yungmack

But the essence of what makes the south The South is race; it can't be avoided. While a very few slave states remained in the Union, every single one in The Confederacy was violently determined to preserve the right for white people to own black people in perpetuity. Then, after defeat, instituted a reign of terrorism over the "freed" black people that turned them into second class citizens and placed them essentially in serfdom. The underlying attitudes remain virtually unchanged today, and are the driving force behind the peculiar politics of Southern whites to this moment. New Orleans is an outlier, even in Louisiana. It was hugely shaped by Spanish/French attitudes, historically focused on the Carribean for business, operated under the Napoleonic Code and, most significantly, it was an enclave of Catholicism in a world of bizarre and hateful Fundamentalist Protestants largely of Celtic and English stock. The ancien sang of New Orleans never accepted the primacy of "English America" and still doesn't. To spend any time in Cajun Country is to have your eyes opened about what constitutes "the American Way of Life." But I suspect you already know this.

From the beginning, the Bills have had plenty of players from warm weather states, including some of the greatest of all time. Just another scurrilous slam on Whaley.

Due to an incredible run of injuries and league suspensions for a variety of offenses, the Chiefs end up with the worst record, giving them the #1 overall pick...which belongs to... ah, forget it, this is the Bills, that's insane, not bold.

It's a Bills game. Only Iroquois, Simon Pure or Koch's will be allowed.

There are a number of nearly suicidal folks around here who'd tell you the best RB in the league is Mike Gillislee.

Cowboys have generally held training camp in LA since the 60s. Likely because Tex Schram was, ironically, from LA.

Seeing as you put Josh Rosen ahead of Sam Darnold, I have to ask: have you watched, I mean really watched, all of these QBs? I doubt there's a single NFL scout who'd do that so that, and putting Mayfield numero uno (!), makes your entire list suspect to me. You also left out McSorley.

Cookie Gilchrist, without a doubt. Likely cost the Bills the championship that KC won, putting them in the 1st Super Bowl. And as the 60s Saban Era Bills were the most "NFL-style" AFL team, winning that 1st SB would not have been out of the question. Now wouldn't that have been something? Fat Pat and Mount Washington have to be in there along with Ron McDole. Was Reuben Brown a cut/release or a trade or his choice in FA? Because that too hurt the team big time.

When was the last time you were in LA? Downtown is a boomtown madhouse with buildings, including many hotels, constantly being built. Between USC and Union Station there is Staples Center, Galen Center, the Colosseum, the LA Convention Center, Dodger Stadium as well as the football field at USC. Union Station is the rail hub for the area, with subway and surface rail connections. The Purple Line will soon connect downtown to UCLA. There is already rail to Pasadena where the Rose Bowl is. Oh, and Fox Sports and the NFLN are in LA.It's also home to some of the best sports medicine practitioners, world class hospitals and probably half the sports agents in the country. I wouldn't like to move the Combine to LA, but to suggest LA couldn't handle it is an extreme example of "alternative facts."

What percentage of WRs are playing with pain every game? If they're starters, it's likely 100% by no later than game 4.

Pure apples and oranges comparison. Tax subsidies and incentives are meant to be seed money that optimally lead to economic growth for a region, attracting other (private) investment that "grows the local economy," attracting further investment, ad infinitum. Stadium construction along the NFL model has nothing to do with "seed money" programs; it is a wholesale assumption by the taxpayers of a region for the cost of construction of a capital asset that will be for the benefit of a single private entity. While it will "create" a number of jobs during construction, over its lifetime it will provide very few, and low-paying, jobs for the local population. It will not, nor has it ever anywhere, engendered a spurt of sustainable economic prosperity for the region in general which, after all, is the real purpose of tax subsidies and incentives.

Don't know if anyone has addressed this yet, but the United States government played no part in the concept, design and initial construction of the Washington Monument. A private trust did that, raising money from donations. It went broke in the 1850s leaving the unfinished monument as a DC eyesore for decades until the embarrassed Congress took it over in 1876 and had the Corps of Engineers finish it. Fun fact: when it was completed in 1885. it was the tallest building in the world.

Why'd you leave out roads, sewers, schools, fire departments, police, et al? Or do you not grasp the concept of "for the common good"? The highlighted venues you mentioned do indeed use taxpayers money. But they are open to all the people in a community, usually for free or for a reasonable charge. They are owned by the taxpayers as well. Quite a huge difference from lavish expenditures of taxpayer money for billionaire PRIVATE owners of an NFL franchise whose profits are kept by that PRIVATE "entrepreneur." And what the hell is Wal-Mart doing in there?

You seem to have confused taxpayer with ticket purchaser, confused a willingly private exchange of money among a small portion of the population with an enforced transfer of all citizens money to a private business. I care not a whit how you spend your money just so long as you don't ask me to "chip in" to subsidize your enthusiasms.

Small but crucial point, oldmanfan: there are no ex-Marines. Proper term: Former Marine. Multiple Pro Bowls and a Hall of Fame career....in Buffalo? With Young Nathaniel as O-coordinator followed by the Wrecks mess and the Bills QBs? It's called a pipe dream because it is only found in the opium pipe.

Cranky old "Get off my lawn" Bill Polian flapping his lips...again. "Why, back in my day..."

The houses preceded the Bowl. The original deal was for a once-a-year football game. Took a major effort to get approval for UCLA to play there. Every event is a battle and a headache.

Graham is the last guy to call someone out for "wasting our time." The guy is a supperating boil on the bleeding butt of Buffalo.

I've been hearing and reading that Nickel is fast becoming the hot defensive back position. If that's so, then maybe it turns out Seymour's more valuable as a nickel.

Gunner, I don't know anyone around here who's saying he's the long term answer. But I believe he'll be "the guy" this season. But no matter who it is, I'm going to root like hell for him because he'll be the Bills QB.

Thank you!

Disagreements, of course. But every one of your posts is a variant on how horrible the Bills are, with a future without hope of improvement, with owners and staff who never do anything the right way. So why do you stay. BTW, saying my politely asked question is "seriously dumb" is seriously disagreeable. Then you say I've said I've never been dissatisfied with the Bills, then you call me a liar! Go back & read my post. I never wrote what you claim. Best to learn to read with comprehension, and to correctly quote. Contrary to what a too large % of the populous thinks, facts do matter.

A serious question: if it causes you so much pain and suffering and continues to make you so unhappy, why do you continue to follow this team? Seems crazy to me.

As Henry Rollins once wrote, "Florida's the end of the line. With hotels."

It isn't college that's the main concern now but scouting the players in other camps.