Bills Fan’s Take on T.O. Signing
Few sports fans in the history of sports are as tortured as Buffalo Bills fans. Watching their team lose of an NFL record four straight Super Bowls, fail to make the playoffs for the past decade and deal with the Curse of the Flutie are things that few sports franchises must deal with on their own — much less all three at once – all the while playing in a football stadium that looks like a Division III college stadium and dealing with lake-effect snow and heavy Canadian winds.
In short, life as a Buffalo Bills fan is bitter, bitter cold and unforgiving.
Bitter and unforgiving are certainly qualities that define Terrell Owens. So naturally, Owens signed with the Bills on Saturday. Sounds like a match made in heaven… ok, not exactly. It was certainly not one that many people envisioned when the troubled wide receiver was cut loose by the Dallas Cowboys — myself included.
Bills nation was also shocked. That’s where my fraternity brother, Dangerman, comes in. One of my good friends from my fraternity in college, Dangerman is a diehard Bills fan, god bless him. We even went to a Bills-Eagles game in ‘03, and partied the night before in Toronto (funny story for another time). He got the news while at a friends’ house for the St. Patrick’s Day parade. Here’s how he described the news to me:
2nd time in my life i’ve been to this one house party in Hoboken (NJ), that I was at for the St. Patty’s Day parade. Last year we got Marcus Stroud, this year TO. Crazy, I rememeber sitting on the couch last yr reading about stroud and this year it’s TO. Must be my lucky spot…
So that’s the premise behind today’s guest post from Dangerman. I hope you enjoy!
That’s My Receiver (*tear)
It wasn’t until the fifth person told me the Bills signed T.O. that I actually started believing it.
The Bills’ site was slow and I couldn’t find anything official on there. My friends knew I was drunk. I was definitely an easy target to play a practical joke. Finally, I began to get the sense they were serious. Then I saw a couple headings on Bills’ site alluding to the signing. Could this be true? If I was creating a list of where I thought T.O. would end up, the only teams I would have put behind Buffalo were Philly (obvious) and Cardinals (Fitz and Boldin). Even a return to Dallas would have been less shocking.
From the Bills’ perspective, this makes so much sense. First of all, it gives them instant credibility on offense. Their offensive weapons went from bottom five to top five extremely quickly. Teams could have a tough time stopping T.O., Evans, Reed, Lynch, and Fred Jackson (he’s better than you think). If the Bills’ offense fails this year, it’s because Edwards is not an NFL caliber QB and/or Turk Shonert is not ready to be an NFL Offensive Coordinator. There’s no excuse now. Ralph Wilson said we didn’t have enough talent. Now, there probably isn’t another team in the league with more talent at the offensive skill positions (although an NFL tight end would be awfully nice). If the offense can’t get the job done now, it’s coaching (which I think it is).
T.O. is volatile. He’s temperamental. But he’s a hell of a player and cares about winning. I think a lot of his temperament comes from being extremely competitive and that’s the type of person that I think we need to kick-start this club. Maybe we need someone to get in Edwards’ face when he’s checking down time after time. Lord knows Dick Jauron (a.k.a. the corpse) isn’t going to do it. T.O. also is always good his first year and knows this could be his last chance to get one more big payday before he retires.
The Bills’ fan base is not happy right now (pre-T.O.). They watched a great start fizzle into nothing last year (for the ninth straight time). Hall of Fame owner Ralph Wilson didn’t get rid of the fan-hated coaching staff, claiming the team needed more talent. Then fans, expected to renew their season tickets in a terrible economy, saw the Bills go out and sign a backup quarterback and a backup center (who is expected to start for Buffalo). Season tickets were down, suite sales were down, morale was down. Bringing in T.O., even if it doesn’t translate to any more wins on the field, will at least generate a lot of money for a team in a declining economic climate. The fact that the Bills’ brass is led by all marketing guys and not football guys (let’s not go there, either), this move makes sense from the Bills’ perspective.
What I’ve been trying to figure out for the last 36 hours or so, though, is what T.O. sees in Buffalo. He isn’t getting a lot of money ($6.5M is very reasonable — and less than what Lee Evans makes, a recipe for disaster). He’s going to a place that gets no media attention (aside from Marshawn Lynch hit-and-runs and carrying concealed weapons). There aren’t going to be cameras everywhere he goes. Is that what drew him to “North America’s Team?” Is it the fact that the Bills made him feel “wanted” by going to see him? I know the market wasn’t that bare for a future Hall of Fame WR, especially after teams saw what having an all-world WR could do (see Fitzgerald, L. in Cardinals’ Super Bowl XLIII run). I don’t know the answer to this question and am apprehensive that there’s some alterior motive. My guess is that he’s going to try to prove himself in a different situation for a year and try to cash in on a big free agent deal next year. Maybe he’ll like Buffalo, but more likely than not he’ll be in another uniform in 2010. The beauty of this is that in order for him to do so, he has to be good and off the field. That bodes well for the Bills in 2009.
I still don’t see how T.O.’s personality is going to mesh with this coaching staff’s. T.O. likes scoring Touchdowns. The Bills’ coaching staff likes scoring field goals, hoping their defense and special teams can keep the game close, and hoping to make a play or two down the stretch to win the game. The coaching staff needed to change their mindset this year to have a chance to keep their jobs. T.O. helps them do that. T.O. gets upset when the team doesn’t score. With the weapons they have now, T.O. should get upset when the Bills don’t score. At the worst, T.O. brings an updated timetable to Edwards’ development and the coaching staffs’ leash. There are no more excuses.
The good thing about this signing is it has no downside for the Bills. They get a great player who will probably on his best behavior. At the worst, if and when the staff/Edwards can’t handle him, the Bills start over (again). That’s nothing new. The bad thing about this signing is I don’t think it puts the Bills over the hump. New England, assuming Brady’s healthy, is still the class of the AFC East. The Bills schedule next year (as is the rest of the division’s) is tough. The Jets, if they can find a QB, should be good. The Dolphins are still dangerous. Unfortunately, I don’t think move gets the Bills to the playoffs, unless the coaching staff grows a pair and Edwards learns how to read a 3-4 defense.
Regardless of whether or not the Bills end their decade long playoff drought, however, the Bills’ brass accomplished their goal: they made things much more exciting for us fans. And that’s more than we had 48 hours ago.
–Dangerman!
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