That Aud Smell

Oy. The absolutely overwhelming majority (in fact, I've never seen reference to a paper to the contrary) of all published and analyzed data unambiguously refutes this concept. Yep. That is what it will come down to. I'm past agonizing over the morality, the fairness, the justness (?), etc. of this scenario. It is what it is. Your town/region/state pays up per the owner's demands (whatever those may be), or the team leaves. Just ask Oakland or, maybe to a lesser degree, St. Louis. Granted, we seem to have a better owner than the ones involved in the Rams and Raiders situations, but ... even so. That's true. That's not really part of equation. It's a simple proposition: Pay up, or say goodbye. The promise of ancillary benefits and development is little more than a fiction. The best Erie County can hope for is (1) a reasonable demand from the Pegulas and (2) a lotta money from NYS.

Fair, true, and accurate points. Which brings me back around to my antipathy for the NFL -- what it is and what it seeks to be. There's no actual economic benefit in the deal for anyone (other than the team and league) -- it's just that warm and fuzzy (I guess?) feeling you get from having your team in town. Blechk. No thanks. I'd sooner move on with my life rather than strike that sort of bargain. But I also know that I'm in a distinct minority on that score. Also, not for nothing, but the "everyone" you reference above is most likely going to be people outside of the 8 counties of WNY. The Pegulas will be looking for NYS money. I'll be curious to see how that plays out. These things are also true. I also think that this is an area of operations where his skill set is a good fit. I just don't like or trust the guy, with regard to the Bills or much of anything else. So I'd much rather see him gone before a big, big decision or set of decisions needs to be made. A guy can dream, after all.

^ That would be entirely consistent with what I'd expect the numbers were/are.

If I have to choose, I want the latter. Because that means he ripped it up this season.

A PM debate over the merits of stadium financing? No thanks. The taxpayer-funding issue isn't even central to my hate for the NFL as a greedy colossus. It's part of the picture, of course. Anyway, I don't know that we'd need to hijack the thread to sketch out why we think taxpayer-supported (or tax-advantaged) subsidies for stadiums is a good or bad idea. Here's my nutshell: There is little to no evidence that stadiums provide any meaningful local economic benefits to the communities where they're built. There have been dozens of to 100+ peer-reviewed studies that have found NO connection between stadiums and benefits to local economies. It very much remains an open question what the Pegulas will do re a new stadium. The one person I want out of the picture when that decision rolls around is Brandon.

Fwiw, Forbes (who does these things) was wrong on just about every number associated with the Pegulas' purchase of the Bills. Also, I mean it when I say: Funking funk the NFL. It is a real estate development association masquerading as a pro sports league. Its avarice is unparalleled. I had to turn off a Sunday night and Monday game -- at Minnesota and at Atlanta, IIRC -- because I could not stomach the knob-polishing the networks were required to do for the largely taxpayer-funded palaces the billionaire owners insisted be built.

Good stuff. Eichel scored a weird off-speed goal against TOR last year, I think. Off a screen, but still. And, of course, there is his famous OT winner. Also a fair point.

23 didn’t play. Neither did 90 nor 21.

That is a supremely weird habit of his -- to string together a sentence or two before stating that a goal was scored.

I'm glad this thread stays open, just so I can append to it now and then with stuff I see out there. There's this from Drew Magary's most recent funbag: Aside from watching their own teams, how much football does your average NFL owner actually watch? I think aside from their own team’s games and maybe a few other games that have playoff implications, not much at all. It explains why someone like Snyder is so terrible at football and always signs players way past their prime. Oh, I think the number of NFL owners who actively enjoy the spot of football is less than half. I bet most of them HATE football. Like, I bet Dean Spanos actively resents having to sit in a luxury booth for three hours every Sunday when he could be at the Beverly Wilshire hobnobbing with actors and talking up five-stars escorts instead. These people only care about football as a delivery device for money and power. Only a handful of them, like the Double J, are invested in the sport itself. On a certain level, that’s actually fine. You’ve seen what happens when an owner actually pays attention to these games. I’d rather have an owner like Paul Allen—who clearly gives no ###### about the sport—than some shitheel like Danny Snyder pretending to be Mr. Football and meddling in everything just to prove something to his dead daddy. No thank you. http://deadspin.com/what-amazing-sports-plays-are-no-longer-special-1818542168

Really good write-up here on how, in today's NHL, players are looking to get lean (and fast) over getting big (and strong). https://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/2017/09/16/less-is-more-as-leafs-indulge-in-need-for-speed-feschuk.html The results of the new thinking are obvious to anyone who’s been hanging around Leafs camp. Auston Matthews, the reigning rookie of the year who celebrates his 20th birthday on Sunday, looks visibly thinner in the face and torso. Ditto Nazem Kadri and Morgan Rielly and Carrick and, well, a list of Leafs too long to enumerate. .... Whether or not that message was delivered, this week Ovechkin arrived in Washington looking like a leaner version of his former self. Same goes for Vladimir Tarasenko, the tank-like St. Louis Blues sniper, who recently told reporters he’d dropped off-season poundage, too.

Ha! no. Although, I have met the man and, while I have a hard time with Schopp, I am also a fan of his radio talk. As for the word choice, I tend to think of ineffectual as being more in league with lame and listless. "Ineffective" doesn't have quite the same stank to it.

Quite so. Whenever I hear "bend don't break," I think of a D that is also quite ineffectual. Which that unit was not. Otoh, to your point, they didn't take the ball away either. That's also in-line with "bend don't break."

One Buffalo? Srsly: I wonder if the facilities out at OBD are the best PSE has to offer.

hey, hey, whoa - hold up there a minute. :bag:

It seems like a more logical approach, really.

It hurts just a little bit more to see the Broncos hang 35 (42 with the pick-6) on Dallas. The Broncos are using a bargain bin QB, but they are getting it done. Bring back Fitz and Chan Gailey? :ph34r:

If there had been any doubt for me about whether he could be a capable NFL starter going forward (and I'm not sure I had any real doubts), it vanished once I watched him purposelessly scramble around (TWICE) for 3 or 4 yards in the final 60 seconds, rather than chuck the ball out of bounds and line up for the next play. The guy's been playing a while. If he can't understand what needed to happen in that situation, then he never really will.

That breakout seems largely unconcerned with the concept of "small ice."

even though it's sorta sloppy, i like the look of this https://twitter.com/SabresFanatics/status/909776440186548225

Oh, Christ. Yes. Haha - yes!

It is always way more fun to hang out with the kids. With the kids, there are apt to be fart jokes and a TV to watch. With the adults, someone might be asking me to talk about my job.

I'll say the D was significantly better than bend don't break. Cam looked downright beleaguered. But maybe I just have a more negative connotation to the phrase in mind than you do. As for Zay's opportunity, that's really on Taylor more than Zay. That route was clearly designed to go toward the sideline ("corner," is what I read), and Taylor misthrew it. Zay did well to adjust, and almost made a spectacular catch. I thought the same thing. When pundit types talk about "body control," that's the sort of thing they're referring to. The ability to twist, contort, adjust the body and execute a very difficult fine motor skill, in the midst of going full speed (gross motor), is what separates the good from the great. Remember Watkins on that mis-thrown ball in Detroit? Ridiculous. I'm going to give credit where it's due: McDermott has talked an awful lot about having certain kinds of players and playing a certain kind of way. I felt like the performance yesterday matched up with the talk. If McDermott does actually succeed in getting everyone on the proverbial same page, and pulling in the same direction, the Bills will likely be a playoff team in the near term, with or without a franchise QB at the helm. However, I listened to the post-game and did not hear him praise God. What gives? "For I shall bless the Lord at all times, and his praise shall ever be on my tongue." McDermott said in the post-game conference that the side judge ran into a coach -- he didn't specify which one. It appeared that it was one of those situations where the side judge was trucking it to follow a play and, without seeing what was coming, BOOM just got leveled by a coach who had encroached and was standing in his way. The penalty was well deserved, and I don't blame the referee for being pissed -- looked like he was shut down for the day with a concussion.

I read several tweets to the effect that the Sabres were practicing with a pace not seen in a dog's age. Yes, please.

Hey - did he old thread come back?! Thanks, admins!