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After the latest installment of “Bills Bahaving Badly,” no longer is the disheartening saga in Buffalo merely sidebar material.
It’s one thing for peripheral players such as DE Anthony Hargrove, WR-PR Roscoe Parrish and rookie WR James Hardy to sully their reputations with off-field misconduct. It’s another thing altogether when the player some are touting as the next Thurman Thomas finds himself in a legal quagmire.
It’s been a little over a week now since RB Marshawn Lynch’s Porsche SUV reportedly struck a pedestrian, then sped off in an apparent hit-and-run. Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark has said he believes Lynch was behind the wheel at the time, and while it’s always best to reserve final judgment until there is a conviction (or even charges), it’s certainly not looking good for the outstanding second-year back.
If the allegations leveled against him prove true, Lynch should immediately be in pole position for Buffalo’s Bonehead of the Year award. It’s stupid, selfish and morally reprehensible. He should not only be forced to pay restitution to the woman he bruised and bloodied (luckily, she didn’t suffer any debilitating injuries), but the payment should come from the sale of his big-boy toy — clearly, he’s not mature enough to handle it. His license ought to be suspended, if not revoked, and he’d be wise to start familiarizing himself with the city’s transit system.
Specifically, he needs to map out a route to Ralph Wilson Stadium for the Bills’ Week One matchup against the Seahawks because, regardless of the outcome of the hit-and-run investigation, Lynch needs to be in the backfield. It’s up to commissioner Roger Goodell to ensure he’s there.
As it stands now, Lynch, as a first-time offender, faces little risk of jail time, but it’s possible he could incur a single- or multi-game suspension from the NFL.
Let’s hope he doesn’t.
As I wrote in the current print edition of PFW (Vol. XXIII, Issue 4 — June 2008), I’m steadfastly against the league’s personal conduct policy, and I find it particularly counterproductive for the league to suspend players for off-field incidents that don’t impede fair play on the gridiron (i.e., arrests for most anything that doesn’t include performance-enhancing drugs). In the case of Lynch, the consequences of a suspension extend beyond any personal hang-ups I may have about the policy. Pardon the unintended melodrama, but the future of the Bills' franchise just may hang in the balance.
From a financial perspective, the Bills are struggling. A lot. With the economy of western New York following the national economy’s lead in a perverse game of “How Low Can You Go,” it’s becoming increasingly difficult for Buffalo to remain home to the Bills. The organization is doing what it can to stave off the relocation that some see as inevitable, most notably agreeing to play eight games over the next five years in Toronto’s Rogers Centre to fortify its revenue stream.
With so much attention being given to the Toronto experiment and other possible revenue-generating initiatives, it’s easy to forget that the team’s execution of the X’s and O’s will go a long way in determining its dollars and cents. In the NFL, the better the team on the field, the better the figures in the accounting office. Every now and then, it’s better to set aside the calculator and think in terms of basic logic.
After a standout offseason that netted them DT Marcus Stroud and OLB Kawika Mitchell, among others, the Bills enter ’08 with the highest expectations they’ve shouldered in over a decade. They also have sold an excess of 50,000 season tickets for the first time since 1993. Coincidence? Considering that local fans will attend two fewer home games (one in the preseason, one in the regular season) courtesy of the Toronto deal, probably not.
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Marshawn Lynch
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But take Lynch out of the equation, and you take away the centerpiece of the restoration project. No, his absence wouldn’t mean a lick of financial difference in Week One — or in Week Two at Jacksonville, which, incidentally, is another club on financial life support — but it certainly would hinder the Bills’ chances of winning those games. In turn, their chances of reaching the postseason would be diminished, and minus a postseason berth, they’d be without a sorely needed source of additional revenue. The ripple effect, if you will.
Of course, this all leads to another set of questions: “Why should Goodell care if the Bills relocate?” And, “Shouldn’t he encourage organizations to move to the most economically viable locales?”
Inevitably, there are times when good business sense and upholding tradition collide. In the case of the Bills, the latter should triumph. With the exception of the Packers in Green Bay and possibly the Browns in Cleveland, no team is as intertwined in the culture of its city as the Bills are in Buffalo. The pairing of a small Rust Belt city in upstate New York and an NFL franchise might seem awkward to corporate America, but there’s a place for a soul even in the business world. Like a 70-something novelist who refuses to trade in his beloved typewriter for the efficiency of a computer, some things are worth fighting for.
Keeping the Bills in Buffalo should be one of them.
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