The Buffalo Bills

[Guest dog14787]

Thinking about it some more, maybe "deserving" is the wrong word. "capable of sustaining" maybe is a better way to put it.

 

Winning and going to the playoffs means allot, it really does, but so does just having a football team and even if you changed it to capable of sustaining a football franchise I would still respectfully disagree, because RW/Buffalo has and will continue to do so as will the next ownership that takes over the Buffalo Bills.

 

I Billieve...

[Got_Wood]

I have to say that disagree with almost everything here, highlighted the statements that I could debate but why bother.

 

It's too bad that you and many other people feel like this. I know some of it is true, that Buffalo as a city needs a make over. I just wonder if these extreme feelings of impending doom are a generational thing?

 

It would be interesting to know the ages of the posters on this subject. Seems like the younger posters feel the most strongly that Buffalo will never get a quality coach and will never be a good team again.

 

I expect another bull run soon.

 

I agree that it isn't as dire as some people make it out to be. There are cities with NFL teams like Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Green Bay, and Kansas City that are all smaller than New York City, Dallas, Washington DC, and etc. But they have extremely passionate fans, and they represent a region more than just a concentrated big city. If NFL teams were located in the most populated areas, California and Texas would have about 6 teams each. I don't think that would be good for the league.

 

The difference between Buffalo and these other cities is the ownership. Ralph passed his prime years ago, and it's time he recognized that.

[Bills(70)]

If the Bills leave western NY...Western Ny will die....Be careful what you wish for

What? Western NY will die? You really believe that an NFL sports franchise makes this area what it is?

Man o Man, this area is in trouble. This area also has a professional hockey team.

 

In my humble opinion, this city is a hockeytown, not as strong as a football town. I would not like the Bills to leave either, but I cannot subscribe to the fact the Bills have a significant impact on the local economy. If companies made a decision to come to an area and used the Bills as a significant entertainment reason I certainly don't see the economic facts supporting this.

[bananathumb]

A nicely summarized elegy, Kiper's Hair, depressing but accurate. I don't like the word "deserve", but it is probably reality that the old dog won't recover.

[Guest dog14787]

I agree that it isn't as dire as some people make it out to be. There are cities with NFL teams like Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Green Bay, and Kansas City that are all smaller than New York City, Dallas, Washington DC, and etc. But they have extremely passionate fans, and they represent a region more than just a concentrated big city. If NFL teams were located in the most populated areas, California and Texas would have about 6 teams each. I don't think that would be good for the league.

 

The difference between Buffalo and these other cities is the ownership. Ralph passed his prime years ago, and it's time he recognized that.

 

 

RW's recent plan to right the ship with Marv Levy was a good one to most folks as was Tom Donohoe at the time and now Ralph cleans house and tries to get the best money can buy. So I don't understand why folks think RW is making bad decisions when Marv Levy whom he trusted is the one responsible for leaving Buffalo without a real GM to run the organization.

[Cynical]

RW's recent plan to right the ship with Marv Levy was a good one to most folks as was Tom Donohoe at the time and now Ralph cleans house and tries to get the best money can buy. So I don't understand why folks think RW is making bad decisions when Marv Levy whom he trusted is the one responsible for leaving Buffalo without a real GM to run the organization.

 

IIRC, when Levy stepped down as GM, it was revealed Marv signed a contract for only 2 years.

Why should the finger of blame be pointed at Levy when the team belongs to Ralph?

Ralph knew he had only 2 years to find a real GM.

[CodeMonkey]

I Billieve...

Well, that is something that there is no arguing with

[Guest dog14787]

IIRC, when Levy stepped down as GM, it was revealed Marv signed a contract for only 2 years.

Why should the finger of blame be pointed at Levy when the team belongs to Ralph?

Ralph knew he had only 2 years to find a real GM.

 

 

Marv Levy should have found a replacement instead of coming up with some boneheaded idea that Russ Brandon could handle the GM duties.

[OvrOfficiousJerk]

What a great showing of Buffalo's inferiority complex, when we realize we don't deserve something that's been in the fabric of our community for five decades. Instead of looking what's wrong with us, I'd say there's something wrong with the system in general. The country as a whole is quickly descending into an obese, overmedicated, triple-mortgaged, underachieving mediocrity. In this climate, I would NEVER want to "keep up with the Jones's," so to speak and build a new stadium because that's' what everyone else is doing. The last thing So Cal should be doing with a budget decifict the size of the Pacific is building a new stadium that will pour billions of dollars in something that will only get a small return for the community as a whole and continue to concentrate wealth in persons who are about as relevant as the inventor of the snuggie and the lead writer of CSI: Albequerque.

 

With few exceptions, we're the only market in the league where a working class joe can take his kids to see the game, where kids in their late-teens/early twenties can afford to tailgate and watch the game

 

The only reason why we're having this conversation that "we don't deserve a team? is that we don't have to take out a mortgage to buy a gallon of milk, we don't drive around in Audis, we can reasonably afford the houses we live in, we have a sustainable standard of living.

 

Don't blame our city, blame the system.

[Kipers Hair]

Don't blame our city, blame the system.

I don't believe these two are mutually exclusive. Unless Buffalo is going to rewrite the informal rules that guide where viable coaching, administrative and valued free agents would like to play, the system merely magnifies the inadequacies of Buffalo as a viable major league market.

 

Let me be clear - I would like nothing more than to see WNY and the Bills in WNY thrive once more, but I do not see it as reality. My annointing the Sabres as a more likely candidate to succeed in WNY (and to pin hopes on) is by design. You see the value systems of those successful in hockey are more the general fabric of the society of WNY - blue collar, working class persona whom were given nothing and earned their keep. Football players and the culture of the NFL (and that which feeds the coaching ranks) is glitz and glammor where the lack of any kind of moral foundation will be ignored if you can run a 4.2 40.

 

Perhaps my original thought was misunderstood - Buffalo is a good city and has nothing to be ashamed of. That said, I believe the NFL and what it takes to succeed in the NFL has changed drastically and the city offers no draw to those talented enough to be a valued commodity in the league. An unpopular thought to be sure, however, current history has shown this to be true. I even believe Mr. Wilson would echo this sentiment - the area has simply been too good to him for him to sell or move the team. He'll let this occur post mortem.

[BillnutinHouston]

What a great showing of Buffalo's inferiority complex, when we realize we don't deserve something that's been in the fabric of our community for five decades. Instead of looking what's wrong with us, I'd say there's something wrong with the system in general. The country as a whole is quickly descending into an obese, overmedicated, triple-mortgaged, underachieving mediocrity. In this climate, I would NEVER want to "keep up with the Jones's," so to speak and build a new stadium because that's' what everyone else is doing. The last thing So Cal should be doing with a budget decifict the size of the Pacific is building a new stadium that will pour billions of dollars in something that will only get a small return for the community as a whole and continue to concentrate wealth in persons who are about as relevant as the inventor of the snuggie and the lead writer of CSI: Albequerque.

 

With few exceptions, we're the only market in the league where a working class joe can take his kids to see the game, where kids in their late-teens/early twenties can afford to tailgate and watch the game

 

The only reason why we're having this conversation that "we don't deserve a team? is that we don't have to take out a mortgage to buy a gallon of milk, we don't drive around in Audis, we can reasonably afford the houses we live in, we have a sustainable standard of living.

 

Don't blame our city, blame the system.

 

Bravo sir! When our economy really collapses, the wisdom of your words will become apparent. We are living in unsustainable fantasy and as soon as the Chinese get tired of financing the ScooterStore scooters that you can get "at no cost to you", we will come to see the wisdom of your words.

[OvrOfficiousJerk]

You see the value systems of those successful in hockey are more the general fabric of the society of WNY - blue collar, working class persona whom were given nothing and earned their keep. Football players and the culture of the NFL (and that which feeds the coaching ranks) is glitz and glammor where the lack of any kind of moral foundation will be ignored if you can run a 4.2 40.

 

Perhaps my original thought was misunderstood - Buffalo is a good city and has nothing to be ashamed of. That said, I believe the NFL and what it takes to succeed in the NFL has changed drastically and the city offers no draw to those talented enough to be a valued commodity in the league. An unpopular thought to be sure, however, current history has shown this to be true. I even believe Mr. Wilson would echo this sentiment - the area has simply been too good to him for him to sell or move the team. He'll let this occur post mortem.

 

+1, Kipers Hair. I really like how you broke down the culture of the NHL and how you don't see that in the NFL anymore. Kelsay had a quote a couple years back about how he wanted to give the blue-collar people of Buffalo a return on their investment in him, how that was a draw for him to do better, but that sort of mentality as you said has disappeared for most of the top echelon in the league.

 

I saw this mentality in grad school, as I'm doing graduate work in Cleveland. Young people would opt to go to an inferior school in a major metropolis than go to a better school in a rust belt city where you're more likely to get a better education and save some money during your lean income-less years. The NFL just mirrors the general sentiment of our nation's overall lifestyle.