Peevo

It's been forever since I've posted anything, but something struck a nerve when listening to Howard Simon this morning. Howard and Jeremy were debating whether Jerry Hughes qualifies as a Wall of Famer, and Schobel's name inevitably came up. Schobel has 55 more sacks than Hughes, despite being on TERRIBLE teams. Schobel retired a career Bill, with 4 double-digit sack seasons, an All Pro, 2 Pro Bowl appearances. But yet, what the hell happened to the guy? A quick google search reveals literally 0 media appearances since his retirement. The last time his name was PUBLISHED in any sort of NFL media was 2010, regarding his retirement. The dude is a ghost. No charity events, no interviews, no signings/conventions/appearances of any kind that I can find. And one could debate whether a player's community impact matters in the Wall of Fame discussion. But I'd certainly argue being visible and proud of your career as a Bill SHOULD count in some ways. Look at Stevie Johnson, Aaron Williams' social media feeds/NFL Draft appearances. There's plenty of other examples. Hell, even Marshawn Lynch "Lead the Charge" last season! He was a Bill for like 3 seasons. This dude played fulltime NFL football, at a very high level, FOR A DECADE. And never was heard from again. I'd NEVER fault a man for performing well at a job he doesn't like. That's life. But I mean this sincerely, did Schobel ever actually like his job? Unless I'm bad at the internet, which is certainly possible, does ANYONE know anything about this guy since he left 12 years ago?

To be honest I haven't seen much on the structure built to negate winds in the stadium. Rainy, windy, and slick conditions are more commonplace than snow in that building. I don't have the analytics on this, but I think it's hard to argue the wind and rain have been detrimental to the fan experience all season. I honestly think last Sunday was the first dry game of the year. I know it's outrageously expensive to build a dome, but if you're spending $1.5 billion, why not just spend $3 billion and get guaranteed conditions 8 / 9 games a year? If I were a fan of the Vikings, I'd be happy my team plays in a dome 10 (!) games a year. It's nice! I don't honestly understand why this is so controversial. Every hockey and basketball game is played inside. Nearly every indoor concert I've seen is preferable to the outdoor ones. This is subjective. But I prefer a more immersive, intimate experience. Eliminating a negative variable that can affect change in the game is smart, in my opinion. Poor weather is not an advantage.

As a former UB student, and (now defunct) WRUB broadcaster, it is sad to see a successful mid major team waste away winning seasons at UB stadium. I think the simplest answer is that they'll NEVER be a "power 5" school, therefore, will always be second fiddle to the Bills and NFL. The Bills would have to move for the Bulls to really become a major college football program. And that of course, is highly unlikely. There's so many layers to this that it takes too much to write. UB's internal polling/survey's show that most Buffalo area fans don't want to identify with MAC teams. Despite sharing socio-economic, climate, and geographic identities with fellow Great Lakes area schools in the MAC, most Buffalo fans want to be considered in the "Northeast", with NYC, Boston, Philly, etc. This is of course, ridiculous. But even after 20 plus years in the MAC, fans just don't care. Furthermore, 1 MAC title in that span is not nearly enough to justify a move to a "power 5" conference. Basically, it is a shame a school as big and funded as UB doesn't really "matter" in a sports context in Buffalo. This is despite several appearances in NCAA tournament, multiple MAC championships in men's basketball, and a handful of bowl game appearances for the football team. Furthermore, UB is a "research" university. Hard sciences. Medicine, architecture, chemistry, pharmacy, etc. All very important things. But those don't help gain the school notoriety in a sports context. Syracuse, Bona, Columbia J, Missouri, etc. They crank out famous people. If UB wants to "make it" in sports, they have to try to grow their school in ways that will get sports people to give a *****. They literally don't have a journalism program! Or broadcasting/public communication. Broadcasters love nothing more than to brag about where they went to broadcasting school. Trust me, I worked with dozens of these people. UB is NEVER on these lists. They just simply have no brand.

As someone who worked in Buffalo radio for a decade, I can say confidently the market is stale, nigh impossible to break into, and the pay is unlivable. GR makes a lot of money though, which is like, the only point. It's about profit. That's the only thing. Why is (insert useless betting/fantasy turd here) on? Cause Audacy (corporate) bought BetQL and is forcing their sports stations to "content share". It's a dubious, profit obsessed move. The gambling talk is simply irresponsible. It's a vice. An addiction. I'm not judging anyone, but you MUST acknowledge on the air that "gambling has risks" and you are in no shape or form endorsing irresponsible behavior. Its as if they'd have a local beer rep on and encourage them to drive drunk. I get that gambling built the league. It's essentially why Vegas is Vegas. I acknowledge it's a huge business, with billions spent every season. But that doesn't make it a smart, or OK thing to just get in bed with. Because you "win" bets doesn't make you some expert analyst. It means you're lucky. This, more than anything, is my biggest criticism of Schopp. What, you won 2 fantasy leagues and a futures bet last year? Who cares Mike? How many bets did you LOSE last year? For every Jeopardy James there's millions of families destroyed because of a gambling addiction. I drink. I smoke weed. I'm not against vices. I just dont think gambling is in anyway some "informed investment". It's not. Just be honest.

I'm 32, so this is literally the first Bills season since I was in middle school with 10 wins. 31 teams lose every year. It's really hard to win it all. We most likely DON'T win the SuperBowl this season. But at least we had a good year. I choose to judge the results on a sliding scale. If you are "championship or it's all a waste", well then I assume you're a very disappointed person. Buffalo beat its Vegas over/under by 4 wins. That's impressive in itself. What I hope doesn't happen is another 10-3 lifeless road playoff loss. Look like you belong with your AFC peers. We need 3 offensive touchdowns minimum. I just don't want to get embarrassed on national TV. Yes, I'm lowering expectations. But come on, they're gonna be an underdog throughout this tournament. It's life as a 5 seed.

See this is why we all need to chill out a bit and listen to each other more (myself included). 10 wins would be their best season in 20 years. The problem with the league, as I see it, is that NE has choked all of the fun out of the sport. Almost all economists agree monopolies are bad for economies. Standard Oil was broken up. AT&T was broken up. Microsoft was broken up. NE by all intents and purposes has a monopoly of winning in the NFL. I dont see how long term this is healthy for the future of the sport. Why invest yourself in ANY AFC team when the Pats waltz into the SuperBowl every year? This is why I feel hopeless about it. 10 wins for the Bills would ultimately mean nothing in yet another Patriots championship season. When will it end?

That's fair. It's just a game. But that's also all part of rationalizing the losing. "Don't let it get to you", "expect disappointment, it's easier" etc. Wouldn't we all be happier if they just won a few once in a while?

Sean McDermott is 0-4 against NE. The closet margin of loss was 12 points in 4 games. What do you mean, "a decade ago?"

What's funny and sad is I agree with you. I literally said "I'm broken" in an above post with ample evidence to support why. It's curious people taking umbridge with my perspective aren't acknowledging the many hilarious and sad Bills failures against New England since high speed internet access.

I meant like, in our actual world at large. 3-0 is fun or whatever. Just beat Tennessee and 4-1 at the bye.

I appreciate the positivity. It's admirable in these bleak times. I really mean that. Just speaking for myself here, I've been burned too many damn times by Greek-tragic level near-wins and close losses to this team to ever think it's gonna get better. Sorry man. I don't know what else to say. There's this depressing play: And this one: And this one - cue to 3:15 http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/0ap2000000093727/GameDay-Bills-vs-Patriots-highlights And these are just simply off the top of my head. We could do a full draft of "Horrific Ways to Lose to the Patriots" games. It's ENDLESS. I'm broken, dawg. I can't be hopeful with this game anymore. My brain literally cannot comprehend the concept of a winning outcome. There's freedom in hopelessness. I'm 32. Brady has been dominating my team since I was 14 years old. It will never end. Someone explain to me why I shouldn't think like this. I'm not even being sarcastic. It's toxic.

I don't know what Sal's getting at here. Howard is right. It's likely, if not indeed certain, the Patriots will win. They are 7 point favorites for a reason. Howard's job, and any person who's job it is to be objective about sports, is to be RIGHT. He may WANT the Bills to win. We all WANT the Bills to win. But wanting it, and expecting it are two different things. It's RIGHT to say the Bills are likely to lose the game. "Conceding the game" as some sort of biting critique is nonsense. The Patriots are objectively the better team in every statistical category, this season. Take history out of the formula, and the Patriots remain the favorite. I'll never understand "fans" calling other people out for being right. It's not "hating your team" for being objective. We'd all stand to be more objective about our place in life. You're not a hater, you're not a jerk, you're not a bandwagon fan for being right. I'd love to be wrong about this. I want the Bills to win. Can people on this board appreciate nuance? I value objectivity, fact-based opinion, and accurate predictions over blatant, embarrassing "whatever bro #BillsMafia" fandom. Tell me the truth. Our country is falling the ***** apart because people don't want to hear, read, or consume the truth. Walter Cronkite helped end Vietnam because he told the truth. We need more Walter Cronkites.

I'd agree. The fact that a team that was outscored 102-10 is still going with Fitz at QB can't bode well for Rosen's chances. Or it could simply be the Dolphins are terrible and don't want Rosen getting destroyed every play. But as it stands, it's hard to argue with the list as is. Rudolph's getting the rest of 2019 to show his stuff, and he looked pretty good yesterday. The AFC may be wide open, should the Bills keep winning.

So many fans are so afraid of change. It is telling. I'd absolutely lobby for 2 conferences, open field/round robin style. It forces teams to actually play all of the competition, and would likely create more "just" results ie: the best teams tend to be ranked top to bottom. Isn't that what we want? This will NEVER happen, but there should be some sort of equivalent promotion/relegation system too. There needs to be a system that disincentivizes tanking for high draft picks. Especially since it seems so often the same 5 teams are always drafting in the top 5, and don't seem to actually improve. I want even competition, that would likely create entertaining games with few blowouts. In order to do this, you can't have Buffalo playing New England twice a year. The Bills, along with Cleveland, Jax, and some others, are de facto minor league teams anyway. Why not just recognize that and embrace it?

Again, don't be surprised if training camp slowly devolves to a completely closed, team only event. The Eagles have only 1 open practice for fans this year. 1! The NFL doesn't care about its fans the way we think they do. I

Probably right. $20 million for a state of the art indoor training/rehab room needs to be used as much as possible. The team is barely in Rochester more than a week now. It's not worth all the work. Who's getting off of work to drive to Rochester bright and early, to watch your team shuffle around on the field for 90 minutes? The night workouts at least had some flare, some pizzazz. Go downtown, get dinner, make a night of it. Now McDermott's "night practice" at 6:15 pm in early August is back at OBD. Training Camp as an entertainment product is no longer any sort of event. It's just an obligatory thing to appease corporate sponsors Connors & Ferris. Futhermore, the SJF campus is NOT welcoming to fans. Come on, you can't even park in their dozens of lots in the middle of summer when there's no regular classes? You have to drive 20 minutes away in a public school lot to wait in line for a bus, to wait in line to get in, to not get a seat, to stand over a hill, to sorta see for 10 minutes. Practice is over. Drive home at 12 pm. it's pretty stupid, to be honest. There's no middle ground either. Let's move it to, where? UB North? Why do that when you can just do it at One Bills Drive? Plenty of parking, fans can tailgate. Better sight lines. Don't be surprised to see Training Camp eventually move back to Orchard Park, and even become fully closed practices. The team has 5 open practices in 11 days or whatever it is. You really need "tickets" to attend a workout at 9:45 AM on a Sunday?

They're in a tough spot. Firing Housley will receive harsh criticism. "The Sabres are still paying Dan Bylsma not to coach and now they're doing the same for Housley" or something to that effect. Keeping Housley will receive harsh criticism. "How can a team fail to win back to back games since December retain its coach and be taken seriously?" They're in a lose-lose hopelessness spiral. All I want from these people is honesty, which fans rarely receive. Just what the hell ACTUALLY happened when Pat Lafontaine left in mystery following the 2014 trade deadline? Their organizational plan was flawed from the start. Losing is hard enough on the fans. Having no real understanding of who is making what decisions is worse. For instance, Tim Murray was a loose cannon and poorly represented the team, or did he? Paul Hamilton of WGR told the "I heard him chew up an NHL official in ear shot of the press box for all of us to hear" story at least 75 times after he was fired. Convenient that that story was never reported to fans WHILE HE WAS EMPLOYED BY THE TEAM. If I'm a paying customer, wouldnt I want to know the GM of my overpriced, ***** team is chewing officials out in public? Rex Ryan was a hot head who did embarrassing crap like the Clemson helmet thing, despite having a decent team that had a positive point differential. So the team overcorrects and hires straight laced Sean McDermott, a family, faith, football Lifetime movie 2 dimensional character trope. The whole thing is a toxic mess. They have no answers. It's completely hopeless. Until Brady retires there really is no hope here.

It's a way to appear objective in the eyes of people who profiteer off of correct predictions. Vegas is cold, unapologetic, and oftentimes, painfully accurate. The stories of "sports books lost $750,000 on X game" last week are stories simply because sports books losing money is a rarity. They profit because they are correct almost all of the time. Bills fans will complain when Vegas has the Bills as heavy underdogs, or a poor preseason Win/Loss record. "No one respects the Bills". "Hey here's another media idiot bagging on Buffalo". We're all so defensive about our loser football team. We're not losers because the Bills are losers! And yes, they ARE losers. Per ProFootballReference.com - Record (W-L-T): 415-477-8. #SorryNotSorry. Are you willing to bet your income that the Bills WILL win more than 8 games? I'm not. I don't gamble, but I must honestly say it's hard to put your money where your mouth is until we see consistent success. What Mike Schopp tries to do EVERY DAY his mic turns on is be right, and be objective. It's RIGHT to say "The Bills are unlikely to make the playoffs". Some of this is NOT their fault. It's a function of living in the hopelessness of the AFC East. He is paid to be RIGHT not a fan. Does this make sense?

Wow, and I thought we Millennials had it bad with the 2000's drought.

That graphic embodies nearly the entirety of my football watching life. I'm 31, so Brady started dominating the AFC East when I was a freshman in high school. It's effectively what abject football hopelessness feels like. Tell me again why NFL divisional realignment is a bad idea? Why have divisions at all? If every team in the AFC played every other team, I think the playoff matchups would be a lot different. Let's have some fun with two distinct football conferences/identities. There could be separate rules for AFC/NFC, like the DH in the American League. Every team plays each other once, 15 games. Then you face one NFC team a year, based on ranking, like overall points for/points against/record, whatever.

Well put. Again, this remains Ralph Wilson's biggest scar on his legacy, in my opinion. The team also restricted access to these people to a point where there was limited to no oversight from "the fourth branch of government". It's frustrating not one outlet, from The Buffalo News, WGR, or any local TV stations ever once did the "who are any of these people?" feature. We talk a lot about what fans are "owed" from their perennially losing pro sports franchises. All I want is honesty, which we never get. Not to pivot, but whatever the hell happened on July 1st, 2007 with the Sabres? It's been 12 years. Chris Drury SHOULD speak on the record to the fans. It's more than deserved. The Sabres have not recovered from that fateful day. The least they could do is get us closure. To this day, there's not 1 quote on record from the former Sabres captain about it. This is abhorrent.

This is so spot on. The post Mularkey era was peak walking corpse level Ralph. Not to denigrate the man's frailty, more so symptomatic of an unwillingness to address the future of his team while he was alive and more capable of making decisions. So in walk Ralph's cadre of self-interested sycophants, eager to absolve themselves of any blame for the team's many failures while also somehow remain employed at executive level income. It frustrates me that to this day, we still don't honestly know who made what terrible decisions. Who traded Jason Peters? Was it Russ Brandon? Or Jim Overdorf? Who drafted Aaron Maybin? Was it Jauron, Modrak? The team was either incapable or incompetent in their ability to explain who is in power, with what responsibilities, and with whom they report. Modrak, Guy, Overdorf, Brandon, Berchtold. Who are these people, what are their qualifications, and why do they work for you, Ralph? This remains a great scar on Wilson's legacy, and the team remains weak at several positions because of damaging decisions from over a decade ago. The Bills traded a Hall of Fame left tackle in the prime of his career who IS STILL PLAYING AT AN ELITE LEVEL NOW.

This is also true. It's always seemed like from literally Day 1 Marrone and Whaley weren't on the same page. Since we NEVER get true answers as to who makes decisions, why they were made, and with what input, we're all left to speculate and read between lines in reports from years later. As if any of this information would hurt them in anyway, and only help to repair a maligned relationship between the fans and the team. What a thought. It's frustrating. Who drafted Aaron Maybin? Was it Modrak? Jauron? Brandon? There is an answer to this question. The Bills simply will NEVER answer it. Who cut Troy Vincent? Was it Jim Overdorf? Again, who are these people, what are their qualifications, why did they make these decisions, who is making these decisions, and why? It's actually quite simple. It's a combination of lack of overall leadership at the very top, this being 2013 and at the very end of Ralph's life. Russ Brandon is given full control of the team in January, 2013, and he hires Marrone, what, 5 days after an "exhaustive" search. So this dude that WE HAD TO HAVE doesn't have any actual say in the football players his GM is drafting? So heading into a full-scale rebuild, and every one knows they're gonna address QB in April of 2013, and the guy that could help reset the future of the franchise is just some average schlub the coach didn't really like or want? How is that a way to build a program? It's Marrone's rookie head coaching season, with a rookie QB, and rookie playcaller. And NONE of them are ever on the same page. Irrespective of Manuel's (many) flaws, this is just a terrible way to build a professional football program. It's a combination of a LOT of problems. But Ralph's cadre of self-interested sycophants at the top made the drought insurmountably worse. Modrak, Jauron, Guy, Jim Overdorf, Brandon, et cetera. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? We still literally don't know, to this day, what any of those people did. Isn't this a problem?

It's a frustrating labor of self-inflicted pain. To be a Buffalo sports fan is to experience pain. There is simply no other way to explain. We choose to experience pain on a daily, weekly, yearly basis. It is unhealthy. I think some fans, myself included, were cautiously optimistic that McDermott and co could build something, but this crucifixion to "in Buffalo, you have to run the ball", play defense, keep it close mantra is stale, old, and quite frankly poor strategy. Other teams use the passing rules to their advantage. How often are we gonna see Brady on a 3rd and 4 throw deep, incomplete, and draw a holding or PI? This rarely happens to the Bills. Until we have a management and coaching staff in place that understands the present and future of this sport is in the passing game, they're never really gonna be any good. Sure, you wanna win close games, go 7-9 every year? (Hey at least we're not the Browns right?) I define "any good" as winning division titles, winning playoff games, hosting playoff games, and winning championships. I do not have confidence the Jauron-ball of run, punt, kick FGs, hold to FGs and maybe win 18-13 in the end is sound long term strategy. As an entertainment product, the Bills are sorely behind. Simply "being an NFL team" is not enough for a generation of consumers used to click, click, fun. More people watch other people play video games than watched the Stanley Cup Finals. Sports is aging fast, folks. Its all coming to an end soon enough.

Winston Peterman.