30dive

So I just bought a business and the guy I inherited that is/has been running my new acquisition for over a decade has done nothing but lose, I think it is fair to say thank you, but I need to make a change. What is so hard to understand about that?

Consider the numbers or should I say the years; while he may be a nice guy, a marketing genius or a great...fill in the blank...the one constant since Brandon has sat in a corner office at One Bills Drive is losing. Yes there are many reasons, and quite possibly the biggest reason may have been Brandon's boss, God rest Mr. Wilson, but Brandon is still here and we have never won, with him calling, or influencing, the shots. Russ, thanks, but it's time for you to go. The Pegula's need a football person to run their shop.

And once again the Bills keep it close! If they win or lose they are in every game! Whine all you want about coaching, I will give Marone a pass ALL season, this guy is a rookie coach and he has his players ready every game. It has been a longggg time since any of us could say that.

Like most here I have been a long frustrated fan, but a fan none the less! Placing my cards on the table, I WAS a season ticket holder but cancelled two years ago, as I told the Bills, I just could not justify the tix, and the nearly 4 hour trip to OP, the food, lodging and miscellaneous, cost for an inferior product. And to be honest I was also struggling with the actions of many fans in the parking lots and the stadium. I had become embarrassing; now I do not think my friends would call be a prude, but the actions of so many would have made the Sundowner blush. So it had been a couple years for me at the Ralph, and honestly, things have changed! The team is clearly on the right tract, sure we lost (again) but we compete every week, and you not only can see it, but you can feel it. The Bills are no longer the team that the opposition can circle as a guaranteed win. And the crowd seems to have changed too, sure I saw the obligatory tussles in the stands, but that has been going on forever, but not to the level I had seen in the past half dozen years, I must have missed the passed out drunks, under cars in parking lots, and I did not see people puking and or passing out in the stands. What I did see, was a pretty civil crowd, even in a loss, pretty happy people, before and after the game.....Well done Bills and Buffalo fans.....We all seem, to be on the right tract! Oh and a special Thank you to Mead107 for your hospitality and great Stromboli and Hammer, for just being Hammer.......Even after we put up our 10 x 10 canopy! Sorry for the double post..... Mods please remove my copied, post and forgive my lacks in technology

Like most here I have been a long frustrated fan, but a fan none the less! Placing my cards on the table, I WAS a season ticket holder but cancelled two years ago, as I told the Bills, I just could not justify the tix, and the nearly 4 hour trip to OP, the food, lodging and miscellaneous, cost for an inferior product. And to be honest I was also struggling with the actions of many fans in the parking lots and the stadium. It had become embarrassing; now I do not think my friends would call be a prude, but the actions of so many would have made the Sundowner blush. So it had been a couple years for me at the Ralph, and honestly, things have changed! The team is clearly on the right tract, sure we lost (again) but we compete every week, and you not only can see it, but you can feel it. The Bills are no longer the team that the opposition can circle as a guaranteed win. And the crowd seems to have changed too, sure I saw the obligatory tussles in the stands, but that has been going on forever, but not to the level I had seen in the past half dozen years, I must have missed the passed out drunks, under cars in parking lots, and I did not see people puking and or passing out in the stands. What I did see, was a pretty civil crowd, even in a loss, pretty happy people, before and after the game.....Well done Bills and Buffalo fans.....We all seem, to be on the right tract! Oh and a special Thank you to Mead107 for your hospitality and great Stromboli and Hammer, for just being Hammer.......Even after we put up our 10 x 10 canopy!

As someone who has not sipped the Kool Aid and has been highly critical of the brain trust at 1 Bills Drive over the last decade. I find your carbon copied critique of this years Bills draft amusing if not redundant. While we will not know the success or failings of EJ Manuel for a few years, the Bills seem to have gotten their guy. Look at the truths, the Bills have not taken a QB, as their first draft selection since the old AFL days when they selected as their regional pick a QB from Penn State in, I think, 1964. Yes there have been two other QB's selected in the first round of the draft, one not so good and the other a Hall of Fame pick. The Hall of Fame pick, Jim Kelly, was selected with their second pick of the first round after they had earlier selected TE Tony Hunter from Notre Dame. The other was JP Losseman, who they traded up for to get a second bite at the first round. With that said, their failings over the last decade are too numerous to mention and go well beyond the work they do the third week in April. It seems pretty clear that the Bills have never put a whole lot of thought into selecting as their first pick, a QB, and it has shown in the record books. Now fast forward to 2013, the Bills traded back to get an additional pick in the second round and, as mentioned earlier they also got their QB. Would he have been available in the second? Based on the results of the draft, possibly, but the Bills wanted this guy and it seems reasonable to me that they would select him at 16 after getting that additional pick. Again truths, beyond the workouts at 1 Bills Drive of all of the "top Flight" QB's, the Bills new Head Coach Doug Marone had probably more game experience with three of most mentioned QB's available in this years draft. First Nassib, by all accounts this was the dream set up for the Bills, but apparently not the dream of coach Marone, do you think if he honestly felt "his" QB was the best, he would not have selected him? He knew Geno Smith pretty well too, "his" QB beat Mr. Smith 3 times and based on what we are hearing about that guy, well, congratulations J-E-T-S! Now Matt Barkley, a kid I thought would have been a nice pick for the Bills, as I think his final season was not a fair representation of his entire body of work at USC. But Coach Marone saw him in action too, and while Barkley and his USC team beat Mr. Marone's Orange last fall, he was clearly outplayed by Nassib. Now I think your primary point was they took him too early, again fair, and if they took him at 8 I would be singing with you, but to get the additional second round pick, to get the QB you wanted, and to keep West Virginia Wide Receiver Tavon Austin out of hands of the NY Jets proved to show something the Bills have not shown in very long time, smarts! Thanks for your concern about the Bills, now maybe, just maybe I will go pour myself a tall glass of Kool Aid, it has been a very long time.

So we are going to try the New Orleans thing again. Last time I had tix for Bills v. Saints, Katrina blew that up! Here is hoping we can make it happen.

Well Well Well......I read a few responses to this thread, and yes emotions play out in my post and dare I say everyones who posts on this site, and yes I know nothing about the inner thoughts of Buffalo Bills management. But But But......It looks to me that the Bills went to the buffet table and decided to buy there. No plan to go with a known fine steak dinner. Now hold on a minute I like Doug Marrone,,,,,at Syracuse....But I have no reason to believe at the guys running the Bills for the last decade plus have offered anything other than another vist to the buffet......Williams, Mularkey, Juron, Gaily........I hope I am wrong. Go Bills!

Does it feel to you that once again the Buffalo Bills are confused……It seems like Friday night dinning with a bunch of friends, no one is sure what they want for dinner, no one is willing to make the call or upset someone, not sure how much money the others really want to spend, so where do we go? We go to the buffet of course! Just like our Friday confusion, the Bills go to the Buffet too, for some reason they refuse to say, I know what I want, I want the best steak available and I am willing to open my wallet to get that steak. I am going to sit down with that steak, and remain in the finest establishment with that steak until it is done! No the Bills seem to like to walk around the buffet tables and test the second rate beef , fried shrimp, pizza and that marketing genius, the chocolate fountain. The Bills need to say we are going to go after X coach, he is the guy we want, he will get it done for us and we are going keep him with us until he says," yes I will be the next coach of the Buffalo Bills"…….Zero Restrictions!

I do not write here very often, but have been here a long time. Last year I told "my" Season Ticket rep that I could no longer spend then money. Not that the ticket prices were bad, but when I added up the cost of my out of town travel, lodging, food, time, lost time and energy, I could no longer justify owning the tickets. I hoped the Bills proved me wrong. I still bleed red, white and blue, but I just needed to see something before a continuation of putting my good money to the bad. Again, I hoped that I would be regreting not re-upping my tixs. But this has gotten just plain sad! In my mind, this is no longer just my favorite sports team losing, nope, I no longer even get Super Bowl jokes from my friends, I don't even get attacked for being a Bills fan, nope I now get pitty......I get pitty for being a Bills fan! I feel as though I am a part of culture a culture of losing, and I feel like the powers that be ( and I do not single out the owner) are good with it. I sure hope I am wrong, but what is this now 13 years without even a quick exit from the playoffs? So I ask is there any business that would stick with the same people in the suits and ties, if the business that they have been put in charge of had a losing performance for 13 years? No? Then why then do the Bills allow this? The only answer I can come up with, is that a culture, a culture of losing is good enough.

Exactly! New coaches and even new star players will NOT be successfull as long as the ownership refuses to buy depth while leaving $30 million in cap room.

I have not been around for a while. But I am still going to games when I can, subcribing to the NFL Ticket, drinking my morning Kool Aide, errr coffee out of one of my Buffalo Bills coffee mugs, wearing my Bills gear, and taking the body blows while defending the Bills to all my western PA neighbors. Like a brother I will fight for him, but some honesty is needed back home. Today I found myself watching parts of the re-broadcast of the New Mexico Bowl, featuring Temple and Wyoming (Temple won), as opposed to watching the Bills, I guess I knew what the outcome would be, again. So what to do? I will always be a Bills fan, but until the current Bills owners final piece to his plan happens, I say keep things the way they are. Keep Brandon, Nix and Gaily. Draft as they see fit, select free agents as they see fit. NO CHANGES, no changes until we have new ownership that will provide the relief of no new hightened expectations for the new year, no placebo pill with the promise of a playoff run. The second the final chapter of the current business plan happens, clean house, new everything, new promises, new excitment. Until then I say thank you Mr. Wilson, thank you for bringing and keeping the Bills in Buffalo. It has been a great ride and for now I will condition myself to expect only the Bills continued existence and only that. The current Business plan does not expect winning but it expects revenue, and it will continue to see revenue, albeit shrinking numbers, they will continue to see the value of their property grow. It is beyond obvious that in the managments minds there is no plan to bring a winner to Buffalo. And for that reason, I say again, until the final chapter of the current Bills owners business plan occurs: NO CHANGES!

Just not a DB or a WR! If that happens then I will be Stressed Out! That would be yet another year not recognizing our primary need, OL or front 7 and no I won't freak out too much if we go QB at 34.

Tebow is a high character, high motor guy and ultimatly might be a winner in the NFL, today he is not. Newton has all the strengths required of a future great NFL QB as he will provide a multi level threat for the team that drafts him from day one. The answer is Newton! With that I hope the Panthers draft him, so we can draft for our biggest needs and not have to make excuses and explain why we passed on Newton when he is winning for his team, with the knowledge that we could have had him. If he is there at 3, the Bills will have a big choice to make, hopefully smart people, smarter than us or even those who have made choices for the Bills in the past, are now in charge at 1 Bills Drive.

I am not an Auburn fan, I like what Auburn did this year and with the many games I watched on the tube and in person, they were sure fun to watch. More importantly Cam Newton was fun to watch! Bottom lline is he is a winner, I want defense this year but if we go QB and he is available you go Newton, you go a winner, he can step out of the way of defenders, who also happen to be smaller than him, he can throw, and boy can he run, 3rd and 2 to go, even in the NFL he is a first down threat that has to be defended against.

STOP IT PLEASE!!!!! A scripted Media Day? That's something new! I saw Cam Newton 7 times this past season, once in person against Georgia. He IS special, the Bills need a defender more than a QB, but if they want a QB I'd be very happy with Cam Newton. Yep he was found with a stolen computer, yep I heard he cheated on tests at Florida, the university has never confirmed this, but I'll accept the probability. So he left Florida went to a JUCO won a national title, then went to another SEC school and oh by the way won another National title. Every time I see him speak with the media he is well spoken, seemingly intellegent and respectful. If we accept everything HE has been accused of doing, we ought to accept everything he HAS done, which includes 2 natioanl titles with some pretty incredible skills and size the good lord blessed him with. The Buffalo Bills could use a few blessed winning players. No more high character, high motor players, give me winners!

Hmmm......All Cam does is win, won in HS, won at JUCO and now wins the BCS! He speaks well (and is spoken well of by)of his teammates, coaches, school and family! Is he the guy the Bills should draft, I for one think we need his teammate on the other side of the ball, but oh I heard he is a dirty player, God forbid we draft a dirty player.....No let's just draft another high character, high motor player from, oh (fill in the blank).

Will someone explain to me the criteria for drafty order? We have the same record as Cinncy and we beat them, shouldn't they be number 3?

Regarding distance you are not crazy. I live in Central PA about 200 very rural miles to OP and shared tickets with a friend who lives in Richmond, VA. Two to three games is reallistic, but honestly the poor product on the field made the travel, food and lodging cost very tough to justify keepi ng the tickets. The cost for the tickets, nor even a few bucks lost trying to sell or even give away the tickets was never an issue but the extra cost incured for the product forced me to surrender.

First he is upset, he is frustrated and with that if we accept that he was tweeting to GOD, which would be pretty cool if God has a twitter account. Ask yourself, is Stevie's tweet blaming God any worse than all those players wearing their faith on their sleeve and thanking "my lord and savior for helping me win (fill in the blank). The God I know could give a rip about who wins a game.

OK this is not sour grapes. This is more of a realization that had the Ravens had the ball stripped, with all things being the same, the officals would have called a stop in forward progress, NO fumble. As Bills fans we know this, we have come to expect this.

While it pains me to say it, the death of Ralph Wilson is the only relevent point. Mr. Wilson has made it the point, with the fact that he has clearly stated that he will not sell the team while he is alive. That the only way the fans will see new ownership and a new team direction will be his passing. I do not wish, nor would I ever wish for his passing on a personal level, but HE has made it part of the teams business plan, and unfortunatly this team, our teams' business plan for the future is totally centered around its owners passing. I have said it before Mr. Wilson, sell the team, sell it to people committed to keeping it in WNY and committed to building a competitve team and you will be loved for eternity or as I have also said,and I fear more likely, I think Mr. Wilson wants to go down in history as the ONLY owner of the BUFFALO Bills.

Juron is the coach, he didn't get fired, he didn't quit (his job), I like most wanted him gone; But alas he is the coach. Abuse Juron? Hell NO! I'll be looking for folks to harrass the real problem, Ralph Wilson!

SO here I am wondering about my commitment to my beloved Buffalo Bills? I know that I am no greater a fan than the rest of you, and many people travel farther than I do and spend more money on our Buffalo Bills. But this last decade of rebuilding and rebuilding has gotten very old. My questions are many but I can wrap all of my questions up with one word….Why? WHY do I travel 440 roundtrip miles 10 times a year (8 this year) to see my Bills? Why do I spend the money I do for my four season tickets? Why do I spend money on local hotels, bars, restaurants and other forms of entertainment over long weekends in the Buffalo area? Why do I purchase Bills gear for myself and my family, to the tune of over $500.00 this alone? Why do I spend even more money on concessions, tailgating food, drink and parking? My WHY list can go on and on, and I am sure many of you could add so much more, but I just can’t give up on my Bills can I? Understand that I am that dad that had to talk to my kids’ principle because I refused to let them go school on Pittsburgh Steelers colors day unless they could wear their Bills gear, she let them. I couldn’t live with the thought of the Bills leaving Buffalo because the fans left first, and I was part of that defection can I? How do I explain to my kids that daddy is no longer a fan of the team in which he screamed at the TV, spent the weekends and the money that our family has on our Buffalo Bills; That the trips to training camp in Rochester were just something fun to do, that it had nothing to do with my loyalty to my team; Can I honestly explain dropping my allegiance of the Bills to my kids? So once again I will wait for the Bills to make magic in the off season, new coach, new players and new promises for the playoffs. But 2009 will bring with it just a bit more cynicism; I’ll probably offer a few games up for sale on Stub Hub, I’ll pass on training camp and most likely will assess my real need for a new Bills jersey or hat; I will probably make it a roundtrip on Sunday as opposed to spending even more money in town over long weekends. Yes 2009 will be different, but I’ll still be a Bills fan, albeit with one leg hanging off the wagon. I am still a Bills fan! And hey the kids will be out of the house in seven years, if the Bills are still making their empty promises, I might then be able to walk away and take up a hobby.

Richmond Sabre Fans when you are in invited to the plenzmd1's pad I highly recomend that you take him up on it! Outstanding host, miss it, living here in penns-abama. But I'm four and a half hours closer to the Ralph