leh-nerd skin-erd

part of the reality of being a fan of a sports team is the emotion that comes with it. i wish no one ill will (check that, i wish vince wilfork the same cheap shot that he laid on jp a couple yeas back, with the same result), but i personally find it difficult to detach myself from a situation like this one. the whole peter's saga has been debated to death, whatever, but i'm real hard pressed to wish the guy well when i feel like he spit in my face. understand me here, i logically understand he did absolutely nothing to me personally----but without a healthy dose of 'wtf', the game wouldn't be the draw that it is. i'm sure in ancient times, some really cool gladiators were crowd favorites for a while, but then, ultimately, the crowd gave 'em the thumbs down and cheered when he got mauled by the---what, a lion?

i disagree. he messed with dogs---and you raise some valid points on the emotional side of man's best friend, but he also tried to beat the man. ill gotten gains and no cashola to uncle sam. that's a story as old as time, and generally ends badly.

second chances are fine. would you let him stay with you for a spell while he gets his feet under him? oh--thanks for reminding me i need a pound of swiss and a loaf of rye for lunch tomorrow.

huh--the chances of him being arrested three time, skipping out on two, then having the officer who consumated his arrest be himself arrested for dwi must be like bruce's own talent...astronomical.

who's this brady kid---some hot shot 6th rounder who supposed to set the world on fire?

actually, if anthony hargrove leads the league in sacks, kickoff return, and yards after catch, it still would not be "another reason you would point to not to have your football team ran by a PR/Marketing guy". second chances are fine, but hargrove blew though 3,4, and 5 while here. and--i liked his passion, but geez, no reason to saddle the bills management with poor decision-making on this issue.

say what you want, but norwood made that kick.

and President Palin will hand over the Obama Trophy to the victorious Barrows Bills, so named when the NFL was nationalized in early 2011 because really, there was nothing else left to take over. Plus, it was already in the name, making it easy for former Vice President Biden to remember.

crap. i was just pretty sure that TO wasn't buying a house for a year until he decided if he wasn't staying, or if he was just planning on renting a house from someone who didn't want him and his drama. he twittered all about it, pretty much clearly summing up his feelings. then, i just saw something on on his facebook about his youtube account still having a picture of him in his cowboys uniform. is he going to sign with us or not? this is bullsh*t. we gotta know what his plans are.

on the flip side, this we know IS true: just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone isn't after you.

i think he could have gotten 60 in that one game against the Bills when Warner lit 'em up.

forget fred jackson and his money. i haven't had wings at duff's in so many years...i gotta go next time i'm home.

i don't post a heck of a lot, try mostly to pick up a tidbit or two along the way from those who seem to have a keen eye for football, and have been reading your articles and/or posts here along the way. all i can say about your response here was... priceless. personally, i rarely invite people over, or go over to their house, to kick 'em in the chops.

i think you're overthinking your thinking. when the pats actually have some success on the field, than it will be time to worry about what they do or don't do. it's pretty obvious they've just been really, really, really, really lucky the past decade or so.

d-double-oh, dogg, there's no way to know if he's 100% correct even if he's correct in that peter's signs for 11 mill+. what leverage might he have had if he played a full season last year? not the full season where he started coming around game 5 or game 6, but the full season where you show up, play your ass off for 16 weeks straight? i'm still amazed that of the roughly 1500 guys in the league, peter's was only one of two that was so cheated that he had to sit out. i'm amazed too that a guy playing on a 7-9 team for the third year in a row, a guy who was a project part of the way and was signed to a nice contract felt so badly screwed by the organization. i got to thinking that as bad as peter's is getting screwed at $4+ mill, Tom Brady must be the most under-appreciated guy in the history of sports. Here's a guy that's actually won something, been a leader, and that poor bastard is making minimum wage for an elite qb. If Cassel was franchised for $14mill, Brady should by all rights be holding out for $24 or $25 million. But, he just plugs along at his $5 mill and restructures his contract for the team. business is business.

Promo, thanks for the recap. i sometimes think the whole media experience is a waste. the guy is young, has thus far made several mistakes and pretty dumb ones at that--would they expect him to fly by the seat of his pants? isn't that what gets him in trouble to start? of course it was coached, and if he's smart, he's a hired a pr firm to help him get his act together. he should be coached. he should try and project an image other than what he is---a dumb ass. doesn't mean he's a bad guy, lot's of people fit the mold.

dawg, ax and PTR-- we're all passionate bills fans, obviously. rational thought ultimately has to prevail, especially when we're not involved in the transactions. we don't know which cards are being dealt and who's posturing and who isn't. seems pretty clear to me that the Bills want JP on the team but don't agree with paying three mill more than they see he's worth (at least for now). it seems pretty clear they didn't want to re-structure his contract last year, that he felt it should be, and he handled it accordingly. seeing TO come to Buffalo is a prime example of sometimes things happen that you don't see coming. there are so many working parts to the NFL, it's kind of dangerous to get too passionate on issues we have only the most basic knowledge on, and even that knowledge isn't verifiable. does your opinion change if the Bill offer a lower contract back-loaded with incentives? let's say they have kickers in for Pro-Bowl performance and playing x amount of game? What if JP is concerned about the number of years on the contract more than the money? of wants it up-front in case he gets hurt? i have to tell you, just like my job, it's pretty hard to judge issues of equity on what someone else got. until the day comes that the player's union can enforce a contract that once player X gets $Y, based on performance/opinion player Z automatically get's a contract restructuring at $Y plus $500,000, this kind of thing happens. o the flip side, until JP completes his contract, his hands are somewhat tied. sit and run the risk of underperforming, play at a cost you feel is below your true worth.And as for paying the man----if he was getting what he considers big-time money, and his contract was up, is he honor bound to to take a reasonable offer from the Bill's based on market value and their investment in him---or does he free lance and get what he can for his family? or free lance to a contender for a chance at the ring? what about his obligation to all the little people who clothe their kids in JP jersey's? still sounds to me they want him back. sounds to me like he can re-negotiate and find common ground, or play out his remaining contract and take his chances. there's down-side risk for him there, too. of course, they could franchise him later on, and/or trade him along the way. speaking of that, i wonder if TB demanded a restructuring when Cassel got franchised....he certainly outperformed him substantially over an extended period of time. even with the trade, you gotta figure Brady is 2 times more valuable than Cassel, and it'd be unreasonable for him to play for less. same with Rothlisberger. And Manning. Sorry for the algebra.

so....the bills clearly should have signed him with three years left on a new contract, and he clearly had no choice but to hold out? if he had no choice but to hold out, why come back at the beginning of the season? make all the arguments you want about the shelf life of a player and the team's ability to cut a guy, but how do you see it as he had no choice but to sit? and if he had no choice, why "risk" and injury and come back for the season? sit the season, you're the aggrieved party. he blinked, they didn't. he underperformed at the beginning of the season, he wasn't worth the money they had already agreed to early on. how about the team aprpoach then? did he help 'em win? this whole argument that they have to do the right thing, and comparing it with other players on the team never made sense to me. if they give him $12mill, and the next draft choice signs for $14 mil, he'd have no choice to sit out again? or, if they renegotiate someone else, you weight the relative value of that signing in comparison with what you did a year ago for another guy? if you're always reacting, how do you ever control it? as for dockery and walker, seems to me they signed them to make the team better. i'd assume aprt of the analysis had to do with peter's role at L-T and the moneyt hey paid him. maybe they weren't convinced he would hold up through 16 games, maybe they felt his contract demands at that point were absurd, or mayeb they wanted to use the savings on his contract to pay some other guys to build a very good line. didn't work out that way, and part of that had a lot to do with peter's holding out. finally, maybe it's just that they felt the money they gave schoebel was a higher priority than renegotiating a contract for a guy with three years left. looks like they're trying to work it out, why not let it play out? put another way--the guy STILL has a lot of time left on his contract, he STILL stands to make an exceptional payday if they didn't offer one dime more, and he could play out his contract and get his crazy money elsewhere, right? i see this negotiation and i see hope for the future.

but you have a history of a guy holding out with multiple years left on his contract, and you'd have to at elast consider the possiblity that history would repeat itself. would you agree that's part of the consideration during these negotiations? you also have to consider the risk that he gets hurt, past injuries, etc. i fault the bills for a lot of things, but credit them with holding the line on that issue.

Absolute garbage. Not the importance of the position part, but the "do you guys want to win, or not?." what do the specifics of the negotiations of Peter's contract have to do with ultimate win/loss record? there's no way of assuring anyone that Peter's signing results in more wins, that he'll play in all 16 (and God forbid, more) games, that he won't sit out next year or the year after for $15.5 million because Moley Russelswart comes out of college and gets more in the draft etc. If you always use a sliding scale, many guys are never going to be happy. We don't know if there are incentives to build his contract to a more palatable number that he doesn't like (Show up and play at trainig camp, pro-bowl, etc), and since it's a negotiation, what his bottom floor might really be, or what the Bill's top floor might be. I'd really like to see them win, certainly as much or more than anyone on the board, but you can't deal in extremes in situations like this. It'd be great to have him back and playing well from game one, I'd love to see him earn every dollar he makes. I'd love him to be happy playing, but he held out last year, nothing to suggest he won't do it again. maybe the question should be whether JP wants to win?

Philly isn't ripping Buffalo, one douche bag writing a column ripped Buffalo. You have to discredit a guy who has this type of animosity, maybe he's concerned about where his job will be when the philly inquirer folds? I've enjoyed Philadelphia when I've visited, but you're right that there are some less than desirable places to go if you're not a serial killer (like every city, even Detroit, a "major" city). I honestly don't care if TO likes Buffalo or not, lives there or not. He can live in the fetish/bondage room in Bill Belichick's basement (a guy wrapped that tightly surely must appreciate a good cattle prodding) as long as he plays well for us. It'd be nice if the writer took a moment or two and analyzed why the Bills might have taken a guy like TO as it relates to our passing attack, maybe then he'd understand why the gamble was taken.

here's the real truth about the euphoria and drew bledsoe. maybe he wasn't ultimately going to be the answer, but conventional wisdom holds that if you bring a heavy-footed pocket quarterback and hang the mantle of leadership around his neck---give him a pocket to throw from. instead, we brought him over and after the initial 8 games, it was like a one long National Geographic documentary on the proud wildebeast and how the lions just seem to always catch 'em. if you're going to have a player like TO come to town to draw double coverage and catch 70 passes----let's be sure Trent has some protection in front of him so that he can actually get the ball to Evans, Owens etc. I love the move. We've been so vanilla for so long....Does it really matter if the Pats jack us twice without TO or with him?

you got soft hands and speed to burn?

actually, i thought Ajke was kind of cool, like Takeo.