SectionC3

This. There is a potential angle to bring another local bidder into the mix that was mentioned awhile back, but I haven't seen or heard anything about it in months. Not even the connected people on this board have mentioned it, which makes me doubt that the team/trust was in the loop on it. If we hear of someone besides BTG / tp as a local bidder, it may be through that particular path. If that road gets traveled at this late date we'll know that those vested in a higher sale price are looking to drum up demand.

Polian or kent hull. Probably polian. Heard him on gr last night talking up reed. I was pretty young in 85 - not sure if Reed was a polian draftee, but the thought occurred to me that reeds enshrinement might help what is already a pretty strong case for polian. As far as the post Super Bowl bills go, only moderately realistic shot is probably dareus and as a longshot maybe a Kyle Williams if he plays at a high level for a few more years and we have playoff success during that time.

Who says Jacobs couldn't do that?

It very well could bc of potential liquidity problems with the TO group and the trust need to liquify in time to pay estate taxes. Yesterday morning, before the fluctuating reports of the bid values, someone here mentioned the media manipulation that was possible and the Need of the trust and the nfl for the JBJ group to drive up the price. Everything we hear now is something someone wants us to hear - I can't imagine in something with stakes as high as this that more than a handful of people are privy to bids numbers - so any leak is more likely than not intentional. In any event, as was said yesterday, this will happen fast (see: estate taxes, desire not to anger potentially generous pegula bidders, etc) but there is going to be at least one more "bad" day as the trust tries to drive up the price. It wouldn't surprise me if we see a BTG bid (not a bad thing) or a planted story about JBJ''s vast liquidity. If the bids really are low, or if JBJ can't cut it, it wouldn't shock me if there is a little creative but simple maneuvering to generate another local bid.

Because he wants the team. Good strategy to wait. See where everyone else is to minimize risk of bidding against yourself. Google Norman cass jr. There is no ego feeding here,

One more thing. There are conflicting reports as to the JBJ bid - ie - about 1b or 1.2b. Who do you think leaked 1.2b? Someone with an interest in driving up the price.

Littman is the son inlaw. And, it's a new age. Every piece of data is scoured. Massares consistency reinforces my point. And, it's not just using some guy on twitter. That guy plus, say, a business first report, a buff news report and maybe something in the Toronto sun or info fed to Ed Kilgore from someone Kilgore has trusted in the past might just spook someone enough to up the bid. Finally, who is to say the kid (Littman jr) isn't our version of Norman cass jr.? He might not even know he's being used.

This is an obvious pint and one with which I completely agree. The trust NEEDS JBJ and trump to create demand, just as the NFL needs those bidders to inflate the price. I suspect this deal will get done VERY quickly now bc Pegula has seemingly offered offered the trust everything it could want - a great price in what I'm assuming is a cash bid that will allow the deal to close before the end of this tax year. Assuming the bid info is correct (and I'm skeptical of the accuracy of all of the reported bids), there is a serious game of poker going on. The trust can probably extort a little more from pegula through the JBJ threat, but it has to ask itself whether the potential gain is worth the risk of pegula reducing his bid. What I also wonder is whether this massare guy has been groomed for this moment. As the theory goes, his source is littmans kid, who is Ralph's grandson. What if they've been feeding this guy all along to establish his credibility and now at the very end use him to reinforce the idea that the JBJ group increases its bid past pegulas 1.3b after e books are opened? Couple that leak with one to someone like to graham or Jim fink and the trust could easily create an incentive for pegula to move beyond 1.3B. I'd be stunned if we don't see that kind of story sometime soon, but I'll be equally stunned if pegula doesn't close the deal. Like I said it will happen fast., and probably for a "little" more than 1.3B.

Stevie is gone. We can better spend his money elsewhere. I don't believe Byrd is worth $8m/year, but I'd rather pay him than Stevie.

The article is not a good one, but I have to believe the next owner is going to be someone who isn't talking about buying the Bills right now. Fortunately for Buffalo there are a host of people who have the cash to make this happen either individually or as part of a consortium---Pegula, Golisano and the Jacobs family and Bob Rich spring to mind. Their company isn't publicly traded, but I have to think the Wegman family has the money for something like this, too. I have to imagine a new stadium is part of the equation for any prospective local buyer, and I wonder if we see the state government start to address this issue in the very near future.

Goodwin has demonstrated an ability to catch a football. Graham has not. Both can take the top off of a defense, but only one can locate and catch a ball thrown in his direction.

Send a message and deactivate him next week if woods can play. Relegating to special teams doesn't work because he doesn't play special teams. He needs to sit. He has one of the worst pair of hands I've ever seen, let's the ball get to his body too much and is horrible at locating the ball in the air. Just a garbage receiver - I've felt this way long before today's debacle. And no, hogan and/or Easley are not long term replacements. Neither of those guys is a capable receiver. This happened right in front of me and I felt the same way. Tuel made the right read, the route was there and the throw surprisingly good. Graham just couldn't find the ball.

Bill - thanks for all of your work. I could not wait to read your thoughts after this fantastic win. I'll add a few thoughts. I think we're witnessing a culture change here. This team is TOUGH and has a swagger to it. We haven't seem this in years, and for the first time probably since Flutie was benched I now regularly expect the Bills to win. For the (relative) old timers (I'm 34), I almost hate to say it but it's starting to feel like 1987. With respect to today's game, I love the way Leodis played. It's much easier to play corner when you can count on the pass rush to force the ball out quickly. Credit should also be given to doug Whaley and buddy nix. The depth on this team is impressive, and whalery's proactive approach to the kolb injury in trading for Lewis is paying off in spades. I love the jerry Hughes trade, too. His numbers don't jump off the page, but he showed when it counted today. Was it him that forklifted his man on tanehill's backside on the Mario sack and strip? No matter, we are building an identity of a tough team, and even the realist in me thinks we're on the cusp of something special.

Bingo. It shortens the game for us. Keeps the ball in the hands of one of our two best offensive players (apologies to Stevie J.), keeps the ball out of the hands of our erratic QB (who admittedly had his fastball today) and helps keep the defense off the field. Our offense is built to grind, and we prefer to be cute.

Absolutely. There's something to be said for imposing one's will and running someone over. An RB who falls forward on third and two typically gets the first down.

I wish I could add this to my list of observations about today's game. I totally agree. I get that the circumstances are a little different in short yardage situations, but sometimes we overcomplicate the game. If we average 4 yards a carry, why on earth are we constantly throwing on third and short? I appreciate that the response will be, "because Spiller got knocked backward on third and one." I saw that too. In the demarcation of Spiller/Jackson touches, however, that's an instance where Fred gets the ball.

Bill, thanks for nice comments as always. I wish I could say that I look forward to Sundays to watch quality Bills football, but in the absence of that I at least have the thoughtful post-mortem you produce every week. I'll add a few thoughts. 1. I'm glad we "fed" Spiller the ball only 11 times today. I was worried he might get tired. Fortunately, I don't think that happened. 2. Sarcasm aside, Fred might be a battering ram, and it is important to get him a critical mass of carries, but this year he looks slow to me. Maybe it's because he pales in comparison to Spiller's dynamism. Whatever the case, enough is enough with alternating series. It's time to give the job to Spiller and use Fred as the sub. 3. I cannot put into words how tired I am of the lousy defenses we've fielded throughout the Bush II and Obama administrations. The stat lines are disgustingly predictable - opposing QBs with 65% completion rate, couple of TDs, no picks, great third down percentage and astronomical quarterback rating. It happens every week, and it happened again this week. 4. Our backers, with the exception of Barnett, suck. Painfully so. But not as much as Aaron Williams. If they're going to put him back out there when he's healthy, they should either move him to safety or make him change his number. Seriously. Right now, if it's third and long, I throw it at 23. Every. Single. Time. I think the NFL has figured this out, too. 5. Gailey seems to have one major brain cramp as a playcaller each week. This week it was the three throws-and-out to start the second half. 6. If we are ever behind in a close game with a chance to come back and win, we better not need the two-minute drill. That plodding, ineffective effort sucks. Then again, our four minute offense sucks, too, so even if we're ahead in the close game, we're still in trouble. 7. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I'll see you all next Sunday to talk about Mr. Brady's Madden-esque statline.

I could have lived with the knee, but I can hardly blame Gailey for trying to win the game. If we can't trust the TE to hold the ball against the type of rake that knocked it loose, we shouldn't throw him the ball. What annoys me isn't even the knee on the ensuing kickoff, but the knee that we took immediately thereafter with (I believe) three timeouts. It's not like time and field position were that much different from the play on which we fumbled, and I don't get the inconsistency in approach at that point in the game. The "worst" had already happened in terms of the turnover, so why not let the "NFL" quarterback use his three timeouts to try to get three points back?

My memory stretches back to the 1984 season (having been 5 years old at the time, I remember it faintly). This is one of the worst games I can recall. I have never felt so disheartened about the Bills. We are absolutely inept, and it's the same old story. Lousy quarterback, defense can't get off the field on third down, too many untimely mistakes. The flea flicker was insult to injury. I guess it could be a little bit worse; we could be Browns fans cheering for Brandon Weeden instead of Robert Griffin III.

I was born a Bills fan, and am now 33. As I watch my parents, particularly my father, age, I frequently think about the day I won't attend or watch a game without him. I dread that day. I'm very sorry for your loss, and I hope you're able to think of your dad fondly today.

Totally logical as far as I'm concerned, and I suspect this is the first truthful thing we've heard about our draft plans all week. I think they see the draft as having fewer than 10 top-flight talents, and they feel like they can get the same type of talent a in the mid to late teens as they can at 10. Hence all the recent interest in players who make absolutely no sense for us, i.e., Tannehill and Barron, but who could interest a team looking to trade up with us or ahead of us to grab a guy we don't want and push our target or targets closer to our pick. To the extent we can't move back from 10, and to the extent Kalil is the guy the front office wants, it makes sense to take a shot at moving up to get him.

A few posters in this thread indicated their contempt for an $84 million handout for the Bills. I'm not getting into the politics of this - normally I would agree that an already-profitable business shouldn't get $84 million in tax incentives and breaks - but in this case I believe the Bills pay about $20 million/year in payroll taxes. So, if the $84 million is spread over ten years, and if that money is a condition for the Bills to stay, it's actually a relatively sound business deal for the state.

To be fair, it should also be noted that if history holds true, the Bills are going to want to talk to the Governor to seal the deal. Like John said, I wouldn't worry about what Collins did or didn't do on the issue, and the vigor with which Poloncarz is approaching the issue is outstanding, but Pataki sealed the last negotiations, and Cuomo will likely have to do the same thing this time.

Losing streaks.

I second that opinion.