35Pete
April 10th, 2007, 6:46:16 AM
Pete: How'd you find the Range? You've been here for ages. What brings you back everyday?
Meathead: Probably like a lot of people I found the Range when I was just looking for other Bills fans to talk sports with. But it was really the creation of the Politics, Religion, and Sex forum that got me hooked. If you spend some time there you will by default grow as a person because there are so many different views you really have to do some work to try to see from other peoples eyes, otherwise its just an endless cycle of arguments. And with a subject that evokes such strong reactions we have a record of our thought process which makes it easier to see flaws in our thinking and by extension our personality. I’ve learned a ton from that process and of course the people involved in it, which is what keeps me coming back.
Pete: What happened to Halbert? LOL
Meathead: I’ve never felt as strongly about any political event as I did the presidential election of ‘04. It was painfully clear to me that the country would be severely harmed by re-electing an established failure with an unabashed right-wing neo-conservative agenda. The only reason we would do that is due to both crippling partisanship and unabated fear, both of which are very bad reasons to put the hammer back in the hand of the man who was laying waste to our precious china shop. I tried very hard to get people to see the self-defeating path we were heading down, tried everything under the sun to steer our little corner away from that CrazyWorld, and in the end was not successful. I let Halbert die as my little metaphor for the death of responsible politics in our country.
Oh wait, I meant tainted ham sandwich, it was a tainted ham sandwich that killed Halbert.
Pete: The Sabres. What's your take. Are we going back to the alter just to have the bride stand us up again? Speaking of. How frustrating is it that Buffalo can't win a championship?
Meathead: The stars have finally aligned behind our beloved Sabres. Believe me, I love Lindy and feel he deserves another Coach of the Year award, but I have to say I think its more luck than anything else the Sabres are as good as they are. Professional sports results depend a great deal on luck, and in this case the Sabres have a staggering amount of talent in the organization all at the same time. After being a long time Amerks season ticket holder I know its not because the Sabres suddenly have a great farm team - they’ve always had that and it didn’t usually translate into big league success. But after churning along with up to nine (!) regulars missing for long periods of the season and still ending up with the most points they are clearly the best team in the NHL this season. Anything can happen and its going to be a battle but not bringing the Lord Stanley to Buffalo would be as big as any sports disappointment we’ve ever endured here.
Meathead: And by the way, I have to say Buffalo has in fact won championships with the Bandits and Bisons but its been a long time since one of the two major sports teams have done it - and of course the Sabres never have. The city certainly deserves it and this is our best chance to finally do it again since the Bills first Super Bowl.
Pete: Who's the hottest woman on the planet?
Meathead: I like a lot of different looks in women so I don’t really have one. And with all the surgery and makeup that the alleged beautiful people use to make themselves that way its all an illusion anyway. I tend to not focus on that and instead look for the energy a woman brings to determine beauty. I mean of course there’s a limit but a modestly attractive woman can look gorgeous to me if she has a good energy. At least I hope that’s true because I’m hoping it applies to how women perceive me.
Editor's Note: Where's the skin? Where's the pics?
Pete: Why are you one of the strongest advocates of "Trusting in the Marv?"
Meathead: Well I said it someplace else here but I used to do some management consulting and by far the most common mistake in any business is trying to run it like a Subject Matter Expert (SME), which is putting most of your focus on engineering the product. What you should be doing is engineering your business like it is the product itself. That means giving up your SME hat and instead putting on the architect/orchestrator hat and letting other people do the SME work. If you listen to Marv that’s exactly what he’s doing, which is very unusual for a professional sports franchise normally dominated by self-worshipping SME’s. Marv understands the critical importance of corporate culture and how that absolutely permeates all aspect of the business from the top down. He’s also extremely well respected with an incredible network of knowledge he can draw on. I can’t think of many humans on the planet I would want to be orchestrating my football team more than Marv Levy and I think there’s an excellent chance he will bring a championship to Buffalo and the Bills.
Pete: Who would you draft in rounds 1-3 in the NFL draft for the Bills?
Meathead: Well instead of naming a bunch of prospects I will focus on team needs. Clearly the biggest remaining hole on this team right now is at LB so I expect they will use at least one first-day pick there. There’s also CB where the Bills have good depth but I’m not sure a bonafide starter, and since you can never have too many CB’s I’d like one of those added early. By now lots of people are throwing things at me for not saying RB already but I just don’t think a very early pick on a RB would be a good idea for this team right now. The Bills have obviously adopted the model of other teams that center around their lines and their QB while de-emphasizing the role of a featured RB. I think that’s a potentially good strategy and thus don’t want the Bills spending anything higher than a third-rounder on a RB this year. They can get much better bang for their buck by investing high picks elsewhere and going with a RB platoon by adding one of the veterans floating around either via trade or free agency. We will see.
Pete: Whos' your favorite presidential candidate for 08'? Why?
Meathead: I hope to be able to vote for a Republican president this time around. I am very firmly committed to balance in government and since it clearly looks to me like the Democrats will hold majorities in both houses it is imperative that we have a Republican preident so that we don’t fall into the same abuses of power that we’ve experienced the last decade under the Republican monopoly. Anybody that thinks that won’t happen again if we give Democrats too much power is at this point just a fool. I also feel the Republican party needs some rescuing from the wingnut phenomenon that briefly took the entire country hostage and ushered in CrazyWorld. Since I don’t decide on a final candidate until just before the actual vote I have a long way to go to make a selection but my dark horse right now is Chuck Hagel. He seems like everything John McCain used to be for me - highly intelligent, straight shooter, patriot, and relatively non-partisan. I just hope we don’t end up with what we usually do - two crappy candidates more concerned about beating the piss out of each other than uniting Americans and moving our country and the world forward. Well I can dream can’t I.
Pete: The LB corp. Does it's present state scare the hell out of you? How will it be fixed? When will it be completely fixed? This year? Next?
Meathead: I thought it was very interesting when I talked with Coy Wire how he very strongly hinted that the Bills problems against the rush was due primarily to LB play and not as much the defensive line as I had assumed. The moves the Bills made this offseason to let guys like Fletcher and Spikes walk would appear to confirm that, but that leaves a gaping hole right in the middle of the defense. They clearly have a lot of confidence that Crowell and Ellison are ready to take over but the remaining linebackers, with all due respect, are depth and special teams guys. So the strong side spot at the very least needs a big investment either in the draft or free agency. And I’m not sure the Bills have the luxury of stashing three very good special teams guys (Wire, Haggen, and Stamer) as backups so I would expect at least one of them to go this offseason, most likely Stamer. It’s a big question mark but if they can land a blue chip LB and add another solid guy somewhere along the line its possible they will be fine. But I have to admit I expect it won’t really be until next season for that unit to completely solidify.
Pete: Losman. Comment on him? What's your take for this year and his performance?
Meathead: Losman has impressed me virtually from the start. I think the best thing to happen to him was to have Sam Wyche tutor him so very early in his career which gave him a tremendous base of knowledge to work from going forward - not just football-wise but life-wise. J.P. just sounds like Sam when he talks now. And his progress has been undeniable. He’s always had the intangibles in my mind, like his ability to avoid the rush, to ad-lib plays on the fly, and make a variety of throws. Last year he was clearly getting to his third and fourth reads routinely by the end of the season, which is huge at this point for him. I fully expect him to have a strong break-out type of year and become a good if not yet top-level QB.
Pete:Who do you want carrying the rock? That is, who can we reasonably acquire at RB?
Meathead: I would prefer the Bills sign one of the veteran free agents floating around, or perhaps a reasonable trade for someone like Michael Turner, and platoon them with Anthony Thomas and a drafted RB. The key to the Bills success at rushing the ball this year is more likely to come from the offensive line, not from a stud RB. They’ve invested an awful lot in big bodies to block and it seems like overkill to me to draft a RB very high at the expense of other positions.
Pete: Do you think that political correctness has run amok? Or overblown?
Meathead: Oh absolutely. We have this idea that if we just never say certain words that will solve the problem. It reminds me of families with alcoholism that think if they just don’t talk about it it will go away. Of course it won’t and actually I think its far better to just have people speak their mind. Maybe I’m naive but I feel like I can usually tell when someone is being mean or racist or whatever by the tone and context of their comments. I would rather have someone use certain words because it will expose their real feelings. Another way to look at that is we have been sweeping words under the rug for a long time now and that’s not going so well, maybe its time we do a George Costanza and just do the opposite of what we normally would. What we are doing now doesn’t seem to be working.
Pete: What's our greatest weakness on both lines? How would you address it?
Meathead: (im not going to answer this one since I covered it pretty completely elsewhere)
Hmmm. Avoiding the question. Hiding something there Meat? :D
Pete: Are you worried about losing the Bills once Ralph passes on?
Meathead: Well a little bit but I believe the city and state will step up when the time comes to keep the Bills here. There’s a lot of very high profile people that want to keep the team in Buffalo and I would expect they will band together to find a way to do that when they have to. Football isn’t as important as some things in life but it’s a big part of my life and I know it’s a big part of the many people’s lives in this entire region. I hope to never see the Bills leave Buffalo.
Pete: Does this interview get the Krusty Seal of Approval?
Meathead: Ha ha, yes of course. I know I can count on myself to live up to the high standards of quality the Krusty brand has always represented.
Pete: Any final thoughts or comments?
Meathead: Thank you for including me.
Pete: Thank you. Don't thank me. Not anyone gets invited to Listen Up! You have to earn it. And you have. :)
Meathead: Probably like a lot of people I found the Range when I was just looking for other Bills fans to talk sports with. But it was really the creation of the Politics, Religion, and Sex forum that got me hooked. If you spend some time there you will by default grow as a person because there are so many different views you really have to do some work to try to see from other peoples eyes, otherwise its just an endless cycle of arguments. And with a subject that evokes such strong reactions we have a record of our thought process which makes it easier to see flaws in our thinking and by extension our personality. I’ve learned a ton from that process and of course the people involved in it, which is what keeps me coming back.
Pete: What happened to Halbert? LOL
Meathead: I’ve never felt as strongly about any political event as I did the presidential election of ‘04. It was painfully clear to me that the country would be severely harmed by re-electing an established failure with an unabashed right-wing neo-conservative agenda. The only reason we would do that is due to both crippling partisanship and unabated fear, both of which are very bad reasons to put the hammer back in the hand of the man who was laying waste to our precious china shop. I tried very hard to get people to see the self-defeating path we were heading down, tried everything under the sun to steer our little corner away from that CrazyWorld, and in the end was not successful. I let Halbert die as my little metaphor for the death of responsible politics in our country.
Oh wait, I meant tainted ham sandwich, it was a tainted ham sandwich that killed Halbert.
Pete: The Sabres. What's your take. Are we going back to the alter just to have the bride stand us up again? Speaking of. How frustrating is it that Buffalo can't win a championship?
Meathead: The stars have finally aligned behind our beloved Sabres. Believe me, I love Lindy and feel he deserves another Coach of the Year award, but I have to say I think its more luck than anything else the Sabres are as good as they are. Professional sports results depend a great deal on luck, and in this case the Sabres have a staggering amount of talent in the organization all at the same time. After being a long time Amerks season ticket holder I know its not because the Sabres suddenly have a great farm team - they’ve always had that and it didn’t usually translate into big league success. But after churning along with up to nine (!) regulars missing for long periods of the season and still ending up with the most points they are clearly the best team in the NHL this season. Anything can happen and its going to be a battle but not bringing the Lord Stanley to Buffalo would be as big as any sports disappointment we’ve ever endured here.
Meathead: And by the way, I have to say Buffalo has in fact won championships with the Bandits and Bisons but its been a long time since one of the two major sports teams have done it - and of course the Sabres never have. The city certainly deserves it and this is our best chance to finally do it again since the Bills first Super Bowl.
Pete: Who's the hottest woman on the planet?
Meathead: I like a lot of different looks in women so I don’t really have one. And with all the surgery and makeup that the alleged beautiful people use to make themselves that way its all an illusion anyway. I tend to not focus on that and instead look for the energy a woman brings to determine beauty. I mean of course there’s a limit but a modestly attractive woman can look gorgeous to me if she has a good energy. At least I hope that’s true because I’m hoping it applies to how women perceive me.
Editor's Note: Where's the skin? Where's the pics?
Pete: Why are you one of the strongest advocates of "Trusting in the Marv?"
Meathead: Well I said it someplace else here but I used to do some management consulting and by far the most common mistake in any business is trying to run it like a Subject Matter Expert (SME), which is putting most of your focus on engineering the product. What you should be doing is engineering your business like it is the product itself. That means giving up your SME hat and instead putting on the architect/orchestrator hat and letting other people do the SME work. If you listen to Marv that’s exactly what he’s doing, which is very unusual for a professional sports franchise normally dominated by self-worshipping SME’s. Marv understands the critical importance of corporate culture and how that absolutely permeates all aspect of the business from the top down. He’s also extremely well respected with an incredible network of knowledge he can draw on. I can’t think of many humans on the planet I would want to be orchestrating my football team more than Marv Levy and I think there’s an excellent chance he will bring a championship to Buffalo and the Bills.
Pete: Who would you draft in rounds 1-3 in the NFL draft for the Bills?
Meathead: Well instead of naming a bunch of prospects I will focus on team needs. Clearly the biggest remaining hole on this team right now is at LB so I expect they will use at least one first-day pick there. There’s also CB where the Bills have good depth but I’m not sure a bonafide starter, and since you can never have too many CB’s I’d like one of those added early. By now lots of people are throwing things at me for not saying RB already but I just don’t think a very early pick on a RB would be a good idea for this team right now. The Bills have obviously adopted the model of other teams that center around their lines and their QB while de-emphasizing the role of a featured RB. I think that’s a potentially good strategy and thus don’t want the Bills spending anything higher than a third-rounder on a RB this year. They can get much better bang for their buck by investing high picks elsewhere and going with a RB platoon by adding one of the veterans floating around either via trade or free agency. We will see.
Pete: Whos' your favorite presidential candidate for 08'? Why?
Meathead: I hope to be able to vote for a Republican president this time around. I am very firmly committed to balance in government and since it clearly looks to me like the Democrats will hold majorities in both houses it is imperative that we have a Republican preident so that we don’t fall into the same abuses of power that we’ve experienced the last decade under the Republican monopoly. Anybody that thinks that won’t happen again if we give Democrats too much power is at this point just a fool. I also feel the Republican party needs some rescuing from the wingnut phenomenon that briefly took the entire country hostage and ushered in CrazyWorld. Since I don’t decide on a final candidate until just before the actual vote I have a long way to go to make a selection but my dark horse right now is Chuck Hagel. He seems like everything John McCain used to be for me - highly intelligent, straight shooter, patriot, and relatively non-partisan. I just hope we don’t end up with what we usually do - two crappy candidates more concerned about beating the piss out of each other than uniting Americans and moving our country and the world forward. Well I can dream can’t I.
Pete: The LB corp. Does it's present state scare the hell out of you? How will it be fixed? When will it be completely fixed? This year? Next?
Meathead: I thought it was very interesting when I talked with Coy Wire how he very strongly hinted that the Bills problems against the rush was due primarily to LB play and not as much the defensive line as I had assumed. The moves the Bills made this offseason to let guys like Fletcher and Spikes walk would appear to confirm that, but that leaves a gaping hole right in the middle of the defense. They clearly have a lot of confidence that Crowell and Ellison are ready to take over but the remaining linebackers, with all due respect, are depth and special teams guys. So the strong side spot at the very least needs a big investment either in the draft or free agency. And I’m not sure the Bills have the luxury of stashing three very good special teams guys (Wire, Haggen, and Stamer) as backups so I would expect at least one of them to go this offseason, most likely Stamer. It’s a big question mark but if they can land a blue chip LB and add another solid guy somewhere along the line its possible they will be fine. But I have to admit I expect it won’t really be until next season for that unit to completely solidify.
Pete: Losman. Comment on him? What's your take for this year and his performance?
Meathead: Losman has impressed me virtually from the start. I think the best thing to happen to him was to have Sam Wyche tutor him so very early in his career which gave him a tremendous base of knowledge to work from going forward - not just football-wise but life-wise. J.P. just sounds like Sam when he talks now. And his progress has been undeniable. He’s always had the intangibles in my mind, like his ability to avoid the rush, to ad-lib plays on the fly, and make a variety of throws. Last year he was clearly getting to his third and fourth reads routinely by the end of the season, which is huge at this point for him. I fully expect him to have a strong break-out type of year and become a good if not yet top-level QB.
Pete:Who do you want carrying the rock? That is, who can we reasonably acquire at RB?
Meathead: I would prefer the Bills sign one of the veteran free agents floating around, or perhaps a reasonable trade for someone like Michael Turner, and platoon them with Anthony Thomas and a drafted RB. The key to the Bills success at rushing the ball this year is more likely to come from the offensive line, not from a stud RB. They’ve invested an awful lot in big bodies to block and it seems like overkill to me to draft a RB very high at the expense of other positions.
Pete: Do you think that political correctness has run amok? Or overblown?
Meathead: Oh absolutely. We have this idea that if we just never say certain words that will solve the problem. It reminds me of families with alcoholism that think if they just don’t talk about it it will go away. Of course it won’t and actually I think its far better to just have people speak their mind. Maybe I’m naive but I feel like I can usually tell when someone is being mean or racist or whatever by the tone and context of their comments. I would rather have someone use certain words because it will expose their real feelings. Another way to look at that is we have been sweeping words under the rug for a long time now and that’s not going so well, maybe its time we do a George Costanza and just do the opposite of what we normally would. What we are doing now doesn’t seem to be working.
Pete: What's our greatest weakness on both lines? How would you address it?
Meathead: (im not going to answer this one since I covered it pretty completely elsewhere)
Hmmm. Avoiding the question. Hiding something there Meat? :D
Pete: Are you worried about losing the Bills once Ralph passes on?
Meathead: Well a little bit but I believe the city and state will step up when the time comes to keep the Bills here. There’s a lot of very high profile people that want to keep the team in Buffalo and I would expect they will band together to find a way to do that when they have to. Football isn’t as important as some things in life but it’s a big part of my life and I know it’s a big part of the many people’s lives in this entire region. I hope to never see the Bills leave Buffalo.
Pete: Does this interview get the Krusty Seal of Approval?
Meathead: Ha ha, yes of course. I know I can count on myself to live up to the high standards of quality the Krusty brand has always represented.
Pete: Any final thoughts or comments?
Meathead: Thank you for including me.
Pete: Thank you. Don't thank me. Not anyone gets invited to Listen Up! You have to earn it. And you have. :)