Looking for a Reason

It's that time again. Football season is upon us, exactly 11 hours away. I should be feeling ecstatic right now - one of my favorite sports is back for another season.

In truth, I'm not ready.

Last year, I wrote a post about hope. I wrote about the Bills making me want to believe again because I'm a fan, and that's what fans do.

This year, though, I'm not feeling very hopeful. The preseason was a disaster, and the game tonight against the Patriots looks to be no better. Sometimes I wonder if we weren't picked for this game just to show off Tom Brady's return to absolute dominance over teams on national television.

However, I don't want to be that person. I don't want to be the pessimist, the one who's week gets ruined by a bad game. I don't want to see my team struggle and sit back with nothing to do but yell at the screen and sink dejectedly into bed tonight after it's all over. I don't want to feel like the entire season is done if we have a poor showing tonight.

That's why I wish I could stop time right now, before kickoff - before Brady's first touchdown and Trent's 2,000th check-down.

I want to have hope. I want to believe. I want to think that maybe, with a little help from the divine intervention that always seems to go against us , the Bills can pull off one of the biggest upsets I would have ever seen.

I'm afraid that the start of the game will be the end of my hope for the season. So I'll cling to these last few hours of totally delusional optimism because they may be all I have left.

However, there's always that chance that some miracle could happen and totally delusional optimism could reign again in Buffalo after tonight. If there's one thing being a fan has taught me, it's to never let your faith disappear totally.

I'll still be there, watching and cheering, every game this season. I just want this team to give me a reason to keep coming back each week.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This, my friends, is a great sports week.

The Bills pulled off another impressive victory over Jacksonville on Sunday. I honestly did not think they were going to win that game, but I have a feeling they are going to surprise me a lot this year - and hopefully in many good ways.

As the season is progressing, I am finding myself falling deeper and deeper in love with the wonder that is Trent Edwards. This is new territory for me; I've never been a quarterback-loving kind of girl. They're generally too pretty and not gritty enough for my taste. However, tastes change, and I have pictures like this to thank for that.

Good-looking, articulate, and a Stanford grad - what more could a girl ask for?

I'll tell you what more - a win for my fantasy football team! After the pain of losing in both of my leagues last week, I won both of my games this past weekend, thanks mainly to a great game from T.O. I know I still will end up in the bottom of both leagues at the end of the season, but at least I know I won't be winless.

In even greater news, hockey starts this week! The baby Sabres are already off at Rookie Camp, which Tim Kennedy has been nice enough to blog about. It's nice to hear about guys like Clarke McArthur and Adam Mair helping out the youngins rather than giving them wedgies and making them get them fresh Gatorade every 5 minutes.

While the rookies were working hard, the old vets like Pommer and Staffy were hardly working, teeing off at the Sabres charity golf outing. Each player supposedly headed their own team, and I want to know who was able to split up the dynamic duo of Goose and Pommer without a temper tantrum (the answer: probably Lindy, he can scare anyone into doing what he wants).

I love the video on the Sabres website of the event, mainly because it is our first taste of Mr. Craig Rivet. He seems to have taken a liking to the team already, saying that three weeks with them feels like three months since they've been so friendly. I wonder if this means that they've already shown him the Sabre-ropes: had him try to teach Pie to tie his skates, introduced him to Royzie's "personal assistant," told him to keep his lovely wife as far away from Tim Connolly as possible...the usual.

The only thing that I'm looking forward to more than the first full practice is the day that Pommer gets his shiny new contract. According to WGR, he has set a deadline of Friday to get something done before the season, which still seems like a real possibility.

Darcy, because I know how often you frequent this blog (or not...), I will post an adorable picture of Jason Pominville every day from now until Friday in the hopes of persuading you into giving him whatever he wants:

Look, Darcy, he's lost without a new deal.

Football is Cool, Too

Hockey may be my true love, but football was my first love. I was born at the beginning of the "Glory Years" for the Bills to two season ticket holders, and I was watching games with my dad before I can really remember. I always say that I'm a Sabres fan by choice but a Bills fan by genetics.

I'm pretty excited for football season to start. I like going to training camp, which I'm doing sometime next week. I especially love watching all the players come in on the first day like college freshmen with their pillows and laundry baskets.

I have a lot of players that I really can't wait to see develop on this young Bills team - Donte Whitner, Lee Evans, Roscoe Parrish, and, of course, Trent Edwards. My favorite current Buffalo Bill, however, is Paul Posluszny.

I pick favorite football players like I do hockey players. They have to have that blue-collar mentality and hard-working edge that suits Buffalo perfectly. They have to show a burning desire to get better every game and an intense hatred for losing. Most importantly, though, they have to be good people when it's all said and done.

I feel like "Poz" exemplifies all those things (not to mention the fact that he is incredibly handsome). Then, in today's Buffalo News, I came across this article that further proves why Poz should be every thinking-girl's favorite Bill:

"Posluszny owns a computer but he doesn’t have a laptop, so he doesn’t have
that for a diversion at camp, either. He’s resorting to old-fashioned media to
get away from football; he’s reading a book.
'I’m in the middle of a pretty good book right now, ‘Guns, Germs and Steel.’ It’s about why certain cultures, particularly the Europeans, developed the way they did,' he said.
The book, by Jared Diamond, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998. "

Poz carries his library in his laundry basket (Photo by James P. McCoy of TBN)

As an English major and part-time librarian, this made my day!

In Sabres news: beloved Amerks coach Randy Cunneyworth has been hired as an assistant coach for the Atlanta Thrashers. He'll be missed, but he has to take pride in knowing that he was the one who really crafted the minds and skills of many of the most important players on our team, especially that 2004-2005 Rochester "core." He should also be happy in that he will now be coaching my favorite non-Sabre NHL-er Colby Armstrong.

Finally, a very happy belated birthday to baby-Sabre and everyone's favorite Facebook friend, Nate Gerbe!