Bills VS Fins September 2010

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BUFFALO BILLS NFL DRAFT PARTY

BUFFALO BILLS NFL DRAFT PARTY
Beef O'Brady's (Corner of Sumter & Price Blvd, North Port, FL)
Thurs., April 22nd, at 7:30 PM
50/50 Raffle
Food & Drink Specials

The Bills draft 9th in this years NFL draft. Will the Bills trade away their #1 draft pick or select a new quarterback?

Come join us for a Buffalo Bills draft day party on Thursday, April 22nd at Beef O'Brady's (Sumter & Price Blvd in North Port).

John Downing from Niagara Falls, and his wife Glenda owners of Beef O'Brady's are going to have specials for food and drink items.

If you have never been to a Draft Party, this can be the best party of the off season. We will have a 50/50 drawing so get there early and get your tickets.

Please reply to this E-Mail so we can get a head count for reserved seating.

Hope to see you there.

Mark Maefs
President, Buffalo Bills Backers of North Port

Post Season Report

By Rick

It's been several weeks since the end of our 2009 season of discontent , and as we all know , big changes were in store for our beloved Buffalo Bills . As the season was winding down , Ralph Wilson promised that no stone would remain unturned in their search for the best possible football minds in order to fulfill our quest for a championship . Great coaching names passed the lips of every fan with a great deal of anticipation . Mike Shanahan , Bill Cowher , John Gruden and Mike Holmgren to name a few . Ralph was even quoted as ready to offer megabucks , as much as $10 million a year , for the the services of one of these Super Bowl Champion coaches . Aah....the things that dreams are made of . First in the order of business was to appoint a new General Manager to oversee the entire football operation . It would then be his responsibility to conduct the coaching search . Ralph went all out in his quest . He actually interviewed and considered two people . Must have really tired him out . Afterward he said that on the list of potential interviewees , he knew only those two . What better reason to not go further ? Buddy Nix is our guru for the foreseeable future . This isn't meant as any knock on Buddy Nix . His credentials are , indeed impressive . A half century of involvement in the NFL is impressive in and of itself , but he's been intimately involved with the building of a pretty formidable team out in San Diego . He was also a integral part of the scouting apparatus that assembled the Bills Super Bowl teams of the early '90s . After his introduction as GM he embarked on an exhaustive search for just the right man to head up the new coaching staff . Given all of the available names . Impressive up and coming coordinators and recycled head coaching retreads , he finally found the best man for the task . Chan Gailey . Yep . Chan Gailey . I , for one , couldn't have been any more stunned if he had brought back Hank Bullough . Coach Gailey , in addressing questions about potential staff members , said that nobody would recognize most of the names he had in mind . He was so right . The FBI and Interpol wouldn't have recognized the names of most of these new assistants . To his credit he retained a few key members of the previous staff . George Catavolos for the DB's , DeMonte Cross handling the inside linebackers and the defensive line coach of last year , Bob Sanders , handling the outside linebackers . I feel that these coaches are particularly important in that they handled some of the most stout and cohesive units on the 2009 team . Bob Sanders in particular could prove to be invaluable in the conversion of Aaron Maybin to outside linebacker in the newly installed 3-4 alignment . Chris Ellis , the DE who has has languished on the fringes of our roster for two seasons is also being mentioned as a potential 3-4 outside linebacker . These players have a history and familiarity with Coach Sanders which might help in their transition . The new Offensive Coordinator is Curtis Modkins . Who ?? Not exactly a household name , just as Gailey indicated . Most of his credentials are college related , but he spent the past couple of seasons with the Arizona Cardinals . Not too shabby of an offense there , is it ? Oh , by the way , he'll also handle our running backs . As Quarterback Coach , Gailey tapped the Canadian Football League for arguably their best QB guru . Anyone who has ever seen Canadian football knows that they have to play a passing game , since they have only three downs , not four . George Cortez has been the man who has developed a good number of the best QB's north of the border for a good many years . The newly installed Defensive Coordinator is George Edwards , late of the hated Miami Dolphins . His promise is to install an aggressive , ball hawking , 3-4 defense . In the past I've not been a fan of the 3-4 , but things change , and it's about time to get on board with the trend . Being the only AFC East team not employing a 3-4 has hurt us immeasurably for several seasons . Coach Edwards comes to us with excellent credentials . I'm sure that every Bills fan feels that the Piece De Resistance of the coaching hires is the return of Bruce De Haven as the Special Teams Coach . Who better to follow Bobby April . That's a real tough act to follow and there's no one that I'd rather have than De Haven . Back to Front Office hires for a moment . When Ralph interviewed Buddy Nix , he also interviewed John Guy for the post of General Manager . Obviously he felt that these two men were the most eminently qualified to lead the Bills out of the wilderness . Two weeks later he fired John Guy . This step begs the question , why did he interview him in the first place ? Was it solely to satisfy the Rooney Rule ? If so , shame on you Ralph . That's bush league and should have been beneath you . Another hire that might seem to be under the radar , but could prove to be a real coup , is Doug Whaley as Assistant GM and Director of Pro Personnel . He comes to us from the Pittsburgh Steelers , where he was considered by league insiders to be a serious up and coming star in the field of talent evaluation . Boy , do we need some of that . Like you , I'm sure , I had hoped to have one of the " big name " coaches and GM's in place to guide the Bills into the new decade . I had envisioned a Bill Parcells type of strongman at the helm to turn things around immediately . Was I disappointed with the selection of our new GM and Head Coach ? You bet ! BUT......now that we have our guys in place , I'm ready to settle back and let them see what they can do . As let down as we fans may feel at not having the " name" to rely on , I believe in giving people a chance to succeed on their merits . Gailey isn't the superstar we hoped for but he hasn't been a slug in his career either . He's generally regarded as an extremely bright offensive mind who gets a great deal of production out of the talent that he has at his disposal . Buddy Nix does know a football player when he sees one . Hey , he's no Russ Brandon , but a half century in the NFL scouting players counts for something . Upcoming shortly we have the annual " meat market " of the Indianapolis Combine , Free Agency beginning on March 5th and the Draft in late April . Already , we've released nine on 2009's players with certainly more to come . The BIlls we saw are not the Bills we'll see , believe me . As much of a curmudgeon as I can be , I love the Buffalo Bills and I can't wait for the future to show itself for us . Stay tuned , you don't want to miss a single thing .

The 2009 Awards

The 2009 Pink Slip Awards go to...

1st Place Trent Edwards
2nd Place Terrill Owens
3rd Place Ralph Wilson

Honorable Mention: R. Parrish, C. Chambers, M. Lynch and the Coaching Staff ( who have already been served their pink slips)

The 2009 You're A Keeper Awards go to

1st Place F. Jackson
2nd Place J. Byrd
3rd Place P. Poz

Honorable Mention: B. Moorman, A Schobel,Terrill Owens, Rian Lindell, Lee Evans, R. Fitzpatrick.

Congrates to all this years award winners!

The Grand Finale.....

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Bills at ATL 2009

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Bills Vs Pats 2009 Part 2

Merry Christmas!

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Lehigh Elementary Christmas Program

Each year we as a club donate money raised from the raffles to the children in the Pre-K program so that they may have presents for the holidays. Each year the children put on a special Christmas program. The pictures are from the program. Thanks to all the club members for making the holidays for these children special.

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Bills at KC 2009

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Bills and Dolphins 2009 Part 2

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Bills at Jags 2009

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A Fan's Perspective

By Peter

The problems with your football team in Buffalo are sadly similar to the
hockey problems we have experienced for over 4 decades in Toronto. When you
have a lack of leadership and vision at the top of an organization it
permeates throughout.

In Toronto when Harold Ballard owned the hockey team no competent general
manager wanted to work under him and the Leafs front office was always in
shambles. As Ballard got older and realized even he wasn't immortal, he
brought back an aging and out of date Punch Imlach to be the Leafs GM. As
you know, Imlach had led the Leafs to 4 cups between 1962 and 1967. Things
went from bad to worse and eventually all of the Leafs top players were
dealt away.

Since Ballard's death, while there was an ongoing dispute over his estate in
the 90's, the Leafs were actually run by a competent GM Cliff Fletcher and
were the most competitive that they have been in the last 40 years. Once
the dust settled, and the Teacher's Pension fund emerged as the majority
shareholder, corporate/non-hockey people were placed at the top of the
company. To evaluate their success (other than the financial bottom line)
just look at the Leafs record over the past 7 seasons.

Sadly Ralph Wilson is approaching the end of the road. A few years ago,
much like Ballard, he tried to turn back the clock to the man who had last
brought him winning football Marv Levy who had led the Bills to 4 Super
Bowls in the previous decade (much like Imlach).

Over time, I think it is clear that the best organizations are those that
are strongest at the top. Obviously, you can find exceptions such as the
Yankees who through sheer bankroll can buy their way out of mistakes, but
those are the exceptions. Look what new competent ownership did for the Red
Sox and the Patriots in this decade. The owners brought in competent people
to run, manage and coach their teams and for the most part you only see the
owners sipping champagne in the locker room and riding at victory parades.
You sure as hell don't see them firing coaches.

The situation in Buffalo has an added wrinkle as no one knows what the
future of the team will be after the owner joins the big league in the sky.
Ralph Wilson has done a lot for Buffalo and certainly for football in
Buffalo. In my view his biggest and most long lasting contribution could be
if he were to find a way to transfer the Bills to new ownership himself
rather than having the process carried out by executors and the Probate
Courts. I think it would be better for everyone, and especially the
football fans in Buffalo, if this was done through the business and
football people now rather than through the lawyers and accountants later.

As far as winning goes, that will come with leadership from the top. New
ownership would mean a chance to hire new competent people to manage the
organization and coach the team.
Not that many years ago, it was announced that the Patriots would be
leaving Foxboro and moving away. Rather than suffering that fate, with
stability at the top of the organization, their fans have been treated to a
decade that they could not have previously imagined.

Can the Bills fans too avoid the fear of losing their team, and instead
through stability and leadership at the top of the organization, achieve
new success their fans can only dream of?

For the sake of the 70,000 people we spend every other
Sunday with in the fall, I hope they can.

Bills loose AGAIN!

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Texans visit Da Bills

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Bills and Browns

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