leh-nerd skin-erd

Promo, you were an optimistic robot when I was a kid. That in itself is rare, as most robots of the day lacked the capacity for optimism and emotion in general. Today's robots pretty much want to destroy mankind as we know it. So, if we lose you, where are we? Here's the right way to look at it: Chan Gailey's strength as a coach is to take the people he has and design and offense to maximize their potential. He's also overseeing a transition to a new defensive scheme. Several of his penciled-in starters were not on the field for any of Friday's game on both sides of the ball. He's got his benchmark, he didn't like what he saw and it's back to work. There may well be time to panic, but this surely is not it.

absolutely! you nailed it. the key is "if". if revis can guarantee the following, i bet the jets would surely pay him all he wants: that he's the best cornerback in football and the jets can't win without him; that he's the best player in football and the jets can't win without him; that he's can stay healthy throughout the year; that he can deliver a super bowl to the jets faithful and that they definitely can't win without him; and the most important guarantee of all: that the jets would reap oodles more cash with him than they could without him. "if". if is big business in the nfl.

i think you're underestimating the ability of the average fan to sort through these situations and formulate their own opinions. the owner can say all he wants, as can the player, but that doesn't mean we have to believe it. fair has never had anything to do with it. it never will. if everything was fair, you wouldn't need a contract, and scott norwood would have made the kick, and i'd have had a great career with the bills. and for every rich owner there are dozens of wealthy-beyond-belief players with otherwise unremarkable life skills. i can appreciate the concern about taking care of former players and their expenses, and while i'd stop short at calling it exploitation, i'd certainly agree that all parties----owners, union, current players and retired players with wealth should be able to figure out a program to help their own. like any negotiation, however, the owners agreeing to carve out a boatload of much needed relief to former players has to take every other element of their business into consideration.

well, one little difference is the contractual language involved, but if you can get past that it's the same thing. the player risks. the owner risks. one good year doesn't guarantee another. the jets benefit from revis, revis benefits from the jets. and on and on. maybe a lockout will help fix the system.

all true. but, the way it played out, they caught fire (and the breaks you mentioned above) at the right time and it went the way it did. looks to me like they retooled for a run this year.

i like the ride the bench scenario. i think some fans see the negotiations as one-sided in favor of ownership. revis has to do what's right for him, etc etc. i see that logic, given the violence of the game, but also see the risk the team takes in awarding large guaranteed contracts to players under the theory of "Look what I did last year!". Revis plays in aggressive, attack-oriented defense run by a coach with a defense-oriented mindset. The significant question for me would be---did the player make the defense or did the defense make the player? i'd think there's a high probability that it's somewhere in the middle. So, there's potential risk and reward for both parties. I'm also of the mind that it is not, nor will it ever be a straight line transaction between "You were the undisputed best at your position last year, thus you should be paid the most". Too many factors---other players to consider, injuries that can cut a career short, the attitude of the player, the general condition of the team as a whole, etc. One thing is clear to me---while the jets have been angling for a Super Bowl run this year, there are a lot of moving parts that could crash down around them. Charismatic coach (and there is a fine line between charisma and crazy), talent-laden team, many new faces, some old jets locker room heros shown the door... This is the type of problem than can impact the team negatively and that's allllllll good for Buffalo fans.

webby, i can forgive the quotation marks around "schools" , i can understand your irrational accusations of extremism as you baste in your own far-flung ideology, and i can forgive your questioning of his degrees---but for the love the very God you mentioned....you owe it to yourself to make sense: If someone was to deny that George Bush wasn't the least intelligent president would mean that they agree he was, and thus they would be agreeing with you. For my vote, I think you've been lead around by the nose by whatever media outlet convinced you W was a dimwit, but I'd grant you that, say Bill Clinton is intellectually more blessed than GWB. At the same time, Bill Clinton's self-destructive tendencies made him particularly vulnerable as a president and posed a substantial threat to our national security.

Three words: Miami Dolphins It's only two years ago they had a pretty good run. oh, yeah, almost forogt------the third word is "blow".

i think they call it tea bagging in that scenario.

you reap what you sow.

it could happen, but just prior to opening day, you pretty much ensure that demetrius bell or jamon meredith will cut his achilles tendon getting out of the shower at the ralph. in the ensuing chaos, he'll slip and fall in a diagonal fashion and slam into eric wood's miracuoulsly-healed shin, causing a reinjury that somehow, inexplicably was more gruesome than the first. and, as the big curly top realizes what has happened and his damn bad luck, and he slams his hambone-sized fist toward the ground, he inadvertently will crush the instep of poor andy levitre, who unfortunately wandered into the common area to check out all the excitement and hulla-baloo. I mean, why not? It could happen.

unfortunately, you are right. look. mike vick can hang with anyone he wants at anytime. well, absent the arrest and prison time he would be able to. given his prison time and rules associated with his release, he has to be more careful than a pre-arrest michael vick. given his potential earning power as an nfl player, one might logically assume he would want to extend his own personal checklist of people to avoid to include those who might pop a cap in someone's ass. we can argue all day about whether or not people should smash cake or throw cake or hit cake, and what the result should be. all the other arguments to the contrary, it seems he only needs to follow timmo's 3 Simple Rules to Multi-Million Dollar Succces for Michael Vick: 1. don't screw up again. 2. don't hang out with people who screw up. 3. don't hang out with people who might know people who screw up. after you factor out all those people, there are still tons of people left to hang out with. besides, he only needs to follow timmos' 3 simple rules for another 24-36 months or so. then, he can hang out with anyone the law will allow him to hang out with. so say i.

i am half with you here, but respectfully suggest you're missing the larger point. i think inevitably, the power brokers in this administration see the ultimate destruction of what most would consider 'the private sector' as the answer to the power they are seeking. let's be honest, in every political system, there are the haves and the have nots. the end game is simply to be on the correct side of the divide when the system breaks down.

mipplesSIX...the one flaw in your logic re: the boy who cried "wolf" is that in the old story, it was the same boy crying wold over and over and over. in the case of the buffalo bills, nix/gailey had very little to do with the decade-long drought of the buffalo bills, virtually nothing in fact. so, it's like a new kid coming in after the prior kid cried wolf. i think you have to trust your instinct and hide the sheep until the new kid proves he's a sillyheart liar. in fairness, you could make the same argument abotu regime changes as they relate to cowher or shanny or marty s. it's quite clear that organizationally speaking, past history is not a guarantee of future success (see joe gibbs and his recent redskin run). true, those names might play bettter than 'chan gailey' but that's the fact, jack. and, to take it one step further, chan's relative success in dallas might well mean that he has gone as far as he can go, and old dogs might never learn new tricks. i believe his lack of big game success (and the feeling he got jobbed a bit in the big d) might well have him coaching with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. i personally like that dynamic in play here. i'd sure love for marshwan lynch to look at it like that. though he might lack the capacity to see the bigger picture. cowher, shanny et all have been to the promised land, and while that doesn't preclude the burning desire to go back, i wonder if their committment would extend to a small market team in a cold weather climate with a team in flux right now. i also loved gailey's comments about training camp and shoebel maybe/maybe not attending. Something about "coaching the dog" out of the players that are there....please do, chan, coach the dog right out of them. so, new regime is no guarantee of succes, new tough talk means nothing until they hit the field, not having jauron there doesn't mean they will be better coached or execute more efficiently----but it is a new regime. remember that team from south florida a couple years back that benefited from a regime change? i'll have an extra large kool aid, no ice please...

if you're not looking for more ways to dislike the guy, i concur. i was hoping for a bright spot somewhere in there.

is this what it feels like when your team wins a super bowl?

this reads like a good tom clancy novel. a little misdirection, a little Moroccan flea market with the money in two separate pockets, a little international intrigue (i'm assuming at least some of the people you're quizzing for tickets must be Canadian), and anarchy and panic in the streets as the clock ticks down to armageddon. i also liked the "Its a 3 beer walk from Hammers to the stadium". good stuff.

line by line: 1. you'd think this would be the best response to suggest belicheck is a corrupt coach of a corrupt franchise and thus, his legacy is tainted. unfortunately---and don't shoot the messenger---many view it as a non-issue see your point #4). whether that point of view is colored by a desire to protect the franchise that is the nfl (my personal opinion) or not, it ain't keeping him out of the hall of fame with a decade of success. 2 and 3. i've said the same thing many times over the years, but it's irrelevant and will not impact the consensus view that bb is a hof coach. and, in fairness, brady is a great qb either way, and good teams typically "get the breaks". 4. wins do that for a franchise. 5. let's hope you're right. 6. please please please please please. i've been to gillette and seen the bills take them to the edge two times and lose games at the end. absolutely brutal. i won't go back because i can take an ass-kicking, but this bill's habit of taking it right to the end and then losing on a blown blitz pick-up or comedy of the absurd fumble on a kickoff is just too much.

i can see it going 'hangover' gangsta style. i see marshawn wondering what happened to his grill the morning after.

perhaps-and we no doubt agree that bad things that happen in foxboro are good things for us all. i actually almost ended up in a wheelchair after the giant's win in that SB. i'm a bills or nothing fan, but my father-in-law is a giants fan who always wishes me & the bills good luck so long as it doesn't impact the giants. my wife pointed that out, and my respect for him plus my hatred for the pats convinced me to enjoy the SB and pull for the g-men. i was fully prepared to be miserable. when tyree caught that magical catch from a scrambling eli manning, i jumped as high as my little legs would go. alas, i was in my finished basement, under the finished ceiling framed to hide the duct work in that particular area and nearly compressed my spine. like it or not, he's a consensus all-world coach, i fear.

i'm not sure what cake you're selling buffjeez, or what beef you have with fletcher, but you could use some work on your reading comprehension. "works hard and tries"? you wanna move poz past him when one of the specific criteria i mentioned was durability? really? i suppose if you removed missed games due to broken bones from the whole durability issue that makes sense. no offense dude, but poz missed more games in one three game stretch than fletcher missed since bill clinton was not having sex with monica lewinsky. here are just a couple random stats on the little engine who tries hard: After this Sunday he will have 192 consecutive games played which is the second most ever by an inside LB (Marvcus Patton had 208). Over 1300 total tackles since 2000 which is nearly 200 more than Ray Lewis who has the second most from 2000-2009. One of 4 active players and one of 13 players all-time with 30 sacks and 15 interceptions. One of 11 players to have 5.5 sacks and 4 INTs in the same season. Only player with at least 100 tackles in every season since 2000 solidly average indeed. the guy is a leader, and always has been.

most coaches never luck into one super bowl and one near perfect season, he somehow stumbled into his exceptional success? hit him for the cheating, hit him for being a dick, hit him for the tuck rule, but to suggest bb is only a "pretty good coach" is absurd.

check out the qualifying criteria. honestly dawg it was for effect, opinion-based and i'd challenge you to prove me wrong based on the criteria provided. at the same time, i'd challenge me to prove you wrong. we were cool at "I really like Fletcher and think he is grossly underrrated".

i think it's "the music of elvis presley"?

i remember the days of people complaining about London Fletcher and the old 'he makes tackles ten yards downfield'. Hindsight is 20-20, but that guy has got to be one of the top 10 players to have ever played the game considering enthusiasm, durability, athleticism, heart, span of career, and leadership by example. good for him. haynesworth is who he is, and if not this, something else. he is not london fletcher.