Toronto Bills Blog

There generally isn’t much attention paid by the national media to the Bills.  Other than a few games in the fall, Buffalo is generally the league’s forgotten town.  All that is changing.  The signing of Terrell Owens is temporarily bringing the team into the national spotlight.  He will be in and out before you know it.  The Bills Toronto Series is another highlight for the team.  All this will come and go.  Once the team moves to Toronto, Buffalo will again fade.

Bills Chief Operating Officer, Russ Brandon, is the man in charge of football operations.  His duties are many:  scouting, personnel, the draft.  He is responsible for the signing of Terrell Owens and keeping Coach Dick Jauron.  He figures prominantly in the Bills long-range planning.  He will have input into the eventual move of the team to Toronto.  He knows all about moving operations.  He was hired to transition the Bills training camp from Fredonia to St. John Fisher in Rochester.  Surely he is involved with the team’s ongoing negotiations with Rogers Communications.  He understands what the team’s future is about.

The Bills have announced the 2009 preseason schedule.  There will be a total of five exhibition games, against Tennessee, Chicago, Green Bay, Pittsburgh, and Detroit.  The Bills will play the Titans on August 9 in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio.  That weekend owner Ralph Wilson will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.  The game will commemorate the founding of the American Football League.  The extra long preseason schedule will test Terrell Owens as he adapts to playing with the Bills.

Terrell Owens, the Bills star wide receiver, has given an interview to Rogers Sportsnet.  He told the Canadian television station that Dallas owner Jerry Jones had assured him that he would remain with the Cowboys.  Owens had signed a four year contract extension with Dallas last year.  Clearly the Cowboys trade for receiver Roy Williams was a factor in the release of Owens.  The Cowboys’ loss is the Bills gain.  It is significant that Owens gave his interview to Rogers, sponsor of the Bills series in Toronto.  The Rogers Centre is increasingly looking like home for TO and the Bills.

Terrell Owens has returned to Buffalo for some personal business.  It is not known whether he will join the team’s voluntary offseason workouts.  It would give him a chance to meet his new teammates.  No sooner had TO arrived in Buffalo then he left to spend the weekend in Toronto.  We have said that he will be right at home in Toronto and spend most of his time there.  He must know something that fans don’t yet know.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has proposed increasing the regular season schedule to 17 or 18 games by 2011.  He ran this past team owners at the recent league meeting in California.  The number of preseason games would be reduced from 4 to 2.  This is great news for Bills owner Ralph Wilson, who can expect increased revenues from more games.  Bad news for Buffalo fans.  It will be easier for Wilson to get approval for playing more regular season games in Toronto in preparation for eventually moving the team permanently to metro.

Embattled head coach Dick Jauron will be back for a fourth season.  His performance has hardly been stellar.  The Bills have gone 7 – 9 in each of his three seasons as head coach.  The Bills have now missed the playoffs for nine consecutive seasons.  2008 was perhaps their most disappointing showing:  after a 5 -1 start, the Bills went on to lose 8 of their last 10 games.  Clearly things are not clicking for Jauron in Buffalo.  Moving the team to Toronto will give him a fresh start.  New management might pay him more and invest in standout players like Terrell Owens to make for a winning team.

Erie County, current landlord of the Bills, is obligated under the lease to do $2.9 million worth of capital improvements to Ralph Wilson Stadium.  The county has yet to undertake the work for 2009 and still has not completed work scheduled for last year.  Clearly the thirty-six year old Ralph is not on par with modern luxury stadiums around the league.  The county’s fiscal plight is hampering efforts to upgrade an aged facility.  Maybe these are signs that Erie County taxpayers will find themselves holding the bag once the lease is up in 2012.

Terrell Owens, the Bills new sensation, has chosen not to work out with his teammates in the preseason.  He has opted out of joing the Bills voluntary workout sessions.  Instead he continues to work out one on one with his personal trainer.   Maybe once he plays a game in Toronto his attitude will change, and he will want to be part of the metro scene.

For once there is positive news for Bills fans.  The Bills will be playing the New England Patriots on Monday night football September 14 as part of 2009 NFL Kickoff Weekend.  The game will match the Bills new sensational wide receiver Terrell Owens with New England’s Randy Moss.  Excitement is running high with all the attention being paid to Owens.  Here’s hoping the Bills are victorious on national television.