billsintaiwan

i remember that time as well. yes, the board would have crashed. think of what happens when we don't sign clabo.

all this brings to mind william s. burroughs's 'word virus' and the lyndon johnson story (don't know if it's true) in which he directed his campaign team to spread a rumor that his opponent copulated with pigs. they said, sir that isn't true. lyndon said, 'make him deny it.'

i was ten or so and i was insistent that the bills pick up earnest gray, a wide receiver for the new york giants. i had his football card, he'd had one great year, and i had heard of him.

Bell was really only abused once last year (by jared allen), otherwise he went from a bit less than average to above average. with a healthy offseason, i expect him to be more like average to occasionally dominant this year. He did fine against the bears. Pears might get get it eventually. he's better than wrotto or howard, which isn't saying a great deal. he was okay against the bears.

above is a proper sarcastic/smart response to a really silly post. how are teams going to prep for the brad smith wrinkle to the offense? preseason is all they have to work with. throw some stuff out there, let them work on it. switch up. maybe never use him at all, less time they devote prepping for fitz.

this is right.

are you trying to get someone's goat? the d. bell to RT thing is ridiculous.

i quit smoking using snus. same addiction, healthier, less obnoxious form. smokers now annoy the hell out of me because there is no escape from the smell. never realized how that shite carries. but we're talking buffalo. i smoked in the pool room at the old pink last time i was home. at the mohawk as well. lots of people smoke. it isn't that hard to have an open air pen someplace. i've never heard of anyone not going to the ralph because of smokers. heard from plenty who won't go because of drunk polacks.

there were a bunch of early eighties rbs that got hurt early. can remember billy sims, william andrews, and wilbert montgomery off the top of my head.

i just want to add that scouts can be snippy clique bitches. i've mentioned before that i scout baseball in taiwan, and the atmosphere ranges from professional and cool to monkeys throwing feces. depends on the time of the year mostly. scouting in any sport is an inexact science and the vagueness of it all leads to a bunch of insecure guys acting like they know more than everyone else. sources get inflated, news gets mangled, rumors become truth, etc... i think 'audibles' is interesting sometimes, but their 'sources' really don't like nix. i remember him being referred to as a 'joke' when he was hired. they probably ask the same five or six guys for opinions and they all have axes to grind. the best scouts i know in baseball wouldn't give out little snippets like that. they don't need to make other people think they're clever or rip on fellow scouts. bad scouts out themselves eventually. and if you are a good scout, you want lots of bad scouts around. makes your job easier. you would never rip on them. at most, you might sing their praises if anyone asks. i'm betting nix makes this guy look silly over the next couple years, but there is no accountability since he remains anonymous.

wada prik

it would be very strange to have losman back. he was a cool guy, but probably not clever enough to be a nfl qb. and i reckon it would create too much of a fuss to be worth it to nix and gailey. i still wish the guy the best of luck. no qb should go through what he went through with the idiotic coaching. i honestly think that jauron would have ruined johnny unitas. too reckless, you know.

maybin has to be number one. he looks like michael jordan trying to hit a curveball. kelsay is awful in the 3-4, not so awful in the 4-3. stroud was awful. torbor was slow and pretty close to awful. bad might be a better term. i agree on corner. he really can't cover in the slot and that is supposed to be his forte. ayodele is very torbor-esque in terms of slowness, but he can tackle when they run into his small box of range. cordero howard is an atrocious right tackle. you might add him over torbor. hard to say. good thing is that all those guys, save kelsay, might be gone by september assuming there is a season.

in taiwan, it is lonely. i've never met another bills fan here. the games are on at 1 a.m. and my howls fill the night air. in hawaii, there was a small bunch that hit the east side grill sunday mornings. good people, but the place was populated with steelers fans and we had to watch the steelers second string beat bledsoe and co. on that fateful sunday. not fun. been with th bills since 1981. i was seven and remember that season. i remember joe cribbs looking visibly dejected when chuck knox decided to kick a field goal near the end of a must-win game. that could have been 1980 near the end of the season. but anyone who went through kay stephenson and hank bullough before the superbowl years will never leave the bills. the kelly era was effin' great.

those were fine years. they really were. that clip was like a pleasant acid flashback. flutie is still my favorite post-kelly qb, though i am high on fitz. how is andre reed not in the hall of fame? if dareus is half of bruce, then i'll be happy. they don't make 'em that fast, agile, and powerful. aaron maybin's first step my arse.

so we are slowly reassembling some remnants of the polian era along with a bit of new blood. i'm all for that. we are moving the right direction.

this is the sort of highly intelligent response that belongs in a different forum. but all right. i suppose there is no need to bother reading the childish team america comments that are to follow. should have known better than to respond in the first place. so fire away with your "you hate america", "you are a terrorist lover" drivel and rub each other. do an imaginary high five. it's just a shame you have to pollute the football forum with this childish nonsense.

i seriously suggest that the moderators move these sorts of threads to another forum. yes, it is a story about a football player. however it is primarily about politics and such. i post on the stadium wall because it is not supposed to be about politics here. while i love shooting the breeze about football with most people on this board, i also detest the politics of just about everyone on this board. can't stand the 'thank you troops' stuff or jingoist rhetoric. i realize i am in the minority, but there are different forums for a reason. i promise i won't ever go to the politics board and harangue people for their misguided beliefs. so pretty please with sugar on top, move threads such as this to another forum.

what should he lose "true blooded American"? the guy lost some bucks because he opened his mouth and said something the sheep don't compute. what else should he lose? can you give an answer that i wouldn't get from a mafia thug? probably not.

that is a pretty brutal list. hard to handle them all together like that.

i'll take your word for it that he balked, but once he was in there, he was a terror. and he definitely spent a hell of a lot more time in coverage than some of the other elite libs of the day. anyone remember his first game? it was like watching TNT on the field. talk about first step. he was in the backfield in a nanosecond. you knew right then that polian made the right deal.

bennett was an amazing player who did everything he was ever asked to do. i remember when bruce was out for most of the season. i think it was 91 or 92. cb moved inside and was in on bloody everything. he held that d together. in a different defense, he would have had derrick thomas numbers of sacks. the guy was so good at covering tight ends and even receivers at times that they fell in love with dropping him into coverage. i think he is the most underrated linebacker of his era.

1st, 2nd, and 3rd picks on lineman in two years. buddy knows what he's doing. you don't.

as a scout, albeit in another sport, it is incredibly easy to follow the herd. only the guys with real balls stray. his take on alex smith was pretty gutty because even pros get taken in by the hype machine. i saw a shortstop in korea once. from the minute i was off the plane his agent was throwing numbers around. korean tv stuck a microphone in my face and asked what i thought. 'nice young man, bright future.' but honestly he was run-of-the-mill and anyone who knows a bit about baseball could see it. but i know for a fact that scouts wrote home saying the kid was the real deal. why? because none of them wanted to be the guy who gave the ss a low grade when others were going high. and supervisors pressure you as well. they'll ask why you're not seeing what other paid professionals apparently are seeing. i liked this article. don't know enough about football to say anything about locker. but i like the cut of the scout's jib.