Is "accountability" even possible in the Sabres organization?

[Cage]

13 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Fire Adams and the entire coaching staff with the exception of Bales to start. 

5 years of being bad and you're in here defending Adams. It's breathtaking. He's been GM for 2 of 3 Sabres 13 game losing streaks. He needs to be fired and an adult with actual brains brought in. Howdy Doody's palm trees and want to be here act has worn thin. 

5 years. 0 playoffs. 1 top 6 forward brought in via trade. The dude is incompetent. 

I actually didn't advocate in my post that Adams should be retained.  I stated that I was at a loss for how to proceed.  I also acknowledged that his moves clearly haven't worked out and the whole team seems to be painted into a corner.  I guess we can fire him and others, I'm not sure it's clear to me what that would achieve??  Will existing players play harder?  Will trade targets drop Sabres from their no-trade lists?  Will free agents come here?  Will prospects develop faster?  Do we want to fire-sale players to restart another rebuild?

Surely, this is a bad situation as we see where the various moves have left the team....

[Carmel Corn]

1 hour ago, LGR4GM said:

The Sabres are in what? 31st 32nd in the league and you're arguing Adams fixed something? What did he fix? 

Instead of a culture of "what to be in Buffalo" he should have focused on "actually good at hockey". Also who gives a ***** of Levi some day some time becomes a starter and Kulich some day is a 30g scorer? In the 4 years since that trade Reinhart won a cup and is a 50g scorer. Great in another 3 years we might have something... only took 7 more seasons of losing! Victory. 

No ***** gm with a brain would have signed a 3rd pair defender with 58 total nhl games to a 7 year deal worth over 4 million. Also who gives a flying ***** if in year 6 of that deal is a "steal"? For the first 3 it's been terrible. 

Excuses is all I hear. Adams is a failure. 

Agree, GMKA is a failure and he himself is responsible for creating the environment where no outside player wants to come here .  He can’t use palm trees and taxes as excuses either.  He’s had more time than his immediate predecessors to turn things around and has made one bad decision after another to create this current mess.  He claims Pegula is 100% supportive, so I therefore feel he and only he is ACCOUNTABLE and needs to be relieved.

[Carmel Corn]

18 minutes ago, Cage said:

I actually didn't advocate in my post that Adams should be retained.  I stated that I was at a loss for how to proceed.  I also acknowledged that his moves clearly haven't worked out and the whole team seems to be painted into a corner.  I guess we can fire him and others, I'm not sure it's clear to me what that would achieve??  Will existing players play harder?  Will trade targets drop Sabres from their no-trade lists?  Will free agents come here?  Will prospects develop faster?  Do we want to fire-sale players to restart another rebuild?

Surely, this is a bad situation as we see where the various moves have left the team....

Not sure if you are advocating more patience or not?  That may be okay with other teams who have tasted some recent success and playoffs, but the Sabres are in very rare air with their long term failure.  IMHO - this franchise needs a quick and serious injection of credibility that can move the needle, which needs to move desperately.

[Pimlach]

2 hours ago, Cage said:

In these threads people keep using the word "accountable".... I'm not sure what that really means??  For fans, we can turn off the team and ice them out of our attention span.  Don't attend games, don't buy merch....  The local media hasn't exactly been love-festing over the team.  Suppose they could be harsher, but not sure what that would change?

For the team, they can fire Ruff, fire Adams or get rid of players.  This is where it where, to me, it gets very perplexing.  

When looked at individually, Adams has made a lot of moves that we would probably agree with in isolation.  I'll keep it at a high-level, but we can go into details as well.  First he wanted to build the team around players who wanted to be Buffalo Sabres.  I think we can all agree with that concept.  The Bills would do the same thing.  Beane just took a huge cap hit to get rid of Diggs.  So he traded frustrated players (Eichel, Reinhart, Risto) and got reasonable trade compensation for them.  He got a lot of first round draft capital, Tuch (who clearly was happy to come here) and Levi (we needed a top G prospect)

He's drafted well.  We're still the youngest team in the league.  Sabres prospect pipeline is routinely ranked in the top 5.  Not just the first round picks, but taking chances on good Russian players who are developing and he got at multi-round discounts.  He knew to trade up for Peterka.  Most every GM would hav picked Owen Power #1 overall (and he's still young).  They've forced most players to be successful on Amerks before progressing.  Amerks are stocked with developing draft picks who are growing as we should expect.

He's been careful, but taking reasonable risks on handing out long-term contracts.  While we might 20:20 hindsight some of those, the long-term signings for Thompson (nearly 50 goal scorer), Cozens (30 goal scorer at the time), Samuelsson (strong young D for $4m/), Dahlin are moves most GMs would have done as well.  He's being careful with cap space as he had been expecting that Quinn, Byrum, Peterka, maybe Krebs would continue to grow and he would need the space to resign them.

He also was creative in solving long-standing G issue.  He didn't give up on UPL, got top prospect in Levi and took a shot at an emerging possibility in Comrie.  While Comrie didn't work out, he was thinking about the issue the same way as Beane may have when he signed as yet unknowns like Poyer and Hyde some years ago.  

As much as people liked Granato, the players needed "accountability" (there's that word again), so he brings back Ruff, which seems like a sound move at the time.

Obviously all of this hasn't progressed as planned, but I don't see large-scale defect in the thinking that we would expect from a GM.  I honestly am stuck with where the problem is with this team??  They should be like last year's Houston Texans or two years ago's Detroit Lions and be on the rise with the rest of the league nervous about playing them.  If that was the case, the stands would be full.... the Bills notwithstanding.

 

Adam’s represented a major Pegula Covid related cost cutting and another rebuild that allowed the old Core to get out.  No qualified POHO/GM would work with those constraints, not even Boterill.  Adams hiring as GM was both jaw dropping and eye rolling.  

Winning will make hockey players want to be here.  Nothing else. Just like with the Bills.  If football players from California, Florida, and Texas like to play here then hockey players from anywhere else will too.  Just make winning the priority, set the culture to demand and promote excellence.  Stop running the place on a shoe string budget. 

What you missed is roster building.  Adam’s cost this team one playoff birth already by not bringing in a goalie when he blew the Ulmark signing.  Tokarski, Dell, Anderson, Comrie … what was that all about?   Waiting for Levi   

Roster building - he handed NHL jobs to young players with 0 and 1 year in the AHL like candy at Halloween    He purposely prevented competition with his “no blockers” stance.  Some of the vets he brought in just wanted money and then wanted to leave immediately (Hall, Stahl) and some had no tread left to make any real impact (Anderson, E Johnson).   The roster still lacks experience and players to support all the hockey roles that are required of winning teams.  He publicly complains about how hard it is to make trades but it’s his job to do so.   

Salary Cap - a puzzling use of the cap.  More like a fear of the cap.  Still operating under the cap in seasons that he publicly declared “all in”.  He is obviously resource constrained by his boss.  He is under the thumb of his boss, even for on ice hockey related moves.  ( “Everything they need is in the room”. -  right?)  

Skills and experience - what other team had Adams on their radar for GM?  We can review his resume again but why bother.  

Bottom line right now is that he has a bevy of very good prospects (credit him for that) but I would not trust him to know what to with them.  They all won’t make the team, some should be moved to build a playoff team right now (actually next off season would be better).  The  losing has to stop now before the current core players burn out and go the way of the last core.  Sitting in last place on Christmas, the odds are stacked that this year will be another with no playoffs   

It’s time for better. Adams did his job I guess, the team made it through Covid.  That seemed to be what all the panic in Pegulaville was about.  Maintaining their family standards and all that talk. 

When can we get back to winning?  

[Archie Lee]

18 minutes ago, Cage said:

I actually didn't advocate in my post that Adams should be retained.  I stated that I was at a loss for how to proceed.  I also acknowledged that his moves clearly haven't worked out and the whole team seems to be painted into a corner.  I guess we can fire him and others, I'm not sure it's clear to me what that would achieve??  Will existing players play harder?  Will trade targets drop Sabres from their no-trade lists?  Will free agents come here?  Will prospects develop faster?  Do we want to fire-sale players to restart another rebuild?

Surely, this is a bad situation as we see where the various moves have left the team....

You typically don’t see a GM in pro sports get a 2nd chance with a course correction. The Sabres are legitimately a lottery team this year. This is four years after we drafted 1st overall. We have a legitimate chance to do so again. Two years after missing the playoffs by 1 point and in a year where the GM himself stated we are in win-now-mode.

There are many reasons to be terrified of any decision Pegula makes related to the Sabres. Barring a historical turnaround to this season, keeping Adams would just be further evidence that the Sabres continue to not operate like a normal NHL team. 

[Cage]

1 hour ago, Carmel Corn said:

Not sure if you are advocating more patience or not?  That may be okay with other teams who have tasted some recent success and playoffs, but the Sabres are in very rare air with their long term failure.  IMHO - this franchise needs a quick and serious injection of credibility that can move the needle, which needs to move desperately.

I'm honestly not sure what to advocate.  Though I have to say I don't see any solutions in this thread other than to rage-fire the whole front office.... after that, what will fix this?

Edited December 24, 2024 by Cage

[LGR4GM]

2 hours ago, Cage said:

I'm honestly not sure what to advocate.  Though I have to say I don't see any solutions in this thread other than to rage-fire the whole front office.... after that, what will fix this?

Pegula selling the team and experienced hockey ppl being brought in to run it without financial constraints. 

This season is over. 

@Cage i take exception to the "rage fire" comment. It's not rage fire. The pp has sucked for years. The defense has sucked for years. The same coaches don't get brought back in a serious org. It's not rage, it's refusing to accept their ***** mediocrity. 

[OrangeSeatVertigo]

On 12/22/2024 at 3:34 PM, GASabresIUFAN said:

That’s my point.  Unless the players want to do what is necessary to win, once KA gave them their fat contracts they had no incentive to work hard or play hard.  
 

Benching has no effect.  Dropping them down the lineup has had no effect and they can’t be sent to the minors for the most part.  

without the long term contracts, the players would have left in free agency.  so at least the team controls where the player goes, not the player... I get it, that is small consolation, but WNY is a toxic NHL destination for players right now.   not sure what the roster would be if the long term contract guys were not there... would be worse than it is now I would imagine.  Not sure how to fix this/// letting go anyone who had a hand in screwing up the Eichel relationship would be the 1st step I would imagine.   Can you imagine what Eichel says about this organization?  

Edited December 25, 2024 by OrangeSeatVertigo

[LabattBlue]

Some here support Pegula never addressing the media as an NHL owner, but today i have heard sound bites from press conferences of 3 NFL owners.  
 

Pegula is a joke and an embarrassment as an NHL owner…in the history of the NHL, he has to be top 5 BAD. 

[Flashsabre]

13 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

Some here support Pegula never addressing the media as an NHL owner, but today i have heard sound bites from press conferences of 3 NFL owners.  
 

Pegula is a joke and an embarrassment as an NHL owner…in the history of the NHL, he has to be top 5 BAD. 

He is right near the top. 14 years without playoffs when half the league gets in is mind boggling. No other owner has pulled that off. 
 

The thing that gets me is the pride. If I owned the Sabres for 14 years and never made the playoffs I would be so embarrassed and ashamed I would be in isolation. But we have never gotten the sense that he is too bothered by it. The fact he has avoided seasoned hockey execs is just baffling. Like he just can’t figure out that not having one running the ship for 14 years has led to this state of affairs.

[mjd1001]

1 hour ago, Flashsabre said:

He is right near the top. 14 years without playoffs when half the league gets in is mind boggling. No other owner has pulled that off. 
 

The thing that gets me is the pride. If I owned the Sabres for 14 years and never made the playoffs I would be so embarrassed and ashamed I would be in isolation. But we have never gotten the sense that he is too bothered by it. The fact he has avoided seasoned hockey execs is just baffling. Like he just can’t figure out that not having one running the ship for 14 years has led to this state of affairs.

I think he is bothered by it....but his ego is bigger than the embarassment.  He wants it fixed, but he wants to fix things HIS way without admitting fault.

Has Pegula ever (or at least recently, in the last 4-6 years) made any statements about the Sabres where he admitted he was wrong?  Or even admitted 'we made a bad decision and we are going to fix that now?'  Its apparent to me he has an ego...the more outsiders call for him to do something different, the more it seems he digs in even deeper, so when (IF) things change, he'll say it was 'his' way.  That is my impression at least.

 

[Flashsabre]

2 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

I think he is bothered by it....but his ego is bigger than the embarassment.  He wants it fixed, but he wants to fix things HIS way without admitting fault.

Has Pegula ever (or at least recently, in the last 4-6 years) made any statements about the Sabres where he admitted he was wrong?  Or even admitted 'we made a bad decision and we are going to fix that now?'  Its apparent to me he has an ego...the more outsiders call for him to do something different, the more it seems he digs in even deeper, so when (IF) things change, he'll say it was 'his' way.  That is my impression at least.

 

I think everything is funnelled through Adams who listens to all his ideas and says they are great. The Smithers to his Mr Burns.

[PerreaultForever]

8 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

I think he is bothered by it....but his ego is bigger than the embarassment.  He wants it fixed, but he wants to fix things HIS way without admitting fault.

Has Pegula ever (or at least recently, in the last 4-6 years) made any statements about the Sabres where he admitted he was wrong?  Or even admitted 'we made a bad decision and we are going to fix that now?'  Its apparent to me he has an ego...the more outsiders call for him to do something different, the more it seems he digs in even deeper, so when (IF) things change, he'll say it was 'his' way.  That is my impression at least.

 

There was something a few years back about "we got bad advice from hockey people" which was sort of a sideways we made a mistake but it was also the wrong lesson learned. Pegula thinks he knows better that's certain. 

imo 3 things broke this franchise.

1) Lucic hitting Miller

2) LaFontaine resigning 

3) tanking for McDavid and not getting him

There were numerous other mistakes but those 3 are big pivotal things. All 3 have contributed to turning this franchise into what it is and Pegula has not found a way to rebuild it from those moments because he thinks he knows better and now it's gotten so bad I'm not sure anybody can fix it without something radical.

[Familykwi]

On 12/22/2024 at 7:38 AM, bob_sauve28 said:

Nope.

I just wonder if we are missing the larger point. It's not the organization that's the problem, its the city. The Sabres are a second rate franchise in their own town. The Bills are the real draw and the Sabres for most people don't even begin getting people's paying attention until after Bills season is over. Buffalo really IS NOT a great hockey town.

 

 

I don't know how old you are, but that ANY fans show up after a NHL record for futility speaks to the desire fans have here.  This can be a GREAT hockey town, but enough is enough.  The only way to get owners to pay attention is to reduce their earning.  That only happens by not buying the product.  The risk is they leave, but what other recourse do fans have?

When the product is at least competitive, fans will support the team.

Yes, the Sabres are the little brother compared to the Bills, but that's true in any city that has NHL & NFL.  Hockey only towns and Canadian cities (also hockey only towns when your competition is the CFL) are the big kahuna because they're the only thing in town.  Vegas may be an exception because, well, Raiders are the competition.  Once the Raiders stop sucking, VGN will take their back seat.

The problem here is that fans want quicker solutions than ownership can provide.  Assuming they can ever solve the problem.

For Buffalo fans, I don't know if there are other owners that would buy the team AND keep it in Buffalo.  Be careful what you ask for as it relates to an ownership change.

[LabattBlue]

43 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

imo 3 things broke this franchise. 

Just one…Pegula buying the team. 

[Weave]

2 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

Just one…Pegula buying the team. 

[Familykwi]

On 12/22/2024 at 12:13 PM, PerreaultForever said:

Not true. The fact that they still have ANY fans is a testament to how strong of a hockey town it really is. I remember the glory days. I remember how long the lines at the border were on Sabres game nights (great nights for sneaking duty free across the border, just wear a Sabres jersey and line up). 

There is no American city where hockey is bigger than football. NFL rules in the sports world. Even in a sports city like Boston with an original six team the Bruins are behind the Pats, Celtics and Red Sox. Only in Canada does hockey reign supreme. 

Now having said that, to the question, no, in the current situation accountability is next to impossible. Without people in that locker room demanding it from their team mates it's impossible. There is nothing a coach can do as there is no one to bring in if you sit someone. I mean what has Quinn done to be back in the line up? Nothing. But who you going to replace him with? Call up Rosen? There's no answer with this roster. 

This is why I say we need a bunch of guys who hate to lose that will thump their own team mates if necessary. I think the Dahlin Krebs incident was actually a good thing, and around that time we were showing signs of becoming a hockey team, but it wasn't enough and there weren't enough guys to keep that going and so now we are in the spiral again and everybody's quitting. 

I didn't read this until I replied to the same comment.  Great minds think alike 🙂

[mjd1001]

1 hour ago, PerreaultForever said:

There was something a few years back about "we got bad advice from hockey people" which was sort of a sideways we made a mistake but it was also the wrong lesson learned. Pegula thinks he knows better that's certain. 

imo 3 things broke this franchise.

1) Lucic hitting Miller

2) LaFontaine resigning 

3) tanking for McDavid and not getting him

There were numerous other mistakes but those 3 are big pivotal things. All 3 have contributed to turning this franchise into what it is and Pegula has not found a way to rebuild it from those moments because he thinks he knows better and now it's gotten so bad I'm not sure anybody can fix it without something radical.

Would you put the Eichel trade/lead up to the trade in that list also?

Eichel gets hurt. Every indication I have read about said it was Pegula who soured on Eichel, Pegula who didn't want him to get his surgery due to an insurance issue that the Sabres could be on the hook for money, Pegula who pushed for the move.  With that said...

Eichel gets traded (I wasn't against him being traded myself actually). 1.) Once he gets 1+ years out from his surgery and gets into his mid-late 20's, hes turned into a better player than he ever was with the Sabres. 2.) You can make a case that Reinhart would have stayed here if Eichel was still here, or at least its a strong possibility.  3.)  The way the situation was handled, I think it at least partially contributed to players now wanting to come here, sign her, waive no trades to come here (I think winning vs losing is 80+% of that, but handling Eichel the way they did certainly doesn't help, and on some level makes it worse)

1 hour ago, Flashsabre said:

I think everything is funnelled through Adams who listens to all his ideas and says they are great. The Smithers to his Mr Burns.

Yeah, I mean, I think that is why Adams was hired though.

I know others disagree with me, but Pegula wanted a guy who would agree with him. Who would take orders, execute them. Go in front of the microphone when things are bad and make himself look bad so Terry can hide away in Florida when that is happening.

[Dreams Burn Down]

1 hour ago, mjd1001 said:

Has Pegula ever (or at least recently, in the last 4-6 years) made any statements about the Sabres where he admitted he was wrong?  Or even admitted 'we made a bad decision and we are going to fix that now?'  Its apparent to me he has an ego...the more outsiders call for him to do something different, the more it seems he digs in even deeper, so when (IF) things change, he'll say it was 'his' way.  That is my impression at least.

Oddly enough, I thought about similar sentiments when I read the official statement by Robert Kraft on the firing of his head coach:

I've never been a Pats* or Robert Kraft fan, but the middle paragraph hit home with me.  TP would never say this.  We, as a fanbase, deserve better.

 

[Stoner]

"Custodians of a public asset." @That Aud Smell

"I just bought a hockey team."

[inkman]

5 hours ago, Flashsabre said:

I think everything is funnelled through Adams who listens to all his ideas and says they are great. The Smithers to his Mr Burns.

[PerreaultForever]

7 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

Would you put the Eichel trade/lead up to the trade in that list also?

Eichel gets hurt. Every indication I have read about said it was Pegula who soured on Eichel, Pegula who didn't want him to get his surgery due to an insurance issue that the Sabres could be on the hook for money, Pegula who pushed for the move.  With that said...

Eichel gets traded (I wasn't against him being traded myself actually). 1.) Once he gets 1+ years out from his surgery and gets into his mid-late 20's, hes turned into a better player than he ever was with the Sabres. 2.) You can make a case that Reinhart would have stayed here if Eichel was still here, or at least its a strong possibility.  3.)  The way the situation was handled, I think it at least partially contributed to players now wanting to come here, sign her, waive no trades to come here (I think winning vs losing is 80+% of that, but handling Eichel the way they did certainly doesn't help, and on some level makes it worse)

Yeah, I mean, I think that is why Adams was hired though.

I know others disagree with me, but Pegula wanted a guy who would agree with him. Who would take orders, execute them. Go in front of the microphone when things are bad and make himself look bad so Terry can hide away in Florida when that is happening.

No, because I don't think that one broke the team, it was already broken. They didn't handle anything with Eichel properly imo and it ended badly, but it was already broken. 

[thewookie1]

7 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

Would you put the Eichel trade/lead up to the trade in that list also?

Eichel gets hurt. Every indication I have read about said it was Pegula who soured on Eichel, Pegula who didn't want him to get his surgery due to an insurance issue that the Sabres could be on the hook for money, Pegula who pushed for the move.  With that said...

Eichel gets traded (I wasn't against him being traded myself actually). 1.) Once he gets 1+ years out from his surgery and gets into his mid-late 20's, hes turned into a better player than he ever was with the Sabres. 2.) You can make a case that Reinhart would have stayed here if Eichel was still here, or at least its a strong possibility.  3.)  The way the situation was handled, I think it at least partially contributed to players now wanting to come here, sign her, waive no trades to come here (I think winning vs losing is 80+% of that, but handling Eichel the way they did certainly doesn't help, and on some level makes it worse)

Yeah, I mean, I think that is why Adams was hired though.

I know others disagree with me, but Pegula wanted a guy who would agree with him. Who would take orders, execute them. Go in front of the microphone when things are bad and make himself look bad so Terry can hide away in Florida when that is happening.

Apparently Adams wanted to do some roster overhauling and Eichel demanded a trade. Adams and Krueger decided to try and fix this situation by signing Hall to 7mil and acquiring Eric Staal since his playoff performance had been solid the previous year. Effectively the idea being, look we are willing to try and win. However Eichel gets hurt prior to training camp and then proceeds to herniate a disc within the first month essentially. Eichel who had already requested a trade; no longer had the support of the owner and thus upon asking for a surgery that have had numerous insurance issues balked at the idea entirely when the highly respected spine doctor on staff said no to the idea. At that point any kind of reconciliation was dead, had Eichel played out the year healthy and we had some success he may have rescinded his request but now it turned into a disaster. The team spiraled, medical circumstances were suddenly a nightmare and the season went from can we convince Eichel to stay to well if you won’t play ball then screw you. 
 

I firmly believe that had Eichel not requested a trade originally, Pegula would have signed off on the surgery without fuss. Pegula strikes me as the type who will always have your back if you have his; however if you even deviate in the slightest you are dead to him. ROR was the same, his “loss of love of the game” statement in combination with the whole Tim Horton’s saga made Pegula very willing to give Botterill “permission” to trade the most recent highest paid player in franchise history. However this permission also meant Pegula had zero interest in paying a dime to guy not playing here hence the bonus issue. Pegula doesn’t see the bigger picture more he looks entirely at each tree and if that tree struggles he’ll throw money at it. However if that tree drops a branch on his car his money faucet is quite literal welded shut.

[That Aud Smell]

11 hours ago, Stoner said:

"Custodians of a public asset." @That Aud Smell

"I just bought a hockey team."

I heard that quote from Kraft late last night, and thought of you @Stoner.

Also: Nice pull on the quote from Terry on the day of his opening press conference. (What a weird brag that was, at the time. "I can tell you one thing, I'm a fan. You won't find a bigger fan than me because I just bought a hockey team. That's a pretty big commitment as a fan. There's only 29 other fans in the country that can pull that off." [Jeebus - fu*k off, dude.])

I took up a contrary position to you when you first (?) argued that the Sabres were, effectively, a public asset -- something akin to the BPO, the Buffalo Zoo, etc. A cultural institution of sorts that the supporting public essentially owns.

Technically (and only technically) speaking, I had and still have a solid argument to make.

Morally, emotionally, ethically, and probably some other important adverbs I can't summon right now, though, you had it right. Dead nuts. Kraft copping to the Patriots as a public asset points to what high-minded pro sports franchise ownership must look and sound like.

Any owner who doesn't make the same acknowledgment and behave accordingly is occupying some lesser tier of ownership than Kraft does.

Now. Mind you. Kraft is still a doooosh bag billionaire. On so many levels: Eff that guy and his bloated family.

But! As billionaire pro sports franchise owners go? He's the gold standard.

Edited Tuesday at 12:40 PM by That Aud Smell

[K-9]

21 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

I heard that quote from Kraft late last night, and thought of you @Stoner.

Also: Nice pull on the quote from Terry on the day of his opening press conference. (What a weird brag that was, at the time. "I can tell you one thing, I'm a fan. You won't find a bigger fan than me because I just bought a hockey team. That's a pretty big commitment as a fan. There's only 29 other fans in the country that can pull that off." [Jeebus - fu*k off, dude.])

I took up a contrary position to you when you first (?) argued that the Sabres were, effectively, a public asset -- something akin to the BPO, the Buffalo Zoo, etc. A cultural institution of sorts that the supporting public essentially owns.

Technically (and only technically) speaking, I had and still have a solid argument to make.

Morally, emotionally, ethically, and probably some other important adverbs I can't summon right now, though, you had it right. Dead nuts. Kraft copping to the Patriots as a public asset points to what high-minded pro sports franchise ownership must look and sound like.

Any owner who doesn't make the same acknowledgment and behave accordingly is occupying some lesser tier of ownership than Kraft does.

Now. Mind you. Kraft is still a doooosh bag billionaire. On so many levels: Eff that guy and his bloated family.

But! As billionaire pro sports franchise owners go? He's the gold standard.