nfreeman

Go for a drive by yourself, crank up "The Spirit of Radio" and report back.

"The Night Of" is just outstanding.

I'm calling NFW on the Devils. That arena is a half-empty morgue for 90% of the regular season. And while the headline on that WEEI story is misleading, as the agent didn't say Vesey is leaning towards an EC team, it nevertheless makes more sense that he would choose an EC team. Both EC divisions have easier travel than the Central division does, and both revolve around an area that is much closer to home than the Central does. In fact, it's not hard to look at the Atlantic division and conclude that Vesey is going to go to either Buffalo or Boston -- Boston because it's home, and Buffalo because it gets him away from home but not too far and still brings him to Boston and Toronto frequently, and is close to Toronto if he needs to see his dad. (And, if the family is a typical hockey snowbird family with a winter place in Florida, being in the Atlantic division gets him to Florida frequently too.) Buffalo makes more sense than Toronto from a hockey perspective and more than Boston from a young-man-growing-up perspective. And we have a great young center who Vesey is friends with. I'm starting to convince myself. It could easily be Chicago, Pittsburgh or the Rangers. How close is he with his family? How important to him will it be to play In Boston and Toronto frequently? If he's close with his family it really could tip the scales to Buffalo.

I'm kinda psyched/hopeful to see a heathy TT and a heathy Watkins. What are the odds that TT, Watkins and McCoy all play at least 14 games, and at least 12 together?

On the one hand, this crusade has been tiresome for quite some time. On the other hand, you have to get some credit for sheer, dogged, never-quit on this.

It is pretty amazing that we'll probably hit 60 pages for a 4-year college free agent.

Good man and congrats! Did you take my recommendations on the bagels? Awesome.

Well, if the Bills can indeed get out after this year with zero cap hit other than the $9.5MM they are paying him this year, that is a very good deal for them.

Believing Obama is a Muslim is not the same as being a bigot, or a neanderthal, or white trash. It's of a piece with a million other misapprehensions that a distressingly large percentage of the US populations labors under. As for Trump himself and his use of language -- I agree that it a number of instances it is probably calculated, although I also think the MSM has been too quick to assume (and report) the worst. In any case I'm not defending him -- my issues with PA on this have to do with PA's denigrating of Trump's supporters, not with Trump himself. If you're really interested, you should read this: http://nypost.com/2016/07/30/why-white-trash-americans-are-flocking-to-donald-trump/ But there are many other reasons, and many other elements of his support than the left-behind white working class. Many believe him to be the lesser of two evils -- which isn't the same as a protest vote against Hillary. Many are utterly dismayed with the current political class and want a true outsider. Many believe that the stagnating US economy is the most important issue facing the country and that it would continue to stagnate under Hillary, and that a successful businessman would do a better job getting it fired up. (In this regard, a serious economist had a piece in the WSJ today praising Trump's stance on currency manipulation -- it's also worth reading: http://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-contribution-to-sound-money-1470868946. You can probably find it via google if you're blocked by the paywall.) As I've said, more than 50 million people are going to vote for him. Most are not the despicable lowlifes you've been painting them as.

Do you think the factual basis for "bigots and neanderthals" is equivalent to that of "bloodthirsty Muslim?" Have you introduced any data supporting your views in the way that I have introduced data supporting mine?

They do seem like an odd inclusion in the short list.

This is an excellent point. Most of these college free agents don't turn into high-end NHLers.

In fairness to the Bills, this was a typical, unforseeable training camp injury, right? Not an "everyone in the NFL but Rex and Whaley knows that Shaq is going to need shoulder surgery?"

Chicago is still a powerhouse with a ton of talent. If Vesey plays on their top 6, he'll play with great linemates, get lots of leaguewide exposure and probably make a few deep playoff runs -- which will set him up for a huge 2nd contract, either with Chicago or elsewhere.

Chicago seems like the most attractive situation to me too.

I hope you're right but I'm skeptical. I'm curious to hear why you're optimistic, if you'd like to elaborate.

Does anyone still think the Sabres are going to get him?

I could be wrong about this, but I don't think you're supposed to give yourself credit for a mic drop.

Here's my 2 cents: I almost never read Bucky, although I will do so occasionally if he has an opinion piece on the Sabres. I think his writing is pedestrian and, more importantly, he adds zero value in terms of hockey analysis or behind-the-scenes knowledge of what goes on with the Sabres (and those are the areas where, for a senior columnist to be any good, he should be telling us stuff we don't know). I read most of Jerry's opinion pieces on the Bills, and will usually read his Monday morning post mortems after the games. I think his writing is pretty good and his big-picture analysis of the franchise is pretty acute (and I have generally agreed with his criticisms over the years, since I think the Bills have been pretty much a Micky Mouse operation for a generation). I also think he has a knack for introducing a relevant stat in a clever and spot-on way to support his football analysis. I don't think Jerry (or Bucky for the most part) has anything worthwhile to say about the Sabres).

Enough of this already. 50-60 million people are going to vote for him. They aren't all, or even mostly, bigots or neanderthals. If you have facts or analysis, please post away. But this -- and you've delivered quite a few like it -- is obnoxious.

Respectfully, the answers to these 2 items could easily be "nothing changed for Evander other than running into a couple of skanky scammers" and "the real problem is the 2 skanky scammers he ran into." I think the real answers are that these are not the inquiry, nor the real problem. The inquiry is "what happened" and the real problem is "we don't know and yet we speculate based on a the highly tenuous assumption that we do know."

I think he was taking issue with TBPhd's theory that not being under the microscope in Buffalo (as he was in Winnipeg) may have freed Kane's inner beast -- i.e. he wasn't under the microscope in ATL either, and there were no sexual assault allegations there, so the theory doesn't hold water. I think they call that a "moment of clarity."

You may have gotten hung up on "ttbomk", which I believe is Taro-speak for "to the best of my knowledge".

Irony!

Whether we'll get to see the video is an interesting question. I would think that if it exonerates Kane, his side will find a way to release it (and, likely, if it indicates guilt, the other side will find a way). Maybe one of our resident litigators can advise as to whether court proceedings in WNY are televised? As for PLF -- I agree that we'll probably never know that either (or the facts behind a million other local sports stories for that matter). I guess the difference is, depending on what you believe about the PLF incident, the worst-case scenario is that someone mistakenly believes that TP is an incompetent meddler, or that PLF is a mercurial and erratic presence in a professional office, or something like that -- but in Kane's case, people could mistakenly believe that someone is a rapist, which is a heckuva thing to think about someone if untrue. I've got nuttin'. I think I'm vaguely recollecting something that was posted in this thread. Also, was the young lady in question definitely related to the accuser? Or just someone with the same name who may or may not have been related?