DFITZ1

There was a Bills-KC MNF in '91 or '92; the Bills had completed a pass, so they thought, the call was challenged and reversed, and the ball was set 10 YARDS BEHIND WHERE IT WAS LAST SPOTTED, and no one on field noticed. It became an ad hoc 10 yard penalty, and the Bills had to punt after not making up the phantom yardage. Somehow, during teh Kelly years, Arrowhead Stadium was a house of horrors in more ways than one. NHL - the world leader in bizarre calls: I think it was a playoff game, Calgary vs Edmonton, a Calgary player visiously speared an Edmonton player, the ref doesn't see it, play continues, and Calgary scores. Afterward, they see a player spralled out on the ice, the linesman told the ref there was a spearing penalty (a major and game misconduct) before the goal, BUT THE GOAL STILL COUNTED! NBA Buffalo Braves are called for a foul in the last seconds of a playoff game between the Celtics. Replay cannot find teh foul. Foul shots are made and Braves went from a game winner to playoff elimination on that "foul". After reading recent articles on the NBA's penchant for favoring big markets (as how the Lakers got to the finals 2 years ago), makes you wonder. MLB World Series, bases loaded, Darryl Strawberry at the plate, 9th inning, winning run on 3rd, Strawberry leans into each pitch, and gets ball calls and walks in teh winning run. Replay shows pitches were strikes and Straw's lean influenced the ump. Can't forget the Yanks getting a HR against the Orioles when a 12 year old caught a fly ball leaning over the outfield wall. Replays showed it was interference and should have been an out. Yanks win the WS and teh 12 year old gets to join them in the victory parade.

My guess is Cherry would wear some big fury red and white (what else) that would get all the PETA members up in arms. He might be controversial, but he will add credibility to the NBC broadcasts. He did a spot between periods on the NBC Stanley Cup final telecast 3 years ago and he was light years more knowledgible than the crew they use. On top of that, the play-by-play annoucer today was talking more baseball/Fenway/Boston than he was about the game in front of him. Their "love-in" with Boston was obvious. Philly must've felt short changed. What they should've done for exhibition is have Dave Schultze and Derek Sanderson come out for a mock fight (or Johnny Bucyk, if Derek isn't doing so well).

I think its great. They take too long with the pre-game, for me anyways. I wish they would spend less time talking about how great being outdoors is. Seems to be overdone. Bringing back the classic players is a a good thing. Seeing Bobby Orr and Bobby Clarke (with teeth) shows off the games legacy. They should (and will) keep the tradition going. What the promoters should do is highlight that this game counts. Football on New Years Day has gone downhill since the BCS moved many feature games away from New Years Day, and the games left are down a notch. The Winter Classic can fill a void in NYD sports. Just don't compete directly with the Rose Bowl. Also, get better announcers. Hire Ric Jeanneret for a day, and throw in Don Cherry.

The lack of tackles and a TE are what's hurting the line most. If Wood and Butler return 100% (that's always an if), the interior line should be OK. Perhaps an upgrade at center is in order, but not the first priority. An LT is the first priority. As one poster said, Bell might do OK at RT. At the start of the year, run blocking was decent, especially with Jackson the runner. I'd love to see Lynch traded for a decent limeman or a high draft pick to get one. Not throwing a no-huddle on the o-line will also help development.

Of the 3 non-interim coaches after Philips, I would agree that Mularkey was the "least bad". Perhaps with a better o-line, and not losing Pat Williams, he might have broken teh playoff drought. He still had some game management problems, and didn't get along with his OC. I still remember that awful playcall against the Fish where JP got intercepted in the end zone and started a 4th quarter Fish comback from 18 points down to win.

OK, now who would the coach be? Looks like it's Wade Philips by default, though in the dacade, he only coached year 2000. My second choice would be Fewell only because the few games he's coached have had a far less percentage of "what the..'s" and bewildering game and time management decisions. The thought of the other 3 regimes is downright nauseating.

I would make Reich the Bills second best back-up QB. Darryl Lamonica, by virtue of his successful career in Oakland, would be the top back-up. He was used more as a relief QB than a back-up since Lou Saban would bring him in whenever Kemp was struggling, and often, DL would turn the game around. You rarely see that these days, most teams will stick with their starter even when its obvious it's not their day. If Kemp was having an off day, Saban got Lamonica in in time to reverse a games fortunes.

For Bills history, this might rank with the injury plagued 1968 season where we may have had Ed Rutkowski, Kay Stephenson, and Benny Russell at one time in teh season. Jack Kemp was on IR, or equivalent.

One great game and he's a freshman. Isn't this why we've had a QB mess for 10 years? Rob Johnson was signed based on essentially one terrific game and look how well that turned out. KC might be saying the same thing about Matt Cassel, and he had nearly a season's worth. I wouldn't mind the Bills having a competent utility QB for a year or 2 while the trenches on both sides of the ball are rebuilt, though. No sense getting a QB of the future destroyed without the tackle positions revamped.

A season where the Hall of Fame Inductions is not the high point of the Bills season. For this year, an item on my list is Steve Tasker in the Hall of Fame, and his induction be the start of a great ride, not be the pinnacle. While I was a proud Bills fan to see Bruuuce and RW inducted (though I thought his speech on the 50 years of the Bills might last 50 years), my fear, which came true, was that the iductions would be the high point of what would be yet another unfulfilling season.

The number of top players who have bought into Rusty's methods and regimen is testimony that he was a "cog in the wheel" in the Bills success, and the success of other players (Urlacher was mentioned). What we're trying to say is Rusty's program improved the players performance, not only to play better, but be less injury prone (haven't some comments said that the better players get injured less, well if teh S&C program makes you a better player, it will follow that you will be injured less). Hey, poor S&C is just one of the factors causing this team's decline. Bringing it back to a high level is one of several moves that must be made if the Bills are ever going to be relevant in January (other than spoilers).

If he was so bad, why was he the last winning QB the Bills had. I hope you weren't part of the crew that loved Rob Johnson. He's the one who ushered in eth age of mediocrity.

That would've been 1976. Boz Scaggs (Lowdown and Lido Shuffle Fame) and one or two other bands played (One that did the song I believed was titled "It's Magic"). Elton was the real show. Still have a T-shirt from the concert which I can no longer fit in. That way it'll stay a relic that I can sell on eBay in another 20 years. It was a great show. Elton was in Toronto at the time recording an album, which made teh concert a possibility.

I have a feeling our exchange will conclude that any evaluation on TE will be inconclusive. Your link does say teh post-concussion syndrome not a sure thing from sports related injury; though I will point out that it's possible he was brought back too early while he still had lingering effects of a concussion. Am I sure, no. But after seeing the Sabres Tim Connelly and Pat LaFontaine lose entire seasons due to concussions (though not their firsts), plus a neighbor take a year to recover from one, the possibility is there. But the thing that does bother me is that if the demise is entirely TE, as many posters like to point out (i.e. flame), we are condemned to repeat the 3 year cycle of QB's (year 1 - great hope, year 2 - isn't working out, year 3 - bench and throw out with the trash) until the Bills braintrust (talk about a group with PCS) changes its way of building, coaching, and sustaining a football team. Every time some sportswriter bashes TE, its only a couple sentences later that he says he gets no help from the o-line. Well, which one is it, is the QB unable to adapt to the o-line, or is the o-line impeding the QB's ability to lead the team on the field. Since Flutie departed, the QB has been blamed more than the o-line, and teh TE saga is the latest example. My worst fear is that the Bills will try to do a TO type signing on an experienced QB to make fans think all will be well, then draft and FA sign cheap or mediocre on the o-line (mainly RT and LT), and the cycle will repeat. Hopefully the latest firings and fan displeasure will end that cycle. When Parcells rebuilt teams, he started rebuilding in the trenches and that brought success. You're right that TE's been used up here, but the organization did play a part in his downfall, and if those causes aren't corrected, it'll be another decade of mediocrity. Just throwing him out with the trash, like many posters suggest, ignores the core problems this organization has. Where I live we see a lot of teh Giants, and I'll tell you, those early Eli Manning years looked a lot like TE. I'm not saying TE is Eli Manning, but growing pains and regression is a part of becoming an NFL QB. The Kelly's and Marino's, etc are the exception (which is why they are in the HOF). The next tier down go through a rougher start. The rookie pay in pro sports is driven by a few, and must be accepted by many. Once one owner breaks the bank, others must follow suit. It's one reason why watch major league sports on TV, not in the stadiums, much to my regret. While I love the Bills and Sabres, the financial lavishness of major league sports sickens me (would these 1st rounders starve if they were paid a million less they signed for!?). I hate sayiong it, but'll be teh demise of the Bills unless NYS gets smart and makes upstate NY economically viable again.

Your comments are good, and I hope I can answer them. Actually, "never learned to adapt" is almost as strong as headstrong as "ruined him". Actually, in his rookie year, the start of the 2008 season, and even the first 2 games this year, it looked like he was adapting pretty well. OK, the adaptation wasn't complete, but he was already ahead of JP and Todd Collins. By "ruining him", I mean that following the concussion, he was coached (or not coached) and/or was allowed to play with a debilitating injury such that his performance declined and would be difficult or impossible to restore his ability. If the negative posters want to toss him away, they've essentially said that TE went from a solid roster spot to useless to the team. That sounds like ruined to me. No one seems to want to explain why he went from promising to inept. I don't believe his record shows that he can't adapt. My theory is he's been put in a position where he can't succeed, nor advance. This is also true of Fitzpatrick. Despite a few early successes. His performance isn't much better. And yes, he checks down often, too. Yes, it could be possible, but with the abyssmal play of the rent-a-player o-line, the no-huddle disaster, it's hard to judge. Actually, if he's good enough to be a back-up, why should we let him go? He might as well compete for a roster spot again next year. With Fitz's lack of accuracy, he's not going to stay long either. You are right. There are many ex-players who stayed in the game to long. If he still has PCS from that hit in Arizona, I believe that should be made public, only so that he is treated fairly, and not berated like he never deserved to be on an NFL team as some posters have said. If PCS caused his problems, making it public would serve notice to concussion effects (a important topic in sports today) and put the blame on the Bills medical and/or coaching staff for letting him play too soon. However, most regular places of work do not hire and fire us regulars at the rate of the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB hires and fires players, coaches, and upper tier front office staff. Plus, our job performance doesn't get discussed on message boards and opinionated by mindless sports reporters (yes, I'm talking of the Buffalo News)

Thank you for making more sense than 90% of this thread. If TE is done for, it is not because he enterred pro football without the talent, it's because the Jauron, Schonert and Fairchild ruined him (as well as the lack of talent around him). I wonder if 90% of the negative posters here remember that TE legitimately beat out a veteran player for the #2 position behind Losman in TE's rookie year. I even forgot who that QB was, but he got cut because TE legitimately beat him out. My bet is 90% of the posters here were pushing for TE to be the #2 during his rookie pre-season, and later pushed for him to start over JP. I wonder if 90% of the negative posters here actually believe it is smart to bring a player back 2 weeks following a concussion. There were posts on TSW by those in the medical field that TE's problems after the Arizona game clearly mimiced post-concussion syndrome. I know people who have had injuries and the recovery is often in months, rather than years. I wonder if 90% of the posters here realize that not all QB's are Jim Kelly's and actually take years to develop. Manning (either), Brees, Rivers, Young have all had growing pains. What sets them apart is sound coaching staffs and talent on teh line and skill positions. TE has neither. Also, QB's under Turk Schonert's tuelege have often regressed (there was a Buff News article on this after Schonert was canned). For those who feel TE done in more by the staff around him than himself, and point at the putrid front office, rather than TE, you deserve a better team. For those who want to throw TE out with trash and think he never belonged in the NFL, pray everyday that your boss (or customers, or whoever pays you) doesn't treat you the same way.

I agree that it's possible. In any enterprise where certain events can sway big bucks, corruption is always a factor that must be looked out for. One thing that should make it harder in the NFL is that there are too many officiating crews and officials for that matter to sustain a New England Patsy conspiracy. Sooner or later, someone will blow the whistle (pun intended) or spill their guts. Also, with the voluminous amount of film and replay angles, it should be easier to expose biased officiating, even by 3rd parties. If the officiating was truely biased, someone on the Bills staff should be threatening to expose it if the league office has no answers. Despite the riskks of fines, if you let it them do it to you once, they're do it to youagain.

On the flip side of Donaghy, there was the one NFL ref (I forget his name, big arms on him) who admitted he blew a call on a fumble that gave Denver a win over the Bolts in 2008. I think it harder to fix an NFL game (Tony Soprano style) because you have part time officials, and 7 officials per game. The NBA has 2 refs per game and is very subjective and has little that can be conclusively reviewed (I swear there's a foul on every shot).

Whenever I watch a game and question a call, I usually check player and coach reactions as to whether it was right or wrong. I didn't enough protest on the Bills side to believe the calls were overly favored. Maybin's offsides was obvious, the PI called Whitner was because Donte was not looking at the ball. The PI drawn by Welker was likely for the same reason, though it looked to me like Welker prevented Florence from making a break on the ball. However, if teh defender does not look at the ball, they are vulnerable for a PI call. As for non-calls such as Light on Schobel, you still need to check the whole game because I'm sure the Bills O-line (being so bad) got away with a few as well. If a call is bad, the coach has to get into the ear of the official. It won't change the play just called, but could affect a call later. This was one thing that Jauron never did, as if he would be spanked for complaining to an official. All coaches fill out a report on the officiating and the officiating for each game is reviewed during the week. If refs are favoring one team over another, I doubt it could last very long. Also, the refs are part time, and don't need to be officials nor need to honor hidden agendas for financial security, unlike the NBA or NHL. Also, if there were hidden agendas, I'm sure either the Giants, Jets (biggest market), and Cowboys (large national market and deep pocket owner) would be the top 3 teams right now.

Actually, that game had meaning for the Bills (It was Mularkey's first season). A Bills win and a Jets loss meant going to the playoffs, But alas, the Bills played like it was meaningless and the Steelers 3rd stringers played like it was for the holy grail. The Jets did lose, so it was an opportunity squandered.

I long for the days when teh Bills played a meaningful game (for them) in December.

Easy - have them train in Buffalo or follow his program (and not someone else's) wherever they live. Given how easy it is to lose your spot in the NFL, any player wanting to extend their career would want to follow Jones, in my opinion.

There is also the right and wrong way to condition. Players using the wrong training approach may be more prone to injury. I have heard of some weight training programs (likely clean and jerk style weight lifting) that can overstress the back and lead to injuries. Also diet plays an important role. Just because players condition in the off-season, doesn't mean they are using teh best methods. That's why teams employ full time S&C coaches. Otherwise, they would contract S&C.

Dude#2, this is teh TSW board. Are we suppose to make sense here?

However a good S&C coach can make a player less prone to injury, build muscle (not fat) to size them for their position, improve their talent (eg Bruce Smith). Agreed, a S&C coach will not eliminate injuries, but can lower them. Jauron was here for the two highest injury years. I'm also willing to bet that TO would buy into a Rusty Jones conditioning program. Several HOF'ers did.