Two Bills Drive

‘Ken Irvin suffered a torn ligament in his left ankle toward the end of last season. He has been rehabilitating it throughout the off-season. The June mini-camp was his first real action in more than six months. The ankle passed the test. Here is a Q&A with Irvin from Day 1 of June mini-camp.’

‘When the Buffalo Bills hold training camp at St. John Fisher College this summer, academic performance will get attention on the same field as athletic prowess. Fisher will use the training camp to help launch a new department that is designed to prepare students for careers in the big business of sports, a broad category that includes high school athletic directors, marketers of clothing, managers of fitness clubs and executives with professional teams.’

‘[Martin] Bayless, however, is also a man of action and perseverance. He played with the Bills and four other teams over the course of a 12-year National Football League career but it’s what he has accomplished off the field that made him an attractive recruit by team management to fill the void of director of player development/special projects. Just what job is that you wonder? It is one all NFL teams, in light of the very disturbing series of arrests and allegations against numerous players, is taking quite seriously. In the past such hires would come about in a press release and in a wire transaction note. Now, the NFL wants these jobs to be more high profile. Thus, when the Bills announced Bayless, general manager John Butler was there and coach Wade Phillips presented Bayless as the replacement for Jerry Butler, who left the Bills and the post vacant over a year ago when he took a coaching job with the Cleveland Browns.’

‘Chris Spielman, a former Ohio State All-American, had been sidelined from the Buffalo Bills with a neck injury and was about to announce he was taking a year off to be with his wife and two young children.’

‘The Bills’ final mini-camp practice was its fastest. It appeared that their entire 11-on-11 session was entirely a two-minute drill, but in reality it was more like a double-time march up and down the field.’

‘The new administrative building is in the final stages of interior finishing. This state of the art facility was provided for by the stadium improvement plan outloined in the lease extension agreement reached in 1998. The original administrative building was constructed at the same time as the stadium. The 1972 structure has been cramped and inadequate for years.’

‘Shout/TBD is starting a new feature, "You Make the Call." We will present for you both real and imagined NFL scenarios, and invite you to "make the call" based on the Official Rules for the NFL for 1999.’

‘Wade Phillips said the June 2000 mini-camp really kicked off the new season for the Bills. He was pleased with the team’s intensity as well as the talent levels of the younger players. This was recorded in Active Audio.’

‘One line, about one minute into the program. That summarizes Buffalo Bills coach Wade Phillips’ appearance on HBO’s "Arli$$" (9:30 p.m. Sunday, pay-cable), the series about a sleazy sports agent.’

‘Pingel was named Player of the Year in the Saint Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference last season after breaking the NCAA all-divisions records for career receptions, career yardage, and career touchdown catches…Pingel, a native of Perryville, graduated cum laude from Westminster College this past May with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Mathematics and Secondary Education.’

‘"One of the greatest professional quarterbacks of all time, Kelly is being honored for his work as co-founder, along with his wife Jill, of Hunter’s Hope Foundation, founded in 1997 after their son, Hunter, was diagnosed with Krabbe Disease."’

‘"We’ve definitely got the talent. If we can get the guys to know the system and be ready to execute, play mistake-free football and stay healthy, I think we’ll have a good year," Cowart said. "It’s going to be very vital that we cut down on mistakes." Added quarterback Doug Flutie: "We’ve got a lot of young guys, it’s how quickly they get comfortable with the game that’s important."’

‘Johnson is the Bills’ man for the foreseeable future. That was settled at the end of last season when he tore apart the Indianapolis Colts in the final regular-season game and then Wade Phillips handed him the starting assignment for the playoff game in Tennessee. The move should have been made weeks before, but the many Flutie loyalists still have the notion that Doug will be able to wrest the job back from Johnson if he outplays him in the summer games. That’s not going to happen.’

‘Before the stabbing, Byrd was projected as an early-round draft pick. After the stabbing, he went undrafted. Now, as a free-agent pickup, he tries to cling to a Bills team replete with openings in the secondary. To do so, the Schenectady native needs to use the speed that made him such an attractive commodity in the first place. Though after the stabbing he lost about two-tenths of a second off his sprinter’s speed – Byrd took a year off from football at Syracuse to run track – he said he still runs around 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash, certainly passable for an NFL cornerback. But Byrd’s natural speed will not alone win him a roster spot. He must use the June minicamp to memorize the Bills’ complicated zone defenses and multiple schemes.’

‘Although he spent his first day of mini-camp mostly observing after re-aggravating a hamstring injury, Bills head coach Wade Phillips took notice of the tools Pingel used to shatter 15 Division III records and seven all-division marks during his four years in Fulton for Westminster. "When you look at that guy and you see the mechanics of catching the football, somebody taught him something somewhere," Phillips told The Buffalo News. "Somebody did a good job with him."’