dave mcbride

More importantly, Kirby, what are some good sites for hat shopping for me?

yup.

The level of denial in this thread is embarrassing. Why can't people simply admit that they like following a sport that is obviously hazardous to human health?? I admit it. It ain't pretty, but it's the truth. As I've long maintained, I would have likely been a gladiator fight fan in ancient Rome, but I like to think that I would have been holdimg my thumb down (symbolizing swords down) when the Editor asked the crowd for a vote on the fate of the loser. But at least I admit that I probably woild have been a gladiatorial combat fan. Please explain your point with evidence. I suggest reading this if you get a chance, btw -- https://www.amazon.com/Death-Expertise-Campaign-Established-Knowledge/dp/0190469412 . Whatever mistakes scientists may make, they're far more reliable than skeptics of science (because - get this - scientists aren't correct 100 percent of the time!) on the internet who basically don't have a clue about what they're talking about. I could go on.

Da Nile -- it ain't just a river in Egypt. Wtf? This is gibberish.

No offense dude, but step up your game. This is cr*ptastic arguing. Seriously.

Don't hold your breath. There is no evidence.

NFL players' biggest failing over the years has been their inability to follow through on a strike. This Business Insider piece and graph tells you all you need to know, pretty much. Forget the NBA; look at Indian cricket, MLB, and the NHL: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/nfl-mlb-nba-nhl-average-sports-salaries-2016-11 The fact that the NFL spends more is mostly irrelevant given that they make a lot more than every other league (nearly 40 percent more than MLB, which is in second). How many games players play is irrelevant w/regard to the money situation, btw.

Agreed. For a couple of seasons, hugh green was absolutely dominant. I guess it depends on how much you value longevity.

Bennett is arguably the most underrated player of the past decade. He is one of the primary reasons why Seattle's defense is so great, pro bowl appearances or no. I personally like Andre Reed a lot as a player, but I also think that Bills fans overrate him greatly. He was a very good but not great player.

Excellent post re the ex-Pats. Richard Seymour played pretty well for a terrible Raiders team too (2 pro bowl selections), and Lawyer Milloy had a bunch of good seasons (including for the Bills!).

None of this is laissez faire capitalism. The appeles to apples comparisons are to mlb and the nba, not some mythical free market. Yet it is a far bigger business. I don't disagree with your take, btw; most of the guys in the nfl would play in the nba if given a choice. But football, both college and pro, is a much bigger business. It's what people actually like to watch (people like porn too!). Incidentally, this piece about mlb players' declining share of revenue over time is worth your time and relevant to the discussion: http://deadspin.com/mlb-has-a-big-money-problem-1742117953 .

Couple of observations after reading this thread: 26CB and Kirby are doing the lord's work here, and my god are people suscepitible to misinterpreting a Watkins comment (which was totally right, btw) because they're invested in sports as some sort of morality play, with Joe Sixpack making $45k a year invoked as a foil to all the overpaid athletes out there. Do people get this worked up about Led Zeppelin's or Leonardo Di Caprio's earnings? It's all entertainment in the end, and in entertaimment, the stars get paid.

No it wasn't -- the reason i hadn't seen it was because it was buried on p. 2. It has no commentary either -- just one quick and non-substantive response. Thread nazis are the worst (not that 26cb is one).

Agreed. And at least the Bills didn't overspend. I also thought the passage on Julio Jones was interesting given the Sammy situation.

What did you think of it? You didn't opine.

Bills nugget: Lorenzo Alexander was resigned at a low price because he had, in baseball terms, a suspiciously high BABIP (batting average on balls in play). He got 12.5 sacks, but didn't get to the qb much beyond those 13 times. The view is that he can't reproduce those numbers given his low number of hurries. http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/06/27/nfl-analytics-what-nfl-teams-use-pff-stats-llc-tendencies-player-tracking-injuries-chip-kelly

Good stuff, OP. Thanks.

Re point 4 --measuring how supportive fans are online doesn't factor in fan team sites (non social media). The Pats' sites flat out suck (there is nothing out there even 10 percent as atrong as this site), so I imagine that the only recourse Pats fans have to resort to blathering on FB, twitter, or instagram more than the usual fan.

I thought it was funny, more or less. And anyone who doesn't think that the Brady dildo thing should be in the annals of Buffalo sports fandom ... well, I don't know what to say. It was definitely crude and lowbrow, but inspired nonetheless.

But the hand size!

http://buffalonews.com/1999/08/30/louds-latest-effort-speaks-volumes/ 'A year ago, Kamil Loud was one of the great stories of the Bills' training camp. He was a seventh-round draft pick from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo who made big play after big play on the practice field and in preseason games to secure a spot on the final 53-man roster. This summer, however, Loud had been mostly forgotten. ... Loud even found himself taking a backseat to another long-shot story -- rookie free agent Jeremy McDaniel. But that all changed Saturday night in Cincinnati. Loud soared back into the forefront of the Bills' preseason with a game-high four receptions for 75 yards and two touchdowns in a 30-3 victory over the Bengals. "He had a great camp last year and really made some people's heads turn," said Johnson, who connected with Loud for a 6-yard score that gave the Bills a 20-3 lead in the third quarter. "And this year we got Peerless, so he's kind of moved to the back. Now he's kind of coming back out and showing what he can do." Loud showed the Bills more than blazing speed and the ability to get open for a catch. The TD from Johnson came on the series after he caught a 35-yard pass and suffered an injury to his left ankle while being tackled from behind by safety Cory Hall at the Cincinnati 7.'

More on hand size - Watkis has 9 5/8" hands, which is above average. Average is 9 1/3".

Good find, but ... Trump hands! "Holmes is a unique talent at 64 and 210 pounds. His 6.69 three-cone time at the 2011 combine is exactly what Odell Beckham Jr. clocked at the combine three years later despite weighing 12 pounds less and being five inches shorter. Holmes has 4.51 speed. Robert Woods ran a 4.51 in his 40-yard dash at the 2013 combine. To get a gauge on his explosiveness capabilities, Holmes broad jump of 130 was only two inches shorter than Marquise Goodwins. Lastly, Holmes vertical of 35 was the same as the 510, 199-pound Golden Tates. Strangely, Holmes has 8 5/8 hands, which places him in the 8th percentile among receivers at the combine since 1999." Also, this piece on hand size is pretty darn interesting: https://www.numberfire.com/nfl/news/7794/do-small-hands-doom-a-wide-receiver-in-the-nfl

Not sure this has been posted, but it apparently came down to Ravens v Eagles. The Bills weren't in the running: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/06/12/report-maclins-decision-came-down-to-ravens-eagles/

He won't be able to use his starting lawyer though ...