Getting Back to Form

Yes, Robert Royal will sign that football; but he's going to drop it first.

Just like last season.

Drawing Back the Curtain

by Ryan

Today has been a long time coming.



Training camp is here.

Last year in late November I wrote the following about the season:

Over the next six weeks we are going to see what this team is made of. This Bills season has been a play in three parts. Act One was the descent, capped off by the MNF game that could have killed their season. Act Two was the break even, the stretch of games against beatable teams. Act Three was last week, embarrassment on a national scale.

Act Four can be two things: The continuation of Act Three, or the test that proves this team is worthy of an extended season.

Act Four turned out to not be enough. It was exciting, but a 8-0 loss in the Cleveland snow killed our chances for playoff football. The next week was a literal s#$tstorm at the Ralph against the Giants, and a whimper of a game in Philly closed out a season once again full of what ifs.

Today is the beginning of "next year." Many people don't care about training camp, but for us it's the start of yet another play. Hopefully, this one will have three acts. The first two are always seen, but the third is what we have longed for: the postseason.

Donte Whitner may have guaranteed it, but we want to see it for real. This year may finally be it: the journey back to the playoffs. Perhaps things will finally turn around, and our hearts will tessellate once again.

For what it's worth, today I am excited, and I know I'm not the only one.



This is Billy Shaw's helmet, and its now the background on my cell phone. It will be there until something of importance takes it's place, and that probably won't happen until opening day.

Consider this the start of Act 1. Make sure you save some candy for the rest of the show.

Sabres get their man in Drury

By Chris

See that headline? That was on the top of the sports section of the Buffalo News four years ago today. In a rare case of optimism, Jerry Sullivan's column lauded the move. It "could be the best deal Darcy Regier has made since becoming the GM, and it might wind up saving his job." It probably was, and it did.

I was hoping that this anniversary would be a happy one, but unfortunately, we all know what has happend since Black Sunday. I'm ready to move on and as Ryan Miller put it, "keep (Drury and Briere) in our rear-view mirror."

So we look to the future now. There are many important dates ahead, including tomorrow's 5 p.m. arbitration deadlines for Derek Roy, Nathan Paetsch, and Andrew Peters, and the actual arbitration hearings that we all dread begin on July 20.

And oh yeah, Bills training camp opens in 22 days. Only better days can come, right? Right?