SoTier

Why would a team interested in winning football games with some regularity cut a good/solid LT? Why would a good/solid LT re-sign for bottom feeder money to play RT for the team that traded him away when he could make much more playing LT for another team? FTR, Glenn is a superior LT to Dawkins, who is, at best, adequate. He's the one who should be moved to RT -- or better yet, to G where he could actually be good. Not all teams are as stupid as the Bills. They understand the importance of having a decent OL anchored by a solid LT. Yeah, the reason is stupidity. Most OLers miss games due to injury. It's the nature of playing "in the trenches" where big bodies are always falling on one another. Since Glenn's 2018 injury was unrelated to his previous injuries, why would he "might not be suited to be a starter in the league any longer"? I mean other than Bills' fans looking for excuses to justify the Bills trading away a good LT and leaving their potential franchise QB unprotected?

ROTFLMAO. You need to take off your Bills-colored glasses, dude, and watch other teams besides the Bills. FTR, the Bills got thrashed by the Ravens, the Chargers, the Colts, the Pats twice, and by the Bears. Maybe you forgot about those? For good measure, they also got beat by the Texans even though DeShaun Watson was playing with a partially collapsed lung, and managed to beat the Titans with Mariota limited by his elbow injury. The Bills are not even in the same league as KC or the Rams offensively, and their defense isn't nearly as good as the Rams or the Bears' D. That's not even considering the other excellent teams that missed the playoffs because they were inconsistent: Atlanta, Carolina, Green Bay, Minnesota, and Pittsburgh. As for the "end is near" scenario for the Pats because Brady declines/retires, that's been a false hope for Bills fans for a decade, and there's no indication that Brees is planning on retiring, although if he wins another Lombardo, he might. Of course the Saints do have Tony Bridgewater on their roster whom they may re-sign if Brees leaves. The Ravens, Colts, Bears, Texans, Rams, Eagles, Cowboys, and Chiefs all have top notch young QBs have proven themselves. That's not even considering some up and coming teams that are likely to be playoff contenders beginning in 2019 like the Browns who actually had a mathematical chance to make the playoffs as late as week 16 or 17. The Bills have no offense. The lack of talent on offense is simply appalling. They don't have any real good offensive prospects except for Allen -- and most of their offensive roster is non-NFL caliber. I've been saying all season that the Bills are setting Allen up to fail because they haven't given him any help in terms of talent, and I will continue to stand by that until I see the team make significant improvements to the quality of players on the offensive side of the ball. The sad reality is that the two areas where the Bills need the most help -- OL and WRs -- are also two units where it's the hardest to have "quick fixes" via rookies having immediate impact. It usually takes two or three years for OLers and WRs to come into their own -- if they ever do. Furthermore, McDermott and Beane have given no indication whatsoever that they can recognize offensive talent even when it hits them in the face. I don't have a time frame for McDermott/Beane to "close the competitive gap" because I don't believe they have the ability to do so. They are lacking in player personnel knowledge themselves, they've filled their staffs with "friends and family", and their "money ball" philosophy is wrong headed if the goal is to actually win football games rather than con fans into believing that the team will actually improve "if only ....". One more note: making the playoffs in the NFL is a whole lot harder than it is in the NHL, and it's taken the Sabres 7 years to climb to "middle of the pack" -- and Pegula is a "hockey guy".

I dunno. Maybe it's that the Steelers have had15 winning seasons, 12 playoff seasons, 4 Super Bowl appearances and 2 Super Bowl wins since 2000 while the Bills have managed all of 3 winning seasons and 1 playoff appearance in that same time.

^^^ I think that's called "JayCutleritis"

I don't think Murray actually has the luxury of choosing football over baseball based on financial benefit. He has to commit to playing in the NFL well before the draft to have any chance of being drafted in the first round, much less at the top of the draft. No NFL team is going to waste a first rounder on a kid who just might walk away if he doesn't like where he lands in the draft.

Yes, it's much better to have a team loaded non-NFL caliber talent than to have had a team that actually had talent -- and to have been able to add to that talent in the person of a dynamic QB who was there waiting to be taken -- because, after all, having tons of cap space because you have so many scrubs on the roster is better than being in the playoffs. Ah, the old "we don't have talent" so we shouldn't add talent -- in the person of players or coaches. That may work for you, but I'm no longer buying that bull#### from the Bills.

This story is so bogus. In 2016, Frank Reich had been out of the NFL for 18 years and hadn't been a Buffalo Bill for 22 years. Who, exactly, were these "ex teammates" who were still with the team that Reich would have been "submissive to"?????

Well, according to the Bills' apologists, apparently not. Apparently, his being named to the Pro Bowl as a LT in 2007 and 2008 was some kind of propaganda scheme by his new agent. And Glenn got a new contract at the market rate for good starting LTs in the NFL which is REALLY why he's no longer on the team. NOTHING says that Brandon Beane is playing the same crappy "money ball" (profit > wins) game that Russ Brandon played while in charge of the Bills for a decade than the fact that the Bills traded away a good, established LT for next to nothing just before they drafted their hoped for "franchise QB" ... and now they're looking for a good LT in the draft. BTW, the supposedly "injured" Glenn started 13 games for the Bengals in 2017, which if you check out stats for top OLers, is pretty good. You'd be wrong about Brown. He was a Pro Bowl LG from 1997-2003, and again in 2006. That's 8 straight seasons and 9 over all as a Pro Bowler. With the Bears, he was instrumental in the Bears' 11-5 2005 season with rookie Kyle Orton as their QB, and in the Bears' 13-3 2006 season that saw them lose to the Colts in the 2007 Super Bowl, he started every game. Like Peters and Glenn, he was a victim of the Bills unwillingness to pay top OLers what they were worth. Pro Bowl selections in both 2007 and 2008 say differently. Stop making excuses for the disinterest of the Bills regime under Russ Brandon in winning football games ... it's time for you to come up with some for Beane.

I think verbal harassment is more than just shouting and/or cursing at someone -- that's verbal abuse -- or even making threats. It would become harassment, I think, if it was done repeatedly and intentionally -- and it wouldn't just have to be shouting/cursing etc. It could be name calling or snide remarks made to/about a particular person (or to several people I suppose). It might even be repeatedly saying something that the "harasser" knows would annoy/upset his/her target.

I agree. Not everyone can be a gifted athlete. Moreover, winning and/or developing future professionals isn't the only reason to encourage young people to play sports. At youth levels, sports really can foster/encourage/bolster comradeship, teamwork, perseverance, etc which are all qualities/traits that only help kids all through their lives. The idea behind participation awards is to give kids positive re-enforcement, especial those kids who struggle. Contrary to the jackasses who keep complaining about participation awards, kids know when they aren't as good as some/most of the other kids. They also understand winning and losing. They know that the award isn't for them being "best" -- or even good -- but for them hanging in there and finishing something they started. What produces helpless adults is parents who never allow their kids to stand on their own two feet, to make their own mistakes or to take responsibility for their bad choices, especially when those bad choices are relatively harmless -- owning up to not doing a homework assignment or pilfering candy from a bodega.

Who, exactly, are those "'fans' who want him to be a bust"??? There have been exactly zero regular posters on TSW who have expressed any such sentiment, so this is nothing but a straw man argument. Being skeptical that Allen may be successful, especially with the Bills' crappy coaching and lack of talent around him, doesn't equate to anyone wanting him to "be a bust". Eyes wearing Bills-tinted shades are always more trustworthy than statistics or win/loss record or any other metric.

When your incompetent HC and GM let talented players walk away and fill the team with guys who shouldn't even be on an NFL roster, the team doesn't win and the few good players on the roster don't get recognition until they leave and play for better teams.

Get with the program, Coach ... or should I say, "process" as that's the cliche-du-jour and repeat after me: no former Bills player who left in order to play for a winning franchise or to get paid what he's worth can actually be a good player, much less a great one. The personnel geniuses at OBD would NEVER let a potential All Pro walk away ... and the Bills record over the last twenty years demonstrates that. ... ... /sarcasm off

^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ The dishonor roll of embittered Bills fans hating on ex-Bills who wanted to play on winning teams or wanted to be paid market value for their skills surfaces every time such a player does well on his new team. Maybe you fools should focus your bitterness on the Bills ownership, front office, and coaching staff who keep letting talented players leave while fielding a roster filled with non-NFL caliber players in the name of some cliche like "it all about the process" when it's really all about how big a profit the billionaire owner rakes in. Who's better? It's not Tre's "persona". It's that White plays for the Bills currently and Gilmore no longer does. When the Bills decline to re-sign White and he moves on (as they've done for all their top corners over the years), the same cretins will surface with the same hatred for him as they now have for Gilmore.

Nobody here -- and certainly not me -- is arguing that rural people are somehow inherently "different" than urban people. Most aren't. Of those whose attitudes may be considered out of step with mainstream thought, it's largely a function of age (the median age in any rural area is significantly higher than in any nearby urban area) and/or ignorance -- and sometimes by fear that's fueled by images in the local and national media as well as crap that spreads via social media. Lots of people living in urban areas share those same attitudes, but in smaller places with fewer people, those attitudes simply stand out more. You made a statement about "the country" being mostly rural and I corrected you by pointing out that most of "the country", ie, the people, live in urban areas. Unless you're speaking strictly in geographic or cartographic terms, a "country" is never just the land mass and resources, but always includes the people who live within the "country's" boundaries. A "country" without people simply isn't one.

My guess is that among the Americans with the most net worth, far more than 80.7% live in urban areas. For every millionaire who's living in Hooterville, Anywhere, USA, there's gotta be 10 millionaires living in or near big cities. In fact, the hallmark of rural America is its poverty, and that's true everywhere across the country -- and has been true since at least the 18th century when rural people began moving off farms/plantations and into towns and cities. Most Americans have lived in urban places since the 1920s. Since WWII, rural areas have been emptying out, especially of younger people, because most jobs and business opportunities are concentrated in urban metros, and the larger the metro, the more opportunities. Furthermore, much of the land and resources in rural America is owned by the state or federal governments (more than 50% IIRC in some western states), by large corporations, and by absentee landowners who may only have seasonal residences or hunting camps. Certainly farmers and ranchers aren't rolling in dough; most are in debt for land acquisition, capital improvements, equipment and livestock purchases, etc.

You were able to fire her, just not have her be denied unemployment. That's an entirely different issue.

Sorry, dude, but as of the 2010 US Census, 80.7% of the US population lives in urban areas. More than 66% of North Carolinians lived in urban areas in 2010.

That's probably more company policy than state law. In my working days, I worked in both the private and public sector, so I've seen both sides. The key to terminating employees who are not doing their jobs or who have time/attendance issues or whatever, is to build a good case. That means keeping a log documenting the employee's incidents of poor work, poor attendance, trouble in the workplace as well as your efforts to correct the situation. Document, document, document.

It's not very hard to fire employees in New York, particularly for non-union employers. AFAIK, the only New York employees who have protection from firing without just cause are unionized employees and those protected by Civil Service law.

That's a naive statement. There can be "issues like this" on any team because teams can't control whom their players form relationships with. Moreover, it takes two people to have a relationship, and sometimes people who are attracted to one another may not necessarily be good partners for one another outside of the bedroom. Plus, there's always a possibility that people can develop psychological issues over time or start to abuse drugs or alcohol. Some people, male and female, are really good at figuring out what pushes their significant others' buttons -- and get their jollies doing so. I'm not making excuses for any guy who hits a woman, but volatile domestic situations are not always the guy's fault, so you can't sanctimoniously blame a lack of "good moral leadership" on the part of the team when they erupt.

That's YOUR take. The ratings say differently.

If you don't like it, then don't watch. The NFL in 2018 was exciting. There was the rise of young superstars like Mahomes and "super offenses"like the Chiefs, Rams, and Saints early in the season, and then toward the end of the season, there came the resurrection of teams that had been left of dead earlier in the season: Houston (0-3), Indy (1-5), Baltimore, and Philly. Plus Baker Mayfield made the Cleveland Browns exciting and relevant, Matt Nagy took the Bears from worst to first, and Andrew Luck returned from injury to be the QB he was supposed to be when he was drafted. Not only were teams playing for playoff spots right up to the final Sunday, the last playoff berth was determined in the very last game, #256, on Sunday night, not to mention that lots of individual games were edge-of-your-seat back and forth contests like that awesome 54-51 Monday nighter between the Rams and Chiefs.

LOL. McDermott and Beane have spent their first two years "tearing down" without adding much top young NFL caliber talent except for a promising young QB and a MLB and a young DB and LT who did not progress all that well in their sophomore seasons, so what is there to "finish up"? It's more like these clowns need to START building an NFL caliber team because except for Allen, Edmunds, White, and Dawkins, most of the young players are fringe or even non-NFL starting caliber players while almost all of the players with genuine NFL talent are older or even at the end of their careers. The Bills need to rebuild their entire offense except for QB. They need to get younger and better on defense. Nothing McDermott and/or Beane have done so far would indicate that they are capable of doing one or the other, much less both, in a single off season -- or five more. Ah, yes, the "moral victory" excuse for crappy coaching! Except that the Bills didn't play that well all season long. Seven of their losses were blow outs. Penalties and poor red zone defense were problems all year long. They lost a close game to Houston with DeShaun Watson hampered by a partially collapsed lung. They beat Tennessee when Mariota was limited by his recurring elbow injury. They thumped the Jests with McKown playing for Darnold, and got spanked by the Jests when Darnold played. The Bills did beat the Carp twice -- once without Tannehill and in the season ender when Miami was clearly in "run for the play" mode even before the game started. They were uncompetitive against Green Bay, Indy, and New England twice. Your Bills-colored glasses need a good cleaning.

Why does he "need to STFU"? IMO, you should follow your own advice. As a former NFL player and now as a media professional who works in the media in close contact with current NFL players and other pro football professionals, Burleson is in a much better position to have a valid opinion on the role of race in how coaches/execs are evaluated/hired/fired than some bigoted message board nazi who thinks refusing to discuss race matters will make them disappear.