Albany,n.y.

I have dial up modems beat. I got my intro to the internet on WebTV. All I had to do was hook a box up to my TV & phone line and get the internet without a computer. I would get home & immediately dial up my WebTV to listen to WGR & Coach Dickerson. I didn't get a home computer until 2002. I couldn't print anything with WebTV, but I was able to do my version of printing: I could videotape the internet, One time someone put out a lot of good draft info on their site & I videotaped pages of draft info & then froze each page as I read it off the TV/VCR. Getting back to the disadvantages of dial up. One time on the day of the NFL draft my parents tried to call me and couldn't get me because my line was busy all day. The next day they called & I told them I was on the internet all day because they were conducting the NFL draft.

The whole league isn't doing it. I bought a ticket to the season opener in Baltimore from the Ravens website through Ticketmaster & they mailed me my ticket in April. I have a hard ticket for the game.

Canadian ballet. Make sure you bring a passport or enhanced license.

I always use Gary Marangi as a warning of be careful what you wish for. For years every time Fergy made a mistake I'd hear "We want Marangi" After we got Marangi on the field the fans couldn't wait for the season to end. The amazing part was they just kept sending Marangi out there every week the rest of the season so he got the number of attempts to qualify as the worst ever. They would have been better off bringing some other guy with NFL experience in off the street and starting him.

If you haven't learned by now that the national media knows nothing about the Bills compared with us Bills fans, you haven't been paying much attention. Here's some other news you might not be aware of: It's the same for every other team in the league. The guys who cover the entire league don't have the time to know the minutia that goes on with each team in the league. If you want to hear guys who know the Bills better, listen to the local radio stations. No matter how bad the WGR guys get sometimes, they still know 1,000 times more about the Bills than the guys on NFL Radio.

Why would anyone criticize someone for honoring the late great comedian Henny Youngman? I remember him doing Fort Erie commercials on the radio when I lived in Buffalo.

When Roscoe Parrish fumbled the ball, I was so happy because it meant no overtime. I always stay until the game ends & I just wanted to go home already by then & a scoreless overtime would have just been more torture. I just didn't care if it cost the Bills the game, I just wanted to head home-It was a long 5 hour drive that I wanted to start ASAP.

Even though I'm not a fan of Peterman, I could see him starting since AJ, from what I've heard & read, wasn't good in mini-camp and was the 3rd best QB on the field. In order: Peterman, Allen (with few 1st team reps) & McCarron. Now unless Peterman is lighting it up, I expect to see Allen starting no later than after the bye, which this year is on November 18th.

He had some pretty good receivers in 2016 who left & flourished in the NFC West. So no, you can't argue that the Bills failed to give him a supporting cast just because his 3 top WRs, who he turned into mush, were gone in 2017.

Obviously he was talking about what we had to give up vs what the Redskins gave up. To move up to 7 he Bills gave up pick 12 (which includes 1st moving up by trading Glenn) and picks 53 & 56 (which was for letting the Rams have Watkins for a year & the Bills got the pick & Gaines for a year). Meanwhile to move up to 2, the Redskins gave up 6, pick 39 in 2012, their 1st in 2013 (22nd) and their 1st in 2014 (#2 overall) Just the fact that the Bills didn't give up any other #1s except pick 12 proves it was a much safer trade than what Washington did. It's not even close, they gave up 3 #1s, one of which turned out to be the 2nd pick of the draft (which the Rams wasted on a bust, Greg Robinson).

I would think that in the hopefully unlikely chance that Allen is a bust, Beane would understand it quickly enough to take another swing at getting a QB. Not double down like Whaley did, trading away way too much in hopes that he can turn around a bad QB pick like EJ was. There were some QBs available the year after EJ was drafted like Carr, Garoppolo & Bridgewater. If Whaley had shown any ability to see how bad EJ was after a year here, he could have corrected Nix's error. If Allen fails & Beane sees it quickly enough, he gets a 2nd shot. To me that means if Allen isn't showing enough, Beane would be wise to spend a 1st or 2nd on another QB in next year's draft. Unconventional going after a QB a year after trading up & drafting one, sure, but better to hedge the bet than put all your eggs in the Allen basket if he hasn't shown enough to be entrenched as the 2019 starter. It's not like teams haven't hedged on the franchise QB bet before. Many years ago the Jets had 2 rookie QBs in camp, Joe Namath & Heisman winner John Huarte. More recently in 1989 the Cowboys drafted Troy Aikman #1 overall, then spent a #1 in the supplemental draft on Steve Walsh. Eventually they recouped the #1 by trading Walsh to the Saints when Aikman proved to be the franchise QB they were looking for. Other hedges have included Washington trading a ton to St.Louis for RGIII at pick #2 overall, then taking Cousins in the 4th round. The Redskins also hedged when they drafted Heath Schuler & Gus Frerrotte in the same draft. In both cases the #1 pick bombed & the other guy ended up starting.

I'm going to Disney World.

Whaley had little or nothing to do with finding Poyer. The man who pushed hardest was Bobby Babich, the Bills safeties coach: https://buffalonews.com/2017/09/22/inside-bills-jordan-poyer-got-buffalo-came/ “Yes! Absolutely,” Bills assistant defensive backs coach Bobby Babich says when asked whether he thought Poyer would be this good, this fast with a new team. “People don’t understand the amount of work that Jordan Poyer puts in and the time he spends. He’s absolutely relentless.” Babich is the main reason Poyer is in Buffalo. Having spent two-plus years with him in Cleveland, he saw firsthand a star in the making. Poyer just needed the right opportunity, Babich believed, and he would take the NFL by storm. That’s why, with the Bills needing help at safety as free agency approached this past March, Babich campaigned hard for Poyer. “I brought his name up to all the people who are above me and said, ‘hey, this is a guy we need to take a look at,’ ” Babich said. “Everybody that was involved in the decision looked at the tape that he did have, listened to my input, and we ended up with Jordan.” Even as a 34-year-old assistant DBs coach, Babich said there was “zero hesitation” on his part to push so hard for his bosses to sign Poyer.

I can't imagine Jackson getting fired in the middle of the season after letting him go 0-16 after 1-15. He makes it through 16 more games before the axe falls. It's either Koetter or Joseph, with Koetter as the favorite.

The pick we got from Houston was used to draft Kyle Williams.

I really expected a Peter Pan link. When EJ Manuel announced his plan where one could buy stock in his career, that's what I said.

In the early days of internet radio broadcasts I didn't have a computer yet, so I got WebTV so that when I got home I could listen to The Coach's daily show on WGR. During his time on the radio the Bills went from an AFC dynasty to a non-playoff team. I thought he was pretty funny & a catharsis for the bad play on the field. He's much funnier to listen to when the team is in decline than when (hopefully) they are on the rise. If you're going to propose a podcast with Dickerson, might as well go all the way & have Jerry Sullivan join him. Back in the day, I used to go to every Bills home game. One time I was driving back to Albany with Petrino & we called Coach up after a late season game (I think it was Donahoe's last home game) where it had snowed & I had security come down because right below our seats was the roof of the indoor seats & I wrote "Fire Mularkey" in the snow and they made me erase it. Coach asked if I had written it in yellow. Another memory of the Coach is when a caller said something he really liked, he adopted it as if he was the originator. After a Bills loss a caller phoned in & called a play "4th & stupid". Soon afterwards the Coach used that phrase often, as if he was the one who originally said it.

They trained together with Jordan Palmer and became good friends. They are the future of the AFC East, Brady will be just a memory as the Patriots take their rightful place in the AFC East cellar for the next decade after Brady hangs them up.

They like him enough to keep him on the practice squad. He may be on the opening day roster, but don't be surprised if Derek Anderson shows up in Buffalo around 9/10 or shortly thereafter when they can sign a veteran & not guarantee the contract.

I still have a yellowed copy of the final paper the Courier Express ever printed on 9/19/1982, since I was living in Buffalo then. When I was in school at Fredonia the Courier would come in around 2 AM at the all night donut place at the D&F plaza. I often waited to get the paper there. I also remember the days in NYC when I could get a Daily News next day edition early in the evening before headed back to LI on the Long Island Railroad. Now I wake up to the morning edition of the Albany Times Union delivered to my computer. Newspapers are going to be on-line only eventually. Why get a hard copy for $2/day when I can get the same thing subscribing on-line for $1/week. The paper saves printing & delivery costs & I save over $50/month reading it on-line.

The future isn't now.

There's a good chance that none of the 4 QBs taken in the top 10 will be starting on opening day. I wouldn't be inclined to write any of them off that soon.

This is like when I looked at the assessment roll and one house near mine was owned by someone who had the same name as a former NBA player. I drove by his house one day & instead of seeing a 6'8" black guy in the yard, there was a little old white guy. Before seeing the owner, I thought at least it could be the ex-player's son & I could eventually meet the player, but that was never going to happen.

I'll be there. 6/23 is a Saturday, but the 518 Lunch Club says it's Friday 6/22. I assume the correct day is Friday 6/22. Hey, if the food is really good maybe we'll just stay there & never leave until Saturday.

Baltimore. Best place to fly in & out of on gameday. Public transportation from the airport to downtown. Rich's tailgate party at the Bills bar & then the game, can't beat it.