Peevo

Okay? You asked my opinion, I gave it. I get the coach finds value in it, that's fine. But the value is in the camaradie of going away to summer camp. Not SJF necessarily. Couldn't you argue the EXACT same experience could be had at any public Rochester college with better infrastructure for fans? Like, I dunno, Brockport or something? If that's the goal, why not move it where fans can park there? Like, i'm not asking for much. Just better logistics. I feel like I'm crazy right now. This is not a big deal at all.

Not really, I'm just looking at the whole picture. It's this really significant undertaking for, in my opinion, little payoff. Training camp used to be "a thing". It stretched into the 3rd or 4th week of preseason. This story is dated August 25th (!) 2004. https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2004/08/25/bills-rookie-qb-losman-breaks-leg/28437218007/ Training camp stretched into LATE AUGUST at one point. It's such a short thing now, what's the point? That's all I'm saying. The suits at OBD should be asking "is the juice worth the squeeze" for 10 days in Pittsford?

Yeah, maybe for the kids IN ROCHESTER. Again, it's a small fraction of a fraction. You can literally offer the exact same experience for more people in Orchard Park. And make more margin, due to far fewer operating expenses.

Sure, that's why they named the buildings after him. That's the trade off. $ = naming rights. It's not that deep. The "Jacobs School of Management" is named at UB for the Jacobs family. Do the Boston Bruins practice at the Pepsi Center?

But you're removing the entire fan experience / fan accommodations from the calculus. The GM & Coach ought not be the only decision makers in this process, given legit business interests involved. Sponsors, advertisers, the campus itself. SJF has a vested interest (seems obvious) in maintaining this relationship. However, SJF for 2.5 DECADES doesn't seem to care at all about how the thing runs. Wouldn't it be better for fans if they could simply PARK ON CAMPUS? That would attract MORE VISITORS. More eyes on your facilities. More potential boosters. Potential students. Potential legacies. More revenues for the school! A public facility would theoretically welcome any and all comers to experience the space. In my opinion, SJF is "a solution without a problem". It's a clunky, awful experience for almost any fan outside of Pittsford, NY. There's no reason to keep it that way when you have a $20 MILLION training facility in the town where all your employees already live.

Training camp these days is like 2 weeks at most. I don't know the numbers, but the margin on SJF has gotta be tight. Yes, they sell sponsorships (Connors and Ferris), and I'm sure the gift shop does well. But still, the operating expenses of packing up the entire training department (the Bills training staff literally pack up all their gear in a truck and unpack it every year), for 2 weeks, can't possibly be worth it. Look at this way. You're a Buffalo/WNY area fan. Under McDermott, the team has retired night practices completely. You want to go to training camp in Pittsford, NY? Take PTO for the morning drive on some random Tuesday morning in August Wake up at like 5:30/6 AM Drive 90 minutes plus down the highway - depending where you live (Fredonia, NY for example, you're 2hrs or more) Park at a random high school parking lot 25 ish minutes away from SJF Wait in line to get on a bus / shuttle to campus Wait in line through security to enter Training Camp Walk the entire campus to finally reach the facilities The grandstands are already packed to the gills, and there are 0 spots available to see anything You resort to sitting on some grassy knoll across the street from the practice field You see literally nothing It's 12:30 PM on a Tuesday in Rochester You get an underwhelming garbage plate It's now 1:40 PM on a Tuesday in Rochester What do you do now? Back when the team actually used Rochester as a marketing vehicle, there were weekend night practices. You could go out, get a dinner, go see a band at BugJar something. Make a night of it! Now it's a waste of resources for just about everyone except immediate residents of Pittsford / the surrounding burbs. The only reason they went to SJF in the first place is because of Russ Brandon's affiliation with the team. He hasn't been employed by the Pegulas in 6 years. Pittsford training camp has long surpassed its useful life. Maybe it was important to "regionalize" the fanbase in the Drought Era. I get it. But Josh Allen negates all of that.

As we are both Millennial Bills fans, I imagine responses here will cleave along generational lines. "Embarrassing" can take many forms. Sure, they got killed in the Superbowl. That's a bad game. It happens. Bills aren't the only team to get blown out in the Superbowl. The Bills CHOSE to remove home games from their fans, and play in Toronto. That's indefensible. The entire post Mularkey drought deserves consideration for this though. There's so many blunders. Trading All-Pro LT Jason Peters in his young prime (probably a Hall of Famer) Trading Marshawn Lynch in his young prime for peanuts (none of the return made any impact on Bills) Games in Toronto, then extending the Toronto series, then giving yourself credit for ending the extension of the series a year after Extending Dick Jauron Signing Terrell Owens The decision to redesign the jerseys & color scheme when Drew Bledsoe came to Buffalo The coterie of powerful, shadowy, old, male executives at One Bills Drive during the drought who kept getting paychecks yet never took responsibility for any of the team's failures. Tom Modrak - what did he do all day? no like seriously what was his job there? John Guy - same question as above Bud Carpenter - used outdated injury treatments on players, was hesitant to oversight or change. Doug Marrone wanted to fire him, and the head coach DIDN'T HAVE THE POWER TO FIRE HIS TRAINER Scott Berchtold - PR exec that ruled the press box with an iron fist. Remember when he denied "knowing anything about" that cancelled halftime celebration on the field for Ralph during the Browns 6-3 game? There was controversy with the media when Troy Vincent broke JP Losman's leg at training camp. WGR 550's Paul Hamilton reported it very differently than the "company line" and it's caused tension between the two camps for years Jeff Littman - mysterious financial advisor who was never available to the media Jim Overdorf - still employed? Didn't he cut Troy Vincent without anyone else's knowledge?

Appreciate your perspective. I appreciate you engaging with my point. I'm too young to remember the early 90s. But there seems to be a real hesitance to my generalized "every NFL team should play every NFL team" each season idea. This is not a crazy idea, in my opinion. It's almost heretical, judged by some of these responses. NHL teams play a brutal, violent, unhinged, bloodsport 82 times a year. How many concussions per year in the NHL? It's just, if not more violent, than the NFL. Then after all of that, they play another 20 plus brutal, violent, exhausting playoff games to determine a champion. Daring to suggest professional football players play 31 games in a calendar year is somehow some absurd idea. Increase rosters, bake in some "no more than 20 starts per player" rule and really force teams to have 2 QBs to be competitive. I know, none of this will happen. But isn't this more fun than "the Bills should draft this player in round 5 I've never heard of from a college i've never watched" conversation?

That's only 2 games out of 17 though. No one can seriously argue the Patriots run from 2001 - 2019 was competitive in the AFC East. No one could argue that. How many times did the Dolphins/Jets/Bills make the playoffs in that stretch? The Patriots consumed so much advantage from a weak division they cake walked to a home playoff game and a week off almost every single year. You can't tell me that isn't an unfair advantage. We are all so scared of promotion and relegation, yet the Bills were de facto relegated out of the league due to merely existing the AFC East for 2 decades.

I'm just some guy that used to work on Buffalo radio stations.

Yes, in a perfect world. I addressed this in above post. No playoffs. Who ever is in 1st place at the end wins. Simple. Fair. Again, I know this will never happen. Owners like money too much.

Plenty of leagues do. It's called promotion and relegation. All I'm saying is, this isn't as much a problem in the other big 3 leagues because of the amount of games. Every team plays every other team at least twice. No one care argue competitive imbalance. Everyone gets a fair shake at every team. Until all the teams play each other, you can't objectively say any NFL team is truly the "best". That's all I'm getting at.

Correct. This creates a system more in line with relegation/promotion. Teams have more to play for than just division titles and early playoff exits. It's a more "open" system than the closed system they currently have. That's really all I'm getting at.

The reason for change is because one team (Pats and now Chiefs) have monopolized the system to a point where it is non-competitive. It is a fact monopolies are bad for economies. That is a fact, right? They suppress competition. How can we (the league) create more equitable results? Break up the monopoly. (AT&T in the 80's, Standard Oil). This is not a new idea.

See, I'm not the only one who thinks the system could be reformed! Thank you @sullim4! And for the record, I know this stuff will never change. But there really is no good reason besides "we've always done it this way" to the NFL alignment and scheduling system. It's never made sense. There's conference realignment all the time in college. I don't know why it's such a third rail with the NFL.