Tonight's Bills exhibition game in Toronto can sure make even the most optimistic WNY football fan fear the "Bills-to-Toronto-for-good scenario" isn't a matter of if, but when.
Then, you get another example of the grit Bills in Buffalo backers truly have. As if record season ticket sales for a 7-9 team weren't enough.
But this time, it comes from the franchise's most prominent legend.
They likened Jim Kelly to Joe Namath when he arrived here 22 years ago. Kelly never got to offer a guarantee as a player, but he's done so as an alum: that he'll ensure the team will never leave Buffalo.
Kelly's latest example of the lengths he, and others would be willing to go: a new stadium in Niagara Falls, demonstrate once again the fight that awaits any group that tries to extract the franchise, post Ralph Wilson.
http://www.torontosun.com/Sports/Football/2008/08/14/6444776-sun.html
Rogers Communications, the host for tonight's exhibition and all eight of the Bills Toronto games, will always portray the Bills eight games in five years as more than just cozying up to the NFL. Reading Phil Lind's comments in the link below make it sound like Ted Rogers is already working on a renaming contest for the franchise.
Then, you get another example of the grit Bills in Buffalo backers truly have. As if record season ticket sales for a 7-9 team weren't enough.
But this time, it comes from the franchise's most prominent legend.
They likened Jim Kelly to Joe Namath when he arrived here 22 years ago. Kelly never got to offer a guarantee as a player, but he's done so as an alum: that he'll ensure the team will never leave Buffalo.
Kelly's latest example of the lengths he, and others would be willing to go: a new stadium in Niagara Falls, demonstrate once again the fight that awaits any group that tries to extract the franchise, post Ralph Wilson.
http://www.torontosun.com/Sports/Football/2008/08/14/6444776-sun.html
Rogers Communications, the host for tonight's exhibition and all eight of the Bills Toronto games, will always portray the Bills eight games in five years as more than just cozying up to the NFL. Reading Phil Lind's comments in the link below make it sound like Ted Rogers is already working on a renaming contest for the franchise.
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=721513
Yet even with Toronto casting this shadow over the Bills, there is the possibility that, even as a business decision, Rogers and his empire may have overplayed their hand; committing to the Bills series and maybe, shutting itself out of consideration should Wilson's team, or any other become available.
Or perhaps, as was mentioned on the Bills Radio Network pregame show Thursday, what should be recognized is that the NFL, in signing off on the Toronto series, conceded the continent's fifth largest media market to Wilson and his team. No expansion franchise fee. And only the ability to keep one of the smallest market franchises in the league viable, as Wilson has so publicly argued to do.
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