then that's great. The only ones I have any sympathy for are the ones that invested and tried to be responsible, but got taken by scam artists. I bet they would have rather blown it all on $60k dinners and Bentleys than have seen Bernie Madoff or one of his ilk make off with it.