When the Buffalo Bills announced Drew Bledsoe's pending release last week, there was some gnashing of teeth from fans wary of heading into 2005 with a very raw quarterback running the offense.
Anyone who believed the Bills were going to get any better with Bledsoe under center apparently missed the season finale.
That might be because most fans did all they could to suppress the memory of Pittsburgh's visit to Orchard Park.
For those who succeeded, here's a quick recap. With the running game beginning to dominate, the special teams making huge plays in just about every facet of the kicking game and the long-overrated defense starting to earn its reputation by coming up big when it counted, the Bills rode a six-game winning streak into the final week of the regular season.
It couldn't have been a more perfect scenario: a red-hot team facing one with nothing tangible for which to play. And in the most important game he'd played in a Buffalo uniform, Bledsoe crumbled.
His first-quarter interception allowed Pittsburgh to get an early grip on the game. His fumble early in the fourth put the Steelers firmly in command. On Buffalo's next possession, he botched the snap on third-and-1, snuffing the Bills' last real chance to get back in the game.
And people are worried about J.P. Losman making too many mistakes?
You can directly attribute one of Buffalo's nine wins in 2004, the 42-32 shootout in Miami, to Bledsoe. In the rest of the victories, he played well enough not to lose. In the seven losses, he was either a non-factor or a disaster (check out the game tapes from Baltimore and Sunday night in New England, if you didn't burn them and have a strong stomach).
That's not to say Bledsoe's three-year tenure didn't serve a purpose, even if that purpose wasn't getting to the Super Bowl, or even the postseason. Let's not forget, Alex Van Pelt was the nominal starting quarterback heading into the 2002 draft, with the eminently forgettable Travis Brown backing him up.
The Bills needed a move, and a name, to restore some credibility after a disastrous 2001 season and the highly unsatisfying ending to the Rob Johnson-Doug Flutie melodrama. Tom Donahoe's successful bid for Bledsoe did both.
The deal looked brilliant for the first two months of 2002, when the Bills were the most explosive team in football. Just as important, Bledsoe's debut rekindled waning interest in the team and sold a whole lot of tickets. The next two-and-a-half years, though, left no doubt that it was time for Bledsoe to move on.
After falling in overtime last weekend to the top-ranked team in the country, Niagara Falls High School returns this week to the less-rarified air of the Section VI boys basketball tournament.
The Class AA-1 bracket includes no foe near the level of Vashons, nor even a foe that seems capable of throwing a scare into the Wolverines. With Niagara Falls ineligible for a Niagara Frontier League title due to a high-profile schedule that allowed for only seven league games, Kenmore West rolled to the championship and the top sectional seed.
But staying remotely competitive past halftime would rate as an immense upset for the Blue Devils or anyone else unfortunate enough to encounter the Wolverines, who take on Orchard Park at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday at Buffalo State in a semifinal. Ken West and Lockport meet immediately after to determine the other finalist. The AA-1 championship game is set for 8:45 p.m. Saturday, with the winner to take on the AA-2 titlist at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 28.
It's never a good idea to look too far ahead, but I'm going to anyway. They might as well give Niagara Falls the Section VI trophy now, and let the rest of the field duke it out for second place.
The best chance for most area fans to see Niagara Falls truly challenged will be Saturday, March 5, when the champions of Section VI meet at Rochester's Blue Cross Arena, with a trip to Glens Falls for the state Final Four at stake.
Two years ago, McQuaid topped Niagara Falls 48-44 in front of 10,000 fans. Those Wolverines lacked the big-game experience this team possesses, not to mention anyone with the all-around dominant game of Paul Harris, or the outside shooting eye of Robert Garrison.
Niagara Falls would be a prohibitive favorite against any Rochester-area foe, considering the relative ease with which the Wolverines handled East High, the top-seeded big school in Section V, during an 82-68 win on Jan. 30 at Blue Cross Arena.
This week, unbeaten Tonawanda heavyweight Joe Mesi takes what could be his first step toward a comeback after nearly a year out of the ring.
Meanwhile, an unbeaten Niagara Falls welterweight takes the next step up.
Mesi was cleared to resume training late last week by the Nevada Athletic Commission that suspended him following his last fight, a decision win over Vassiliy Jirov in March 2004 in which he was knocked down three times in the last two rounds. Mesi suffered a subdural hematoma in the process, triggering the automatic suspension. Mesi, who can't spar unless he is fully reinstated, is expecting to get a hearing date for his formal appeal of that suspension as early as this week, spokesman Tony Farina told the Niagara Falls Reporter.
Nick Casal, with six wins via knockout in as many professional fights, is set for his first six-round bout on Friday, Feb. 25, on the undercard of an ESPN2 "Friday Night Fights" promotion in Miami, Okla.
Casal's scheduled opponent is Mike Walken of Independence, Mo., who comes in with a 6-6 record, but all six wins via stoppage.
Nice job, hockey.
When National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announced the cancellation of the 2004-05 season last week at the precise moment the Bills told the world Bledsoe would soon be jobless, it marked the first time a major professional sports league in North America scrubbed its entire season.
It may also stand as the last time anybody considers the NHL a "major league."
Nobody comes out of this one looking good. The owners, demanding that the players protect them from their own stupidity, chose to start the war by declaring a lockout before training camps were to open. The players refused to budge from the notion that they should make money similar to other sports, despite the immense disparity in revenue between hockey and football, basketball or baseball.
After Bettman's announcement drew widespread shrugging and yawning, he said he'd be willing to listen to any desperation offers that might yet save a mini-season and playoffs. Both sides made noise about coming up with a system that will help the sport grow when, and if, the rinks ever reopen.
Nice to hear they're thinking about that now, after the owners and players have teamed up to inflict damage upon their league that could very well prove fatal.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Feb. 22 2005 |