BillsWatch - Buffalo Bills Backers of Northern VA

The Hosts BillsWatch BB of No. VA.Webmaster Steve Tasker

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2008 Calendar

Other countdowns will be put up soon.  
   My 2008 Bills Schedule and 2008 Bills Calendar is out.

Tailgate Time Again

It is Buffalo Bills game tailgate time again. Unfortunately there were no group tickets available for large groups so I do not have a ticket yet. I will of course be at the opener this year; I have not missed one in ten years and no reason to do now. Opener tailgate will be once held again at the World Famous (they have heard of it in Australia and Germany) Hammer's Lot for the ninth consecutive year. If you want to park in Hammer's Lot get there early for parking fills up quickly with new 8 AM opening rule for stadium lots! Hammer does not have such a 8 AM rule but he does have a vicious guard dog named "Buddy" who patrols the lot watching out for your car!

Hammer's Lot has been googled: Link

The best part of a new season is meeting new and old friends.

Future Game Plans

I am working in Southern California weeks 2-5 of the season so you will not find me at Jimmy's.

  • Week 2 I have Sunday off so will be watching the Bills play the Jaguars with Big Bob and AKC at Bugby's in Santa Monica, CA.

  • Weeks 3 and 4 I need to work Sunday but I might be able to catch part of the Raiders game.

  • Week 5 I need to work Saturday but Cardinals' stadium is only 5 1/2 hours away so I am hoping to drive to that game and have a possible ticket lined up.

Some sacrifices are necessary to support your family

Scouting Report - Bills at Redsuck's Fed Ex Stadium

pictureI was able to land a preseason ticket on craigslist for $25 so I made a call to Jimmy and he was glad to give me a ride to the game. He and Uncle Dave picked me up at my house (image below) before the short trip (distance wise) to the home of the Redsucks. Jimmy was able to land some front row seats (row 2) and a parking pass; Uncle Dave was able to get field passes from a coach of the Redsucks but did not know I was coming so had only two. I was sitting in the corner under bleachers but Jimmy told me he'd get me down to the lower section later in the game.

Jimmy (in autographed Robert Royal jersey), myself and Uncle Dave (decorator at Jimmy's for Bills games).

For the stadium itself the stadium's bowels are better not surprising since it is much newer but the field itself is poorer with a tiny big screen TV. If you are not sitting in the lower bowl between the 20's the view is terrible with many of the lower bowl seats having partially or totally obstructed seats. My view from Section 214 / Row 20 / Seat 18 was partially obstructed but not too bad since section was less than half full allowing me to find a view of most of the game. During most of the 2nd half when I was sitting in section 105, row 2, the view was much better with the cheerleaders right near by when no blocked by someone with camera equipment (like I said the field is cramped). Technically row 2 is actually row 4 for they have a reserved 2 row section in front of first section.

Game went as you would expect for a preseason game - the Deadskins had their preseason warm up at Hall of Fame game looked sharper than the Bills but the Bills special teams were able to dominate the skins special teams. This domination should have been expected since the special teams coach of the skins used to be a much criticized coach of the Bills Danny Smith.

Mama Royal invited us to a player tailgate but it was late and we did not know exactly where it was so Jimmy told her we were leaving. Traffic was lighter than expected leaving but that was partially because it was a preseason game and partially because we stayed to very end of the game.

2008 Bills Draft

The Bills have 10 draft picks this year after trading two of them away to obtain three time All-Pro (2003-2005) DT Marcus Stroud.  The Bills traded a 3rd round pick (obtained in Willis trade last year) and a 5th round pick (obtained in trade of Darwin Walker Bills obtained from Eagles for TKO and Holcomb) to obtain Stroud.

Pick Player Pos Ht Wt College
Round 1, Pick 11 (11) Leodis McKelvin CB 5'11" 190 Troy
Round 2, Pick 10 (41) James Hardy WR 6'6" 220 Indiana
Round 3, Pick 9 (72) Chris Ellis DE 6'4" 260 Virginia Tech
Round 4, Pick 15 (114) Reggie Corner CB 5'10" 180 Akron
Round 4*, Pick 33 (132) Derek Fine TE 6'3" 245 Kansas
Round 5, Pick 12 (147) Alvin Bowen OLB 6'1" 223 Iowa St.
Round 6, Pick 13 (179) Xavier Omon RB 5'11" 226 Northwest Missouri St.
Round 7, Pick 12 (219) Demetrius Bell OT 6'5" 303 Northwestern St. (LA)
Round 7, Pick 17 (224) from Eagles Steve Johnson WR 6'2" 210 Kentucky
Round 7*, Pick 44 (251) Kennard Cox CB 6'0" 195 Pittsburgh

* Compensatory selection

Our hopes are again on the front office finding gems in the draft

New Toolbar Available

BillsWatch Toolbar

I built a toolbar seen above below the header which you can install into your Firefox browser (or even IE if you have to use it) which provides ø Google-Powered Search Box, ø Privacy Controls. ø Miscellaneous useful gadgets and ø Links to Bills, NFL and Fan sites and ø E-mail notifier.  Twenty-five users (so far) can be wrong but I do not think so!

Watch for messages and more improvements

Yes something is missing

I have received some comments that some links are missing from my site which used to be on it and yes it is true.  A site which I used to contribute to blocked my ip address and otherwise made me feel unwelcome there hence I removed almost all links to the site.  In many ways they showed their true colors and acted like the site they spun off for similar reasons.  Please send mail if you want more details.

Some changes even though painful are needed.

Some changes necessary for my new job

With my new job comes shift and travel work and that includes working days, evenings, Saturdays and even football Sundays!  I unfortunately will not be able to see as many games as I did in past and site updates will not be as frequent. Sorry to the few people who will miss the updates.

Some changes even though painful are needed.


My Reading List

Books

>  Marv Levy's book "Where Else Would You Rather Be?"
>  Eddie "Abe " Abramoski's book "Tale of the Tape"
>  "Steve Tasker's Tales from the Buffalo Bills"

Articles

>  Thurman Thomas - One of the NFL's greatest
>  AFL Hall of Fame - Buffalo Bills
>  Bills Lease - Read terms of the Ralph


2007 Index . 2006 Index . 2005 Index . 2004 Index . 2003 Index . 2002 Index
Indexes from 1986-2001 were lost unfortunately.