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"The Mad Bomber" Lamonica weighs in on JA17


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1 hour ago, Buffalo716 said:

@2020 Our Year For Sure

 

1) Won 2 AFL championships

2) made OJ highest paid NFL player

3) Made Jim highest paid NFL player

4) 90s Bills were called million dollar bills

5) Derrick Dockery became Highest paid NFL guard

6) Mario Williams became Highest paid defender in league history

7) Gave Dareus 100 million dollars

? HoF owner

 

None of that equals cheap or not trying.. it's called he spent money on the wrong people

 

Made OJ the highest paid in the 70s, Jim in the 80s , Mario Highest paid defender when he signed..  he always threw around money just not at the right people

 

Literally HE IS THE BILLS

           It seems forgotten that he bailed out the Raiders in the early years of the AFL.

 

https://www.silverandblackpride.com/2014/3/25/5547182/oakland-raiders-wouldnt-exist-without-ralph-wilson

Edited by Greybeard
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2 hours ago, Marv's Neighbor said:

 

You don't find nice neighbors like that anymore.  Did your Mom have a laugh about that?

I have great neighbors.  When I was away Thanksgiving week we had almost 2 feet of snow and my next door neighbor cleared my driveway & walkway.  He also had done that when I was sick in the winter of 2017-18 and couldn't clean my driveway until March 2018.  

 

My mother told that story the rest of her life and laughed about it, although at the time she was pretty mad at me for not getting their friend's name. 

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2 hours ago, Buffalo716 said:

Hahahahah Ralph made OJ the highest paid player in the NFL, made Jim Kelly the highest paid NFL player. 

 

The early 90s teams were called the million dollar bills... The early 2000s Ralph made Derrick dockery the highest paid guard in NFL history

 

Few years later made Mario Williams the highest paid defensive player in NFL history

 

And he kept the Bills here for like 50 years...

 

That's the most ignorant opinion ever and Ralph IS THE BUFFALO BILLS

Come on man!  Sure you can be grateful to Ralph for keeping the team in Buffalo, but to deny he was a little tight with his money and did some very strange things as owner is just selective memory.

 

For most of the Bills 1st 30 years Ralph was cheap and the typical cycle was the team was bad, attendance suffered, Ralph saw all the empty seats and decided he had to spend money, the team got to be pretty good, Ralph alienated the person most responsible for the team being good, the alienated guy left, the team got bad again and attendance suffered, Ralph realized he had to spend $ and hired new people, the team got good again-rinse & repeat.  

These are some of the things Ralph did in those 1st 30 years and then some afterwards: 

 

In the 1960s there was the whole debacle where Ralph neutered John Rauch to the point Rauch quit in preseason.  

 

OJ held out before signing that rich contract.  Ralph had little choice but to pay OJ, who was the face of the franchise.

 

The Bills became the 1st & only team in NFL history to lose a bidding war for the services of the #1 overall pick in the NFL draft to the CFL when Tom Cousineau signed with Montreal.  This led to Chuck Knox being pretty angry and was the 1st thing that led to Knox's leaving after the 1982 season.   

 

Ralph never had success with head coaches in their 1st head coaching job.  That's because he was too cheap and for years had coaches at the bottom of the NFL's coaching pay scale.  Either the coach was a retread in need of a job or was a guy he could get away paying peanuts to.  The exceptions were when the team got really bad and nobody was going to the games, then he'd spend $ for a guy like Chuck Knox.  He had a lot of cheap coaches over the years.  He got lucky when he hired Polian who was close to Levy, but even Levy originally came at a discounted price.  

 

When the USFL was around, he lost his starting RB Joe Cribbs and Jim Kelly because he was outbid.  He only made Kelly the highest paid QB because he had to either sign Kelly or stare at 40,000 empty seats on Sundays.  The Bills lost 3 years of Kelly's career because of Ralphs miserly ways.  

 

Even after the success that the 1990s Bills had, he fired Bill Polian, the unquestioned greatest GM in Bills history, because Polian didn't want to have to listen to "scout" Linda Bogdan, Ralph's daughter.  

 

Hiring Marv Levy & Buddy Nix as GMs: come on man!  

 

Yes Ralph did a lot of good, but his cheap & meddling ways led to a lot of seasons where the Bills were the NFL's laughingstock, especially in the 1st 30 years of the franchise.   I'm sure if I wanted to go through the Bills history I could find a lot more examples than the few I listed.  If you have the time get a copy of Relentless and read through it & then come back and tell us that Ralph wasn't cheap & didn't meddle far too much.  

 

 

 

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Just now, Albany,n.y. said:

Come on man!  Sure you can be grateful to Ralph for keeping the team in Buffalo, but to deny he was a little tight with his money and did some very strange things as owner is just selective memory.

 

For most of the Bills 1st 30 years Ralph was cheap and the typical cycle was the team was bad, attendance suffered, Ralph saw all the empty seats and decided he had to spend money, the team got to be pretty good, Ralph alienated the person most responsible for the team being good, the alienated guy left, the team got bad again and attendance suffered, Ralph realized he had to spend $ and hired new people, the team got good again-rinse & repeat.  

These are some of the things Ralph did in those 1st 30 years and then some afterwards: 

 

In the 1960s there was the whole debacle where Ralph neutered John Rauch to the point Rauch quit in preseason.  

 

OJ held out before signing that rich contract.  Ralph had little choice but to pay OJ, who was the face of the franchise.

 

The Bills became the 1st & only team in NFL history to lose a bidding war for the services of the #1 overall pick in the NFL draft to the CFL when Tom Cousineau signed with Montreal.  This led to Chuck Knox being pretty angry and was the 1st thing that led to Knox's leaving after the 1982 season.   

 

Ralph never had success with head coaches in their 1st head coaching job.  That's because he was too cheap and for years had coaches at the bottom of the NFL's coaching pay scale.  Either the coach was a retread in need of a job or was a guy he could get away paying peanuts to.  The exceptions were when the team got really bad and nobody was going to the games, then he'd spend $ for a guy like Chuck Knox.  He had a lot of cheap coaches over the years.  He got lucky when he hired Polian who was close to Levy, but even Levy originally came at a discounted price.  

 

When the USFL was around, he lost his starting RB Joe Cribbs and Jim Kelly because he was outbid.  He only made Kelly the highest paid QB because he had to either sign Kelly or stare at 40,000 empty seats on Sundays.  The Bills lost 3 years of Kelly's career because of Ralphs miserly ways.  

 

Even after the success that the 1990s Bills had, he fired Bill Polian, the unquestioned greatest GM in Bills history, because Polian didn't want to have to listen to "scout" Linda Bogdan, Ralph's daughter.  

 

Hiring Marv Levy & Buddy Nix as GMs: come on man!  

 

Yes Ralph did a lot of good, but his cheap & meddling ways led to a lot of seasons where the Bills were the NFL's laughingstock, especially in the 1st 30 years of the franchise.   I'm sure if I wanted to go through the Bills history I could find a lot more examples than the few I listed.  If you have the time get a copy of Relentless and read through it & then come back and tell us that Ralph wasn't cheap & didn't meddle far too much.  

 

 

 

No I don't agree and continuing to throw the word cheap around when he kept the team here is classless

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1 minute ago, Buffalo716 said:

No I don't agree and continuing to throw the word cheap around when he kept the team here is classless

No it's not.  Ralph was cheap and to deny it is revisionist history-class has nothing to do with stating historical facts.  You really need to get that copy of Relentless to see the many things he did that resulted in many losing seasons.  

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10 minutes ago, Albany,n.y. said:

No it's not.  Ralph was cheap and to deny it is revisionist history-class has nothing to do with stating historical facts.  You really need to get that copy of Relentless to see the many things he did that resulted in many losing seasons.  

He could've sold us years ago and there would be no Bills

 

Ralph wasn't a perfect owner but I made plenty of valid points in earlier posts

 

I'm not arguing this point anymore because your bashing a dead man who loved my city

Edited by Buffalo716
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Jumping on a dead man’s grave is never a good idea.  Ralph had his share of faults but Buffalo is a major league city because of him, he had lasting impact on the league as supported by him being in the HOF, and his charitable contributions to many in WNY are a fitting legacy.

 

But as to the Mad Bomber, I used to go to Cardinal O’Hara with my dad every year to watch the Bills off-season basketball team play the faculty in a charity game.  My dad reffed the games each year, so I would get to hang out in the locker room with the players.  Lamonica was a really nice guy, easy for a little kid to talk to as were most all the guys.  That trade was a nightmare.

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10 minutes ago, oldmanfan said:

Jumping on a dead man’s grave is never a good idea.  Ralph had his share of faults but Buffalo is a major league city because of him, he had lasting impact on the league as supported by him being in the HOF, and his charitable contributions to many in WNY are a fitting legacy.

 

 

Wherever Ralph turned, the grass was getting greener -- over there...and there...and there.  But his heart kept the team in a shrinking market when his wallet urged him to move.

Ralph was a complex man, a hard-headed man, and nobody's fool.  Say it however you might, Buffalo has been exceedingly lucky and/or blessed to have the Wilsons and now the Pegulas.  

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6 hours ago, 4_kidd_4 said:

“JA17”?

 

We’re, uh, doin that now? 


YE OLE can hear the post game pressers now...
 

Sal: Josh, can you walk us through that play right at the end of the half... what was going on there?

 

Josh Allen: “Overall JA17 played a pretty solid game out there, but obviously JA17 might want to have that play back...”

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2 hours ago, Blue on Blue said:

 

Wherever Ralph turned, the grass was getting greener -- over there...and there...and there.  But his heart kept the team in a shrinking market when his wallet urged him to move.

Ralph was a complex man, a hard-headed man, and nobody's fool.  Say it however you might, Buffalo has been exceedingly lucky and/or blessed to have the Wilsons and now the Pegulas.  

Ralph was an “old money” kind of a guy. The type of wealthy man of which few exist these days. He was never flashy or concerned with trying to outspend others. That mentality differentiated him from what the NFL had become, but I truly believe his heart was in the right place, and that can be a rare trait. 

Edited by SirAndrew
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16 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

I remember when trading Lamonica used to be the biggest personnel mistake in Bills history.

 

He had a hell of a run in Oakland but never won them a SB.

During his run in Oakland,  the Bills were terrible.   It was really difficult to see him do so well in black and silver. 

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19 hours ago, Marv's Neighbor said:

That was one of the early QB controversies.  Daryl & Jack Kemp.  Who should start, who should finish, who's better, etc. etc.  A lot of very animated bar conversation out of that.

I was only 10...

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23 hours ago, Albany,n.y. said:

 When the USFL was around, he lost his starting RB Joe Cribbs and Jim Kelly because he was outbid.  He only made Kelly the highest paid QB because he had to either sign Kelly or stare at 40,000 empty seats on Sundays.  The Bills lost 3 years of Kelly's career because of Ralphs miserly ways.

 

 

The USFL was run into the ground because they spent lavishly on players to directly compete with the NFL, Donald Trump chief amongst the offenders.

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