Around the AFC East, Week 5: Buffalo Bills

by MaPatsFan on Jun 20, 2008 9:26 AM EDT in Opinion

In today's first installment of Around the AFC East, I chat with BrianG from the awesome Buffalo Bills blog, Buffalo Rumblings. The topic of today is what's up with Marshawn Lynch and his alleged hit-and-run?

The Marshawn Lynch alleged hit-and-run incident seems to be turning into a black hole of sorts, sucking up everything in its path. What do you see the impact to the Bills come pre-season game time? How about the regular season?

Buffalo Rumblings: The first thing to point out with regards to this incident is that it's turned into a "black hole", as you accurately summed it, because of the actions of Frank Clark, the Erie County DA. It's fairly ridiculous that a misdemeanor crime has gone to a grand jury - Bills executives, including COO Russ Brandon, will testify today (Friday), while three more players have been subpoenaed and could be forced to appear in court prior to the start of training camp (July 25). I'm not making excuses for Lynch - allegedly, he did a pretty terrible thing - but it's important to keep things in perspective. His punishment won't include jail time, and it's highly unlikely he'll be suspended, either.

Therefore, I don't see it having much impact a month or two from now. It will be fairly difficult for Roger Goodell to suspend a player for exercising his Constitutional right to plead the fifth and isn't going to jail. Lynch may face team repercussions, such as sitting out a quarter at the start of the season, but his punishment will likely be through a plea deal and involve community service. This has been overblown by a DA looking to make waves. Other than the initial incident, Lynch hasn't done anything wrong. He'll get his plea deal, serve his punishment, and barring injury, he'll play the vast majority of the 2008 season.

It's hard for me to disagree with Brian on this one. We as Patriots fans know all too well how the Media and football outsiders (can you say Sen. Specky?) can blow things WAY out of proportion. I can sense Brian is angry at the DA mentioned above. I wouldn't be surprised if the dude's doing it to promote his own career. You know, grab onto a high profile case and push it as hard as possible. At any rate, I hope this gets cleared up and the Bills can get back to preparations for the 2008 season. Marshawn Lynch is a huge part of that.

Thanks to Brian over at Buffalo Rumblings for his excellent answer on the subject. Head on over to his blog for my answer to his question about your New England Patriots.

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"If Lynch had been a Patriot..."

I gotta stop prefacing every bit of news I read about players from other cities getting into some jam or another, with “If so-and-so had been a Patriot, he’d be tarred and feathered by now and senators from all over would be calling for the head of Belichick (since he would have to be involved somehow), the public boycott of and stamping of an asterisk on anything labled Kraft, and the expulsion of the entire team from the NFL.” Or something like that. It’s sick.

Guess my real beef, besides extreme over-sensitivity to anything anti-Patriot, isn’t whether one team’s player gets treated differently than another team’s player, but rather its the perception that athletes in general get treated differently than the Joe Sixpacks of the world.

In other words, if it’s my SUV that’s involved in a hit-and-run instead of the talented, potential-laden, big-name RB Marshawn Lynch, do I really get that much leeway or am I brought into the station and charged the millisecond the police realize that the vehicle belonged to me?

The fact is that his car did indeed hit someone, and whoever was driving left the scene afterwards. Let the law do what it needs to do, if Lynch needs to own up to something let him just fess up and take the hit. One or more passengers in that car knows what happened and if the truth were told, there would be no need for a grand jury to be called (regardless of whether one should be called at all) and this whole thing could be on its way to being resolved. If the players stepped up, then there’s nothing for the DA to push or squeeze out of them. At least then the team and players involved can know where they’ll stand with regard to suspensions, etc..

Keep the faith!

by Marima on Jun 20, 2008 10:22 AM EDT 0 recs

I can't agree

Based on what happened in the Wilfork/Dockery incidents last year, if Lynch was a Patriot it is unlikely that any significant punishments from the league would be even considered. When a Bill gets a $5000 fine for not buckling his chinstrap and a patriot gets a $12,000 fine for a deliberate helmet-to-knee hit on a quarterback that takes him out of the lineup for a month both of which happened in the same game, it is clear that there are very different standards of punishment being applied by the league based on team affiliation. We would expect nothing different from Goodell in this case. He has already demonstrated bias against the Buffalo franchise. There is currently no reason to believe that his attitudes have changed in this matter, particularly after stripping Buffalo of it’s principal rivalry home game and sending it to another country.

To follow up Brian’s comment on Clark, he is retiring soon. His political career is effectively over anyway. Remember that Clark was the DA that let John Ashcroft walk all over him to keep an admitted religious terrorist out of New York’s electric chair in the Slepian assassination case, a case where Ashcroft had no legal authority. If Clark had shown 1/10th of the backbone he’s trying to show now back in 2003 when Kopp was on trial, Kopp would no longer be alive.

"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England

by Calvert on Jun 20, 2008 2:53 PM EDT up 0 recs

Only a $5,000 fine?

Interesting. Defensive lineman Ty Warren was fined $7,500 for not having his chin strap buckled in a Sept. 23 game against the Bills. Tom Brady was fined $5,000 in that game for the same chin strap violation. You can’t compare the two infractions since the League has set what the fines are for whatever infractions have incurred.

Keep the faith!

by Marima on Jun 20, 2008 5:15 PM EDT up 0 recs

You say Wilfork deliberately hit Losman in the knee with his helmet?

Funny, on Buffalo Rumblings at the time, Brian Galliford said it was a “blatant elbow.”

And gee, the video sure looks like Wilfork got tripped from behind by one of the Bills’ offensive linemen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3POT8n2Qk3g

Note the obvious lack of helmet-to-anything contact.

by RSNexile on Jun 20, 2008 6:52 PM EDT up 0 recs

After viewing both angles.....

...you seriously don’t think Wilfork hit that knee with his elbow deliberately?

On the main topic, I don’t understand how a hit-and-run accident is a misdemeanor. That’s a serious offense in my book. At that hour of the night, my guess is that Lynch’s judgment, and probably more, was impaired. He was probably more worried about that getting detected than anything else.

by Gino Parilli on Jun 22, 2008 12:24 AM EDT up 0 recs