Bills in Toronto and the Cowboys are a bunch of soft babies - SPTO's Blog

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Bills in Toronto and the Cowboys are a bunch of soft babies

Posted on December 8, 2008 at 05:57 AM.

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So the first regular season to be played in Canada happened yesterday. I thought it came off well. The fans weren't very loud but they weren't completely dead either. The one thing that disappointed me the most (other then the Bills choking down the stretch) is that the roof wasn't open. That's one thing that needs to be addressed for the future Bills in Toronto games.

As for the future of the Bills in Toronto, well let's put it this way, Rogers Communications vastly over estimated what people were willing to pay. If you compare the seat pricing at Rogers Centre compared to the Ralph it's like night and day. You can get very good seats in Buffalo for about 75 bucks whereas here some people were paying upwards of 500 dollars! It was also a strategic mistake to make the very first game a preseason affair. That really soured some of the excitement for the series of games here. The people behind this probably thought "oh it's the NFL they'll just gobble this up!" Well, Torontonians didn't just fall out of the turnip truck. They know when they're being suckered in.

I do think there is a future for the NFL here it's just going to be a lot harder then previously thought. It's definitely not going to be an expansion team because the Bills and the NFL have basically made Toronto a part of the Bills sphere of influence. The only way Toronto gets an NFL team is if Buffalo gives up its territorial rights or it's the Bills franchise itself that moves here. It's not explicitly said but most NFL fans here are wary of stealing the Bills away from Buffalo because doing that would basically be the death sentence for Buffalo economically since the Bills are the only entity that really generates revenues.

There's also the problem of an NFL sized facility. The Rogers Centre would be ok as a temporary measure but Toronto would need a bigger facility. There's land by Woodbine racetrack that would be ideal for a stadium as it's pretty easy to get to by public transportation and as far as road travel goes it isn't as congested as driving to the Downtown core.

What I think eventually happens is that we're going to see a set up similar to Green Bay and Milwaukee for years and years. Buffalo and Toronto would have 4 games each and that's that.

Now onto the Cowboys, this'll be quick but that team is full of soft babies it isn't even funny. These guys can't take adversity at all. It seems the Cowboys players are a bunch of guys who are frontrunners but when things go badly they wither and die. I do think some of it is a reflection of the coach who's pretty much a gutless wonder despite his physical girth. There just aren't very many character guys or plain ol' tough guys on that team. The majority of the Cowboys locker room is full of poseurs who live the celebrity lifestyle well but when it comes to getting knocked around on a football field they just can't handle the tough times. I think Parcells took all the character guys off that roster and took em to Miami. (except Witten)

I guess we'll see what happens in the coming weeks regarding that team.

Comments

# 1 bronco92 @ Dec 8

Was the game in Toronto a sell-out?

# 2 SPTO @ Dec 8

Technically yes, There was quite a bit of "papering" though meaning one dept. of Rogers bought sections of seats to make it look like it was completely sold out. There wasn't a lot of this but enough that it's pretty much an open secret.

# 3 rudyjuly2 @ Dec 8

I'm glad my Dolphins won. I thought they would give Ricky a bigger cheer though. But it was a Bills home game.

The Cowboys best chance to win with Wade Phillips was the first year Parcells stepped down. They still had the discipline from his coaching staff along with a player's coach. Often a switch from a disciplinarian to a player's coach can go well early but it stuggles over time as the attention to detail and sacrifice fade away.