can I have a raise?

Remember the first job you ever had?  Whether it was babysitting, delivering newspapers, or working at a grocery store.  One thing was the same; we all made minimum wage, the amount of which was determined by what year we had that first job.

When I had my first real job (not counting summers spent painting houses) the minimum wage was $1.50/hr compared with today’s wage of $7.25/hr an increase of almost 5 times.   Yet in hindsight, my money bought a heck of a lot more back then than it does today.  A cup of coffee was $.25 compared with $1.50 (on average) for a medium sized cup today.  Gas for my car was at $.32.  Now we pay about $3.95 in Buffalo (why so much higher here is another topic for another day).  You could purchase a new car for about 2K, not 20K like today. What the average person spends to purchase a decent vehicle is what our parents paid for the homes we grew up in (if even that much).

I mention all this in view of the ongoing debate at the Federal level to raise the minimum wage.  While the Feds set the rate, individual states have the right to make it higher or lower.  For example, the rate in New York is the same as the Federal level, while in Illinois it is $8.00 and in Massachusetts it is $8.25.  Wow, good times in those states!  It just so happens that those are the home states of the two main candidates for President in the 2012 election this November, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney (yeah he’s going to be the candidate).

What is troubling to most of us working stiffs is that this rate has not changed since 2009!!  Have gas prices held the line since then, what about food, housing, medical care, etc?  This list goes on and on.  To hear the pro and con debates about raising the rate makes one want to run outside and scream at the top of your lungs, “just stop it already!!  Besides it’s not as if the rate is raised it will increase by 3 or 4 bucks like it should so the average Joe can get by just a little easier.  But if you do that then everything and everybody else needs to adjust accordingly say the opponents of raising the level.  Why??  If the guy making $7.25/hr. gets a bump to let’s say $9.00/hr. why does the guy making $25.00/hr. need to go to $30.00/hr.  It just goes on and on.

The fact of the matter is that everything else continues to rise except the working persons wages as the following chart highlights better than words:

The other part of this topic is the fact that while the vast majority of us work for a determined wage that has not kept pace with the cost of living,  the executives of some of Buffalo’s largest businesses (as well as employers) continues to skyrocket.

The Buffalo News of June 3, 2012 revealed the top pay for 6 of the areas largest businesses.  Keep in mind that while the median income for Buffalo, NY is around 34-35K, these 6 gentlemen made about $3 million/yr on average.  David Smith, Chairman and CEO of National
Fuel Gas made $6,960,024.  Ronald Tanski, the President and COO of National Fuel made $4,725,064.  That’s $11.68 million for 2 guys at National Fuel in 2011.  It’s not like Ronny plays first base for the Atlanta Braves or  Dave is pitching for the Yankees.  Makes you want to send in your gas bill for this month right away don’ t it.  Their median pay was 28 times higher than the annual wage of workers.  And keep in mind that National Fuel employees make considerably more than the mom serving your coffee at Tim Hortons.

Also on this top 6 list was Thomas Hook, President and CEO of Greatbatch whose total pay for 2011 was $3,228,533.  Times must be tough in the utility and medical device industry.  A few days after this article came out, Greatbatch announced that they were moving the corporate headquarters to Frisco, TX (a Dallas suburb),  but that manufacturing was staying put in WNY.  How many of you are buying that?  He probably already has a Cowboys hat and jersey!  The last company that said the same thing was a little outfit called Trico.  Where are they now?

Therein lies the problem with the minimum wage rate as well as the pay for the average American worker.  The top executives of all these businesses make 10 times as much as their employees.  The pay scale is all out of wack.  So the next time someone says that they want a pay raise, check to see who is saying it.  The top executive of your company or your fellow worker in the warehouse.

blind justice

One of my favorite TV shows was The Fugitive starring David Jansen as Dr. Richard Kimble, which ran on ABC from 1963-1967. It was based on the real life case of Sam Sheppard, a Cleveland, Ohio osteopath who was charged with his wife’s murder in 1954. Sheppard maintained that a “bushy haired man” was the real killer. He was charged with first degree murder and went on trial in December 1954. He was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. The verdict was overturned in a retrial headed by a young defense attorney named F. Lee Bailey in 1966. Sheppard maintained his innocence until his own death in 1970. On the TV servies, Dr. Kimble claimed that he saw “a one-armed man” running from his home the night of the murder. The series ended with the real killer being caught and Kimble was exonerated of his wife’s murder. It was a case of art following real life.

The popular series “Law and Order” which aired from 1990 – 2010 on NBC was a glimpse into how a crime is investigated by the police and then prosecuted by the district attorney. Many of the episodes were based on actual cases. And like in the real world the person charged with the crime was sometimes convicted and other times sucessfully defended, resulting in a not guilty verdict being rendered by the jury. That’s how things work in the real world we live in. Regardless how we may feel with a court’s decision that is the legal system we have in this country, for better or worse.

I mention this in light of the recent and highly publicized trial of Dr. James Corasanti, a Buffalo gastro-intenstinal specialist who was charged with among other things drunk driving, tampering with evidence, and vehicular manslaughter in the death of a young girl riding her longboard home late at night in July 2011. He was found not guilty of all charges except a misdemeanor DWI which means he keeps his medical license but could still face a year in prison. The results remain to be seen. It also says that the jury believed that the doctor was drinking that night!

While certainly not in the same context by any means, I don’t recall a more negative response from WNY citizens since the ‘no goal’ decision went against the Buffalo Sabres in the 1999 Cup finals. The doctor, his defense team, the jury, as well as the legal system are being blistered in the media. I found some statements by the jury foreman to be quite perplexing. He was quoted as saying that the jury felt that the doctor was probably “distracted by his thoughts or whatever” when he hit the girl. The defense was able to convince the jury she was partly at fault by being in the road. He hit her because he was drunk and distracted by texting, eating, picking his nose, his thoughts, or whatever!! He also went on to say they found the doctor innocent of vehicular manslaughter because there was no intent on the doctor’s part to hit and kill her that night. No kidding. Call him what you want but I don’t believe for a moment that he INTENDED to hit and kill her. But that charge doesn’t require intent. So what guided the jury in that conclusion??

It all comes back to the legal teams assembled for this trial. The district attorney’s team presented a mountain of evidence to get a conviction on 1 if not all 5 of the counts that carried a felony, which meant Corasanti would lose his license to practice medicine. The defense team, a trio of savvy and veteran criminal lawyers, presented an equal mountain of evidence and expert testimony to prove a reasonable doubt in the juries mind. And that is the crux of defense vs. offense in the US legal system. Create enough doubt in the juries minds!! Remember the now infamous statement made to the jury by defense attorney Johnnie Cochran in the OJ Simpson murder trial? “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” The jury had enought doubts swirling around in their heads to come back with a not guilty verdict. Remember another one of OJ’s expensive defense attorneys? F. Lee Bailey.

The very first episode of the Law and Order series (season 1-episode 1) had an eerie similarity to the Corasanti case. The chief of a hospital’s emergency services was charged with criminal neglect in the death of a patient who came to the ER because of bronchitis. He had been drinking and mistakenly approved giving her the wrong medicine, which resulted in her death. After proving that he had a drinking problem, he was convicted when the prosecution was able to prove in court that he had been drinking that day during the recess for lunch.

In the legal system in this country, as in life itself the old adage applies. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. One other piece of information that was publicly revealed, though not used against Corasanti in his trial, was that he had a prior conviction for DWI. He had driven drunk in the past, without the same tragic results. But the question is, will he do it again? That remains to be seen. Check out that first episode of Law and Order. And keep in mind another adage: what goes around comes around.

equal opportunity employer (EOE)

How many times have you seen this anacronym listed after a company’s advertisement for an open position they are looking to fill? Pretty much all the time unless it’s some local landscaper or painter looking for help. People want to work for a company that will treat all their employees (or associates as most companies prefer) equally and fairly.  I would have to say that by and large that is the case in most business today. Or a least most business feels that they abide by this credo all the time.

But those of us who have been in the workplace for say longer than 6 months realize that what a company states on a mission statement and what they do toward their employees in reality are usually night and day! If a person works for a company that has a unionized workforce then they have some protection from just being shown the door for whatever reason the company decides. But it is far different if the individual is in management at a unionized company. They have no such protection. There is no equal opportunity then. Many times when that person is let go, the reason given and the real reason are not even remotely the same. Kind of like when a head coach is fired but the owner states that they came to a mutual decision to go in another direction. Yeah because you fired him!

It reminded me of a situation that took place at one of the largest employers in WNY a while back. What they said to employees who were let go and what they did in the hiring of a new employee illustrates the gray area that exists under the banner of being an EOE.

Dunlop has been producing tires in Buffalo since 1922. When Goodyear purchased Dunlop in 1999 very little changed. But since then there has been a move to doing things the way Goodyear does them. As a result several floor supervisors have been let go (fired) for a variety of reasons. Under the Dunlop regime most would still be employed there.  Among the reasons given to those managers were: they didn’t follow direction from upper management, attendance problem, shift not producing established quotas, not a good fit for the new Goodyear, no college degree, et al.

The bottom line in all of these firings was the fact that New York State is an “at will” employer, meaning they can terminate an employee for any reason and that person has no legal recourse.  Currently the only state in the Union where this is not true is Montana, who has enacted legislation to protect these type of employees. 

But one disturbing move was made just this past year in the hiring of an area manager.  Desperate for managers who have any kind of college degree, they hired one female as an area manager last year despite the fact that she had been arrested the previous year for a felony possesion of marijuana. The following clip is from the Buffalo News:

News

Seat belt stop results in marijuana seizure

Updated: August 21, 2010, 2:32 AM

A Newstead woman who was stopped by state troopers for an apparent seat belt violation at Bailey and Walden avenues Tuesday was found with more than a pound of marijuana in her vehicle, state police reported Wednesday. The woman, 32, was charged with felony criminal possession of marijuana.

 

That type of action would pretty much sink any chance of being hired by an equal opportunity employer.  I understand that people make a mistake and they deserve a second chance but this was a felony!  At the very least one might wonder why a business like Goodyear Dunlop would hire this type of person to be in charge of other employees where a premium used to be put on one in a management position being of good character.  Turns out that she obviously plead this charge to a lesser one, making her eligible to seek gainful employment instead of doing time.  It’s alleged that the Human Resource Dept.  was aware of this arrest but were satisfied with her excuse of ‘I made a mistake.’  I’m sorry, but a joint is a mistake, a pound is a problem!

 

Apparently Dunlop’s HR Dept never thought this type of information would get out to the rank and file.  But in this age of the Internet and You Tube, nothing is a secret.  It remains to be seen what will come of this now that it is common knowledge.  Maybe Dunlop will want to call back one of those other managers they let go (er fired) who had no arrest for possession on their record!

 

Stay tuned…

 

 

preserve the past…build the future

One of the hot button topics in Buffalo is finding new endeavors and business to improve our town for the future while not neglecting our past history which preserves our legacy. At the dawn of the 20th century, Buffalo was a boom town with the steel, grain, and auto industries beginning to flex their economic muscle. Add to that the Niagara River as a source of water for manufacturing as well as the electrical power being generated at Niagara Falls, Buffalo was a city that the country depended on as the United States began to emerge as the dominating world power in 1900. The Pan American Exposition in 1901 was a showcase for the many uses of electricity that was being generated a mere 10 miles to the north at Niagara Falls. By the 1920′s the steel and auto industries were in full swing. Buffalo was the largest grain milling city in the world. A steady stream of lake freighters moved in and out of the canals of downtown as they loaded their ships at one of many grain silos dotting the downtown landscape. World War II furthered the strength of Buffalo’s economy. But as the 1960′s rolled around many of the city’s dominant industries were beginning to show their age and little was being done to keep them updated. New factories were springing up in other parts of the country and very little was being put into the companies that had helped make Buffalo the city that it was, Queen of the Great Lakes. Today, very little is left of these industries, if any at all. Steel production is gone. Grain production is very small compared to it’s heyday. Automobile production is still going, but scaled way down from what it once was.

In it’s place are new hi-tech endeavors, particularly in the field of medicine. New research at world famous Roswell Park Cancer Institute is at the center of the new medical corrider being built around Roswell and Buffalo General Hospital. But standing in the way of further expansion is the old Trico building where the world’s first windshield wiper was manufactured. In it’s heyday Trico had 3 large manufacturing centers but the old plant #1 was the last to close.

Manufacturing for all intents and purposes ceased in 1998. The building landed on the National Historic Landmark List in 2001. Efforts to convert the building into mixed use facilities fell apart in 2007. The Buffalo Niagara Medical Commission bought the property and converted some of the building for their use and then sat on the rest until they announced plans to start demolition of the rest of the building starting in April 2012. And then all the conservationists, preservationists, community activist groups, and others started clamoring to save the building. It’s historic and a link to Buffalo’s past! Now they want to take more time to do a reuse study. Just another stall tactic. They have no idea what to do with it!

Same thing with the grain industry. With the exception of General Mills, the grain industry is a thing of the past. The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway to shipping in 1959 effectively cut off Buffalo for grain milling. But we still have all the remnants of that glorious past in the form of rusting grain silos.

Yeah they are historic all right. But what are you going to do with them? The preservationists want to keep them here until they can think of a new use. Meanwhile the waterfront continues to be dotted with these rusting hulks of our past. Tear them down and start to really redevelop the waterfront.

The biggest industry from Buffalo’s past was steel. Growing up as a kid it seemed everybody had some relative who worked at either Bethlehem or Republic Steel. The sky glowed orange all the time and the fine black soot permeated the air. Steel was king in Buffalo and had been since 1902 when the mills started up. But there in was the reason for their downfall as well. Because of their age, when it came time to build new steel mills or upgrade existing facilities, Bufffalo’s steel mills were deemed not worth the investment. So they continued along the same as in the old days until it came time to just close it down. By the early 80′s steel production in Buffalo was DEAD, never to return again. Eventually all but a handful of the steel making facilities were torn down. Which leads to one more building on the preservationists must save list! The former administrative headquarters of Bethlehem Steel in Lackawanna. Built in 1901, the company moved into another administrative building in the 60′s. Today the building looks like what you see below. The city of Lackawanna has received a court order forcing the current owner to tear it down.

The building is in deplorable shape according to Lackawanna’s code enforcement officer. “All the windows are gone, part of the roof has collapsed in the back. You start tearing down one section and the whole thing will come down”. No kidding, it’s 101 years old!! It’s been empty since the Kennedy administration! But oh no wait just a minute comes the cry from the preservationists. Said Tom Yots, executive director of Preservation Buffalo Niagara, “Even in it’s present deteriorated state, (italics mine), the Bethlehem Steel administration building hints at our region’s grand industrial roots while illustrating our collective great fortune of architectural heritage.”

David Torke, a local preservationist and ‘urban explorer’ said that he was in the building recently and “saw no evidence that the building faced structural collapse”. Alright then let’s keep it standing!

Just like the Trico plant and the empty grain silos this building as well hilights the reason Buffalo has not been more progressive in this now 21st century. While I can understand the fact that these great old structures are a reminder of Buffalo’s past legacy, they are now standing in the way of the business and commercial ventures we need to revitalize our city for the future.

I love history but I don’t need to see the actual buildings where all that history was made. That’s why we have museums andrr books. Let’s move forward. Even Yankee Stadium, the house that Ruth built, is gone and replaced with a modern stadium. Let’s get rid of these empty structures and start building new ones that will move us forward into the future.

only in Buffalo…

drinking and driving

Remember waiting to turn 16 yrs old so you could get your permit and finally drive a car?  It let everyone know that  you weren’t a kid anymore.  You could drive!  But with it came responsibility since you were now operating a moving piece of machinery that weighed in excess of 2 tons (at least in the 60′s when I learned).  It was another reason my parents made me take driver ed class during summer break so that I would learn the rules of the road as well as have actual road driving experience, not just class room instruction.  It’s amazing how fast a moving car travels in just a few seconds.  It requires complete control and awareness of your surroundings at all times.  I remember asking my instructor when he would consider someone an experienced driver.  His reply was that once you had driven around 100,000 miles you would have experienced all types of situations and how to react to be considered, at least in his opinion, an experienced driver.  At the time I thought I’ll never drive that much, but 40 years later I know I passed that distance too many times to keep track of.

I mention this in view of all the tragic accidents that take place everyday in this country, including right here in WNY.  And today we have all kinds of distractions that we didn’t have when I first learned how to drive.  Cell phones, GPS devices, radios that blast the bass so loud it makes your fillings loose, DVD players playing movies for the kids in the back seat, as well as all the fast food drive thrus that make it convenient to get food and eat without ever getting out of your car.

Yet the two biggest causes of accidents continue to be the same as always, speeding and alcohol.  How many people are killed every day because they were driving too fast?  There’s a reason for the saying that SPEED KILLS!  And many of the victims are young people who don’t have many miles of driving experience.  But if ever there was a lightning rod for public fury it is the continuous amount of accidents  and deaths as a result of drunk driving,  It goes on and on and on.  Not helping the problem is a court system that allows drivers who have been arrested for DUI or DWI to continue driving.  I don’t care if you were under the influence or while intoxicated!  YOU ARE STILL DRUNK AND YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS DRIVING A CAR!

Then there are the lawyers who constantly use the airwaves to advertise their legal expertise to help you get out of a DUI or DWI.  Case in point:

 This just enables ones to continue to drink and drive.  If I get arrested I’ll just give ol Sam a call and he will get me off.  And there in lies the problem with drunk driving.  The laws are not strict enough or administered in an equitable way so as to discourage one from drinking and then getting behind the wheel. Too many loopholes and a system that is too lax to keep the habitual culprits off the road. If  you get caught you should serve time in jail and then prove that you deserve to have your license reinstated.  I mention all of this in light of some recent developments regarding drunk driving accidents, some fatal.  Currently as I write this, one Dr. James Corasanti is on trial for hitting and then running from a fatal accident with an 18 year old girl who was riding her longboard home from work last July.  This ongoing trial has captured the attention of the public in WNY not just because the girl was hit and killed, but the good doctor claimed he didn’t realize that he hit someone or something after several hours of eating, drinking, and golfing at a local country club.  I’m sorry but when I hit a squirrel that dashes in front of me I feel it?  Who’s kidding who doc? If this case isn’t bad enough, last week the following events  took place.  A 23 year old driver was drunk and hit and killed a 14 year old boy.  He ran from the scene!  Then a 32 year old was speeding through the Town of Tonawanda and struck 2 teenagers, sending them to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.  The accident happened in front of the town police station!! But the creme de la creme was the 40 year old who was driving drunk, hit a light pole and then fled.  He called the court in the morning to report that he would be late for jury duty due to car trouble.  He is a juror in the Corasanti trial, which involves drinking and driving!!  These events all took place on Thursday last week, the same day.  What the hell is wrong with people?

What is really disturbing and heart-rending is that this kind of behavior will continue.  The laws of the land and the authorities are being overwhelmed with this epidemic.  Maybe we need to rethink at what age a person can legally drive a vehicle.  People also have to realize that driving a car is a privilege, not a right.  And alcohol slows your reflexes enough so that you cannot react quick enough to avoid hitting objects or worse yet a human being.  Even race car drivers have accidents, some fatal and they don’t drink alcohol before the Daytona or Indy 500 so what makes you think that you can?  Especially if you don’t have 100,000 miles of driving experience under your belt.

A car being driven by a drunk is no different than a person walking down the street waving a loaded gun at people.  Someone is going to be hurt.  I just pray it’s not me or any of my loved ones.

welcome to the blue tower

The town of Amherst is having the blue water tower, that has become something of a landmark to daily commuters passing through the NYS Thruway and Youngmann Highway (I-290) interchange, repainted this summer. They also have plans to repaint the Amherst, NY that appears on the top of the tower as well as erect 4 green cedar ‘welcome signs’ at strategic locations throughout the town. Costs for the upcoming project are said to be $1.8 million to paint the tower, $10,000 to paint ‘Amherst, NY’, and another $7,800 to install the welcome signs. That’s a lot of dough for paint and wood!

As expected it has generated a lot of opinions from town officials as well as the public at large. The green cedar signs will feature the town seal with the inscription: Welcome to Amherst/ “the safest town in America”/ established 1818. Some feel it to be a huge waste of money. The safest town in America statistic is debatable depending on what data you are using and when it was taken. If you were a victim of crime in Amherst I’m sure you don’t care what a sign says! Even the City of Buffalo has a sign posted on the shoulder of the westbound NYS Thruway proclaiming it “an All-America City.” That was 10 years ago! The sign isn’t even in Buffalo! And by the way, shouldn’t it read “All-American?”

Whether these signs are accurate or not is of no importance to Supervisor Barry Weinstein. “Part of the sign’s design is to create an image.” Said Highway Superintendent Robert Anderson, “we’re a Class A town and I think we should be telling people you are now entering the Town of Amherst.” Weinstein thinks the signs will be “nice touch. I think image is important. We want to keep our home values up. We want to keep people coming to Amherst.” New signs are going to accomplish all that? Unbelievable! Never again will anyone get Amherst confused with Angola!

You know some towns are missing the boat when it comes to their image. They just need to upgrade their signs on the roadside. For example how am I to know how safe it is in this town? Look at this town’s sign. Nothing. Are they keeping their home values up? Is it a Class A type of town? I need that information?

While the $7,800 expense for new welcome signs met with unanimous approval from the town board, the $10,000 cost to repaint ‘Amherst, NY’ on the blue water tower was a harder sell. Not all agreed the cost was worth it. But while the board finally did approve the cost to keep the town’s name on the water tower, Supervisor Weinstein remains steadfastly opposed to it. His reason was interesting. “It’s an ugly water tower to begin with…. it doesn’t create any imagery. It doesn’t add to the aesthetics of the town.” What? It’s a water tower for cryin out loud!! You mean you’ve seen attractive ones that add imagery.

He also thinks it is “a stupid idea” because most people associate the tower with traffic jams and the fact that the name faces the wrong way. Drivers see the name as they are leaving town not entering it. Oh what is poor Barry to do? It’s not easy being a town supervisor.

Oh if only the water tower were more iconic looking, like say the Eiffel Tower! Then the town wouldn’t need signs with ‘less than accurate’ information, they could paint the name facing the right direction, and eliminate all the traffic jams.

only in Buffalo….

Buffalo bounty hunters

It was reported this week that Greg Williams, the former defensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints, is being investigated by the NFL for an alleged “cash for bounty” system while with the Saints. Reports are that players were given money for putting an opposing player out of the game. The very nature of football (NFL style) is blocking, tackling, and vicious hitting. Anyone remember Ray Nitschke, Dick Butkus, Jack Tatum, or Dick “Night Train” Lane? The resulting injuries have become part of the game, some even career ending. Is it any wonder that the average life span of an NFL player is a little over 3 years? But the fact that he crossed the line by paying players money to acheive said results has gotten the attention of the NFL. Especially in light of the closer attention being given to serious injuries such as concussions.

What did they expect? Have you seen an MMA fight lately? The whole object of the sport is to hurt your opponent anyway possible to win the fight. Did you ever see some of these older football players when they hit 50. Their knees and legs are so arthritic that it takes an hour to get out of bed, Johnny Unitas’ fingers were so knarled up he couldn’t hold a pen straight to sign his name.

The extent to which Greg Williams is punished is yet to be determined, in part because he admitted to doing it and not just once. While the NFL report only mentions his actions with the Saints (who won the Super Bowl in ’09), the Washington Post has reported that he had a similar bounty system in place while defensive coordinator of the Washington Redskins. And former players for the Buffalo Bills, for whom he was the head coach from 2001-2003 have said that the same practices were going on here.

Really, the Bills? Coy Wire, who played safety for the Bills while Williams was the coach in Buffalo is being quoted in the Buffalo News as saying that an environment of “malicious intent” was here when he played. He went on to say that there were “rewards given to players who made a big hit that hurt an opposing player”. They were commended and encouraged for their actions. Wire also stated that “we had a philosophy in Buffalo about how the game is meant to be played and the type of defense that we wanted to be. We wanted to be relentless, vicious, and feared.”

Wow, those attributes never came to mind watching the Bills for the last decade or so. Nobody on those teams ever made me forget the likes of Joel Collier’s defenses when they ran roughshod over the rest of the good old AFL. How can I forget the hit laid on Keith Lincoln of the Chargers in the ’64 title game in the Rockpile. I don’t know if he was paid extra for that hit, but it knocked out Lincoln for the game, and changed the fortunes of the Bills from that point forward. When George Saimes got his arms around your ankles, you were going down. Those teams were relentless, vicious, and feared!

All I know about the Bills under Williams is that they stunk! Wire did say that there was no such system in place under suceeding coaches Mike Mularkey or Dick Jauron. Didn’t matter, their teams stunk too!

As far as the extent of fines to be doled out to Williams and the Saints, that’s going to be a tricky one. For starters it goes beyond just Williams. It is alleged that Mickey Loomis the Saints GM was aware of the bounty system and did nothing and that head coach Sean Payton turned a blind eye. Not too saintly were they? Here’s a thought; take away the Saints title and give Williams the chair. That oughta do it. And any other teams that have such a system in place would change in a hurry. As for the Bills, we just need better players, plain and simple.

I wonder what Mike Stratton is doing these days?

only in Buffalo….