17years&waiting

Unfortunately, I don't see much evidence of this. The metro has lost approximately 5,000 people over the course of this decade (if you look at census estimates for similar sized cities, they have grown substantially). Buffalo has very little corporations to buy luxury suites and clubs seats. And the same lack of corporations means that there aren't huge amounts of high-paying jobs. Turning decrepit factories into lofts does not equal a true upgrading, and it doesn't sustain an NFL team in the long run. Buffalo doesn't have the ability to generate huge amounts of new revenue compared to other cities that have NFL teams. Like many of us who have left Upstate New York, typically for areas with real job, wage, and population growth, you very quickly realize the "upgrading" in Rochester and Buffalo is really just self-serving politicans who are glorifying lipstick on a pig to save their jobs. I want the Buffalo Bills to be in Buffalo. For many of us, including me, it helps to tie us back to our Upstate NY roots. But to bury our heads in the sand and say the Bills don't have a revenue problem, that isn't easily solved, is not true. I hope I'm wrong.

I'm in the under 30 crowd and haven't lived in NY in 10+ years, so I've only been to fairly inconsequential games -- and not many. The Bills are 9-1 in games I've attended, though, which is fun. My top 5 (in chronological order): 1) Bills-Vikings, 2006: W 17-12 -- Probably the least interesting game I've attended, but it was the first time I had been to the Ralph for a regular season game, so it holds high sentimental value. Peerless Price scored a TD, which is really the only thing he did that season. 2) Bills-Seahawks, 2008: W 34-10 -- Only time I've sat in the 100's and we stood the entire game. Roscoe had a great Punt Return TD, Brian Moorman threw a TD, and Tom Brady tore his ACL. And yes, I did cheer when it was announced. 3) Bills-Jets, Detroit, 2014: W 38-3 -- It was the first game I was able to attend in 6 years, so it was fun that they were playing 2 hours away from where I live, not 7. Plus with everything going on with the storm it was kind of cool. And free tickets. Game was a blowout, but the people watching was fun: we counted jerseys from 30 distinct NFL teams, so definitely not a traditional Bills home game. 4) Bills-Cardinals, 2016: W 33-18 -- My first time in the stadium in 8 years and I brought some college friends to the stadium so they could experience Bills Mafia, tailgating, and real wings. The mood was definitely somber going in to the game, half of our receiving core was hurt, but then the game turned into a blowout. 5) Bills-Dolphins, 2018: W 42-17 -- The Kyle Williams finale, my first time watching Josh Allen in person, and squishing the fish. It was a meaningless game until Wednesday or Thursday before the game when Kyle announced his retirement. Anyhow, this list pales in comparison for those who have been able to attend SB's, or playoff games, or some of the other bigger games in franchise history. But even attending relatively meaningless games, in a mostly dark period for the franchise, you still create memories attending games with families and friends. I wouldn't want to attend every week, but there is something special about going to the games rather than watching on TV.

I don't think Gilchrist played with the team long enough, nor are his stats particularly overwhelming (I'd say that if Cookie is on the wall, then Fred, Shady, and Joe Cribbs should be, too). Saban quit on the team twice. I don't care if that was because of Ralph Wilson, he still quit on my team. I wouldn't have put either on the wall.

Can we get a couple of people taken off of the wall? You know, addition by subtraction? Remove Phil Hansen (I would also probably support removing Gilchrist and Lou Saban, as well) and I think you return the wall to more of a "Greatest contributors only". In no particular order, I think the following are deserving of being on the wall next: Butch Byrd, McKenzie, Moulds, R. Brown, K. Williams.

Living outside of NYS, I have gotten to listen to the radio broadcast a lot over the past 10 years. I really enjoy Kelso and I think he's improved a bunch over his time doing the color commentary. I will miss him and I'm sad to see him go. I'll reserve judgement on E. Wood until I hear him this fall, but I think he does have very big shoes (and helmet) to fill.

I agree that the RCW & AFL 50 patches looked way better than the Bills Toronto Series patch. Alot of that may be that I liked what RCW and AFL memorialized, but hated the Toronto Series. I think both the NFL100 and the Bills 60 logo look cheesy. Very Arena-league look, imo.

It will be interesting to see how busy the bus/rv lot is going to be this season. Do people accept the increased cost/forced tailgate, or do they relocate to non-stadium lots? I'm sure it's a combination of: opportunity to make more money, decrease liability, and test waters for downtown stadium. Notice that in the Q&A with WGR, the Bills rep noted the many pre-game venues that the Bills have in and around the stadium. Adding (forcing) another "sanitized" option is another test balloon for how well a downtown stadium works. If the Bills can continue to sanitize the game-day experience and funnel it to team-owned or sponsored events, then it just prepares fans for the eventual downtown stadium move. It will go something like this: "It's ok if there are no places downtown to tailgate, fans have been enjoying the "Tailgate Village" and "Miller Lite Fun Zone" for the past 5 seasons without any issues." Never mind that it was forced on people with no choice. Ultimately, from some of the interviews I've seen with both Pegulas, I don't think they particularly enjoy the tailgating or the reputation the fans have. That's just my opinion, but it certainly seems that way. I think they'd be more than happy to curtail the shenanigans, and I'm sure the league is pushing very hard for them to monetize anything and everything.

I grew up in Rochester. Going to SJF and seeking autographs from the players after practice is part of what cemented me as a Bills fan. The first year of training camp it was trying to get Doug Flutie's autograph...Then Eric Moulds the next year....Then Jay Riemersma....The list goes on and on. I still have all the training camp programs. It's part of what made me a fan (it certainly wasn't the product on the field over the 2000's....). I hope training camp never leaves Greater Rochester.

Here would be my rough ranking of tiers of NFL uniforms: Classic, and great: Chiefs, Steelers, 49ers Classic, but not great: Cowboys, Bears, Packers Retro-classic, and awesome: Bills, Chargers Blah: Patriots, Vikings, Texans Bad, new uniforms: Seahawks, Lions (a Lion mascot should be way cooler) Terrible, new Nike uniforms: Jets, Titans, Buccs, Browns Obviously, not a complete list, but it's generally how I characterize the uniforms. I appreciate teams that aren't changing uniforms every 5-10 years, although of these teams, some are better than others. The sad thing is, I think there are teams whose classic uniforms are better than their current unis (and I'm relatively young, so it's not nostalgia).

Didn't he drop a few perfect snaps last season? I don't like that. That's something that should never happen. Hopefully, whoever the Punter ends up being isn't on the field that often.

That was my point exactly. It was ignored, tho...

I'll take the bait...Do you believe that a 2nd round pick is really well spent on a back-up QB who looked VERY shaky last season? With all the defensive talent that KC lost this offseason, I think a 2nd round pick would be a poor use of resources. Same for the Bills: Barkley/Anderson will do find as back-up QB's. In a year or two, when Rosen has fully flamed out of the NFL, he can spend all his time sitting in a hot tub wearing hateful hats.

By the same logic, every team should trade for Rosen, in case their QB gets hurt or "busts". The Chiefs should probably trade for Rosen, too, in case Mahomes season was a mirage.

Weren't we penalized on this play? Thinking back to it, I thought it was a terrible call because it wasn't illegal, but since it was the Patriots, I wasn't surprised it was called. It was a huge Shady run that would have helped us out in a game where we mostly kept Brady in check, but couldn't do anything on offense.

Fixed it for you...

I wear my Bills gear everywhere across West Michigan. Of course, people in Michigan only care about college football, so I don't ever get any flack. Now if I were to wear Buckeye gear... Separately, I wore Bills gear on a trip to Boston a couple of summers ago. I had 12 separate people give me a "Go Bills" walking around the streets of Boston. It was pretty cool.

I think Rodak has improved a bit as the years have gone by. He has written a few articles that I found genuinely interesting: for example, one was an article detailing the Bills food service for their players. It was interesting because it had interviews with players, coaches, and staff, contained behind-the-scenes info that regular fans don't have access to, and was a change of pace from debating Tyrod Taylor or whether or not the Bills should re-sign Stephen Gilmore (or whatever over talked about issue was at the fore front). In other words, it was actually good reporting. Rodak has probably written less than 5 articles like this. His snark is improving, but if the Bills take the next step in 2019, it will be interesting to see how he phrases articles. I grew up in Rochester. I enjoy/miss the reporting that Sal Maiorana, Leo Roth, and Scott Pitoniak did in the D&C -- I know Sal Maiorana gets crap here, but I think his takes are honest. It's a good contrast to Rodak: Maiorana will write both positive, fluff pieces and will also write negative stories. He calls it like he sees it, whereas Rodak, Sully, and I'll even add Mike Schopp like to take a snarky, mean-spirited negative spin to generate controversy. One I can respect, the other is grating and annoying.

Don't the Bills (Overdorf) and Rosenhaus have a pretty decent relationship? I know Rosenhaus has a reputation, but I thought it hasn't really been an issue with the Bills. My point being, I don't think Rosenhaus was the reason that this deal fell through. It also makes sense for Rosenhaus to "keep the Bills happy".

This is a lazily written piece of click bait. I'm sure the author didn't do much research. I've been following the Bills since 98/99 and I wouldn't consider AVP the worst quarterback of the last 20 years even. Brohm, Peterman, Rob Johnson, Tuel (in no particular order) were all worse than AVP. Then, add in the initial 40 years of the Bills and you have many more horrible qbs.

Watching the 4 games this weekend, helped me realize how bad the Bills' WR's are. I mean, I knew it was bad, but not this bad. There's a huge gap between these teams and us.

Just out of curiosity: a full ref crew is 7 or 8 officials. The head ref is 1st year, but are the entire crews new, also? My understanding is that new officials are plugged into the various referee crews, as needed. So, for this to be an interesting statistical analysis, I would be interested in seeing how many flags the new actual head referees threw versus the veteran head referees. Otherwise, we are comparing the amount of Pass Interference penalties that the Back Judge is throwing between two different ref crews, although the Back Judge may be a veteran official in both cases. It does seem that the ref crews seem to take the personality of the head official, to a certain extent. It seemed like Ed Hochuli's crew always was very ticky-tack with penalties and Jerome Boger's crew doesn't ever seem to know what's going on. I'm not sure why that is.

Again, back to the original point: this is the NFL's Logic, not the logic of the average Bills fan (in my mind). It doesn't matter what the Reality is, if the NFL sees it, or construes it a different way. Here's the logic, in my opinion, of the NFL: -NFL schedules late November/December home games for the Bills -Stadium is not full for December game -Stadium is not full due to weather -NFL forces Bills to build downtown dome ----------------------------------------- The NFL knows that November/December games are more poorly attended than earlier season games. The NFL/Jerry Jones' of the league are also on record as saying the Bills need a new stadium in the very near future. Therefore, they need to create a narrative that the Bills can't sell out the stadium. So, for the past 3 seasons, there have been 3 December home games. These games HAVE been more empty than early season games (I agree, this is due to a number of factors), but the league will stop at old, open-air stadium. The narrative will be that the Bills need a new, indoor stadium, so that the team can sell out throughout the season. Final point: the Bills probably depend more on ticket sales than the average team. Buffalo/Rochester/Hamilton/Niagara Falls, etc. do not have the corporate footprint to prop up the team, like the big market, rich cities. This will cause the league to force a new stadium with higher ticket prices. The Pegula's have deep pockets, but the NFL isn't trying to bleed the Pegula's wallets dry, they are trying to bleed the wallets of taxpayers/fans/viewers/corporate sponsors. (This is just my theory, I understand that it seems like a conspiracy theory, and maybe it is, but I think the NFL is trying to create and then push a certain narrative. I think that narrative begins by pointing to empty seats late in the season, regardless of the cause of the empty seats). Colts game in 2017. NFL doesn't care if it was an awesome game to watch, or if the fans who attended had a great time. All they think about were the 30,000 empty seats that didn't pay for parking, or food, or beer, or didn't visit the Team store, or didn't visit the indoor restaurant and order food (which New Era Field doesn't have, making it the root of the problem here).

Agreed. I wasn't disputing this, I was suggesting what I believe the NFL's logic is. Personally, I'd like to see the Bills never move from New Era Field, but I don't think the league will allow it (4 of the 10 games I've attended were after Thanksgiving, too). MY point is that the league will point to the old, open air stadium as the reason for half-empty games, and say that for the Bills to remain viable in Buffalo, they need a downtown dome.

This is my thought as well. Soon enough, the logic will be "IF they had a dome, then the stadium wouldn't be half-empty in December".

Personally, my interest is way up this year over the previous few seasons. I think it's the new guard of QB's: Goff, Wentz, Mahomes, Allen, Mayfield, Darnold, etc. Last season (2017) I watched the Bills and not much else, because I was definitely losing interest. It's boring to watch the same teams (Patriots, Steelers, Packers) win all the time. I still think the NFL has some BIG problems they need to address: -Pace of Game: I was at New Era Field Sunday and I had forgotten how annoying commercial breaks are in the Stadium. They are bad enough on my couch in front of the TV. I know the NFL is soaking up every last penny it can, but it really drags down the overall interest. -Officiating: It bothers me that I know the name of almost all the refs in the NFL. I take that as a sign that I see their faces waaaay too much. The rule changes, the constant penalties, the 5 minute instant replay reviews multiple times a game is really wearing. And of course, the inconsistency of the refereeing is probably the biggest problem. -In-stadium experience: this kind of goes with Pace of Game, but I think they need to prioritize making the experience of the fans at the games more. Which to me means: more football, less commercials. Cheaper to attend. I hope the NFL addresses these issues, but I'm not holding my breath.