Buffalo Bills 2014 Preseason: Bills at Steelers 7:30pm Sat. 8/16/14

[JThorne]

"Tradition" is for teams like the Packers and Steelers. And they don't have cheerleaders.

Totally agree. Never been a fan of professional sports having cheerleaders. And on that topic, how many people actually "cheer" because of the cheers performed? Maybe at high school games. But at pro games? They're just eyecandy, sadly.

 

[MayDay]

Cheerleading is a tradition best suited to high school and college, where it can plausibly be justified as a way for the student body to partake in boosterism.

At the pro level though, it just comes across as unseemly and exploitative. Eye candy for drunk male fans to leer at in between plays.

Gives me a skeevy feeling, like eating at a Hooters.

 

[Taro Tsujimoto]

FCC's making some type of announcement here today at 1:

The future of the federal government’s sports television blackout rules could become clearer today thanks to an announcement set for this afternoon from a visiting FCC commissioner and Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai – who was born in Buffalo – was set to join Higgins, Bradley Blakeman of the Sports Fans Coalition and Del Reid of the Buffalo Fan Alliance for the 1 p.m. announcement.

The Federal Communications Commission voted last December to eliminate the blackout rules, but that vote opened a months-long public comment period that the agency had to set before making a final decision.

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/fcc-to-make-announcement-here-on-sports-blackouts-20140812

 

[joshjull]

Cheerleading is a tradition best suited to high school and college, where it can plausibly be justified as a way for the student body to partake in boosterism.

At the pro level though, it just comes across as unseemly and exploitative. Eye candy for drunk male fans to leer at in between plays.

Gives me a skeevy feeling, like eating at a Hooters.

To add to that feeling, a few teams are trying to make it possible for fans to "order" a cheerleader to their seats during the game. What could possibly go wrong with that?

 

[joshjull]

I can play this game, too!

"It(sic) sounding more and more like Vaportrail doesn't know about maximizing profits but just how many posts they can put up.....What a joke."

Who cares who is in the bidding? The ONLY thing that matters is who the next owner is. If you're a homophobe and selling your house, would you prevent gay people from bidding on it to drive up the selling price? Especially when it will be taxed down to a much lower figure? Come on, man!

This doesn't even go on to talk about Ralph being the one who was always adamant about keeping the Bills here. For all we know, he and his wife fought over this issue for 50 years.

I call BS on that. He could have very easily ensured that happened. Over the last several years there were various ways it could have been accomplished. Addressing the here and now, he may have put previsions in his will/trust to ensure it happens. But we don't know if thats the case right now.


And just a fyi he got married in 1999 to his current wife Mary. So its been 15years of possible arguing. There is no evidence she has an issue with keeping the team here. But if she did express an opinion over those 15 years that she didnt' care if the team moved and Wilson left the decision on who to sell the team to to her. Then its even more reason to call BS on him wanting the team to stay.

That said we have no idea right now what was in his will/trust and what provisions were put there in regards to the future of the Bills.

 

[joshjull]

You're entitled to squat. Seriously. They're not even Buffalo residents. Stop acting like you deserve the greatest owner ever. Even if you were a season ticket holder from day one, you are owed nothing. If you want to change that, make your money and buy your own team. Edit: or stop following said team.


And to show you that Wilson isn't rich just because he's an owner:

How He Got Rich: After World War II, Wilson took over his father’s insurance company, and went on to purchase manufacturing plants, trucking companies, highway construction firms, TV and radio stations, and other businesses in the Detroit area and across the country. Much of this was under the purview of Ralph Wilson Enterprises, an early example of the megalomaniacal naming habits that would later breed Ralph Wilson Stadium.

From http://mentalfloss.com/article/52598/how-owners-all-32-nfl-teams-made-their-money\


Not one thing about his life was a "gravy walk" because of his owning the Bills. If anything, the guy lost money by keeping them in WNY. He definitely didn't do it for notoriety. Guy didn't even live in WNY to receive accolades.

Please. He has made money hand over first with this franchise. Could he have made more money elsewhere? Certainly. But by phrasing it "he lost money keeping the team in WNY" implies this silly idea that he kept the team here out of love for the community. That he didn't make money but in fact lost money to ensure it stayed. Thats simply not the case at all. He's made tens of millions of dollars from the franchise in the last several years alone.

He has blackmailed this community for years with threats to leave if he didn't get the terms he wanted in leases. With those terms he was able to maximize the revenue from the team itself. He has a rent free/debt free stadium that he pays little to nothing to maintain or improve since the county/state handles that. But he gets almost all of the revenue. Ironically he didn't fully maximize his profits since he he would't sell the naming rights to the stadium after the Rich products agreement expired. He also didn't set up anything to have as many events as possible at the stadium to bring in further revenue. He had to feed his ego with the name of the stadium and didn't care about having more events there because he was already raking in the cash on the team itself.

He's also been a tightwad control freak the majority of his ownership of the team. Getting lucky that one of his cheap hires (Polian) turned out to be a great GM. Then fired him over control of team moves. Once everyone Polian had a connection to had left the front office (Butler, AJ Smith) we went back to the joke franchise we were before Polian came here. The last 10+ years is back to the norm for this franchise.

 

[Sports Enthusiast]

Thad > EJ

I hope Moron realizes that sooner rather than later

Stealing my post thought lol. He's the only guy that doesn't know it. Honestly they have a very similar build but Lewis seems to have a much stronger and accurate arm and that makes the difference. Team was mostly successful when he started.

 

[Sports Enthusiast]

Sammy Watkins is ridiculous! https://vine.co/v/MVEII2WiWQZ

If only he could do that in a game setting.....but you do need a QB that can throw...

 

[Sports Enthusiast]

You guys are funny.

EJ throws to his first read - He needs to look off receivers.

He goes through his progressions and the O line doesn't hold their blocks - he held on to it too long.



If he plays like that on a consistent basis, the Bills are in good shape.

He had one decent play to Chris Hogan...where was the defender? I have no faith in him. I'd take Derek Anderson over him.

 

[Paxon]

Please. He has made money hand over first with this franchise. Could he have made more money elsewhere? Certainly. But by phrasing it "he lost money keeping the team in WNY" implies this silly idea that he kept the team here out of love for the community. That he didn't make money but in fact lost money to ensure it stayed. Thats simply not the case at all. He's made tens of millions of dollars from the franchise in the last several years alone.

Money not made is the same as money lost. If he indeed could have practically made more money with the team elsewhere, then he made less money to keep the team here, ergo he lost money keeping the team here.

 

[JThorne]

Money not made is the same as money lost. If he indeed could have practically made more money with the team elsewhere, then he made less money to keep the team here, ergo he lost money keeping the team here.

Someone gets it at least.

 

[MayDay]

Money not made is the same as money lost.

That's only true for people who's purpose in life is to collect every last cent they possibly can. And that is in fact the purpose of corporations, but a private individual (such as an NFL owner) may or may not have that as their only priority.

I'm earning a comfortable living in a field I enjoy. I could probably be earning more if I had decided to go into another field, such as law or finance or medicine. But I don't consider the difference between the money I make and the money I could potentially have made in a different field, to be the same as money I've lost. Because that's insane.

 

[Paxon]

That's only true for people who's purpose in life is to collect every last cent they possibly can. And that is in fact the purpose of corporations, but a private individual (such as an NFL owner) may or may not have that as their only priority.

I'm earning a comfortable living in a field I enjoy. I could probably be earning more if I had decided to go into another field, such as law or finance or medicine. But I don't consider the difference between the money I make and the money I could potentially have made in a different field, to be the same as money I've lost. Because that's insane.

Your analogy is ridiculous as intended, but so is the attempt to compare it to what I said. We're talking about a single decision: where to base his NFL franchise. He could have chosen to relocate it and he chose not to. This isn't some silly thought experiment, it's a simple choice he made and in doing so would have lost money by way of making less, if it is in fact true he would have made more money elsewhere, which I think we mostly all accept as the case. Your different career paths are total unknowns, you have no idea what you would have made if you'd made different broad choices in your life, whereas you can do a pretty thorough economic study to see how the fairly safe bet of the modern era NFL franchise would project to a market.

As to the bit about it only being true for people who prioritize making money, no, that isn't the case. It's universally true, the same as saying that adding a negative is the same as subtracting. Whether that "matters" or not is an issue of what you prioritize. It's especially beside the point seeing as how the argument is that Ralph didn't fully prioritize making money, and I said what I did to illustrate that if he did prioritize making money above all else then he would have moved the team to make even more money, instead he kept the team here and lost nearly concrete potential earnings.

 

[MayDay]

Your analogy is ridiculous as intended, but so is the attempt to compare it to what I said. We're talking about a single decision: where to base his NFL franchise. He could have chosen to relocate it and he chose not to. This isn't some silly thought experiment, it's a simple choice he made and in doing so would have lost money by way of making less, if it is in fact true he would have made more money elsewhere, which I think we mostly all accept as the case. Your different career paths are total unknowns, you have no idea what you would have made if you'd made different broad choices in your life, whereas you can do a pretty thorough economic study to see how the fairly safe bet of the modern era NFL franchise would project to a market.

As to the bit about it only being true for people who prioritize making money, no, that isn't the case. It's universally true, the same as saying that adding a negative is the same as subtracting. Whether that "matters" or not is an issue of what you prioritize. It's especially beside the point seeing as how the argument is that Ralph didn't fully prioritize making money, and I said what I did to illustrate that if he did prioritize making money above all else then he would have moved the team to make even more money, instead he kept the team here and lost nearly concrete potential earnings.

It's just wrong.

Ralph didn't lose money owning the Bills. He made a metric crapload of money owning the Bills. That's just a fact.

Could he have made more in another city? Probably. But making less money than you might be able to make under other circumstance is simply not the same thing as losing money. It's just not.

 

[Kublakhan]

from the owners down to the player all they ever do is thank the 12th man, thank you fans, without you we could not be here ...blaaa...blaaa...blaaa..

That is until it become time to REALLY give the fans back something lol Now you are just ends to the means, the period on a very long spread sheet

 

[Paxon]

It's just wrong.

Ralph didn't lose money owning the Bills. He made a metric crapload of money owning the Bills. That's just a fact.

Could he have made more in another city? Probably. But making less money than you might be able to make under other circumstance is simply not the same thing as losing money. It's just not.

It's not wrong. I didn't say he "lost money owning the Bills", I said, if it's true that he would have made more money in another market, then he lost money by way of limiting profits by keeping the Bills in Buffalo.

You're getting hung up on rationalizing through familiar semantics rather than thinking of this from a logical economic perspective. To simplify, let's say with certainty that he would make $5m in profit a year from the Bills in Buffalo and $10m a year from the Bills on Mars, and that he could have easily moved the team to Mars. Those are two choices, one returns him $50m over 10 years, one returns him $100m over 10 years. By choosing the former option over the latter, he'd lose out on $50m dollars over a 10 year period. It's a very simple concept. If you still don't accept it then I'm not going to bother arguing in response.

 

[MayDay]

It's not wrong. I didn't say he "lost money owning the Bills", I said, if it's true that he would have made more money in another market, then he lost money by way of limiting profits by keeping the Bills in Buffalo.

You're getting hung up on rationalizing through familiar semantics rather than thinking of this from a logical economic perspective. To simplify, let's say with certainty that he would make $5m in profit a year from the Bills in Buffalo and $10m a year from the Bills on Mars, and that he could have easily moved the team to Mars. Those are two choices, one returns him $50m over 10 years, one returns him $100m over 10 years. By choosing the former option over the latter, he'd lose out on $50m dollars over a 10 year period. It's a very simple concept. If you still don't accept it then I'm not going to bother arguing in response.

I agree with you that he could have made more money elsewhere, I just disagree with you about thinking of it is "money he lost."

That's not money he lost. It's just money he didn't get. I don't think it's just semantics; I think it's an important distinction.

I think it's preposterous to say that Ralph lost money (in any sense of the word) as a result of owning the Bills in Buffalo. The Bills and Buffalo made Ralph very very very rich.

 

[Ness]

Am I the only person who is rooting for EJ to succeed? The guy played nine...NINE NFL games last season as a rookie. He doesn't even have 16 games under his belt yet. He has the physical tools to succeed, he just needs time to put it all together. Get comfortable with him as the Bills starter for the next two seasons, at least. He's going to be given every chance to succeed, and I hope he does. He brings a charismatic leadership approach to the quarterback position that Buffalo hasn't had in a long, long time.

 

[joshjull]

Money not made is the same as money lost. If he indeed could have practically made more money with the team elsewhere, then he made less money to keep the team here, ergo he lost money keeping the team here.

Thanks for the condescending lesson.

The poster I quoted put it out there that Wilson took a hit staying here. Implying some sort of civic duty and not making money as the motive for keeping the team here. You want to play semantics judo explaining to me the simple idea that if he made more else where its money lost. Go ahead. My main point was Wilson stayed here because he had strong control over his lease and also made tons of money here. Two things that a tightwad controlling owner like Wilson would love.

At the end of the day Wilson didn't pass up some cash cow in another city because he felt dedicated to this area.

Not to mention in the generic its a wonderful hypothetical. That he would certainly make more money elsewhere. But when you get into specifics its hard to find a city that doesn't already have a NFL team that would have been a better situation. Nor a place that would bend over like this one did for him. In reality I doubt a controlling tightwad like Wilson could have had a better situation than the one he had here. One where he can make money hand over fist with a crap product for the last 13 years.

Also the idea that he wasn't all about the money because he chose to stay here and pass on that alleged pot of gold elsewhere is another fable some posters like to tell.

EDIT: I know you didn't bring all of these topics up. I'm just venting.

 

[Paxon]

Thanks for the condescending lesson.

The poster I quoted put it out there that Wilson took a hit staying here. Implying some sort of civic duty and not making money as the motive for keeping the team here. You want to play semantics judo explaining to me the simple idea that if he made more else where its money lost. Go ahead. My main point was Wilson stayed here because he had strong control over his lease and also made tons of money here. Two things that a tightwad controlling owner like Wilson would love.

At the end of the day Wilson didn't pass up some cash cow in another city because he felt dedicated to this area.

Not to mention in the generic its a wonderful hypothetical. That he would certainly make more money elsewhere. But when you get into specifics its hard to find a city that doesn't already have a NFL team that would have been a better situation. Nor a place that would bend over like this one did for him. In reality I doubt a controlling tightwad like Wilson could have had a better situation than the one he had here. One where he can make money hand over fist with a crap product for the last 13 years.

You're speculating as to why Wilson stayed here and I'm not. If you don't accept that he would have made more money elsewhere then there's nothing to argue with me about. I said if it were the case then he lost money in his choice to keep the Bills here. I didn't speculate as to why he would have made that choice, nor do I care. If he's such a tightwad in all things then why did he not sell naming rights to his stadium? Ego? Did he keep the team here out of ego, the sense of importance and control he had with the Bills? I don't know or care, though personally that would be my guess. The reasons are irrelevant to me though as it's not like I see him as a saint.

Circling back to the original point someone made that his estate owes the area anything because he made money off the area is crap. He could have moved the team if he desired and made money off another area, just as the new owners may, and he chose not to. Nothing is owed.

 

[Mit Yarrum]

Am I the only person who is rooting for EJ to succeed? The guy played nine...NINE NFL games last season as a rookie. He doesn't even have 16 games under his belt yet.

No, you're not alone.

 

[OkimLom]

Am I the only person who is rooting for EJ to succeed? The guy played nine...NINE NFL games last season as a rookie. He doesn't even have 16 games under his belt yet. He has the physical tools to succeed, he just needs time to put it all together. Get comfortable with him as the Bills starter for the next two seasons, at least. He's going to be given every chance to succeed, and I hope he does. He brings a charismatic leadership approach to the quarterback position that Buffalo hasn't had in a long, long time.

Seems like it, doesn't it? I'm on your side, I think he has the tools to be successful. I just think Bills Management screwed up by not giving him time on the bench to learn from a vet and apparently Stevie agreed in his most recent interview.

I think a harder thrown ball would help in his game. I think he reads the play but his soft thrown ball is easier to intercept, to bat down at the line, or miss the timing. He needs to step into his throws.

He doesn't need to be a Franchise QB because he has a defense and the tools to help him out. He has two Solid to really good WR's in Woods and Watkins and a wild card in Williams, he has two or three really good RB's and he has an improving line with potentially their best lineman in Glenn coming back.

It's funny how black and white people are towards EJ

 

[SoFFacet]

Seems like it, doesn't it? I'm on your side, I think he has the tools to be successful. I just think Bills Management screwed up by not giving him time on the bench to learn from a vet and apparently Stevie agreed in his most recent interview.

I think a harder thrown ball would help in his game. I think he reads the play but his soft thrown ball is easier to intercept, to bat down at the line, or miss the timing. He needs to step into his throws.

He doesn't need to be a Franchise QB because he has a defense and the tools to help him out. He has two Solid to really good WR's in Woods and Watkins and a wild card in Williams, he has two or three really good RB's and he has an improving line with potentially their best lineman in Glenn coming back.

It's funny how black and white people are towards EJ

I obviously wish him the best, because if he does not put it together soon an entire roster full of actually decent players is about to go to waste. But my opinion of him is becoming steadily more jaded for exactly the reasons that you describe. The bar that he must reach is incredibly low. If he is just the 25th best QB in the NFL this year the team can probably go .500.

But he constantly looks timid, slow, and inaccurate. I know he was regarded as a project from the beginning, but honestly this is the development track of a UDFA, not a 16th OA pick.

 

[Girgensons28]

Am I the only person who is rooting for EJ to succeed? The guy played nine...NINE NFL games last season as a rookie. He doesn't even have 16 games under his belt yet. He has the physical tools to succeed, he just needs time to put it all together. Get comfortable with him as the Bills starter for the next two seasons, at least. He's going to be given every chance to succeed, and I hope he does. He brings a charismatic leadership approach to the quarterback position that Buffalo hasn't had in a long, long time.

None of that matters because he doesn't have enough talent to be more than a decent QB. He was a second to third round talent that the Bills took at 16. He's not accurate, and doesn't go through his progressions. Hell FSU had a freshmen come in and he accomplished more in one year than EJ did in his whole time in college.

 

[26CornerBlitz]

CAPACCIO: When is the QB Staring Down a WR?

“What defensive back are we putting into conflict?â€

Remember that phrase as we go along in this piece. Then, remember it every time you watch a pass play in the NFL.

There’s been a lot of talk and debate lately about QBs staring down receivers. Of course, here in Buffalo, specifically about how often EJ Manuel is doing or not doing it. Almost every time he drops back, completion, incompletion, or interception, I read analysis that says he stared down his receiver and rebuttals that say he didn’t. What’s true and what’s not? Well, as with most armchair analysis in sports, the truth lies somewhere in between. Sometimes EJ definitely stares down a receiver. And sometimes he gets accused of it when it’s simply not true.

We all know what staring down a receiver means. A QB looks at his target for a (too long) period of time that allows a defender to see where he is going with the ball and then make a play on it. Sometimes, EJ Manuel is totally guilty of this. It was a knock on him by some coming out of Florida State, and many show how they believe he’s continued to do it. So sometimes, that’s still a fair criticism, but other times, it’s unfair and not at all what it seems.

There are several reasons for false criticisms of a QB staring down a receiver. Here are a few of the most common: