PolishDave

It's better than taking it for mica schist!

You mean tax money I presume? I'm okay with that. I don't think taxpayers anywhere should be subsidizing sports teams. It isn't an essential service.

That is their right to do that if they want to. Isn't it? They won't do it though because they need to keep the masses addicted to football. That would be a short term moneymaker for them, but a long term negative for the good of the league. They are smart enough to know that.

After much consideration and banging my head off the wall this afternoon.... Forget everything I said previously... Just delete the damn duplicate threads. There are way too friggin many of them. I feel like I am losing my sanity....How many "The Team is Sold" "The Team is Staying" threads can you have.

I don't understand how any of this has anything to do with FCC rules. If the NFL wants to allow competing games then it should be allowed to do so right now. If they don't want to allow competing games it should be able to specify that in the contract with whatever TV network buys the contract for showing games. I don't see how that has anything to do with the FCC at all. Likewise, if the NFL wants to prohibit television broadcasts of local games in local areas where games don't sell out, then that is their prerogative. They should be able to prohibit that. It should have nothing to do with the FCC. I don't understand why they would be involved at all.

Can we just have a thread full of emoticons.........

I don't see how the FCC would need to enforce anything. If the NFL writes a contract that says you can show our games to a nationwide audience or worldwide audience except to this particular region under these specific conditions, then I don't see where there is anything to enforce. The NFL should sell the contract to whichever network is willing to abide by its rules. I don't get where there is a need for any government involvement whatsoever. If the television network breeches the contract, then the NFL can sue them.

The NFL has a product. It’s product is Football games. So the government is now going to tell this privately owned company that it has to give its product away to customers instead of selling it to them? Socialism at its finest moment! I have been a season ticket holder for a long time and hope to continue as such. So blackouts don’t really affect me. I remember I hated them before I was a season ticket holder. But even when I hated them, I still don’t think it is right to force the NFL to give away their product in real time to their customers. That is not capitalism. Government should keep its damn nose out of it.

How many really good tightends have the Bills had since Pete Metzelaars? Isn't Chandler one of the better ones we have had since Pete?

I understand your point. Honestly I do. Nobody wants a whole bunch of recent threads on the same topic especially very recent topics. There is another point to be made though too. A lot of people visit a forum to chat and take part in a conversation. If a thread is many pages long and you force them to always stay on that same thread then it is a major de-motivation for additional talk to occur. Because if I come visit this forum and I haven't been here in a week, I am certainly not going to feel like reading 20 pages of content before I can voice my opinion on a topic. It could take all the time I have available just to read the previous posts. Heck, sometimes I might not even finish reading the previous posts. I don't think people should be expected to have to do that. It's just not practical. Not everyone has that much time on their hands to come here. And then there are situations where someone might want an up-to-date conversation to be started because some situation has changed. I think that is a reasonable reason to start a new thread. Nobody really wants to have every thread be 50 pages long do they? The site would suck.

Other than the big fumble last year, I don't recall him being known as a fumbler. I can't remember any other fumbles to be honest. Maybe he has some, but the tag "fumbler" isn't one I think he deserves to be labeled with. I am surprised he isn't getting and catching more balls from EJ as I have always thought of him as a "huge radius" type of catcher. I recall him bailing out Fitz more than once and I expect he will do that for EJ too at some point. And don't get me wrong, I really don't care if the Bills replace the guy. I just want them to do it by replacing him with someone who is definitely better. The way some people whine about him on this board you would think he is the worst tight end in football. He is not even close to that. I think he is a very good pass catching tight end who is playing in a very temporary slump. It looks like he is going to be one of those guys who doesn't get credit for any good things he does but does get called out for every bad thing that happens. IF there is a better tight end out there who is available, then fine replace him.

I was being sarcastic. I just thought it was funny that people were arguing over whether or not this thread deserved to exist or if it should be combined with other threads. I really don't see why anyone cares if there is a new thread on a topic that hasn't been discussed in a while. I was laughing about the fact that anyone would even care. That's all.

I think this whole thread should be a comprehensive argument about whether or not it should be a new thread.

I agree. I think Chandler is going to catch a lot of balls this year and a lot of them will be for first downs. He is not the best TE in the league by any means, but people want to cut him for not catching a poorly thrown pass. I saw somebody say that a tight end should catch that pass 10 out of 10 times. I call B.S. It was not a great pass. It was really, really borderline catchable. If the pass was better as it should have been, it probably gets caught and we move the chains. You can't hang a guy for not catching that friggin ball. Give me a break. And don't forget, the reason that EJ waltzed into the endzone untouched so he could do his little happy dance was because Chandler made a perfect (yup perfect) block. That is why EJ went in untouched. The guy is nowhere near as bad as some people on here are making him out to be. I admit he isn't playing great football, but I think he is just in a temporary slump. Historically he has been a much better player.

Marrone: Holy chit! I think I see OJ in the stands! He's looking at you and he has a knife!

I noticed it too. During the game I kept telling myself that if he is playing like this in the first half, based on his tendency to get better throughout the game, he ought to be playing like an elite QB in the second half. Well, he didn't play elite. But, he played good enough. I am very happy that he played consistently good throughout most of the game rather than sucking at first. I hope this change is one that lasts. This will be a better football team (maybe even playoff bound) if he plays consistently well like that game after game.

Really happy to get Bradham back. Looking forward to a couple big plays from him. Hopefully Gilmore will feel a fire lit under his ass after his replacement played so well against the Bears. I would love to see Gilmore start being a difference maker. Fans will be getting to the Ralph early next weekend. Lots of them will be spending the night there Saturday getting primed a day ahead of time.

JIm Cornelison is one of the best national anthem singers ever. He belts that baby out with full emotion. Really nice.

Well see that is where we disagree. You can't expect your team to execute plays that the defense expects them to run. This offense is not good enough to do that with consistency. The play caller needs to call plays that the defense doesn't expect and can't predict so that they have a better chance at execution. I am tired of the Bills starting games with the run, run pass series. I don't like it because it seems like that often sets up a 3rd and 4, 5, or 6 situation. You are basically setting yourself up to have to convert lots of 3rd downs which is hard to do consistently to sustain drives. And you keep yourself out of situations where you can take a shot deep because you are too worried about just getting a first down. In the Bills' second possession when they passed on first down, then they started moving the chains. The other thing that happens in the run, run pass series is that even if you get 8 or 9 on the first two downs to setup 3rd and short, the Bills like to throw for that 3rd and short situation. Again, I don't like that either because it is too low of a percentage play. I want them to rely on the pass more often on first and second down. And then run more often on 3rd down. That is my personal preference. And I think it gives the Bills more opportunities to try big pass plays for big gains.

You are right. I hope next year there is a thread pinned to the top of TBD that says "No Matter What Marrone Says - Preseason Is For Talent Evaluation Purposes Only. They Really Are Not Trying To Win At All!" This past preseason makes perfect sense to me if I think of it in terms of "The Bills don't care at all, not one little bit, whether they win drives with their first string offense or defense." But Marrone was out there saying that they number one concern was winning the game even though it was preseason. I should have seen through that for what it was - Pure Politics.

Sorry to hear that bud. You are never going to forget this day. I still can't believe some people have a total disregard and disrespect for human life. I hope your kid ends up okay and recovers 100%. Such a horrible thing to go through. Stuff like that makes law abiding citizens want to go get guns and even the score.

I don't think he is trolling at all. I think his comments about EJ were accurate and fair. But hey that is just my opinion. EJ played a good game and deserves credit for a good win. I am actually more optimistic about him right now than I had been at any point last year even after the wins he had last year. I think the Bears are wishing they had blitzed him more and I expect Miami will bring more heat. I don't think Ej's celebration was a huge deal. But I think EJ's celebration irks some people a little bit because he seems so emotionless most of the time. Then he scores and acts like he is some kind of superstar. You have to earn superstar status. I wish a lot of the celebration after touchdowns would stop. It just seems unclassy to me, especially coming from a guy who is rated as questionable by most NFL fans. This game was a step forward for him. Looking forward to more steps forward throughout the year. If that happens, this will be a damn good football team.

In the Bills’ first possession it was run run pass as it seems like it always is to start a game. And the Bills quickly punted. I was thinking “here we go again” “did they learn nothing from last year?” Then later on when we get deep in the red zone he pulls that QB keeper play out where EJ easily jogs into the endzone. Great play call! I found myself saying great play call a few times today. And that was something that lacked pretty much the entire season last year in my opinion. I wish we would start the games a bit differently. And start the second half differently too in most of these games. But, today was a big step forward. He is getting better I think. Hackett Shocker!

How Damn Good does it feel today though to be able to complain about the refs knowing that the Bills still won. I hate bringing up the refs usually because it feels like you are making excuses for losing. But today we get to speak openly and honestly about them because the Bills won. And damn that feels good. Suck it refs!

On the play it looked like Rivers might have pulled a hammy...Kind of just went limp a bit babying one leg. But I didn't hear any news on him.