Phil The Thrill
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Posts posted by Phil The Thrill
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1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said:
Interesting.... so how does this work with player contracts? Are they “frozen?” So if there is no NFL Season in 2020, does that mean Tre White is in his final year when he’s only played 3 seasons etc? -
2 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:
I don't think the symbol looks too bad but I am not a fan of also changing the numbers.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29029895/colts-honor-home-state-tweaked-uniform-secondary-logo
awful looking logo -
Great analysis!??????
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5 hours ago, Irv said:
No. He got attacked by those dudes in Chicago. Gonna be out for a while.
What?
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He was not very good...
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Will the closing of XFL bring Doug Whaley back to Buffalo as a scout!!!?!?!?!!
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Winston handeled it like a pro
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23 minutes ago, C.Biscuit97 said:
If someone calls your daughter a see you next Tuesday (which is allegedly what Polian said) and you do nothing about it, you’re a ?. If I was in that scenario, they would have had to pull me off of him.
and he is a great GM but he knew how to pick his spots. Got multiple top 5 picks with Carolina. Got the number 1 pick in Indy (and built a 1-15 team). And got the #1 pick in Buffalo and inherited Jim Kelly. Any GM would kill for that.
And the Bills wouldn’t still be in Buffalo if it wasn’t for Ralph so let the man Rest In Peace.
I hope you also enjoyed the drought that Ralph gave us??
39 minutes ago, Don Otreply said:He bailed out the patriots as well iirc, look Ralph was a good person, and he did good things socially. And for that I’ll have a glass of koolaid.
As a football team owner... if not for the NFL monopoly he would have been the victim of a Wall Street hostile business take over.
Go Bills!!!
Thank you for speaking the truth-
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I can’t stand going to games when it’s that frigid. I had several layers of socks under a pair of Wool socks and construction boots and my feet still froze solid.
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44 minutes ago, Don Otreply said:
Sure his family made a big profit on the sale of the team, but it wasn’t some genius maneuver by Ralph, he rode the coat tails of the NFL wave, and waited long enough.
What Ralph lost was his and his organizations reputation to the point the other owners merely tolerated him, and most quality NFL players stopped wanting to play for the Buffalo Bills, and many still don’t want to, it has taken two decades, new owners and front office, to include the firing of all remaining employees Ralph hired to right the ship, and that repair work is still ongoing.
At times Ralph was a useful owner, but by and large he was a really bad the majority of the time, (like Cleveland Browns bad) the best business moves since the merger were hiring BP and selling the team to Terry and Kim. I’m a vocal fan of the team, but I’m not drinking the Ralph Koolaid... nuthin but luv fellow fan. ?
Go Bills!!!
There’s no doubt that Ralph did a lot of damage to Buffalo in the 00’s and gave the organization a really bad reputation. -
48 minutes ago, chris heff said:
Finally we agree on something Ralph wasn’t a good owner, but he was a good businessman, and a nice man. I met him once in a hotel lobby. I told him I was a Bills fan and that someone in my family has had season tickets since 1960. He talked to me for about fifteen minutes. He loved the Bills and he loved the fans.
I’m not sure drought was darkest time, maybe. Losing to Miami for a decade was pretty bag. I was at a game at the Rockpile when Ed Rutkowski played QB, that late sixties team was epically bad.
I wasn’t around then, so I’ll have to take your word on that-
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6 minutes ago, Call_Of_Ktulu said:
Why is it confusing? If your are a good welder you will find a job. If you are a good truck driver you will find a job. If you are a bad GM no team will sign you and you will be in the XFL. If you are a bad TE like Croom no team will sign you and you will be in the XFL.
I think the last few months in Buffalo did a lot of damage to his prospects at getting another GM position.
With that being said, while I don’t see him as a GM I do think he would be a good scout or someone to help evaluate pro personnel.
1 minute ago, Joe in Winslow said:He's not wrong.
Reggie was so bad that year.
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8 hours ago, chris heff said:
You and Phil keep looking at this from a fans perspective. What did fans do after Polian was fired? We kept filling the stadium, watching games on TV and buying jerseys. From a business stand point Ralph lost nothing by defending his daughter and firing Polian. Ralph still built a business he started for $25k to $1.4 b.
Right.... but before you sell Polian short remember this - part of the reason for the success after he was wrongly fired was because Ralph and John Butler were able to coast with the roster Polian built for several seasons.A few years later Butler was able to add a few more important pieces to help, but the core of the teams from 95-99 still was largely comprised of Bills that Polian brought onto the team.
Once those “core” players were no longer there...it was the darkest time in franchise history.
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8 hours ago, chris heff said:
Yeah Phil you’re right looking at it as a fan. Polian got fired from two other jobs and went on to TV. Ralph lived into his nineties, did something he loved and built for a lifetime. Ralph died and his family sold a franchise that Ralph bought for $25k for $1.4b. The Wilson foundation then used part of that money to enhance both Buffalo and Detroit. If that isn’t enough for you than as a fan maybe you can appreciate that Ralph made moving the Bills very difficult for new ownership. How’d that turn out for fans.
LOL You’re right, Ralph ran the team into his 90’s. He RAN the team straight into the ground. The drought was the darkest time in franchise history and it’s all on the shoulders of 1 person - Ralph!
Your argument is a little confusing but it goes back to the question - what makes a good professional sports owner?
You see to prioritize Ralph’s charitable contributions over the sub par football product he put on the field for decades. This IMO is what makes Ralph’s legacy so conflicting. He did a lot of good for the area but did a lot of bad on the field.
Look - Dick Jauron was a really nice guy. I met him on several occasions when he coached here and he was a gentleman. But when people bring up Jauron, all they talk about was the terrible football he was responsible for. Not what a nice guy he was.
So while you can acknowledge his generosity to the area, the fact remains - for the last 2 decades of his ownership .... Ralph was a TERRIBLE NFL owner when it came to putting together a good on-field product for his very loyal and dedicated customers.
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20 minutes ago, chris heff said:
So essentially what your saying is Polian quit. There was no way Ralph wasn’t going to defend his daughter, if Polian assumed he was so important that his boss would tolerate his transgression then he was an idiot. Polian didn’t take his money and buy a franchise in a start up league, Ralph did. Polian didn’t save the league by lending money to other franchises Ralph did. Ralph may not have been a good owner, but he was the owner.
I would say “cutting off his nose to spit his face” is the perfect analogy here. It was a mistake...period. And many Bills fans paid for that mistake - BIGLY!-
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3 hours ago, njbuff said:
That had to be the coldest experience ever sitting in the stands.
It was cold that the padding that I used as a buffer between my azz and the bleacher seats, stuck to my azz.
I can't even count the amounts of layers of clothes I used too.
What was your experience like? If you were there?
I was at home watching that game and I remember it being cold as hell outside. I think it’s one of those games where you’d see the players breathing because it so frigid.Great game and I’ll always remember the amazing tackle Steve Tasker made on a Tim Brown punt return. Then in a great show of sportsmanship, both players shook hands and helped each other up. Cool moment
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I thought this was an interesting article. CBS Sportsline provides projections for NFL teams after the first wave of free agency.
Trying to predict in April is meaningless considering that the draft hasn’t happened yet. Still it’s a fun article and the Bills come out pretty strong.
https://www.sportsline.com/insiders/computer-updates-bills-projected-win-total/
“The SportsLine Projection Model simulated the 2020 NFL schedule 10,000 times and the Bills win an average of 9.9 games in those simulations and make the postseason 77.7 percent of the time while winning the AFC East 54.3 percent of the time. That is a small jump from the 9.6 projected wins the model predicted prior to the start of free agency. Meanwhile, William Hill Sportsbook currently lists the Bills at 20-1 to win the 2021 Super Bowl, which is tied for ninth-best odds in the NFL.”
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1 minute ago, chris heff said:
No I don’t have to be prepared for that. It was my money, I took the risk I signed the paychecks. That risk that we took, the fact that we provided 125 people with jobs, whether it is me or a family member that deserves respect whether an idiot or not. Ralph’s situation was the same, Polian wasn’t entitled to that position what he did was arrogant and stupid.
The difference is the risk worked out better for you. How did it would out for Bills fans? I’d argue firing Polian over a personal reason was foolhardy -
4 minutes ago, C.Biscuit97 said:
I don’t think Sammy is a fan of Beane.
Where’s your evidence?Also why bring up Beane? We’re talking about Whaley.
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3 minutes ago, BuffaloBills1998 said:
This is true, but it does make me wonder if there’s any truth in his claims though lol.
Gotta wonder if he drops and how far would he drop?
Imagine....just imagine if he’s there when NE selects-
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5 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:
I still blame Ralph, for putting himself and Polian in that position in the first place. The bad decision was already made well before Polian called her any names.
I'm not saying to eliminate nepotism. I'm saying if you are going to go that route, you need to be ready to hear your family member is an idiot.
This I can agree with ?? -
5 minutes ago, chris heff said:
When Polian called Ralph’s daughter a name he was left with no choice, the same as I was left with no choice when that chef called my wife a name. Ralph’s mistake was what he did next, one he committed often, he hired someone that he was comfortable with. In the example of my restaurant I hired new chef who turned out to be better.
Well everyone has a different philosophy. I think firing someone over name calling is bad business.But to your other point - you are correct. Outside of Donahoe, Ralph insisted on hiring people that he was familiar with - which was a disastrous result
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Just now, Doc said:
Yes, they retained him for continuity sake. He didn't get the job done (and I'm sure there was stuff behind the scenes we don't know about) and then they moved on. And were ultimately proven right.
In the “process” (pun intended) they ended up eating a lot of cash on his contract.I will say that a huge mistake Terry made was the timing of this firing. It’s my theory that he was by an old-time NFL consultant that you don’t fire a GM until the draft to protect your intel. Not hiring Beane until May kind of messed up their plan to rebuild and could have cost them Watson or Mahomes.
But it looks like things might work out this way too
5 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:Polian called Ralph's daughter a F$%&ING C U Next Tuesday. To a group of people. That's a little worse than "foolish".
I semi agree with you in that Ralph's daughter shouldnt have been around and acting as a scout to begin with. Dont let your kids be hired into lower positions if you are going to be sensitive to how they are treated. But at the point, it was too late.
I’m not giving Ralph a pass for firing Polian over name calling...sorry -
Just now, chris heff said:
Phil, in the same post you are arguing both sides. You say Ralph should have ignored what I recall was a vile insult hurled at his daughter and then you chastise Royal for name calling.
LOL these are not the same things. If Gunner was a good GM I wouldn’t fire him for calling me foolish.
You don’t succeed in business making those decisions as evidenced by a 17 year long drought
8 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:In fairness, you and FC have been name calling since the previous thread. What do you think dismissing entire arguments by calling people "Whaley Apologists" is?
And no one has called you names here.
But back to the discussion...
There’s a clear difference...but back to the discussion like you said
EJ Manuel Reflects On His Career As The Bills Future QB
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
If you haven’t checked out Eric Wood’s interview with EJ Manuel yet, it’s a good listen for any Bills fan.
https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=68066663&autoplay=1
I’ll say this - EJ sounds like a great guy. He was very positive about Buffalo, though you sense he feels thing would’ve turned out better in a different situation. He says his career didn’t work out but believes it happened for a reason and he thinks his story can help others.
Some interesting notes:
- He said the Doug Whaley/Buddy Nix plan was always to start Kevin Kolb and have EJ learn from him (bad idea). One Kolb got hurt he had no one to learn from since Jeff Tuel (and later Thad Lewis) were inexperienced QB’s, so Wood was the player who tried to mention him at QB!
- After his in-season injury in 2013 he was privately tutored by legendary OC Paul Hackett (Nate’s dad) on reading defenses.
- EJ said his confidence was shaken after the infamous JJ Watt pick six. Seantrel didn’t cut Watt resulting in the pick, but he said he takes the blame. Doug Marrone sat him down and said he was their guy but they wanted him to take a step back and watch Kyle Orton play.
- He thought that Rex was trying to “bring in his own guys” at QB and felt he earned his roster spot with his preseason play. Dressing as an inactive QB hurt his confidence and relationship with Buffalo and said he didn’t play well in the Jets finale in 2016, because his confidence was completely shot.
- EJ said he did well in Oakland under Jack Del Rio. When Gruden came in, he felt he wanted Conner Cook to be the backup. While he played well in the preseason, Gruden cut him and he spent the rest of 2018 trying to get a job....it never happened.
- Oddly enough this year, he got a call from Andy Reid about backing up Patrick Mahomes once Chad Henne went down. I think he said KC said “thanks but no thank,” and then later said he was beginning his job at the SEC Network and didn’t want to come back.
Like I said, he seemed positive and excited about his broadcasting career, but I also sensed some disappointment over how his NFL career ended. If you think about it, he went from 1st round draft pick to street FA with no offers in less than 6 months.
So do you think EJ’s was a victim was a happenstance?
Or was he an over drafted QB with a limited ceiling? I’m thinking it was more of the later, but it hard to listen to this interview and not like the guy personally.