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The second half of yesterday's Bills-Patriots game was only the second ugliest thing viewers witnessed on Sunday. In the late stages of the game with Buffalo down by three scores and New England well on their way to yet another win, Tre'Davious White was locked onto Rob Gronkowski well beyond what the rules allow. His holding went uncalled, and allowed him to pick off Tom Brady's attempted pass to Gronkowski. White made the catch and went out of bounds, stopping the play. After getting up from his fall, however, Gronkowski took exception to the tugging and jostling by dropping all 265 pounds of himself onto White's head, sending him to the locker room early and into concussion protocol : There were multiple penalties called during the ensuing fray, with Gronkowski earning an offsetting unnecessary roughness penalty but no ejection, while Buffalo's Jerry Hughes got 15 yards for yelling at an official after the cheap shot. However, the Bills still maintai...

Something's been broken at One Bills Drive as of late. Now, the Bills have tapped Nathan Peterman to fix it. Peterman will make his first NFL start at quarterback on Sunday, replacing veteran Tyrod Taylor, who's led a struggling offense through the first nine games of the season. At the tail end of Sunday's 47-10 thumping by the Saints, Peterman came in early and completed seven passes to lead the Bills on their only touchdown drive of the contest. After a 5-2 start that saw the defense give up 30+ points zero times, the last two games have gone down as major losses. The 34-21 loss to the New York Jets should've been 34-7, but two meaningless touchdowns in the waning minutes closed the gap like last call at the Galleria Mall. Sunday's atrocious 47-10 setback to New Orleans at home was the first loss in Orchard Park all season. I thought (and still do) that a large part of the issue lay with the defense. After stalwart Marcell Dareus was shipped off to Jacks...

Donald Trump’s speech at a rally for Luther Strange on Friday has garnered plenty of attention because of his comments directed at athletes who do not stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner.” However, his diatribe against players who sit or kneel for the national anthem has completely overshadowed another radical stance he took when he said that the game has become too soft because of rule changes that were enacted to protect players from head injuries. By now we have all heard that the repetitive hits to the head that accompany football can be life-threatening. The day before Trump’s speech, the family of Aaron Hernandez announced they would be suing the NFL after evidence of “the most severe case [of CTE] they had ever seen for someone of Aaron’s age” was found by researchers at the CTE Center at Boston University. Hernandez hanged himself in his cell in April after being sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Odin Lloyd and after standing trial for a double homicide ...

I didn’t watch the Bills’ preseason game last night, so I don’t know what the team looked like or how well they did. All I know is they lost 17-10 against a team that has also gone 0-4 in Super Bowl appearances. So when I got a tweet (follow @RPK2@KU ) and one of my co-workers asked what was going on at the EXACT SAME MOMENT, I just said ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Look, I don’t know what to make of the new GM or the new coach, and none of us will until they start playing regular season games with real weight to them. But Sammy Watkins has been around for a few years now and they’ve had the chance to see him up close, so my first guess is they know something about his foot that we don’t. And if we don’t know it, chances are the Rams don’t either. Personally I don’t see Watkins blooming with Jared Goff throwing to him, or with anybody throwing to him. I liked the kid but if he can’t stay healthy he just eats up a roster spot and a hefty salary. Good for the Bills to move that along. That said, ...

Old Team Tuesday will be a weekly feature taking a look at former teams that have gone by the wayside. The first edition of this segment takes a look at one of the quirkiest stories in Western New York football history. ********************************************** For most Buffalo football fans, 1921 is next to meaningless. The few and far between who can rattle off facts about the Staley Swindle will know that was the season that George Halas stole the league title from the Buffalo All-Americans, the pre-eminent professional gridiron team in Western New York. However, fewer and much further between will also be able to say that in 1921 – for one day – Buffalo had two NFL teams. --- Early beginnings --- The New York Pro Football League was formed in the early 1900s, and in 1916, was joined by the All-Tonawanda All-Stars. Led by Syracuse legend and Tonawanda native Tam Rose, the team posted a 9-7 victory over the Rochester Jeffersons to claim the 1917 league cham...

Despite owning six Vince Lombardi Trophies and boasting 22 Hall of Famers, the history of the Steelers is one of polar extremes. They’ve been a consistent playoff participant since 1992 and everyone knows about the Steel Curtain era of the 1970s. But before Chuck Noll turned the Black and Gold into a dynasty, Pittsburgh was plagued with one of the most inept teams the league has ever seen. --- A LIFETIME OF DISAPPOINTMENTS --- 1933 was the first season in the NFL for the club, then called the Pirates. In the league’s first season using a divisional layout, Pittsburgh finished dead last in an unremarkable five-team Eastern Division with a 3-6-2 record. For the seven years the team called itself the Pirates, they only managed to reach the .500 mark once, racking up 22 wins, 55 losses, and three ties in the process. By 1943, the team had changed its name to Steelers but the results were more of the same. Additionally, World War II had sapped every NFL team of players, and...