Dukes of Awesome

Remember me?

Yes, I know its been a while since we last conversed. I had been on a torrid writing pace before work and work travel not only limited my free writing time, but also gave me the mother of all summer colds (sadly, this amateur blogging thing doesn’t pay as well as you would think).

I’m more than pleased that my fellow Dukes picked up my slack in my absence with some great posts. And that’s only furthered my appetite to get blogging again - and finish up some series I started before my mini-sabbatical.

Last month, I wrote about four reasons why we can get excited about this upcoming Bills seasons. Our tens of thousands of loyal readers took my post to heart and bumped our season ticket tally up to over 53,000 - the largest in over 15 years. Now I’m not going to take full credit for every season ticket sold, but lets give credit where credit is due - I am nearly singlehandedly responsible for this marked increase.

So now that I’ve sufficiently hyped the team to nearly sell out every game before single game seats even go on sale, I think it’s my responsibility to bring everyone down to earth, just a bit. So in the interest of equal time for equal sides, here are four reasons why maybe booking those non-refundable tickets to Tampa may not be the best idea just yet. Two sides - I report, you decide. Not even FOXNews is that fair.

1. James Hardy’s inability to stay away from trouble

James Hardy’s been a Bill for barely two months, but he’s already been at least part of the story in two off the field incidents: he pulled a gun on his father in May; and was reportedly riding shotgun in Marshawn’s Grand Theft Auto inspired trip down Delaware. Lucky for him, no charges (or serious charges) were filed in either case.

Either Hardy just has a history of being unluckily in the wrong place at the wrong time (there were other incidents in college where no charges were never filled), or this is just another incident in a disturbing trend. In some ways he’s already at a crossroads in his career: he can follow the Eric Moulds or the Chris Henry path - two WRs who after some off the field stuff in college made distinctly different choices of how to live their lives as pros. Hopefully he makes the right choice (and doesn’t hit anyone in his SUV when navigating this crossroads).

The truth is Hardy is more key to our offense then many realize. His size will free up not only Evans, but also let Lynch run the ball without having 19 defensive players lined up in the box. Plus he’ll be a giant red zone threat, which is literally huge, because last year we had but one TD catch from a receiver NOT named Lee Evans (give yourself a point if you remember who).

2. Trent Edwards’ fear of cold weather

Trent played decent last year. Not as great as some writers would have you believe, but for a rookie who didn’t expect to play at all at the start of the year, he played pretty well. His mid-70 passer rating from last year won’t make him many friends if it shows up this year, but many (including myself) believe that with a full year of offseason practice as “The Man” under his belt, his ratings will no doubt improve.

What’s worrisome however, is the difference in play between “Good Weather Trent” and “Bad Weather Trent”. Edward’s performance was noticeably different when the weather was calm and warm, compared to when it was cold or windy. Granted any QB will play better in nice weather, but Trent’s drop was unusually severe. The best example was the Giants game where Trent masterfully built a 14-0 lead before a biblical monsoon washed the Giants to victory. Trent was downright awful in the rain and the wind, throwing bad passes and picks like Pacman throwing dollars at a strip club.

For the Bills to be successful, Trent’s going to have to play better in the elements we have post-September. Who knows if he can do it - before last season, he never played a single cold weather game at any level. If he can’t we have two options: to watch him bungle around in the November like Kelly Holcomb did; or we can work together to burn fossil fuels with enough blatant disregard so to speed up this global warming thing a few hundred years.

3. The real Marcus Stroud?

As I posted earlier, Marcus Stroud is a definite huge addition for the team by adding a run stuffing DT we haven’t had in years. But all that hinges on us getting the pre-microfracture Stroud and not an injured shell of his former self.

After the 2006 season, Stroud underwent ankle microfractrue surgery to repair a hole in his cartilage. Last year he still struggled a bit between being less then a year removed from the surgery and having to serve a drug suspension from the NFL. There was a reason why the Jags parted with the former Pro-Bowl for only a 3rd and 5th round pick - the number of players who have come back from microfactured ankles to play at their pre-injury level can be counted on one hand.

If Stroud can’t come back, we’ll have obtained a slow, aged, former star as a key role filler (remember Eddie Robinson?). Granted the cost wasn’t huge, but I won’t be thinking about that as Julius Jones rumbles for 179 yards during the season opener.

4. Special Special Teams

For the last few years, one of the few bright spots for the Bills have been the play of the Special Teams. Besides being our most exciting unit, they were also the most consistent - and sent 3 different players to the pro bowl (bonus points if you can name them all). Plus the squad is lead by arguably the best Special Teams coach in the planet, Bobby April.

While this offseason the Bills were lucky enough not to lose any key starters to free agency, they did suffer some pretty large Special Teams losses. Punt gunners, kickoff coveragers, and wedgemen are all gone, and these rolls will be filled by rookies. There will be a decent sized talent drop and there will be real pressure on Bobby April cut the learning curve and perform like last year.

It’s inevitable that this season we will see a few Special Teams breakdowns. And in close games, that could be the difference between a win a loss. We’ve lost a few games over the last 3 seasons - but none due to Special Teams. It’d be painful to see that change this year.

OK, now before all you loyal readers go rush to dispute your season ticket credit card charge, know this: I am much more optimistic then pessimistic about this season, and am predicting very big things (I’ve already reserved a vacation week for the Super Bowl). So as I type the rust off the blogging keyboard, let’s go forward with our optimism of playoffs and Tom Brady-injuries, but with a foot (slightly) rooted in reality.

Marshawn Lynch looks like he’ll be cited for a traffic violation after hitting a woman with his truck and driving away. A traffic citation. That’s it.

We would have our resident legal expert break down this legal voodoo, but we think Lynch pulling this off makes him more of a master of the legal system. His tips for not cracking under the pressure are below.

now i’m gettin maseff ready fo da season. no mo stressin ova drama. no mo worryin bout what dey sayin in da media. mah boyz (jizzy) james hardy and (sizzlez) steve johnson both be gettin demselfs ready too. know why? cuz we boyz. we keep together. we keep our mouf shut. as jimmy conway (robert de nizzy fo sho) said, don’t be a rat.

Your First Pinch

i learned that way back when we watch goodfellas in the town (OAKLAND), and it stuck with me to this day. thanks, jimmy.

HT for finding his voice: Marshawn Lynch’s Yardbarker Blog

HT for the story: The Buffalo Nizzle

We love that we have a player like Donte Whitner that gives us reason to say good things about the Bills. Hell, even Florio had to give the man props, and he never says anything good about the Bills.

The reason? Whitner has taken it upon himself to show Leodis McKelvin the ropes, ensuring no McLovin-type mistakes from our top draft pick. He’s taken him into his home, teaching him stuff to make him a high-impact player from the get-go, and even showing him how NOT to behave outside the stadium (and oh how I wish Whitner could reach every Bills player on that level).

Tangentially I know Donte Whitner. By that I mean I’m one of his many Facebook friends. By that I mean I’M A STALKER. However, if his “news feed” is any indication of the type of guy he is (and shut up, if you know facebook, you know you get updates for everyone, so don’t accuse me of creepiness. I’d admit it if I did), he’s a really great dude - involved in his hometown scene in the arts, in social activities, and even causes. A real decent dude.

That being said, if a guy can do this, then you’d listen to him pretty hard too:

That’s right, our new biggest defensive player is Tyler Myers, 6′7″ tall (he’s the tall one) and 202 lbs (which I would say is a bit thin for 6′7″), likely our biggest draft pick ever. I’m sure you’re already thinking “Chara,” but this man (boy) is different. Not only does he actually have a working equilibrium, but he reportedly has been working on his offensive game lately, which would be nice. And definitely un-Chara.

The Sabres traded a third round pick to move up one spot from 13 to 12 to pick this guy. This was a weird move, and I swear Darcy did it so we’d be out of the arena by 9pm. (That’s right, Mr. “I write 4 posts in one day” Errantremark and I were chillin’ out maxin’ relaxin’ all cool at the arena this fine June evening sucking down booze and distracting Nick Mendola whillst he was on the air. We tried meeting up with FTCLTL but that didn’t work out because we’re writers and therefore consistently late. And maybe we think we’re just a little cooler than them.) My spouse and I were talking about this move on our ride home, and here’s why it was a little weird. There’s 3 situations: 1. LA wanted Myers and traded him away for very little; 2. LA didn’t want him and suckered the Sabres into a trade; or 3. He was next on LA’s “to draft list” and they were just going to default to him, so it wouldn’t take much for them to trade down. I think 3’s the most likely, so we overpaid for the switch. The Sabs should have just given them Afinogenov, considering the creepy foreshadowing in the Sabres Store tonight anyways:

And another 10% off for Season holders!! Time to re-focus. The most interesting part of this pick, for those of us watching, was how extraordinarily tall his mother was. Now, I know the boy is tall, but my brother is 6′4″ and my mother is only 5′7″. So she’s got some ’splaining to do. Cause that chic looked like a normal height next to her son, and her son is freakishly tall. Therefore, the woman is huge.

He’s a youngin, so I wouldn’t expect to see him wearing the ol’ blue and gold anytime soon, but I like him, and the sentiment at the arena tonight seemed to be the same. (As opposed to the usual reaction to Bills first-round picks). He was also rumored to be in the top 6 of the picks tonight, so we made out like bandits.

And the drafting didn’t stop at Tyler Myers. After missing their chance on Tyler Cuma, the Sabres moved down their “Top Tyler Picks” list to pick up Tyler Ennis. Quite the opposite of Myers, Ennis is only 5′9″ and plays center. I’m not as psyched about him, but I’m not complaining either.

Both Tyler’s come from the WHL, one from Kelowna and one from Medicine Hat (which is a ridiculous team name). They’re both under 19 and need some developing, but are strong players none-the-less. I trust the Sabres drafting history too, which includes players like Mike Ramsey, Lindy Ruff, Smehlik, Barnaby, Housley, Campbell, Miller (at #138!!) etc etc etc. So looks like a not so disappointing day for Sabres fans. Can’t say the same for never-win-again-ov though.

I want to give a shout out to those fans (who weren’t at Taste of Country) who came to the draft party. I know my shout out isn’t as cool as the Sabres’ from the draft podium (about 3 minutes in), but way to represent everyone! I know Detroit couldn’t/wouldn’t do the same with their fans, and it just reinforces the fact that we really are the new HockeyTown. Plus it makes me feel all fuzzy inside watching kids play floor hockey in the arena.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering how much I hate pink jerseys:

Of course they won’t be called the Bills if they move to Toronto, but still. What the fuck. If this is supposed to be a sharing agreement, it’s not exactly projecting a very even agreement.

First, KSK, you guys are a bunch of ASSHOLES. Also you callous commenters at Deadspin. You Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Rangers, etc. fans might have goddamn terrible teams for long stretches of time, but you’ll never be at risk of losing them. Well, unless you’re an NFL team in Los Angeles, but at that point you just wouldn’t care. I think the only town that would ever sympathize is Cleveland, and that’s cuz Art Modell is a dick. Ralph Wilson might be a crotchety old coot, but he’s OUR crotchety old coot.

The problem is this logo - after being reassured the Toronto games were not necessarily a precursor to a move - makes clear the goal of dissociation with the city of Buffalo.

But from a marketing perspective, what in the hell is the Bills front office thinking? Sure, you got the Bills logo in there, but did they honestly believe no one would notice that the word “Buffalo” is nowhere to be found on there? It’s not even subtle! Even paying lip service to a joint Buffalo/Toronto team would be better than this.

What kills me is that it appears the regional news coverage is asleep at the wheel again - did anyone ask why, if the Bills are truly “visiting” Toronto for a couple games, there is no mention of Buffalo? Not a single article in any regional paper mentioned this fact.

Nitpicking? No way. Specific? You’re goddam right. Buffalo sports fans have bruised psyches, and even subtle jabs at it provoke a bad reaction.

We here at the Dukes of Awesome really dropped the ball on coverage of Tim Russert’s passing. But RealWiley was busy getting famous (Here’s some clues as to his secret identity), BuckyBrooks is a secret agent and thus deployed on a top secret mission to decode some black ops budgetary analysis, Pinkjerseyssuck was busy suing people, and I was probably napping.

While there were aspects of his politics and even journalism ethos we, collectively, took issue with, you could never say Russert wasn’t a Son of Buffalo. He was always talking up the town - doing high profile promotion of Buffalo Old Home Week, mentioning the Bills, and taking down the lying liars of Washington in his spare time.

What follows are a series of videos of Russert making mention of his hometown and favorite teams and some remembrances we liked of him, particularly Tommy Brokaw’s. Thanks for being a champion for us, Tim, we’ll miss you.

PS- in what is probably an inappropriate sidenote, but even now, days after his death, if you type “Tim Russert” into youtube’s search bar, it “suggests” the phrase “Tim Russert Farts.” Did I miss something here? Either way, farting on national television is a sure way to endear oneself to me. We’ll miss you, big guy.

Hellow, FTLT, it’s me you’re looking for.
Thanks for the tip, mysteriously named tgetman. I will be there, most likely alone, drinking said 2 dollar beers, dipping into my new car budget so I can go cheer the Sabres picks and embarass myself in front of young children and their MILFS.

Good lord I am excited.

TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!TAKE IT!

Mitch Frerotte has passed away at age 43, the first member of the Bills Super Bowl team(s) to die. Are we that old?

Frerotte, aside from being a good player, was quite a character.

Former Buffalo News sports reporter Vic Carucci, in a 1990 profile on the colorful Frerotte, wrote that on game day, Frerotte looked like a professional wrestler who had gotten lost on his way to the arena.

“There’s the long blond hair,” he wrote. “There’s the goatee. And, of course, there’s the paint. The black paint that goes around his right eye, juts down his cheek and forms a point just above his jaw…”

“Frerotte considers it war paint,” he added.

In that profile, Frerotte explained the on-field image he had cultivated.

“In this game, I can be as free-spirited as I want,” Frerotte said. “Guys who are doctors, lawyers, businessmen, whatever, they can’t be that way. They have to have a certain kind of image. But in football, it’s a matter of who’s sicker out on the field on Sunday. And I have the opportunity to just be crazy and nuts.

“I’ll worry about having a straighter image when I get a real job,” he added.

Rest in peace.

I know my posts are usually riddled with sarcasm and puns, but I’m going to take it down a notch today.

The hot topic around WNY this year has been the gloomy-looking future for the “Buffalo” Bills. I’m not going to claim today that I am totally qualified to answer the question of whether or not they’ll leave. But I do know I have some semi-educated thoughts and ideas (or at least degrees in Economics and Law), so here we go.

Buffalo is not a major city anymore. If the NFL was created tomorrow, there is no way we’d even be in the running. And that’s obvious, but a needed starting point.

Most Buffalo fans feel as though we deserve to keep our team, and I wholeheartedly agree. We have some of the most die-hard, loyal, sports-oriented, amazing fans across any sport. But the NFL has sent the message to us loud and clear that that just isn’t enough. And we as fans, as much as we want to prove we can sell out games, can’t do much to keep them here on our own until there are more of us (or we as a group become exceedingly wealthy). While the lowest ticket prices in the league are super awesome for us, the Man doesn’t see it that way.

The Bills in Toronto is a very touchy subject. I go back and forth on it several times a week, especially on the choice of game this season. But there’s one thing I do know, minus the threat of them packing up and completely moving to Tdot (which in my mind is unlikely, they’d support 2 more hockey teams before they could support an NFL team on their own), sharing our team with the region we’re in can only help right now. Anyone who doubts the economic impact should realize this: the Toronto-based group hosting the series paid the Bills $78 million for the 8 games… more than double the Bills’ calculated 2006 operating income (thestar.com). Some of the tickets on StubHub are listed at $1,250 each for the PRE-season game. You know, the ones you never want to go to so you give the ticket to your neighbor’s nephew? $1,250. The cheapest pre-season game ticket? $89. Not to mention all the huge Tdot companies buying up luxury seats and food at those oh-so-low Sports Service suit prices. ($55 for a nasty cheese pizza. $100 for an order of wings. Trust me, I worked in the Ralph Suites for years.) However, as much help as we’re getting from the Tdot market right now, I’d like to look at them as a welfare program. Just there long enough to get us back on our feet.

Buffalo needs to become a globalized city again for the NFL to stop laughing at us and give us a little credit. That doesn’t mean we have to give up our underdog status, or our blue-collar identity, but we have to be able to compete financially with the big dogs. We need to be a household name as a city, not just a team. A random Chinese citizen needs to be able to point us out on a map. In the mindset of being realistic, we’re never going to be the global power we were before we shot ourselves in the foot by inventing air conditioning (thereby moving industry southwards) and building highways for trucking. But we can be competitive again. I know no one over the age of 35 in this town thinks that’s possible, but it really is.

Plenty of people in this town have plenty of really good ideas on how to accomplish that, too. Take Kevin Gaughan and TheCost, for example. It’s a simple idea- smaller government = less taxes = more investment = more jobs. Not to mention less time spent bickering and more time spent progressing. Easy, right? You’d think so. How about Brian Higgins? After like, 924 years someone is finally doing something about our waterfront. It’s like it’s rocket science or something. Why is everyone around here soooooo afraid of change? The Aud is the perfect example. Who the heck was arguing to keep that big, ugly, asbestos filled block of cement on our waterfront? Why do people want to keep a 30 year old building so badly? Maybe it’s easier for me to say this because I’m young. I have lots of options when it comes to preserving my memories- digital pictures, emails, videos/DVDs, you name it. But whatever. Moving on, Buffalo Homecoming has lots of available jobs listed. And UB 2020 is the next (I think) really good idea. I could handle Buffalo being a college/hospital town. That’s all Boston is, and they have lots of major league teams, and lots of money. And they were broke just like us not too long ago.

But I’ve been noticing something lately as an avid Buffalo-promoter. There are two types of Buffalonians, generally broken up by age group. One, the 35 & uppers. They are convinced that nothing can and ever will change, and are content sitting around being negative all day. They are annoying. But then there’s the second group, us youngins. We are a little more positive, and less adverse to change. Yet… we don’t do anything about it. Which is even more annoying. We complain just as much. When someone tries to fix something, we want to know why they aren’t fixing 10 other things, or why they didn’t choose to fix something else first. Want proof other than the way we’re dealing with the Bills situation? Take a look at half of the comments on this Buffalo Rising post. Why doesn’t anyone around here step up? I’ve never been one to picket or parade, but it isn’t hard to get involved with some of these community efforts. Thankfully, there are several human exceptions to these rules and maybe some change will happen around here soon. And maybe everyone will prove me wrong.

What I’d really like to see is another Green Bay situation so I could own a piece of the team. But that’s impossible, so the next best thing would be for a group of investors to get together and give us a chance to rebound. I’m thinking Jim Kelly, Tom Golisano, Jack Kemp, Thurman Thomas, maybe a Knox or two, maybe even a Toronto investor. Obviously this is not a new idea, as Jim Kelly has talked openly about it. But even Jim Kelly will want to make some kind of money on such a large investment. Most importantly though, we should all really hope and pray that those snots that are Ralphie’s heirs don’t get a hold of the team, or we can say goodbye.

Last but not least, I want the league to recognize that there would be no league without Ralph Wilson and the Buffalo Bills. Not only did he lend money to the Raiders and offer to lend it to (blegh) the Patriots in order to keep the AFL afloat, but he spear-headed the idea of revenue sharing. (Gasp!) Our owner’s ideas shouldn’t be what shoots us in the foot. We’ve done that enough to ourselves.