JohnC

If there were a "Big Ben" play I don't believe it stemmed from that Jet game. If you check the box score from that game the defensive stats indicate that there were three interceptions and no fumbles. He had no interceptions but that doesn't mean that he wasn't the player instrumental in forcing a turnover. Ben Williams was a very active lineman so I wouldn't be surprised that he made plays that were described as "big play" that altered the course of a game/s. I hope that you don't mind me offering you a kind suggestion to improve your memory: Don't drink so much during the game! It is not surprising that you lose your ability to soberly think and remember. ? https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/197909230buf.htm

You forgot to mention the ping pong tables.

Is he going to be sent to Rochester?

A lot of Italians and semi-hoodlums frequented that place. ?

How good is Taulia? He is going to the University of Maryland and be reunited with Locksley, a former coach at Bama. It's still not clear whether he will have to sit out a year before getting back on the field.

Greg Wyshynski from ESPN was on WGR's Schopp and the Bulldog Show talking about the probable NHL playoffs and likely format. There are still many issues to be resolved but because of a TV contract stipulation requiring games in order to receive TV money there is a strong desire to not end the hockey season without some games. There are still many hurdles for the league to jump over to resume play but there is a determination to overcome them. Wyshynski also brought up the issue of the draft. This is a 12 minute segment. https://wgr550.radio.com/media/audio-channel/5-18-greg-wyshynski-espn-nhl

Al Bemiller worked at the Butler Mitchell Boys Club on the west side of Buffalo in one of the offseasons. I used to tease him that he went to Syracuse because he wasn't good enough to play at Penn St. One time he had enough of my taunting in the gym. He ended up picking me up and bringing me to the shower where he turned on the water in order to cool me off. He was a great fellow that even the wise guys on the west side liked.

Not only was he one of the first black players at Mississippi he was so respected that he became a captain. In a mostly segregated school he was well respected on campus. He was an excellent football player but more importantly he was a wonderful human being. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/sec/2020/05/18/ben-williams-ole-miss-first-black-football-player-dies/5216201002/

Attached is a 10 min link from Sabres.com where Wayne Simmons is interviewed. It will be interesting to see if the Sabres are interested in signing him this offseason. Odds are the Sabres will not be participating in the playoffs if they do get held. If that is the case it might be a blessing in disguise for a rugged veteran player like him to have the additional time to recover and get ready for the next season. Just from this short clip it is apparent that he is an engaging and personable person who would fit in any locker room. https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/checking-in-wayne-simmonds/t-277437090/c-5383074

Attached is a 7 minute interview of Tage Thompson from Sabres.com. In the interview Tage stated that because of his shoulder injury he wasn't able to skate until just recently. That means he was not skating for 6 months. He also noted that he has worked hard to strengthen his lower body and gained 10 pounds, now weighing around 225 lbs. It's really a shame that his injury after the Rochester callup ended his season not allowing him to gain more experience. From a physical standpoint he is tall and lean. He has good skating and shooting skills. However, young players with his type of thin frame take additional time to physically mature before they can withstand the rigors of NHL play. My criticism with his play so far is although he can get away with free lancing and floating around with the puck in the lower leagues in the more physical and tighter game of the NHL you have to react more quickly and decisively with and without the puck. Will he and Mittelstadt be ready to contribute next season? I don't know. If they could it would really give this team a boost and put the organization in a better position to make deals to balance out the roster. https://www.nhl.com/sabres/video/checking-in-with-tage-thompson/t-277443402/c-5383317

You are being too kind. The highlighted statement is simply a dumb comment. It is on the level of the Clorox comment. It's like saying if you are not tested for sugar you are not diabetic although the disease is ravaging you. It is a stupendously foolish statement. When the virus was becoming apparent in the US the president argued against allowing a coronavirus ravaged cruise ship to dock on the west coast because he didn't want the infected numbers to increase the count that he was dismissing. Eventually the ship was allowed to belatedly dock after the virus was allowed to run rampant longer on the ship. When humanity and compassion are not part of the considerations when making decisions regarding public health then you end up with soulless decisions.

Wishing you and the @BrownBear the best and a full recovery.

Very often there is a wide variation between what the draft analysts predict and what actually happens at the draft. In general, I thought the pre-draft predictions came close to mirroring the actual draft with respect to the running backs. And as you pointed out because of the dominating season that Henry had, Dillon who was compared to him in style, had his status elevated. Dillon was the back that I found very intriguing and hoped the Bills would draft. I consider Moss a more intelligent and natural back. But I understand why the Packers were willing to gamble taking Dillon higher than most teams would have after watching how Henry influenced the offense in Tennessee.

I'll go a little beyond your evaluation. If his production is comparable to Ivory's production in his first 4-5 years it will be better than a worthwhile pick, it would be a very good pick. My point in the original post is if he doesn't to an extent modify his battering style of play such as at times judiciously going down or go out of bounds he will shorten his lifespan as a back. Without question this was a terrific pick.

The player that Moss most reminds me of is Chris Ivory. He is a straight line North/South player who is good at reading the blocks and finding the seam. My worry with him is that his battering style of running usually has a short self life for high level play. For a back Ivory had a long career where he was one of the more punishing backs in the league. But you could see that the toll of giving out hits and taking hits wore him down and affected his play. When he played for Buffalo he was a shell of a player compared to when he played with the Jets.

There is no doubt that the business climate because of the public health crisis has dramatically changed the situation. But that doesn't change the reality that this very aged stadium is crumbling. The issue is do you invest money in rehabbing the current stadium or do you build a new stadium that is more spartan than some of the newer facilities. If the cost of repeated renovations is comparable or more than the cost of a newer facility does it make sense to put money into a losing proposition? My sense is that out of necessity the decision is going to be delayed because of the fiscal environment. But that doesn't mean that it can be avoided.

Your response to your loss of job is a very realistic and understandable response. Through no fault of your own many aspects of your life were upended. Not having a job impacts one not only economically but socially and also one's family relationships. It's like one day you go to your doctor for a regular checkup and learn that you have cancer. It's not surprising that one's response is why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this? The one thing that often happens when people face life altering cataclysmic events is that it has an affect on one's outlook on life. Sometimes it embitters people. And sometimes dealing with hardships changes one's outlook on life making one more empathetic to other peoples struggles.

The problem is that although a palace stadium will theoretically create more revenue it doesn't necessarily mean that the increased revenue is enough to make the exorbitant bond payments to pay for the glitzy palace. You can't fault people for not factoring in their costs the decline of revenue from an unexpected once in a century health cataclysm. The new reality is that the current and subsequent post virus repercussions have changed the economic landscape not only in the sports business but also in many different businesses. The belief that there was always going to be an exponential growth in revenues from the business of the NFL seemed reasonable less than six months ago. That premise no longer holds.

Even with no projected overruns the county, state and the Pegulas are not in a financial position to consider any stadium thoughts for the near and not so near future. For the foreseeable future the Pegulas are more focused on financially surviving with their teetering sports and hospitality businesses. And to compound their financial status the foundation of their wealth, the energy business, is facing a current financial calamity.

As you insinuated he broke with his policy of not rushing prospects because he was trying to salvage something he, himself, created by that ROR deal. He grossly miscalculated that Mittelstadt would have been able to a reasonable degree fill the void left by the departure of that disgruntled player. If Mittelstadt and Tage would have been ready to play then that deal makes more sense. But they weren't ready. Botts has made some good deals that in the long run will prove to be adroit moves such as the Joki and Kahun deals. But the ROR deal was a setback that he is still contending with. And one way or the other needs to remedy. It should be remembered that the GM was trying to get one of the top two prospects from the Blues in a ROR deal. They wouldn't budge. So they ended up giving up maybe their third ranked prospect and a lower first round pick for one of the best two-way forwards in the league. I certainly haven't given up on Mittelstadt and Tage as developing into quality NHL players. But that is not to say that I'm sure about their prospects as solid NHL players. That's still an open issue with me.

Attached is a WKBW link by Matt Bove on Casey Mittelstadt. The thrust of the segment is that by playing a lot more in Rochester he gained more confidence and played better. Will he be on the roster next year and be better prepared to meet the expectations of a first round drafted player? I can't say---only time will tell. What is obvious is that by rushing him to the NHL instead of starting him off in the AHL or playing another year in college his development was set back. As it happened to Casey the same issue of rushing a player also applies to Tage Thompson. In hindsight, it would have been better for Tage's development to keep him in the minors until he was more fully developed and prepared for the rigors of the NHL. https://www.wkbw.com/sports/sabres/sabres-mittelstadt-sees-time-in-ahl-as-blessing-in-disguise?view=getnewpost

One takeaway that I have when I tune in to these classic games compared to the Sabre games in its recent history is how engaged and lively the fans were in those meaningful games. The energized fans were raucously involved throughout the game. It just seems as if this string of mediocre seasons has sucked the spirit out of the fans who have become (understandably) very cynical and skeptical. This organization has gotten itself in a bind when it has acted out of desperation resulting in set backs. However, that doesn't mean that it shouldn't show more urgency. The GM needs to be more aggressive in the offseason in making some deals to better balance out this roster.

The difficult issue isn't who qualifies for the playoffs. That's a simple issue. Come up with any system you want. Whatever system is arrived at is not going to satisfy everyone. Tough! The problem is how do you stage games when a highly contagious virus is circulating everywhere. When one starts to consider the mechanics of putting games on, even in selected bubble locations, the numerous hurdles become too hard to overcome. The logistics and health considerations are intertwined. It appears to me that the wall is too high to climb. If you can't shield the workforce in the White House then how are you going to do it in a larger and more open environment?

Let's extend the same circumstances in this hockey situation and apply it to all the other major sports, pro or college? How do you allow fans in an arena or stadium if the virus isn't near extinction? You can have a half dozen people infected with the virus who don't exhibit any symptoms in an arena. In short order there could be an exploding wild fire spread that results in a difficult to contain hot spot. Look what happened in New Orleans and Louisiana with the large mingling of people for the Mardi Gras? How many of the infected people for that gathering returned home all over the country and the world? I believe there will be seasons for all the sports next season. But that is not to say that there will be many fans at the events generating in-house revenue. For the next year or so there is a good chance that many of the events will be TV productions without any at event attendees. The more one thinks about this situation the more complicated and challenging it seems. To state the obvious the world has changed for the near term future.

After your post I watched a number of her songs on youtube. She's terrific!