MattM

No, he wasn't. I think you're giving him way too much credit. He, like some of the other staff at the D and C, doesn't actually like the Bills. He's too busy gushing over the Yankees, as he does in most columns. Wow, that's a lot of fun--I'll bet he rooted for Goliath, too.....

Plus one

Maybe, but I'm not so sure about that. Their D was a weak link last year and has gotten progressively weaker in the offseason (for ex., losing Adalius, Warren and now Bodden) and really adding nobody to replace them. Combine that with weak draft classes the last couple of years on D and I don't see them stopping too many people this season. Their O will still be potent in the passing game, but I'm not so sure that the losses of Mankins and Kaczur (2 of 5 line starters from last year) isn't going to make everyone else's job there (including Brady) that much more difficult. I still think they struggle to run the ball by their ancient committee (HGH is a helluva drug!). If Sanchez is even an average QB I think the Jets should run away with the division, but I'm not sure if he is such a QB. Can't wait until the season starts.....

Thanks for both the posting and the playing--I went to my first game at the old Rockpile in 71/72, so probably caught you at the tail end of your playing career. My dad was a huge Bills (and AFL generally) fan and passed it along to me, thanks in large part to our from then on annual pilgrimages to Orchard Park. Despite their records, I loved those old teams and my introduction to pro football--heck, I probably had your picture on my wall as a kid, since I used to put up the team picture. Good times, so thanks for helping me get to know and love this sport, even if it hasn't been too kind to the Bills lately and hope you stop back by more often than it sounds like you plan to. Don't let the buttheads get you down.....

Uhh, other than that, I got nothing/no one, at least as far as Bills fans go.....

Davone Bess is a good receiver, so I don't think Camarillo will be too missed, absent injury to Bess or Marshall.....

He's one of my favorites as well (despite being a Princeton guy!)--he brings a very different perspective to covering the sport and mixes that with intelligence, wit and good writing, along with a self-deprecating tone that gives you the strong impression that he's a good guy who'd be interesting to hang out and have a beer with. It also doesn't hurt that he's a former Bill who seemed to really enjoy his time in Buffalo (he's on record saying it was his favorite place to play--other stints included the 'skins, Pats* and 'boys, I believe). I look forward to his columns every Wednesdays and Fridays on si.com.......

Our own Freddy J. being the exception to that rule.....

Fair point, although I thought I'd recalled some discussion here on this board about that at the time of the signing, with some folks raising the character issue at that time on the basis of the charge against Green. I wasn't judging their reaction to the signing, but merely the lack of discussion about the wife-beating charge over there.....

I was curious about this as well, so went to a Pats* message board--interestingly almost no one there even mentioned the wife-beating thing. 75 posts on the topic and only two or three seemed to mention it at all. A very odd "fanbase" (I use the term "fan" loosely any time I apply it to Pats* "fans", since they were an endangered species before 2001) over there--you'd think that people would at least be discussing it, but in reality it looks like "not so much".....

Ruben Gant, anyone? Maybe his stone fingers have become more supple over time.....

Druckenmiller just announced this week that he's retiring from running his hedge fund (Duquesne Capital)--frees up his calendar to run the Bills!

That was a great team--Isaiah Robertson, Smerlas, Haslett, Fergy, Shane Nelson, Jerry Butler, et al were great fun to root for after so many losing years.....

Never like to see that.....

Interesting point, but I personally still suspect that they're hurting just the same, even taking your point re: packaging versus pure paper since packaging is still heavily tied to the level of economic activity--economic activity goes down (as it has the last two years), so does your business. I'm also not sure that there's much future growth in pulp/paper considering potential tech alternatives, but I'm no expert. I did find the recycling business part of interest and that may become a growth business based on current "green initiatives". None of the above relates, however, to the other two businesses listed--commercial real estate and PE. Of course, since Kraft is a private company, none of us will know for sure how he's doing. I still do conjecture (and that's all it is) that some of his recent football decisions (like not paying Mankins or Brady) may be impacted by the health of his other businesses. Kraft may not be cheap, but he has in the past benefitted from players taking less than market deals to get a shot at winning a SB--I suspect that that may continue to change as well, particularly after this season.....

Especially now, considering they laid out for the improvements at Gillette and Patriette* Place (which sounds like it's a commercial bomb) and Fat Vince, all while Bob Kraft's other main business is paper, a dying industry, with his website listing his other ventures as "commercial real estate" (another mess at the moment) and private equity (also a big victim of the recent financial crisis). Since it's a private company he doesn't have to publish his financials, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if he's got a lot less money than folks think these days. Some of his competitors in the paper biz have either declared or threatened bankruptcy.....

If he'd only hit on that deep ball, since Stevie J. was wide open, we'd be singing a different tune this morning, but alas, Trent misfired on the long ball, as he usually does.....

Glad to see that you don't care whether your team cheats to win--typical Pats* fan.....

I agree 100%, Dan--coming back from an ACL in less than one year is a bit fishy to me. That, plus the history of Rodney being caught with HGH, the fact it can't be tested for, all combined with Galea's documented visits to Boston last August to treat two athletes there, one of them twice (Tommy Boy anyone?) add up to a healthy dose of skepticism of whether Welker's "miracle cure" didn't get some non-League-sanctioned help. That's the problem with cheating--once you do it once, you'll always be suspected of it in the future, pneumonic, so you'll just have to deal with it.....

Last night they used the main field. Not sure why they didn't use it today, but they do seem to rotate the use for some reason known only to them.... PS thanks for the report.

Must be lots of slit wrists over at Patsfans.com--those guys thought Crable was the second coming of Dick Butkus, until, of course, he missed each of the last two seasons with knee injuries (kind of like Butkus in that respect at least).....

You're still just mad because he absolutely flattened your hero, Tommy Boy, on a delayed blitz in that Super Bowl thumping at the hands of the G-Men (I never, ever tire of rewatching that game).....

And don't forget Jerricho Cotchery, who's a very good receiver in his own right.....

Plus one--he flat out destroyed us in that game a few years ago....

If you don't have the full 43 minutes, you can read the transcript, although it won't get you your results on the applause part. From what I've read, however, several folks have disproved Breitbart's whole "they clapped at the wrong time" argument, however, which, as other journalists also noted, he only trotted out after he was found out on this whole mess. Spin, spin, spin as hard as you can, Andy, but you're still a lying, race-baiting POS. Anyone else read Politico's interview with the "man" (and I use that term loosely) himself--if that guy doesn't have some kind of narcissism personality disorder I'll eat your hat. It's all about him he believes. Pretty clearly just an attempt to get him and his site on the radar screen. Yet another among many these days who don't understand the difference between "famous" and "infamous"..... As for some of the others above who seem to defend this POS, none of you seem to understand that I've said repeatedly in my prior posts that if someone on the left does something skanky (like Charlie Rangel this week), I have no problem with calling them out on it. (I'm actually a slightly left of center moderate, BTW.) The issue here in this thread and in my questions has been and remains, however, what THIS POS did. No matter what folks on the left have done, however, two wrongs really don't make a right, which seems to be your logic here. I'm actually pretty shocked that after all that's come to light on this this week, there are some people who will defend this jerk and what he did, coming up with all kinds of rationales to do so. Amazing.....