UConn James

This is something that really hits home for me, in more ways than location. Sadly, a lot of things being foreshadowed in books like Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, 1984, Total Recall, et al are happening and we seem powerless to stop them. May not have been exact, but they were an impressionistic view by these authors of where this country/mankind was headed. These books told of a future where people would stop reading and instead be mesmerized by television screens that would throw mostly garbage information at them. It becomes a time when people work their lives away and become too scared, too tired or too hopped up on drugs, Rx and illicit alike, to raise any alarms when people in positions of power take the wrong course. The coming decline of local news is something we're really not prepared for. People seem to have become accustomed to not paying for information. 'County School Board proposes $4M budget' etc. The real meat and potatoes news. Soon there isn't going to be anyone to cover this stuff of basic democracy. The Internet just hasn't really taken off in terms of local papers or news sources as the financials just aren't there. Can it? Don't know. You can bet your 6 that your local teevee news station won't do it; they're too busy showing you some grip'n'grins, a couple of national news stories over and over, the Lindsey Lohan / Ronson quasi-lesbianism and squirrels on waterskis --- wire content that they don't have to pay much for b/c gathering and reporting news costs actual money. Meantime, entities public and private who used to fear their secrets being uncovered become more bold. One more chunk toward the decline of America. But I guess this is where we're going as a culture, and it's where we deserve to go. Govt should not be bailing out newspapers/media, just like they shouldn't have bailed out the banks, but who knows what happens. The people who fear socialism/soft communism have good reason to worry in these times. From my seat, borrowing more and more money from the rest of the world [ Link: US could be facing debt 'time bomb' ] is a proposition for disaster. Many civilizations that collapsed did so b/c they couldn't juggle their economic system anymore. That looks to be the case for us, tho I'm hesitant to put any kind a date on it... you just look what's going on and you know it's not sustainable.

True enough. More like a state-funded foster parent who keeps you in the basement, feeds you Quaker Oats at every meal and hires from among Michael Jackson, Lemony Snicket's Count Olaf, and Louise Woodward as governesses.

Yeah, I'd say that bolded number is incorrect. Did you see how many empty seats were at the Pats* game? And, otherwise, how many Pats* fans were at OBD? Between the economy and the commitment to mediocrity, expect many more people not to renew.

Fear of change at the macro-level. Also, he doesn't want to be in the ditch with Art Modell (that said, Ralph also doesn't want to pick himself up from the very edge of the rim of the ditch). The "It's a Wonderful Life" reference was exactly what I was going to post. But let's be careful with the casting. George is the collective of Buffalo/Erie Co. & fans near and far. Ralph is more like Uncle Billy --- the one who does the the day-to-day stuff, counts the money, makes deposits, ties strings on his fingers and still forgets to do simple things that even a moron could keep track of. The business survives on the margins. He somehow managed to keep the ship halfway righted back in the day with a lot of help, but he's slipping with age, and now comes the time of crisis where a few actions doom everything and threaten to collapse a small-time money-shuffling enterprise. The thing that IAWL doesn't show us is what happens to Uncle Billy after George is saved by the kindness of strangers and his community. Think Uncle Billy makes deposits anymore? I think not. Think George will ever remember him w/o the context of "the guy who almost drove me to suicide"? My guess is that Uncle Billy goes off to the old folks home. I don't get the mentality of people who stand there and preach forgiveness while the stupidity is ongoing. Sure, it's Ralph's team, he can do what he wants with it, but that mere fact doesn't mean that he's automatically owed something. And that doesn't mean he's owed respect for his dottering and pinch-the-nickel decisions and for what he's allowed his business to become.

Really? Gee, I was under the impression that the most qualified person should represent Ill. But I guess there's no white or Latino or Asian people who could possibly be the best choice. Basically, Ill. needs to put a token in the Senate, just because. Bobby Rush = racist.

Just the record against our division was enough for me to want DJ gone last year, and especially this year. If you have a coach who is buffaloed by all the teams in your own division, what hope do you have? DJ took this team as far as he could.... which wasn't very far at all. And as much as DJ's performance has been a failure, so was every level of this organization that had a voice in hiring him and all the other string of losing coaches we've had here. Yes, the rot goes all the way to the top. Dan Deirdorff was dumbfounded at the stupidity of that series, even commenting on those seconds that DJ/TS let tick down after the 2:00 warning. When Dan 'Ssssuuffffppppherrrin' succatash!!' Deirdorff of all people is dumbfounded by your seeming stupidity, Dick Jauron, you are in trouble.

Well, let's be real clear here. Cheaper materials are selected for a reason --- to keep DOT employees in a job and to max out budgets so they can get more $ next year and piss that away on more stupid and/or half-ass projects. I think it was someone here a while back that compared govt spending to "Brewster's Millions." Where Richard Pryor had to blow through $30M in 30 days so he could get an even bigger $300M inheritance, only there were loopholes in how he could spend it and all that. People come up with some real whopper metaphors and comparisons here, but I'd have to say that's about the best simple explanation of how the govt budgeting/spending process goes that I've heard.

I think the same thing about Wes Welker and BB's use of him. I hate him and I hate that they have so much success, but I do respect the little dude. He's taken some serious hits and pops right back up, and catches most everything thrown his way. And then it makes you scratch your head why Roscoe can't be used more than he is. Hate and respect-through-envy. BB plays to win. Anything that deviates from helping the team win is unacceptable. We've had a string of coaches here who've been more interested in being the players' best buddy and trying to play gentlemanly than getting the most out of this group of men, coaching smart and making the other team hurt. I watched "Miracle" last night on ABC and thought, "We so need Herb Brooks reincarnate!"

WNY is like the island in "LOST." When you cross the invisible-dome space-time continuum barrier just west of Syracuse, it's like everyone loses their minds if they don't have a 'constant' that reminds them of the real world. If they manage to survive and get out, they'll forever be haunted by the things happened to them in WNY, but it is possible to go on to certain success.

Trent had a bit of a sophomore slump in the mid-season. He needs to play his way out of it, just like Brady did, just like both Mannings did, etc. He's kept in there, got us a W last week, played about as well as you can (with what he had to work with. See: Turk? ) today.... By far, TE is not the biggest problem on this team / in this organization. Next year is pretty critical for him, tho.

Chris Kelsay. When the man got into the backfield this year, he almost made plays. Always a finger's grasp away from getting a hold of a QB's foot (before he throws for a gainer) or latching onto a RBs arm (before he hits the hole created by the DE being on the ground). The only success he's seen in this league hasn't been by anything he actively did, rather than what fell in his lap. If he is not an early June salary-cap cut, be prepared for another year of no pressure on opposing QBs.

Well, yes it is. But lack of adequate player talent (see LDE, RDE, TE, LB, C, G) is just concomitant to the lack of adequate coaching. 4th and ~ 6" on a day when Freddie has refused to go down and Turk goes for a low percentage pass. Yep. That about sums this season up. We just can't get an OC who calls what by all rights should be called or a HC who'll overrule said obtuseness.

Jauron is always clapping while looking up at the big screen, too. Clapping after the Pats convert a 4th down. "Hell of a game, chaps! <Mr. Death Warmed Over trots out to midfield> Sorry we had to tackle your guys, Bill; I hate that part about football. Care for some Earl Gray and crumpets? I've got a tea cozy here in my parka!"

Wouldn't be surprised to see w/in a few years for many major papers to go all-digital, or reduce printing to Sunday when people actually buy/have time to read. Did you know that just the paper bulk for an issue of the Sunday NYT costs ~$9? Then add ink, then add the operation of the presses, warehousing of materials, paying dock workers, drivers, reporter/staff salaries, etc. etc. and you wonder how they ever turn a profit. Better for the environment and probably the bottom line to stop printing and just post to the web and charge a nominal subscription fee (or highlighted ad content) or readers such as the Kindle, SmartPhone subscriptions, etc. Many shops are simply afraid to quit cold turkey tho. But I think it'll start happening more and more. Small papers will likely trudge on, as ever, and try to survive. The Hartford Courant (the nation's oldest continuously published newspaper) has reduced the size of their paper dramatically. A typical weekday paper is now about 3/8" - 1/2" thick where it used to be ~1" - 1 1/4".

You just knew this was coming.... Flash Game I got 15.

I'm happy that we should now be out of the range of insane guaranteed bonus $ for rookies. Maybe these games can jumpstart something for next year. Doubt it, but you can hope.

Ralph, had, a, comma, quota, apparently. To go, along, with, a lameness, quota.

Sh--, this team's identity is a lot like our uniforms. Much like we retained the standard Bills logo, we want to have some connection with a hard-nose run-first, run-second, run-third attitude. With the Titans-style away uni yolk, we added in a little bit of Gregg's cooking on the D (mostly, despite all the turnover, we're still affected by him getting rid of the "fat guys." We've got a Denver-like stripe up the rib gussets (not sure what we take from them). We took on the dark navy blue of the Pats* about the time we picked up Bledsoe and Milloy.... We wanna be like everyone else, and thereby, we aren't ourselves. Basically, we've been a team of castoffs. We've been a team of nobodies. We've been essentially an upper-level farm team to the other 31 clubs. We're now an amalgam of good athletes with good character who play hard and week-in and week-out, are often in games until the end some way or another, then kick the fans in the nuts. If this Bills team could ever get actual coaching that has clear goals, get a few roster upgrades (DE, TE, & C especially), they could be contenders late in the season rather than these start slow-win in October-crash in December or Start strong-finish weak patterns we've run into. Currently, we have a coach that looks, acts and sounds like death warmed over doesn't really give us an identity. We're still plain yogurt waiting for what kind of fruit we're going to be paired with. DJ does not have an offensive philosophy other than Disinterested / Sgt. Schultz 'I see nutszing, I hear nutszing! I know nutszing!' / Scared Sh--less. The people in charge at OBD have no idea what they want to be.

Depends on where the projections are, who the FO determines is the C they want, etc. Probably best either to trade down to later 1st and use an extra pick or two on a DE(s), or stay and trade back up to get Mack, et al. I just want a good combo of smart, big and nasty at the position; someone who won't get blown back toward the QB like every one of our centers since Hull (Jerry O, the kid who went to the Giants --- drawing a blank here, Teague, Fowler, and Preston). Draft process doesn't always go smoothly, tho, and then again, there's four thousand things that'll happen b/w now and April. It would be nice to not have to pay an UFA center the kind of $ they see, and perhaps spend that money elsewhere. Would be nice to get into the habit of developing some of our own OL. Also, I'd say that our OL is much closer to being a finished product than the DL. It would be nice to actually complete a unit rather than scurrying around trying to fill holes at various and sundry spots on the roster. This may be the year we get to relax a little bit in that regard and finally address some longstanding needs.

Easy. Put whipped topping on this turd and say that it's shoo-fly-pie. Ralph holds it up to his mouth with the spoon and hums, "Mmmm!" yet is careful not to take a bite (similar to how our mothers used to con us into eating pureed peas and liver).

Uhpt! Money's gone. Sorry. Up and vanished like a fart in the wind! Here's betting that Madoff has a "heart attack" at the precise best time from a legal standpoint where any remaining assets will be a bear to find or collect. Then, he spends the rest of his days enjoying sunshine and margaritas with Ken Lay in a non-extraditing country. Tell me there's not a witness protection-style program for wealthy cons who buy in. About the only reason the upper-echelon cons get busted and/or face real punishment for white-collar crime is A) if they don't have enough $ to grease enough wheels or B) if they go into it intending to keep it all (or most) for themselves. Occasionally, they run into an honest-broker prosecutor who's not ordered from higher up to drop a case or they can't find anyone on the inside who'll sabotage evidence (For a comparative small-potatoes example, see: Simpson, OJ and his HOF ring, and then just magnify the scope). Then again, Paulson and Bernanke are currently running a bigger con than Madoff ever dreamed of operating. The uber-rich aren't stupid. They know that it's going to be quite a while before they see the kind of cooperation they get at the highest levels of US govt. Like rats deserting the ship and trying to stuff their cheeks with as many crumbs as they can before they hit the drink.

He told Dierdorf and Gumbel that he was trying to put together a "highlight reel" so he could be more attractive to his next team. To borrow a JP-ism.... 'Sometimes you hold onto the ball too long hoping to resurrect your career. Whoops!'

But likewise, changing coaches has just been new window dressings as well. We've had three regimes come through since our last playoff appearance. We still play our CBs 10-15 yards off the opponents WRs. We still abandon one part of the offensive scheme in favor of another (Common sense says we should run? Pass! Common sense says we should pass? Run!). The faces and places change, and the output stays the same. We still develop players only to let them walk. On the lines, we still rely on technique and finesse rather that real grit, domination and making the other team hurt. We have the biggest and tallest OL in the league, and yet, get consistently blown off the LOS. It's like the gates of OBD have that, "Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here."

OK. "Hmmm. Bills are on the schedule for next year? I think I'll put that up as a win. In pen."

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