yungmack

So your suggestion is that one of the very best LTs in the league should be moved to RT to make room for an unproven rookie? That about it? No wonder you're getting beat up on this one.

We're at 27 pages of comments on The Donald and throughout, there is an assumption being promoted by the majority of posters that whether or not you like him, Trump is both an excellent businessman and a very rich one as well. Now, having followed this conman clown's career with some attention for mainly business reasons, I find it amusing that either one of those claims are accepted as true. Any of you who are in real estate, real estate development or any of the fields allied with those pursuits know that the big names and big institutions in those areas have nothing to do with Trump, and that his financing comes from smaller players who seem to believe in the self-created myth about his "success" and "wealth." He has also raided his siblings and his childrens trusts, while pledging and leveraging his "assets" in many different ways. His actually net worth has been tallied at about $250 million. As to his claims to billionaire status, Trump has stated under oath that his estimates of his wealth are projections made up in his head, of which the greatest portion of those estimates is "the value of the brand," meaning his name, worth, in his mind, several billions alone. In addition to all of this, whatever fortune the Trump family has -- it was his father Fred who made the initial fortune Donald inherited -- is hugely based on government programs and investment, which makes Trump's antipathy towards government even more head-scratching and undermines his annoying claims that he "did it all by myself." Anyway, in case you want to read up on this, here are a few articles that cover the terrain of this modern P. T. Barnum: http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/21/news/companies/donald_trump/ http://www.mediaite.com/tv/trump-on-lying-about-net-worth-im-no-different-than-a-politician/ http://www.alternet.org/story/156234/exposing_how_donald_trump_really_made_his_fortune%3A_inheritance_from_dad_and_the_government%27s_protection_mostly_did_the_trick http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/business/yourmoney/23trump.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Whoa! A most excellent obscure reference. Just how old are you?

If the transition is from Ralph to Trump, it will be from Class to an Ass.

If visiting teams think Buffalo is a dump, wait until they get a look at Niagara Falls. It makes Detroit look well-maintained and prosperous.

It is puzzling. Maybe the Bills didn't like Carrington's health prognosis.

Two years ago, Barr was a running back. He was something of an emergency switch to LB who surprised everyone with his ability so he stayed there. However good he was in his first year, he was much better in his second which seems to suggest he's still learning and has a lot of upside. His father and two uncles played for Notre Dame and also played in the NFL, so he's got that edge. He was educated at Loyola high school, a pretty rigorous Jesuit institution and has done well academically at UCLA, a place with high standards, so he appears to have intelligence as well. I've watched pretty much all of his games at UCLA and he more than passes the "eyeball test." None of this means he's the second coming of Patrick Willis or that he'll even have a good NFL career. But the upside and potential are high. Comparing him to Maybin is plain silly.

The main negative about Jacobs is his age. If the family is serious about the Bills, it would be better for all if one of the younger generation were to be the pricipal owner.

Sam Farmer, the NFL writer for the LA Times, in his draft picks today, had the Bills taking Matthews. We can only hope he lasts that long.

The Buffalo Willies.

Cleveland Rocks, you might not know that when the old AAFL folded after the 1949 season and the NFL picked up Cleveland, San Francisco and Baltimore, the Browns took some of the Bills top players so local fans of the old Bills began following your team. Also, the only "local" NFL television broadcast we got in Buffalo throughout the 50s was the Browns games so those of us who were kids then naturally made them "our" team. We all knew Otto Graham, Marion Motley, Dante Lavelle, Lou "The Toe" Groza and all the rest of those great teams. When you come up for a game, post here a couple of weeks ahead and I'll bet you'll be invited to a whole bunch of tailgate parties.

It was Rogers ONfield attitude that seemingly irked the Bills. Nobody's complaining about Williams in that regard. The off field stuff? We'll have to wait and see. Worth the risk of a 6th round pick.

It's off season, so for the lack of anything much else to talk about, here's something to while away the time: For who knows how long, the Senecas used to collect the oil that seeped out of the ground around Titusville, PA, some of which they would use medicinally (BTW, this is where the oil industry began in 1859). When white people moved to the area, they took up the practice of medicating with the oil, the more entrepreneurial among them bottling it and selling it (the classic "medicine show"). Somehow or other, the name "Seneca" got corrupted into "snake," probably through an initial misunderstanding the pronunciation. So the "magical oil" of the Senecas began to be called "snake oil." I mention this because, should Barry Snyder buy the Bills, a change of name from the Buffalo Bills to the Buffalo Snakes might be a fun one to make. Or maybe the Buffalo Red Jackets in honor of one of the great men of the Senecas. Then there's this: Big Tree Road is named for the Treaty of Big Tree of 1797 where the Senecas sold WNY to the US. The road, Rt. 20A, runs along the old Indian trail from Boston to Lake Erie. So it's interesting to me at least that the road named for the treaty without which there would be no Buffalo, and thus no Buffalo Bills, runs right along the stadium property. For those of you who don't know much about Seneca history, here's a pretty good overview from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_people

Can we stop with this canard already? LA was for many years the attendance leader in the NFL. Thia year, before the baseball season even began, the Dodgers had already sold 3 million tickets. Even when the team was dogs, attendance regularly hit that figure. USC, UCLA, Kings, Lakers and now even the Clippers draw extremely well. The Rams and Raiders left when they couldn't extort new stadiums or ransom from the taxpayers,, not because of a lack of fan interest. Before you go off pontificating, get your facts right.

Trump constantly flirts with bankruptcy. His "empire" is mostly a sham. He now makes his biggest money from TV, and from "renting" his name to other developers for a fee. As to his smarts, would love to see a few examples of it. Perhaps his credentials as an investigator of Prez Obama's Kenyan roots is what you're referring to? My main work is investing and so I read a great amount of financial information, much of it from specialized sources. Among those who are serious in the worlds of finance and development, Trump's name never comes up as an authority or as someone to pay attention to. If anything, he's regarded as a conman and a clown.

Depends on the talking head: Mayock was confident about Cordy.

What, nobody named Williams?

I have been a Bills fan since the day the franchise was created, through thick and (mostly) thin. Sometimes it's been embarrassing to be a Bills fan. But at least it's never been humiliating. Were Trump to become the owner it would be beyond humiliating, it would be a joke, a clown show. The city of Buffalo and greater Western New York are often and unfairly the butt of national jokes. If Trump becomes associated with the Bills, that would be the nail in the coffin. The Bills, and the area, deserve better than this egomaniacal freak.

Just so long as she doesn't sound like DICK Vitale.....

Thanks, Ralph, for putting your team in Buffalo and more importantly, keeping it here.

You make my point: American kids are migrating to things like the X-Games. As to tennis, it is also dying out among American kids. The decline in quality play by Americans is widely and openly discussed (really, the top players are nearly all non-American and in the "up and coming" range, there are none). Many formerly big time tennis tournaments in the US have either been shuttered or moved offshore. I would question your faith that kids will still play in high school. Or that football is the best sport for a kid to make money. Baseball provides a cautionary tale: inner city kids long ago abandoned it in favor of football and basketball. For those who succeed at basketball, the money is hugely better than in football without the attendant risks. And from a money standpoint, if you have high-end ability, baseball is much more financially attractive than football, with the added bonus that you will likely live a healthy life afterwards. And personally, if it was my kid with that rocket arm, I'd steer him into baseball rather than football because top tier pitchers make much more money over their careers than even the very best paid professional QBs. BTW, I am not saying that football will disappear, only that it will "revert to the mean," which I think is already happening. There will always been kids who prefer it to other sports, and fans who love it. But if I was approaching it as an investment, I would rate it a "mature industry" and not a growth one: profits going forward are likely to have more to do with inflationary increases than with growth of the market.

In the 1930s, the three most popular sports in the US were baseball, boxing and horseracing. Today all three still exist, still draw fans and make money. Baseball is still quite popular but is certainly not the colossus it once was. On the other hand, boxing has dropped precipitously while horseracing is in steep decline. As to football, it is measurably in decline, and not just in the NFL. Pop Warner-level participation has been dropping, more and more parents (including current and former pros) are negative about their children playing the game, and anecdotally it seems more and more youngsters are choosing other pastimes over football. One of the things I've noticed, and I suspect many of you have as well, is that kids from about 12 to 25 do not have the same level of enthusiasm and interest in the game as those same kids would have 30, 20, or even 10 years ago. This is similar to the drop in enthusiasm I and my friends experienced as a kids in the 1950s towards baseball: we never stopped liking it and playing it, but our hearts were more committed towards football. And that signaled a generational change that would eventually make football the most popular sport. The NFL's growth has gone from "vertical" to "horizontal," with its recent growth having more to do with increased "game days" and higher broadcast fees. It has seemingly topped out as far as expansion, with every pocket of population covered, which is why we hear about "expansion" to Toronto, London and even possibly Mexico. Additionally, it seems many areas of the country are weary of giving billionaire owners "subsidies" to keep teams in their cities (LA long ago reached that point) and my guess is that the heyday of lavishing public money on sports teams is drawing to a close. Finally, there is the question of a changing population. If you were born in the 1960s or earlier, you were born into a country that was over 85% white, one in which there was a definable shared "American" culture no matter your race or nationality, most likely the result of immigration being closed from the 1920s to the 1960s. However, the next census is projected to show that the native-born white percentage will be under 50% and that the percentage of native-born for two or more generations will also be sharply lower. If Los Angeles is any indication, interest in traditional American sports is low-to-non-existent. We have experienced a huge influx of immigrants from China, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Iran, Armenia, the old USSR and of course Mexico and the countries of Central America. Immigrants and their first-generation children now are the majority population in greater Los Angeles. There was a story in the LA Times just this morning that Chinese are snapping up houses as fast as they hit the market because even older tract homes are seen as a bargain at "only a million dollars." If these kids play sports at all -- very few Chinese kids do -- it is likely to be soccer, cricket (extremely popular with South Asians), and golf (especially among the Koreans). I can't see this population base in 20 years ponying up for football stadiums. Certainly some percentage will become fans but in general it is my belief that all "American" sports are in permanent decline from both the fan base and participation perspective. As the old adage has it, "Demographics are destiny."

If the Rams move back to LA, St. Louis will be on the prowl for a replacement. If it coincides with the death of Ralph, look out.

Donte Whitner special in the fourth or fifth round? Sure.