Steve Billieve

sometimes I wonder what effect all this nonsense has. our total lack of support for ej is incredible. even if you don't think he will be good, he's at least proven that he can compete for the starting job. as fans don't we at least owe him some support? maybe he shouldn't have been picked when he was, but who cares? he's on our team now and when he was picked or how he was picked wasn't his decision. i've always thought we had some of the best fans, but when stuff like this keeps getting put out there i wonder . . .

It really is incredible

Lol

This is mostly the view I hear a lot. Aside from football being awesome, I don't really understand the reasoning. Things like production and advertising do matter. As does pr a sense of fair play and accessibility. You mention how the nfl has the best athletes, but that has a lot to do with how much you pay them. I don't like the idea of an aggressive and super competitive organization trying to be a moral authority, to me a vastly successful enterprise maintaining a constant pr battle is much more comforting, and in my opinion closer to reality. Boxing would be a great example of a mismanaged sport that lost its popularity. If football succeeds despite the league what are some better managed sports?

I think a lot of the discrepancies that we are experiencing lately are more about changing views on certain issues within the general public. A good example might be non performance enhancing banned substances, where they don't need to have stars suspended for an issue no one really cares about. Plenty of issues gain more traction at times and need to be dealt with differently from a PR standpoint. I don't see why the amount of attention you bring to yourself and what you do shouldn't have an impact on how the league reacts. I think we expect lots of fines to operate in this way, but once its a suspension people get very upset, because then it affects them, their team, and the game.

while in a lot of ways I agree, and there have definitely been missteps and outright blunders, I don't think you'll ever have a decision that pleases everyone. There will always be plenty of people eager to complain.

It seems to me that there is a lot of talk about the NFL's use of discipline. Most of what I read seems to think that this processes' chief objective should be fairness or impartiality or any number of other ideas. To me this seems completly ridiculuous. We have laws for a reason and the league should in no way attempt to be a body of law. In my view the league's use of discipline should be aimed exclusively to the purpose of protecting itself. To a much larger extent than most people seem to express, ensuring its interests, existance, longevity, popularity, etc is not really a bad thing. The league has a vested interest in being fun, fair, popular and enjoyable. For what other purpose should the league dispense discipline? It's not a moral or a government body, its a business. The league should be all about promoting football and themselves, it is after all what they'll do best, and that's a good thing, at least for fans. Although there is certainly something just a little unsavory about Roger Goodell it seems clear that this is the most logical context for and to explain his actions. I'm not trying to say the league hasn't made mistakes, but on the whole they've done a pretty good job promoting the game. I think if we look at popularity their record speaks for itself. Please try to avoid talking about any specific punishments etc, there's plenty of that on existing threads, and I think we all get the "discrepancies" involved. First time new topic, don't flay me.

I sort of wonder whether Henderson really ever lost it. Seems like Rex might have been using his placement as a motivational tool, both for Henderson's failure to show up and to reward Kouandjio for some major improvement.

I love them! When I think of these "super-fans" I don't really draw the line at face paint, I sort of think of them as the ones who are decked out in gear and routinely leading chears etc. Sure, they can be obnoxious, and sometimes inappropriate, but I will forgive them those things a thousand times over. As a fan who has left NY these are the guys that make me feel like I'm part of a larger community instead of just watching a game with a few fans. Never really been to a bar where someone has face paint, but I feel like the same guys who wear that stuff are the ones who are decked out in their socks, and shoes, and silly hats, etc, etc, etc, at Bills bars across the country. When there isn't someone like that in the room I'd rather just watch the game at home and put my family on speaker phone.

Me too! But I feel pretty good that its mutually beneficial! +1 I think he's flying a little under the radar for other teams atm . . . but not for long!

Seems like we don't care for great guys lately, there's been a lot of hate for Manuel, Spiller, and Jackson in the past year. I can't really think of a lot of players who are better people than them, and I think they all gave us a lot of reasons to think that they can do really well.

all his good plays come when he's competing against 2nd or 3rd string or practice dummies. not saying i'm not rooting for him but I don't think he's ahead of anyone.

exactly, its probably the same people who thought Tuel was good after his first preseason game.

Yeah, and no one has a crystal ball.

That was hilarious but i have to admit I think I like Brady just a little bit more now. I dunno . . . maybe those emails humanized him or something . . . Part of his suspension was because he didn't cooperate with the investigation. This included personal data on his phone including emails and txts. The content of those withheld texts and emails are relevant and almost everything that goes into court proceedings is on the public record.

i just thought everyone should read this again

I strongly disagree with what most of you think is going on in the roster competition. Dixon isn't competing with Brown he's competing with John Conner for the back up FB and ST role. That Dixon can carry the ball well is just a plus in that battle. Brown is competing against Williams and Jackson with very little chance of beating them out. Maybe if Dixon had really shown something running the ball we might have considered carrying one less back.

I did . . .

We are deep as an ocean. Super Bowl or bust!

Super Bowl or bust!

Build a bully?

Good linemen are very tough(expensive) to acquire, and seem to under produce quite often. I don't think that should be put on Whaley.

I would be shocked if Brady takes this to court.

I'm going to go with this. At my bar we will not do the shout song. I would imagine there are situations in which we would sing it, they just haven't happened in since I was allowed to go to bars.

Polling stronger than bacon . . .