Again, apples and oranges. **** Jauron is no Bill Belichick. Trent Edwards is no Tom Brady.
You are the one comparing apples to oranges. We aren't talking about coaches or QBs; we are talking about a receiver. Randy Moss IS a T.O. They are superstars with an attitude. Moss might be a slightly better player (they have different styles), but he might actually be more of a douchebag, historically speaking. Maybe, that is. Owens has never been in trouble with the law, for example. Moss deliberately hit a cop with his car...wouldn't listen to her. According to him, he was misquoted when he said that the Marshall plane crash was "nothing big." 75 people died. How about the time he left the field before the game was over? I didn't think it was a big deal, but how about the time he mock-mooned the Packers fans in the playoffs? Got fined for it. Publicly telling people that he smoked weed on occasion? How about his total lack of effort at times? He actually said in an interview, "I play when I want to play." How about when he was accused of violence against that girl during the 2007 playoffs? True or not, this had to be a distraction to him if not the team. The Patriots lost the Super Bowl.
We had veteran leaders with character 12 deep in that locker room who were prepared to keep Moss on point. And we figured to win enough games to keep the chemistry balanced. Guys with 2 and 3 and 5 rings to flash in his direction at the first sign of anything. And he cried and took a paycut for just a shot to play here.
He took a paycut for a year...a year in which the Patriots won every single game in the regular season, were consistantly 21 point favorites, had the best QB in the game, and made it to the Super Bowl. Who WOULD complain? But that doesn't change Moss' basic character or who he is. T.O. in a similar situation would be a saint, which is basically what you said, but an A-hole that is keeping his mouth shut is still an A-hole. Do you mean to suggest that a successful A-hole is no longer an A-hole, or do you mean to suggest that it's OK to be an A-hole if you keep your mouth shut? It's all about perception anyway.
Can you say with any convivction you have anything approaching that in place in Buffalo?
That doesn't matter. The Bills have nothing to lose in this and everything to gain. They'll win at least two more games with T.O. on the team. At least. TO's drive to win is the thing that mostly gets him into trouble...that along with his mouth and theatrics, of course. We only have him for a year at this point, and that's a good thing.
Unfortunately this signing just smacks of desperation, the kind the JETS exhibited last season. Cost their HC his job. Put fannies in seats, but that was short lived, just another tease, and those fannies are still debating the value of buying PSL's from Woody Johnson.
This is nothing like the Jets signing Favre. When the Dolphins picked up Pennington as a result, I knew they were better helped by this than the Jets were by getting Favre. QB is more important than WR by a longshot. After one year, the Jets have no QB...they had no back up plan because Mangini put all his eggs in one basket to save his job. Meanwhile, the Bills have T.O. for only one year. Evans is still our #1, technically anyway. We got the 4th receiver in the draft last year...James Hardy, the guy we targeted and wanted more than the ones taken before him. We also have a guy by the name of Steve Johnson, who has shown promise. We have guys with potential to fall back on, and there is always next year's free agency. We are talking about the #2 WR here.
Sure the move was based in part on a marketing ploy to get some disgruntled fans back in seat, but it will probably work. Then again, some people dislike T.O. so much that they won't come to the game because of that. Then again, we are a better team with T.O., and that is why he's here. Pretty simple.
Buffalo fans know there is a better than even chance the Bill's will be selling PSL's somewhere other than Buffalo in the next 2-3 years..
Them's fightin' words, and the Bills fans know no such thing. For your information, the Bills are locked into a deal to play in a game in Toronto for the next four years. There is little chance of the Bills moving to Toronto after the death of Ted Rogers, and there are other teams more likely to move to L.A. than the Bills. After Ralph Wilson dies, the future of the Bills is uncertain, but there are A LOT of people that interested in keeping the team in Buffalo. A lot.
I guarantee you if Brady to Moss upstages Edwards to Owens, there will be chaos in Buffalo by week 10. Irrespective of W-L record or standings at the time too. Because the difference between Moss and Owens is Randy just wants to play for a winning organization and win a championship ring. TO has to be the reason his team wins, and he will not bear any of the blame if they don't. He's worn out his wecome on teams with more competitive position, and more established QB's and more respected coaches. And through it all he's never owned his own behavior. Never had to because some sucker always came along and bailed him out. Buffalo is just the sucker du jour.
Brady to Moss has nothing to do with Edwards to Owens. T.O. doesn't just want to win games? Sure he wants the ball as all WRs should, but I don't agree that he complains about not getting the ball enough after a win. He might complain about that after a loss, but not a win. I've heard him say that he doesn't care about his own stats as long as the team wins several times. The guy is a football player, not a rocket scientist...but he's not a complete idiot.
Get your popcorn ready. But if you're a Bills fan, grab a case of Peptp Bismol to wash it down with.
LOL. How I'd love to knock the Patriots' ass in the grass.