RTW2012

Kummelweck, I believe.

The Bills are Canada's Team, right?

Only in Canada.

When I'm looking for sports coverage, the first paper I turn to is the Wall Street Journal.

The Pats ranked 9th in rushing yards last year. Numbers 10 and 11? Minnesota and Pittsburgh. Perception is everything.

Unless you're Ralph's lawyer you have no idea what Ralph's arrangements are, and I highly doubt they are that "simple."

No, bare is correct. When you bare something you let everyone see it. The Bills are letting everyone see they have chips on their shoulders.

Until the regular season starts, and they start playing real games against real teams, no one can really tell how much a team has improved over the previous year. Players may look good in practice, and even look good during their brief stints in the preseason, but you just don't know. Might I remind you Trent Edwards actually looked good in preseason last year, while Fitzy look like garbage. The Bills have too many questions this year for most of the media to be confident that they'll improve. Yes, based on today's game, it looks like the Bills have answered these questions in the affirmative. An impressive win, against a quality opponent (at least based on last year), on the road. All positives. After one game, though. Unfortunately, we Bills fans have been teased before in recent years- 2008, anyone? Let's see a few more games before we can lambaste the "experts."

According to wikipedia, the Star Spangled Banner was performed at baseball games as early as 1897, but not necessarily performed before (or during) every game in every city. The song became the official national anthem in 1931, and it wasn't until WWII that the tradition of playing before every baseball game began. link

True, and other songs may have been played as well. Early ballparks were literally just parks; no real seating of any kind, except for maybe some bleachers. In most cases the field was roped off, with people milling around in a crowd on the other side of the rope. The national anthem was played not only to alert the crowd, but also to focus their attention to the center of the field where the game was going to be played. With the anthem playing, people are more likely to stand at attention, quiet down, and look at either the band playing or the flag. Using the anthem ensured that the crowd would be focused on the field and relatively quiet for the game to begin.

Actually, that's not what I've read. The playing of the national anthem before baseball games began around the turn of the century. "Stadiums" were far less elaborate back then, consisting of wooden bleachers with maybe a grandstand. Given the spartan surroundings, teams started playing the anthem before games as a way of alerting the crowd that the game would shortly begin. Its origins had nothing to do with patriotism, showing appreciation, etc. Of course once the tradition was established it took on greater significance with the public, and has become expected before sporting events.

To be fair, he did say he would "try" to prove a point.

In an interview right after the draft Marcel said it is pronounced Dar-e-us, not Dair-e-us. I've heard John Murphy and Ed Kilgore, among others, say Dair-e-us, but it is Dar-e-us. Check out this clip from nfl.com. At 5:28 he says it's Dar-e-us. http://blogs.nfl.com/2011/03/17/getting-to-know-alabamas-dareus/

The Dar rhymes with far, not fair.

Practice squad eligibility hinges on how many games players were active on game-day rosters. Limiting the number of active games for young players gives teams flexibility on deciding whether they might want to put them on their practice squad in the future. If you're the 6th or 7th receiver on the team, there's a good chance you may never see any playing time. However, if you are active for too many games, even if you don't play, you lose the ability to be on teams' practice squads in the future and hopefully develop into a better player. This is pretty much the only reason I can think of why there are inactives.

Eight years here. How 'bout you, Mr. "Insightfull"?

If the Bills are 29th out of 32 teams, then aren't they one of the NFL's least valuable teams?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dddAi8FF3F4

At least two posters on a uniform forum had seen the entire set prior to the official unveiling. They confirmed that there are blue pants in the set, and are as puzzled as the rest of us as to why the Bills chose not to unveil them at the official presentation.

Yes, the Bills do have blue pants as part of the new uniform set. However, they have stated that they will wear the white pants for every game this year. My guess is they don't want the players to be tempted to go with the blue jersey blue pants look that got its start in the Donahoe era and continued through last season. I agree that they do need to wear the blue pants with the white jerseys.

Same season, in October vs. the Jets in Giants Stadium. The Jets won that game 14-13. The Bills lost seven games by less than a TD that year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eslz06J9hFw

September 7, 1986- Jim Kelly's first regular season game for the Bills, at Rich Stadium versus the Jets. Bills fans who had waited 3 long years for his arrival were not disappointed- Kelly was 20 of 33 for 292 yards with 3 TDs, including a 55 yarder to Reed. Unfortunately, the Bills lost a close one, 28-24. They would lose a lot of close ones that year on their way to a 4-12 record. This was the second Bills game I attended. My first was the last game of the '85 season, a miserable game in miserable weather, with a miserable loss to the hated Jets. 23,000 in attendance- had pretty good seats for that one. The highlight of that game was Hank Bullough giving Bruce the ball on a 3rd and 1; Bruce got stuffed for no gain.

I have only one question: Why on earth would you be following this guy's tweets?

20%? Ridiculous. Even for a $5 million/year player (not huge FA money), 20% is $1 million. No one is going to make that coin in endorsements in Buffalo.

Let's get through 2011 first before we worry about 2012.