Buffalo Bills: Things we know this week
As I was signing in for my chiropractic visit this past week, Negative Stanley chirped at me, asking if I had ”read the article pertaining to Approximate Value from our local news?” While I had not at the time, Stanley went on to point out that “someone is really looking for something to write about since Drew Bledsoe is number five for his pro-bowl season that still concluded with no playoff berth even though it was officially a winning season.”
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I humored Stanley even though I really thought Drew Bledsoe had a really fine three quarters of a season that particular year. Also making the list was Mario Williams – who made the list twice for a pair of illustrious seasons — Travis Henry, Marcel Darius and Takeo Spikes for their dominating seasons that are sandwiched in between an awful lot of losing.
However, I am not real fond at this point of reading about extraordinary individual performances during the great playoff drought — which now is the current benchmark in all of the major professional sports.
Adding to this – as Stanley pointed out – is that our misfortune as Buffalo Bills’ fans can be traced all the way back to the four straight SuperBowls we choked in prior to going on our current record setting playoff drought. However, Stanley was not acknowledging the other winning seasons the team did with Jim Kelly and then Doug Flutie in between those Superbowl years and the playoff drought.
As alluring as this dialogue tends to be, let us not waste anymore time on this conversation and rather vault right into the Things we know about the Buffalo Bills this week.
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Buddy Ryan, long time defensive icon and coach passed away this week at 85-years of age. He was the father of current Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan and current defensive coordinator Rob Ryan. Ryan was also the master behind the famous record setting 1985 Chicago Bears Defense that grabbed the Lombardi Trophy for that one near perfect season ending with a Super bowl victory blowout over New England.
Speaking about his father, Rex told the media that “While today is a tough day for all of us in the Ryan family, we are consoled in knowing how much dad was loved by so many and the love he gave back in return. Though we will miss him dearly, we take comfort in knowing that his memory will live on through all of us.”
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to listen to the Jim Rome Show when Jim Kelly was a guest interview. When Kelly was catechized about if this season was the one to end the playoff drought — that dates back to 2000 — Kelly was purely forthright when referring to his beer drinking pal Rex.
No special favors were driving Kelly’s answers in the “Jungle”. If we don’t, I think Rex is probably looking for another job at the end of this season. I think everyone knows that including Rex, because for all of us, we have the nucleus to get it done.” No pressure Rex! I mean the only thing on the line here is your job after all.
Considering Dennis Thurman clearly stated that his job is absolutely no different than last year with the addition of Rex’s brother Rob Ryan to the staff, he certainly had a pretty poor answer when he was asked if Rex is calling the Defensive plays again this season. Rather than answering the question, Thurman seemed to give a clueless response that likely indicated he didn’t really know.
I know I never coached football, but isn’t that something he should know this late in the offseason. After all, he should have know these questions would come up at some point and any answer would have almost certainly been better than the one he gave.
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