1959BillsFan

You make a great point. I think it was Marv that said, teams go to different varieties of the 3-4, but sooner or later, they always switch bach to the 4-3 for the mere fact, few know how to run it, few know how to sustain it for more than a few years, few players really want to play it. I mention that last statement about players because the front 7 in a 3-4 take a beating. Their durability becomes questionable after a year or two, as a consequence, sustaining the 3-4 means you have to really keep continuous planning to maintain it's effectiveness and that takes coaches that know how to run it and scouts that know how to draft for it.

This isn't about Marxism, or Capitalism, or Socialism, or Corporate management, or "the masses", or Budha, or Jesus, or Allah. My question deals strictly with school possibilities and what things are being taught in the best ways. Is there politics in International Relations????? Is there politics in Religion??? That is the same thing as asking, is there politics in the NFL, or in corporate relations, or the government for that matter???? People may wish to try to change the purpose, but again there are people that may want to enhance the purpose and help right the situation. Kind of like Marv Levy and the Buffalo Bills. Maybe we can all have a beer in an agreed upon place, except, I do Grape Nehi. Don't laugh.

Who would you suggest cutting to spend substantial money on, or just giving away: moulds, williams, clements, vincent, and milloy?????? Everyone seems to think d?onahow left us in a good cap position. It isn't as good as many want to believe. We have a ton of "veterans" that still have substantial signing bonuses to be allocated against the cap.

You and about half the other fans. Of those who suggested the pick, two are still here, Tyke and Modrak. The two that actually MADE the pick are gone, thank goodness. I would have LOVED to be a fly on the wall during the last draft: "Heads a WR, tails TE" Heads tall possession, tail quick little shifty guy. Heads Miami, tails Maimi. I bet they were doing some tequilla too in that War Room, OR free basing Geacian (SP???). Who knows, maybe both.

I was just sitting back and watching the replys for a little while, BUT Tennessee makes a ton of very valid points. Due to the growing ability and ease of communications, the thought of national boundries are beginning to fade. The WWW has been instrumental in circulating informations and getting people to communicate about their lives: How they live their lives What is important to their families and communities What the impacts change is making How their governments are handling this change How corporations are working the "world wide economy" What changes are good, what changes are bad, and why No longer is it a national situation, it is rapidly becoming international. I have taken e-learning courses where the instructors are in England and students are from a variety of different countries. Our experiences are very different because our cultures are very different. BUT, the fascination is very evident to learn about other people and their cultures. No longer is the International existance purely government. Corporate is going out and expanding because the market is no longer limited by trade boundries. But just as important, we as individuals are expanding ourselves as we communicate our life experiences with other people, and them with us. A decade ago, people were soooooo shocked about how lives are lived in different parts of the country. Now, thru cheap and widely accepted communications, we are actually closer to people in other parts of the country. The next step is using those same means to cross the "national boundries" and building into an international culture. How many people in the Message Board post from different parts of the world???? Funny, part of our culture, football, has spread to many other parts of the world. Same thing with education. Now there are programs that deal with other stock markets, e-commerce may be one of those catch all phrases. The way we live life, our culture is rapidly becoming very open to rapid change and we are at the tip of what I would phrase as "International Relations". AND, by the way, "a rich kids" kind of major???? Nope, we aren't rich by any means. I was layed off because my job went over seas. This is for people with the clarity of what the future holds, and for those that realize this is a way to help the future along in a positive manner. The governmental paths have been there for a long time. Corporate is catching up quickly. AND the educational path is even greater than those combined, because "cultural change" takes a lot of education and training. At least, this is the way I see "International Relations".

It is obvious, the man is about money. He is from the "me" culture soooooo prvelent during the d?onahow years. The way he looks at it is, the Packers HAVE to pay him. IF he would make more money else where, fine, if not, why work????? The Bills probably offered a lesser salary knowing that the Packers would have to pay the remained, and Bates jst said, to hell with that. He is a "me" guy and that is NOT the culture Marv is trying to build. We've seen that for 5 years.

The Redskins gave up their 1st Rounder this year to Denver. I get the feeling they wouldn't want to give up another 1st rounder so quick.

Your major is to be a Bachelors of International Relations. Which College/University would you select and WHY???

Marv is giving OPINION, just like the rest of us do in here every day. Granted, OPINION can lead to other things i.e. Trades, after all, Green Bay "leaked it out" they would take Losman and look what happened, d?onahow traded up a ton to get him. AND Green Bay had more options and I think got the CB they wanted. The other thing about Losman, I remember when Breez was taken HIGH in the second, and he was supposed to be the savior behind Leaf. Breez was crap for his first two seasons without a line. They drafted Rivers, but also brought in a great line coach an built the line. Look at Breez now, plus they still have Rivers eating a ton of salary cap space. It is always the ways thing work out.

Most recently, Sherman knocked the socks off Gary Kubiak. Kubiak offered to make him an assistance HC and o-line coach. I'm pretty sure this is from KFFL.

I read somewhere that the 3-4 has atendency of having a lot of injuries to the OLBs and center of the Line. That makes a lot of sense when you think about it. I remember when the Bills did run the 3-4, one huge reason they were somewhat successful was because Rusty Jones had them conditioned very well. The other reason was because they had great depth. Right now, the Bills would have a problem filling the starting LBs and the D-Line in a 3-4. Another key is the DC. To do the 3-4 successfully, you really need a DC with experience and frankly, those two guys are Wade Phillips or Ted Cotrell. Not to many others seem to do it real successfullt over a sustained amount of time.

Dick doesn't have the glaring stats that Sherman has i.e. 1-7 in games against each other, but it doesn't mean he is anything less of a coach. I would have liked someone coming in that has emotion and will get in the players faces when they screw up, but it looks like Dick is mularkeyesque. I would have like someone who is less of a players coach and more stress on dedication, intelligence, heart, and disclipline. But again, from what I have seen from Dick, he doesn't have those characteristics. The way I look at it, how can the guy be worse than what we have had the last 5 seasons???? It will also be interesting to see how many season tickets will be lost because of this, and how many sell outs there will be next season. I'll give him through the preseason and probably the first 6 seasonal games, then I'll decide if Marv made the right choice. If we get off to another slow start, things will go down hill FAST.

I'm not happy, I am not unhappy. The way I look at it, we have to wait and see how things develop: Who will be the coaching staff?? What systems will be used??? Who will be the conditioning coach??? Will the players react towards a TEAM culture, or will they revert to the d?onahow culture, the "me" culture??? What will the draft be like??? What free agents will be targeted??? It isn't all about one person or coach, it is all about TEAM.

How do you plan on building a T-E-A-M culture from this pile of individual players????

I have a question: The Rooney Rule states that every team in need of a head coach is FORCED to FORMALLY interview an A-A candidate, or face a stiff penalty Does this rule also state a percentage of these new HCs must be A-A??? In other words, can the NFL FORCE a team to hire an A-A candidate if the NFL hasn't met a quota???

Atlanta only has a position open for a QB Coach, BUT we never know....... Seriously, Atlanta has not dismissed their OC and the only position is for Strength and Conditioning, as well as QB coach. Funny that he ended up in Florida, that is where both he and his wife are from. It is alos rumored that Fitz, i.e. d?onahoe, is interviewing for an Assistant GM job in Atlanta.

Who votes for the finalists????? If ESPN is involved in any way, d?onahoe's cornies/puppets will do anything to hurt Ralph Wilson. The NFL is more political than the federal government, and we know how well the puppet master works politics. This is the reason Ralph didn't make the finalist cuts.

Fitz, Do you manipulate Statistics to prove you points over here too????? Your hero is gone, thank goodness, deal with it. By the way, if you aren't Fitz, you crtainly sound like him.

Under d?onahoe, the Bungles were enticed with the "me" culture. Along with that culture came a lot of "me" staffers. Under Levy, he wants to breed a new culture, the "T-E-A-M culture" or the "us" culture. Those kind of changes do not happen over night. There is a lot of identification that needs to take place i.e. Identifying those that can change and those that cannot. mularkey, obviously has no wishes to change, at least in the present. Gregg Williams didn't look like he would change either, but guess what, the guy did. Gregg needed that time to look at himself and the situation he had come from. He needed that time to figure what he did right and what he did wrong. A key is, accepting responsiblity for what went wrong and changing that within one's self. Can mularkey ever be a decent coach??? Sure, the potential is there, but he needs that time to reflect and to calculate what he needs to change within himself and his actions. As far as the Bills go, Marv has his work cut out for himeslf. He has to identify who can/will change, and he then has to find the right belnd of people for this franchise, coaches AND players. I don't see the Bills being real successful within the next season, but it sure would be nice.

Do "journalists" have any say in who will make the finalists for the Hall of Fame??? I thought it to be interesting that Ralph Wilson didn't make to the finalists. I'm theorizing the d?onahoe has a lot to do with that.

Excellent point, does that mean that mcgahee and moulds, who seem to be pretty tight, just didn't buy into the offensive "system"???? And since they don't like the "system" they don't WANT to play??? Yea, that does stink. Is this up to Marv to get them interested, or is that a function of the HC???? THIS IS WHERE I HAVE TO QUESTION, why keep mularkey???? This goes back to needing a total strailization at One Bills Drive. Are they relying too much on Marv Levy's abilities to fix ALL the problems from the d?onahoe era???

What I will add is that Therm Thomas and mcgahee had very similiar injuries with similiar situations. Thomas was drafted in the second round because he was injured, mcgahee was drafted later in the first round due to his injury. The difference, Thomas was mad, he was angry that he fell that far. He came out to prove the rest of the league wrong. mcgahee, well....... it really looks like he wants to make his contract incentives then relax The character Marv mentions is what Thomas displayed. The situations are almost identicle, but the people and the times aren't. I do think Marv will be taking a HARD look at mcgahee, maybe bring Thomas in to have a heart to heart with mcgahee.

As d?onahoe said more than once, they look good on paper; thus, they are paper tigers. What the club has been missing is a direction and an attitude; an IDENTITY. I do think many of the players drafter were high in character, BUT because there was total lack of direction, after two or three years, the players would just burn out i.e. Mike Williams. Hopefully with a cultural change some careers will have a rebirth, unles they are too far gone.

Marv's main focus will be changing the culture in the franchise. "Character" can be interupted in many different way. But Levy will his patent character identification system to find players that have certain "character traits" that will form an entirely new culture; a culture that recognizes TEAM unity. d?onahoe formed a "me" culture that was dependent on INDIVIDUALS with certain talent levels. d?onagoe said more than once, "On paper we look great. This group has enormous amounts of talent or potential talent, BUT we have been nothing but paper tigers." These are not the direct words, but the point is still the same. I think one time he said this was just before he fired Gregg Williams, then again said this after mularkey was hired and getting acquainted with the players. This was the "mental toughness" d?onahow said was lacking. In this culture d?onahoe, as I said, stressed individualism. If all the players and coaches played in golf, well maybe the Bills would be great, but this is a TEAM sport. This is where I do love many of Levy's quotes. The guy can always come up with a very meaningful expression that somehow sticks in peoples mind. Additionally, Levy ALWAYS viewed the fans on a very high, respectful level. Levy recognizes the fans in Buffalo are unmatched in intensity and football knowledge. Levy also understands the previous regime did not treat the fans with any respect; thus, his comments on elevating the character of the fan base. He knows what we were once and he knows that as long as we are included, we will be the best again.