leh-nerd skin-erd

i disagree, they are ripping off the saints fans. you wanna make a statement? plastic is he new paper.

1-15, to a division championship at 11-5, to a 7-9 under-whelming performance where they split with the struggling team from Orchard Park. You see with clarity the obvious point that Miami has arrived? I dunno, you could argue they underperformed last year. Or over-performed the year before that.

sure. everyone has the right to be an a++hole from time to time, then again there's no need to abuse the privelege. how about this, just don't visit the site? don't click on the links. get your information from a site you find less offensive? or how about this---provide the feedback to someone who gives a crap? newsflash--espn sells stuff. plenty of people are buying. maybe your suggestion to be less sensitive should have applied to leonidas?

next time, just order a half-caf.

i was pretty amazed by the numbers quoted in the joe d story about the 401k, annuity payout, health insurance and so on. i recognize the vast resources rolling through the league, but that's a substantial future liability. i also recognize the numbers quoted were for a ten year veteran, of the league who earned $15m, and i wonder how many players fit that description. i'd think the owners have crunched those numbers back and forth, and the union has as well. the odd man out is the retired player, since they have the least amount of juice at the table. all that---and while the battle has waged for some time--this past few years is not a great time to ask the owners for concessions. you don't have to look to deeply into the media--right wing or otherwise----to see companies wrestling and ultimately being crippled by the issue of future benefits to past employees. there was a time that GM looked every bit as strong as the NFL.

there is a fine line between charisma and crazy. if things go well and they get on a roll, they'll likely play well. solid defense, possession offense with sanchez in year 2. however, if things break badly, an injury or two, the collision of egos on the team, and a couple tough losses---well then i;d think chubby or skinny rex could get real annoying real fast. for those who think they are a shoe-in, how many one-hit wonders do you have to see in nfl before you realize stringing two together has an awful lot to do with luck?

it would be nice to have spiller perform at that level. i don't have a major issue with johnson wanting to better his deal, because that's part of the contract game as well, i just don't think he 'deserves' anything. the nfl is a cut throat business, and the player owes nothing to the team/fan base when their contract is up--they often go to the next highest bidder. by the way, i respect your opinion, but saying "after guaranteed money he is making about minimum wage" like it ain't a boatload of crazy dough is kind of like saying "other than smoking hot looks and a killer body megan fox looks like the lunch lady at my old high school". I find it hard to seperate the two--they both spend the same. the team risked $7 large on him back when he was a "maybe" player--he won then--they are winning now. all bidness, i beleive.

you miss the point on what a "contract" is. each party is bound by the agreement reached, the language in the contract. the team would be unable to come back to a player and say...you played decently in games 3-7, but sucked something awful in the rest of the games, so we're pro-rating your compensation.". the team can cut a player at any time because that's the way the contract is drawn up. there are risks, and rewards for both parties. cj is rewarded on the front end with certain benefits and compensation that places him in the top 1% of wages earners in the country, commensurate with what he brought to the table. he was chosen at #24, made $7 million dollars right off the rip. besides, he's representd by a union, and if the player's union wanted non-cut-guaranteed contracts, i'd assume they would lobby for them. it seems to me at times when someone talks about outplaying their contract, it's viewed as if there is some type of victimization of the player. he got paid X, agreed to the terms and conditions of the contract at X (which includes the "you can be cut at any time", absent, of course, the guaranteed money the owner paid when the contract was executed), and when he performed his job at a certain level, now he's being taken advantage of in some way, shape or form. hogwash. i'm not at all against the theory of contract renegotiations, because that's a reality where contracts are concerned as well. but the needs of the organization have to come first---and while i haven't seen a direct quote attributable to cj as wanting to be the highest paid offensive player in the league--it wouldn't surprise me at all. you would assume he'd want to be pretty high up there, which makes renegotiation kind of tricky. perhaps it's that type of attitude---keeping in mind the risk to the organization and to the player---that causes a team to clam up and not renegotiate initially. i see no victims here, i see no one deserving anything more or less than what the contract dictates. i'm in a business with an 'at will' contract, and fairness has nothing to do with it.

this whole concept of these guys 'deserving' anything is a hollow argument. the guy has 7 million reasons to play to the contract he signed. you're right though, his next play could be his last. maybe if that happens he has to figure out how to make it on what he has after expenses. besides, doesn't that factor into the owner's decision when it comes to making business decisions to pay someone what they think they deserve? the next cut could indeed be his last, and they're left holding the bag for all that guaranteed money. and on that note, for every player that outplays his contract as he did, there are many who don't. forget what anyone deserves, understand that life ain't fair, and analyze it from a business perspective. it takes two willing participants to renegotiate, and if one doesn't see the value in it, it's over. i'm actually amazed that Tom Brady doesn't re-negotiate every year.

good stuff. if nix's commentary is a smokescreen to drive up ml's value when a feature back goes down, good for him. if nix think lynch benefits from an infusion of channess, good for him. if nix is concerend that we need three back in case one gets jacked, good for him. he strikes me as a guy who pretty much says what's on his mind as well. build a winning team, i'm cool with that.

so you'd be willing to give them an A or a B if the guys become starters eventually? if you see this draft as kind of blah given your strong feelings on our needs--why would it change later when non-needed draft choices start? i'd think a C for their draft would always be a C if they missed the needs as you see it. to clarify, they should have taken a one of the tackles, even if they didn't want him, or drafted clausen? clausen at 9 would have made it an A? trust the leaders of the team, they should draft to suit their vision of the future. can an offensive-minded coach change the flow of the offense with a guy like spiller? i'm thinking they are thinking it will. let 'em try. i'm saving my disgust for later, when it's warranted. i give them an A for running their draft, sounds like they picked the guys that made sense for them. I give them a ____ for victories and leadership.

Peter's! That's the kid's name. Whatever happened to that guy? he was here, then he wasn't, it's almost like he vanished into not-so-thin air.

word on the street is buddy won't get a cell phone, either. i curse the elderly.

"Innocent until proven guilty" does not preclude a fan from having an opinion about a guy. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find far-reaching passion for a guy with this type of baggage. Let him be creepy in a big market.

it's a risk/reward thing, and it could certainly work out for the jets. my humble opinion is that many of the teams fueled for immediate success blow up during the course of a long season. there is a thin line between a charismatic leader like a rex ryan (when they win), and that crazy as a sh8tbird rat rex ryan (when they lose). seems to me the jets caught lightining in a bottle at just the right time last year, aided by some situational stuff during the regular season. whether that translates to a super bowl run this year or not remains to be seen, but they certainly have been active.

I'll use an insurance analogy. Many people are under the impression that their policy will be cancelled for submitting too many claims. This is not correct. The issue is simply this...as a company looks forward with respect to it's rules, pricing and expenses, it's trying to determine the propsensity for future losses. One area they look at---your loss history. There's no hard feelings about the losses in the past, but why would they want to move into the future knowing you're pretty likely to be dramatically under-priced relative to what all your non-claim clients will be paying? Where BR is concerned, I'd think the Steelers are rightly concerned about his propensity for future issues. Truthfully, they may have anecdotal evidence that he did exactly what he was alleged to have done, rumors, anecdotes etc. They may think he dodged a bullet, they may think he's just a young guy in the wrong palce at the wrong time (twice)~~~but the real question is "What's the next shoe to drop?". Somewhere along the line, BR is free to make his own decisions in life--that's his right. But he sure seems to get himself into a few jams along the way, and he doesn't seem to make great decisions that take into consideration waht would seem to be an obvious target on his back. Jim Kelly was no altar boy when he first came to Buffalo, and certainly is no altar boy now. What he did do, somewhere along the line, was figure out that Jim Kelly "Buffalo Bills HOF Qb and Franchise-maker" was much more lucrative than Jim Kelly "I love threesomes". You have to credit the guy for figuring that out. We'll see how it plays out with Rothly, but I'd bet the Steelers and Rooney's are figuring they made it before BR, they'll survive long after he's gone, and just what additional splotches will they tarnish the gold and black with going forward?

anyone that would discount the picks this kid had borders on absurd. i am pretty certain that every pick in the nfl was the result of the ball ending up in the wrong guy's hand. by extension something went wrong and someone capitalized on the error. JC, some bills fans are like a guy dragging himself through the desert, dying of thirst, then finding a bottle of water and complaining that it wasn't cold enough.

not to flog a dead horse, he would have had to fight through a lot of diversity, but he would have been....astronomical.

it's funny that you say that. both guys were deemed inadequate to start for the teams they played with, and now are on the market. i have a friend who is a serious football fan of the warshington redskins, and his opinion is JC is an adequate backup at best. he feels he shows a distinct lack of leadership skills and an ongoing inability to communicate effectively with the players on his team. he cited a player or two for the skins who made light of this last season. he's watched every game jc has played in, and while the words are different, he basically says about him what you say about our guys: he's not a starter. the answer to a problem is not necessarily in taking someone else's not-quite-good-enough-to-start guy. as for bulger, here's the problem as some see it. i assume it's one of the considerations that nix and Gailey would have: Bulger started eight games last season, but was sidelined the last six with a fractured left shin bone, finishing the year on injured reserve. Rookie Keith Null started the last four games, and veteran Kyle Boller also made four starts. Bulger made 95 starts for St. Louis starting in 2002 and took the starting job from Kurt Warner in 2003, leading the Rams to a 12-4 record. He went to the Pro Bowl in 2004 and 2006, throwing for more than 4,000 yards in '06, but has been plagued by injuries in recent seasons. it's their team to run----so i figure it's up to the football guys to decide. if nix/gailey go with either of these guys, i'll be happy to pull for their success.

let's try it another way. what makes you happy as a long-suffering bills fan with this or any other coachign staff? is the playoffs a "must have" for you? do they have to play in the championship game? do they have to make it to the super bowl? do they havvae to win it all? my assumption is that if they cajoled Bill Cowher out of the analyst chair and into OBD, you'd feel they were serious about winning? Shanahan? Gruden? I guess I'm asking what you wanted them to do so you would be satisfied at this time. I understand your frustration. but it just seems to me you're getting a jump on being dissatisifed and I think a lot of fans don't care to go that route.

Vet, i think you have to define "benefit of the doubt" before you proceed. i can't find many places where anyone here is predicting playoffs and/or the Super Bowl under glass at city hall next march. i've often wondered what people are looking for when they throw out expressions like 'coach speak'. what are you looking for the guy to say? he's come in, he's revamping the offense, he's revamping the defense, he's presumably involved in free agency acquisitions, and one would assume he should be expected to show leadership skills. using a military analogy, the guy who leads the charge up the hill to take on a superior and entrenched enemy won't be saying "Jesus Christ, this army sucks from top to bottom and I can't believe you pathetic losers are all I have to work with...". who are the coaches you respect using non-coaches speak? how much "credit" has he received? by credit, do you mean cautious optimism? any optimisim?

i spent 6 weeks in miami and down through homestead in 1992, after hurricane andrew. it was miserable.

i'm not fighting you in what i'm about to say. these are mostly huge men playing in pads with plastic wrapped around their heads and it must feel like they are standing on the surface of the sun. (It must get hot on South Beach, too, no?). i know we all have WNY football weather stories, but one I always recall was a November day 15 years or so ago where it was basically raining sideways. It wasn't -15 degrees or anything, it wasn't the snowfall accumulation, it was just this amazing bone chiling cold wetness that sapped one's will to live. Now, speaking of that, you were saying something about the bikinis on South Beach....

i think it's totally fair to despise a guy for this type of speech pattern. i knew this guy who stuttered in high school---we ran his ass right out of town, and that was before myspace.

so says the man who can't spell crayonz. crayonz. crayonz. crap. now i'm doing it. i'd bet the Stanford guy has some smarts.