BREAKING NEWS: Tagliabue: Buffalo Bills Leaving ...

[Meathead]

... All That Talk of Moving the Team in the Dust!

NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue says he expects Bills to stay in Buffalo (http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=4795479&nav=2aKD)

Tagliabue also said the Bills would be part of an ownership group that would set rules under the league's new collective bargaining agreement.

Ralph Wilson, deriled in some circles as too old and feeble minded to understand the new Collective Bargaining Agreement has finagled himself (http://www.wkbw.com/Story.aspx?type=ln&NStoryID=11311) onto the vital Revenue Distribution committee along with other small market owners

all you people who ridiculed ralph, well im sure i speak for ralph when i say ...

dangum it, whats what that phrase again, help me out here marv

oh yeah

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA

[Dr. Lecter]

Gee MH, some people tried to say Ralph was not a feeble old fool stumbling around.

I guess people need to recognize genius when they see it.

And using a public forum for his *****ing created the pressure needed to get these allowances.

Good job Ralph. may I be as sharp as you are when I am 87.

[Meathead]

i wish i was that sharp right now

[Bulldog]

i wish i was that sharp right now


Took the words right out of my mouth.

[Pinkerton Security]

HEEEEEY HEEEEEYYY LETS GO BUFFALLOOO

[Mr. Miyagi]

Tagliabue also said the Bills would be part of an ownership group that would set rules under the league's new collective bargaining agreement.
I can just feel Jerry Jones' eyes rolling from here.

[justasportsfan]

Paging Ice and Patmoran.

[Mr. Miyagi]

BTW, did this new development just obsolete that "saveourbills" movement? :snicker:

[OpIv37]

It's a good step, but I'll buy into Ralph's genius only when the Bills get the other owners to do something about their concerns.

[OpIv37]

BTW, did this new development just obsolete that "saveourbills" movement? :snicker:

I wouldn't say it's obsolete, but it certainly sucked some of the urgency out of it.

I think the NFL saw how easy it was to get Bills fans up in arms and they're a little scared.

[Mr. Miyagi]

I wouldn't say it's obsolete, but it certainly sucked some of the urgency out of it.

I think the NFL saw how easy it was to get Bills fans up in arms and they're a little scared.
I don't think they're scared of the fans. They did that to Cleveland and those guys are hard core as well.

It's the political pressure they dread. That's why Ralph is such a genius. :up:

[DMBcrew36]

meathead... u made my heart skip for a second there

[Jan Reimers]

I think we should keep the petition rolling and do all the other things that fans can do - buy/renew tickets, buy merchandise, write/email politicians, etc. - to attack this thing from as many angles as possible.

[R. Rich]

I think we should keep the petition rolling and do all the other things that fans can do - buy/renew tickets, buy merchandise, write/email politicians, etc. - to attack this thing from as many angles as possible.

What for?

It's much better to just laugh @ others for being "wrong". Divide and conquer: that's how we'll get it done.

[Jan Reimers]

I just think we may need more than Tag's word and Ralph sitting on the committee to assure the Bills' future. I think there's still good reason for the petition, to give us additional ammunition and keep the pressure on.

I'm not breathing that much easier, just because a politician and a lame duck commissioner have told us everything will be alright.

[ICE74129]

Here is the reality of that report, 1) Tags didn't guarantee anything. 2) ralph is on the board? how long will they give him to figure it out? Hopefully someone will be there to hold his hand. 3) Ralph was on the 'board' to vote for the New CBA...it didn't matter. 4) It will mean something if the other board members don't out vote him on the rules....again.

Nothing is set in stone.

[ICE74129]

I just think we may need more than Tag's word and Ralph sitting on the committee to assure the Bills' future. I think there's still good reason for the petition, to give us additional ammunition and keep the pressure on.

I'm not breathing that much easier, just because a politician and a lame duck commissioner have told us everything will be alright.

Now Jan..come on, Ralph is a genius....

[ICE74129]

the silence is deafening.I posted before your reply. And if you look its lunch time here in the CST so I wasn't on to hear the proclimation from a Lame duck Commish that the Bills are staying in Buffalo

[Meathead]

What for?

It's much better to just laugh @ others for being "wrong". Divide and conquer: that's how we'll get it done.
thats too deep for this forum rich

heck thats still too deep for many people in any forum

but keep preaching brother

[Saratoga Slim]

I posted before your reply. And if you look its lunch time here in the CST so I wasn't on to hear the proclimation from a Lame duck Commish that the Bills are staying in Buffalo

sorry dude. I actually deleted my reply right after posting it. you are of course allowed not to be online every minute of the day.

[Jan Reimers]

Now Jan..come on, Ralph is a genius....
Ralph IS a genius, albeit a geriatric one. It's Tagliabue and Schumer that I don't necessarily trust.

[ICE74129]

Ralph IS a genius, albeit a geriatric one. It's Tagliabue and Schumer that I don't necessarily trust.

We will see. I have still yet to see anything proving ralph was right or wrong on his assumptions on the CBA. And like we have discussed, lets say 7 owners on on this board. Brown, Ralph and say Jags owner. What if they are out voted 4-3 on all the subjects?

Nothing has been done yet. IF ralph can get it ratified to allow the Bills to still get revenue sharing and be able to sell without the new owner being penalised...he needs to sell.

[justasportsfan]

Nothing is set in stone but at least the small market teams have gotten the attention of the NFL Ice. Something that wouldn't have happened if Ralphy just kept his mouth shut and let the bigger teams have their way.

[ICE74129]

Nothing is set in stone but at least the small market teams have gotten the attention of the NFL Ice. Something that wouldn't have happened if Ralphy just kept his mouth shut and let the bigger teams have their way.

Just like the commish search, They choose from most all levels of teams to do the deal. I expect Brown for the Bengals and maybe the Jags owner would have been on. All ralph did was ensure HE was on there. Which means nothing because he will most likely be outvoted. but then again maybe not. Who knows.

But for those declaring victory based on what a guy who is leaving office in about 3 months says, they need to take a step back and let this play out. Nothing is done yet.

I just hope ralph can help 1) make it where a new owner isn't penalised, 2) the Bills get some money regardless, 3) then he sells.

[Meathead]

who is NFL Ice

dont tell me they got van winkle to do the new mnf theme

[Meathead]

doo doo doo do-do-do-do

m-n-f baby

[justasportsfan]

. All ralph did was ensure HE was on there. Which means nothing because he will most likely be outvoted. but then again maybe not. Who knows. .
there you go again," maybe not" Being on it is better than not being on it.



.
I just hope ralph can help 1) make it where a new owner isn't penalised, 2) the Bills get some money regardless, 3) then he sells.
:up:

[THATHURMANATOR]

its on ESPN.COM now too.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2415409

[justasportsfan]

"What we're striving to do is focus not just on the Buffalo Bills but on all the small market teams," said Tagliabue, mentioning the Jacksonville Jaguars, Green Bay Packers, and Kansas City Chiefs.


HA! Thank you Ralph. At least we're not being snobbed anymore.

[Michael82]

I can just feel Jerry Jones' eyes rolling from here.
Yeah, I bet him and Bob Kraft are sitting in their chairs crying to their mommy. :baby:

[ICE74129]

"What we're striving to do is focus not just on the Buffalo Bills but on all the small market teams," said Tagliabue, mentioning the Jacksonville Jaguars, Green Bay Packers, and Kansas City Chiefs.


HA! Thank you Ralph. At least we're not being snobbed anymore.

Snobbed? Where do you get that? LMAO.

[Michael82]

I don't think they're scared of the fans. They did that to Cleveland and those guys are hard core as well.

It's the political pressure they dread. That's why Ralph is such a genius. :up:
EXACTLY! New York State politicians are very powerful. The NFL got scared of them, plus all the legions of fans. The truth is, they weren't scared of Cleveland, or their politicians. But thats because they dont have a Chuck Schumer, or a Representative Higgins. These guys are both guys that wield the power to threaten the NFL with a long drawn out hearing about Anti-Trust laws. The NFL does NOT want one of those. :D

[ICE74129]

Yeah, I bet him and Bob Kraft are sitting in their chairs crying to their mommy. :baby:

I bet neither one give a damn one way or the other. Here is my prediction, 8 teams. Buffalo, Cinci, Jax will have their owners on board. the rest are high to mid tier teams that will vote together. then what? 5-3. Now maybe ralph and co can get some things done, but you can bet the NFL is NOT going to hold up the CBA being finalised soon.

[Michael82]

I think we should keep the petition rolling and do all the other things that fans can do - buy/renew tickets, buy merchandise, write/email politicians, etc. - to attack this thing from as many angles as possible.
Good point! This is one step towards saving our Buffalo Bills, but there is still quite a lot more to do. :bf1:

As for stopping the petitions and the *****ing, I won't do that until the Bills lease with Erie Country gets extended for another 100 years. And until Los Angeles gets the Oakland Raiders or San Diego Chargers in their new Stadium.

[Michael82]

Nothing is set in stone but at least the small market teams have gotten the attention of the NFL Ice. Something that wouldn't have happened if Ralphy just kept his mouth shut and let the bigger teams have their way.
Exactly! Good post! :bf1:

[justasportsfan]

Snobbed? Where do you get that? LMAO.at least they are getting more attention , no? What would keeping your mouth shut achieve? Bad breath.

. Have you ever heard of out of sight out of mind? Would that article have been written if Ralph kept quiet. Do you think the NFl will now proceed with whatever they decide to do in the future keeping in mind how it would affect small markets? I think so.

You keep blasting Ralph and then back pedal with "he could be right" "i may be wrong". Make up your mind. You make a very bad imitation of John Kerry.

[ICE74129]

at least they are getting more attention , no? What would keeping your mouth shut achieve? Bad breath.

. Have you ever heard of out of sight out of mind? Would that article have been written if Ralph kept quiet. Do you think the NFl will now proceed with whatever they decide to do in the future keeping in mind how it would affect small markets? I think so.

You keep blasting Ralph and then back pedal with "he could be right" "i may be wrong". Make up your mind. You make a very bad imitation of John Kerry.

LMAO I am not going to do that. Reality says who knows. So far what I read on ESPN leads me to believe there was no real reason for Ralph to get torqued in the first place.

Look the grim reaper is in ralphs ear and he knows time is short. This CBA has shown him it's time to do something with this team. I feel he is just trying to make sure he can sell and it can stay. If he can do that, I bet we have a new owner during the 07 Offseason.

[justasportsfan]

LMAO I am not going to do that. Reality says who knows. .So why have you blasted (several times)Ralphy without knowing what the results of his actions are? There are no facts and you've already called him an idiot (so to speak) . Are you an NFL team owner? What makes you better than him? Do you even run a business half of what the bills are? No.

[Drive 4 Five]

Here is the reality of that report, 1) Tags didn't guarantee anything. 2) ralph is on the board? how long will they give him to figure it out? Hopefully someone will be there to hold his hand. 3) Ralph was on the 'board' to vote for the New CBA...it didn't matter. 4) It will mean something if the other board members don't out vote him on the rules....again.

Nothing is set in stone.

:madmad:

Bro you should be ashamed of yourself. No disrespect intended but enough with this nonsense already. Please. I applaud Wilson for speaking out and forcing the NFL and everyone else to take notice. If Ralph is so feeble then how is it that he was able to get so many people behind him so quickly? Huh? Huh? Because people understand what is at stake here. This is bigger than the Bills and Ralph Wilson, it is about the viability of an honorable franchise and what it means to an entire community.

Don't fool yourself by thinking that Wilson was invited to participate on the CBA committee simply to appease him. You forget that Wilson is part of that old school regime that has enabled the NFL to get to where it is at today. Mr. Tagliabue has enough sense to recognize this and so should you. This man goes to battle to ensure the future of our beloved franchise and you're going to bash him for it?

I just don't understand.

[Jersey1031]

Good news...

[FlyingDutchman]

We will see. I have still yet to see anything proving ralph was right or wrong on his assumptions on the CBA.

Then why were you so quick to be judge, jury and executioner.

[Typ0]

RW is an incompetent old man. The writing has been on the wall about that one for years. He knew it himself hence the TD expirement. If you don't acknowledge this...then you are in denial.

What we are seeing now is damage control. First, RW has gotten loads of people in an uproar because he can't add 1 + 1 to equal 2 any more. Second, the powers that be have a great deal of respect for the old man (as they should) so they are going the extra distance to preserve his dignity. Finally, what we are seeing is grandstanding. RW wants the attention. He desparately wants his legacy to be the man who saved the Bills in WNY. He wants the attention.

Most of this is a load of crap...nothing has changed.

[Turf]

Ralph is a freakin animal.

[The_Philster]

Nothing is set in stone but at least the small market teams have gotten the attention of the NFL Ice. Something that wouldn't have happened if Ralphy just kept his mouth shut and let the bigger teams have their way.No doubt :bf1: If he had kept his mouth shut, who knows what might have happened? :down:

[LifetimeBillsFan]

EXACTLY! New York State politicians are very powerful. The NFL got scared of them, plus all the legions of fans. The truth is, they weren't scared of Cleveland, or their politicians. But thats because they dont have a Chuck Schumer, or a Representative Higgins. These guys are both guys that wield the power to threaten the NFL with a long drawn out hearing about Anti-Trust laws. The NFL does NOT want one of those. :D

You hit the nail right on the head, Mikey! The key word in all of this is "ANTI-TRUST".

That is the last thing that the owners of any of these sports leagues and teams ever wants to hear. Tagliabue and the rest of the owners in the NFL don't care a whit about Buffalo or Ralph Wilson--they and their allies in the media tried to marginalize Wilson by portraying him as a senile, whining twit for his opposition to the CBA (which he aided with his poor public speaking). But, they don't want the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Schumer, talking about anti-trust legislation that might impact them and they also don't want the committee in the House that just bashed MLB and their players' union into adopting a drug policy that they really didn't want--that Higgins sits on--to begin looking at their books as part of an anti-trust investigation of the league.

It's all well and good that RW will get to sit on that committee to decide what the rules are going to be. And, it is still true that he could be outvoted once again. But, the real club that RW and the Bills hold over the NFL's head at this point is that they have Schumer and Higgins behind them and in positions to impact their financial position through anti-trust investigations and laws. Now, that's not going to win the Bills any favor from the NFL, J.Jones, D.Snyder, etc., but they are going to have to respect the political clout that RW can bring to bear on the league and that may enough to impact the league's policies sufficiently to allow the franchise to continue to be based in WNY and remain competitive there.

[Michael82]

You hit the nail right on the head, Mikey! The key word in all of this is "ANTI-TRUST".

That is the last thing that the owners of any of these sports leagues and teams ever wants to hear. Tagliabue and the rest of the owners in the NFL don't care a whit about Buffalo or Ralph Wilson--they and their allies in the media tried to marginalize Wilson by portraying him as a senile, whining twit for his opposition to the CBA (which he aided with his poor public speaking). But, they don't want the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Schumer, talking about anti-trust legislation that might impact them and they also don't want the committee in the House that just bashed MLB and their players' union into adopting a drug policy that they really didn't want--that Higgins sits on--to begin looking at their books as part of an anti-trust investigation of the league.

It's all well and good that RW will get to sit on that committee to decide what the rules are going to be. And, it is still true that he could be outvoted once again. But, the real club that RW and the Bills hold over the NFL's head at this point is that they have Schumer and Higgins behind them and in positions to impact their financial position through anti-trust investigations and laws. Now, that's not going to win the Bills any favor from the NFL, J.Jones, D.Snyder, etc., but they are going to have to respect the political clout that RW can bring to bear on the league and that may enough to impact the league's policies sufficiently to allow the franchise to continue to be based in WNY and remain competitive there.
Great post! :bf1:

:posrep:

[ddaryl]

A lot of this is telling us what we want to hear. All that has happened is the NFL and people in general now realize there are problems with the current CBA that didn't address the problems it was supposed ot address.

If we see some tweaks on the numbers that benefit the Bills over the next 6 months because of this posturing then we can definitely hold RW up on a pedestal.

[edit]
Just pulled this out of one of the articles, so it looks like we've already seen an adjustment. http://www.buffalobills.com/news/news.jsp?news_id=3722

"I spoke with the Senator following the meeting and he told me of the major points that came from the discussion. Those points were that the Bills will have representation on the Qualifier Committee and I cannot stress enough the importance of this. Secondly, as established by the recently extended CBA, the portion of the future digital media revenue streams that would go to the high revenue clubs will instead be placed into the revenue sharing pool to fund the low revenue clubs. Thirdly, the Qualifier Committee will have equal representation among small and large market clubs and lastly, the Qualifiers will be based on each individual market's economic situation, not on the national averages."[/end edit]

Right now we should all be happy that we are getting peoples attention, but if we don't see the tweaks and changes being made in the near future then we can pretty much say that all Tags did was stroke RW, the Bills, and their fans