Maguire's Beer

Indeed. There was a family of Szczepankiewicz-es at my high school. The funny thing is, probably 90% of Buffalonians can pronounce that name without any problem. I live in DC these days, and probably only about 2% of my neighbors could get it right.

Bingo. I guess all you can say is that those teams ought to have waited til 9:59:59 PM EST to make their cuts. Live and learn, Marv.

Bob Rich - owner of Rich Products, dairy substitute kings. Danny Wegman - think about that one. The Jacobs Family - owners of Delaware North, an eclectic conglomerate focusing on hospitality. Sportservice is one of their premier brands.

The Dome Stadium case truly was a WNY version of Jardyce v. Jardyce. It spanned parts of four decades, put the children of many local attorneys through college, and ultimately concluded in a manner that was probably unsatisfactory for all parties involved other than the attorney-spawn. If we were to build a new downtown stadium, I'd be torn between maintaining the tradition of an open-air stadium -- with exposure to the elements creating a great home-field advantage, especially against the Fish -- and going with a roof, which might lead to a Buffalo-hosted Super Bowl.

Same kind of story here. I was 14, I was with my dad, and life was perfect. And while you grow apart from your folks a lot during your teenage years, I never really wanted to go to a game without my dad after that day. Still don't.

Indeed. I've got no complaint with Sherman, and I happen to think that Jauron could do an awfully good job the second time around, and I even would be intrigued to see what Lofton could do (though that could just as easily turn out as a disaster as a success) -- but Capers leaves me cold. Might as well revive the korpse of Kotite.

I'd agree except for the bit about the Skins' O-line. Far superior to ours, imo. But that's not enough to explain how much better they performed than we did. Part of it is that we had a tougher schedule -- but a big chunk of it is coaching.

I wish Art Shell was in this mix as well. Then we'd be selecting from three well-regarded candidates with past HC experience, all of whom had won divisions.

You ever notice that when certain people -- especially John Madden -- talk about "Brett Favre" or "Tom Brady," they always say both names? They might refer to "Losman" or "Leftwich," but never "Favre" or "Brady." It's always "Brett Favre." In Madden's case, at least, I think it's indicative of a man-crush.

That doesn't mean much of anything. For all we know, Jauron spent all day trying to convince them how great he was, while the Sherman interview went something like: MARV: I'm not gonna beat around the bush -- here's our offer, Mike. SHERMAN: Great, I'll take it. Pleasure doing business with you. MARV: Mr. Wilson will drive you back to the airport so you can start packing. After all, we want you at OBD bright and early on Friday. Or maybe it means that he crapped on Ralph's pills and was escorted out of the office by security. We just don't know.

Spot on, Dean.

Clayton is now reporting that sources deep within the Bills have revealed that Mortenson can only get it up for Asian pre-op transsexuals.

And according to this, he still wants one more shot. .577 winning percentage. Three playoff appearances in 5 years. A desire to show up every GM in the league. He's the most attractive candidate out there, as far as I'm concerned.

Indeed. And he didn't even have Miller for the playoff game -- as I recall, Miller snapped a fetlock in the first quarter and was replaced by the amazingly noodle-armed . . . Shane Matthews. Lombardi himself couldn't've overcome that.

Um, no. Although Rich's official bio doesn't state the year that he was born, it does tell us that he earned his BA in '63, meaning that he was probably born between '40 and '42. He's about 64, not 87. That said, I doubt that the Riches have the scratch to buy the team. If you had the choice between owning an NFL franchise -- one of the few businesses one can own where it is virtually impossible to lose money, due to the TV contracts and revenue sharing -- or a franchise in a league that is approximately as popular as pro rodeo, which would you choose? And just to make things more interesting, what if the NFL franchise was in your hometown? I guarantee you that the Jacobs family would sell the Bruins faster than you can say "Sportservice" if they had a chance to buy the Bills.

Best idea I've heard all day. That and the campaign to bring back the fried bologna sandwiches. MOORMAN & FRIED BOLOGNA IN '06

Yeah, I like it. If we can't win, at least it's nice to be acknowledged as the Red Sox-style hardluck capital of the NFL, instead of dismissed as an inconsequential loser a la Arizona.

As Branch Rickey said to Raph Kiner, "we finished last with you, we can finish last without you."

Duff's and LaNova both beat out the Achor Bar, as do a number of other neighborhood joints throught WNY. For example -- the Swannie House on Michigan (??), down by the industrial waterfront ,has spectracular wings. So hard to find good wings outside Buffalo. But here in DC, I've found a spot -- the Big Hunt bar on Connecticut Av. Big, meaty wings in a tasy yet hot sauce. And on Tuesdays, they're 15 cents each. I'm going tonight.

Paul Maguire=God.

Hard Rock has, without a doubt, the best talent in Vegas. Gorgeous and young. But it's off the Strip, the gaming floor isn't that huge, the sports book blows, and it really does gun for the under thirty crowd. Mandalay is on the Strip (if at the quieter end), has great restaurants, an excellent gaming floor, a good book, and caters to a more upscale crowd than most of its neighbors on the south side of the Strip. It's an excellent casino/hotel. I would go with Mandalay, because it gives you more options. You can always cab it over to Hard Rock. (All that said, I still think the Mirage is the best bang for your buck in town.) I'm 28.

You know, as bad as the Oakland game was . . . it still doesn't compare to "just give it to them" in Foxboro. That call pissed me off more than the "no goal." The ref knew he was wrong, but said, "just give it to them." Five years later, it still blows my mind.

Geez. All Travis did was average something like 3.5 yards a carry while getting hit in the backfield on every other carry. Yeah, he should have caught that one ball that got picked -- but it was a lousy ball. The fact of the matter is, both DB and Travis have the misfortune of playing behind a godawful line. Travis is coping with it a lot better than DB.

Well, there's no rule saying he has to start for that long. And you do need a good backup in today's NFL. And while I don't like the idea of Drew Bledsoe starting as the Bills QB for that much longer, he'd make an adequate backup. So I'm fine having him here for another year -- so long as there's someone else taking a maority of the snaps.

The Big Hunt in Dupont Circle in DC, while not a Bills bar, has the best wings I've had outside of the Buff. High quality chicken and a straightforward Frank's based sauce, just like home.