(Editor's note: Photos produced by Buffaloobserver.com So, blame him.)

Joe: My goodness! It is almost impossible to track you down these days. I tried using the Sabres trade hotline, which I believe was 1800-I-dont-know-what-I'm-doing, but no one answered. Then I tried staying outside of your home in the bushes and began yelling at the balcony like Romeo and Juliet, only to have hot tar poured on me. Where have you been? Why did you retire on Twitter only to unretire?

Fake Darcy: Well, it’s good to be back. I retired on Twitter to concentrate on my day job. But I didn’t know how to stop the notifications from coming to my Twitter-phone so I decided to come back. Plus, as you can tell by my lack of trade activity, there wasn’t much going on with the day job.



Ralph Wilson Jr. is the unequivocal culprit behind the Buffalo Bills' humiliating franchise dysfunction. He could be the reason why, one day, they leave the Western New York area.

Yes, I'm eternally grateful to Wilson who brought the Bills to Buffalo. Without him, who knows if my embryonic interest in sports would have blossomed into steadfast fanhood. But 52 years with no championships (23 of which I've endured) and the current 12-year playoff drought have brought me to this column. no comments

Has there really been a player watch like this over the years? I can go back to July of 2007 when Sabres fans were clinging on to their rosary beads and praying for the co-captains to return. Alas, the heaves were not listening. Here's the funny/sad thing about both teams, there really hasn't been a free agent that fans have been clamoring for their teams to re-sign. Why? Because there haven't been many. And yes, that has nothing to do with both teams re-signing their core guys early.

As a Buffalo fan, people can talk all they want about being positive and dismissing Bucky's myths about fans going into self-deprecate mood about their teams, but that's the truth. OK, maybe it is not, but I guarantee most fans -positive or negative-  have had the thought of "Well, Stevie leaving here would be typical Buffalo." It would be very typical for the Bills as well. When the latest news about Stevie's contract demands being far apart hit the airwaves, I, for one, greeted it with tweeting a few angry messages about the Bills being a constant pain in my ass. 

Before I moved to NYC 10 years, I took an oath on the back porch of my parent's home at the age of 22. My father took a Rambo like machete to my arm and sliced a 1/2 inch cut into it. As the blood started to pour out like a faucet and hit the dirt, my father then beheaded a rattle snake. He then mixed the rattle snake's blood with my blood in the dirt.

A Blood Oath.

The oath was simple: With my parent's Ford Bronco packed with three suitcases, a TV, and a radio system, I swore that I was never going to cheer for the Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Jets, and Giants.

NEVER!

Talkamania Feb 16 by talkamania

OK, is this on? So Matthew Stewart and I are going to take this podcasting a bit more serious. We found a name! Talkamania. Yes, stealing Wrestlemania's name and remixing it.  Matt and I go at it for less than an hour, which is a miracle. We talk Sabres, Linsanity, go around the sports world and I ask Matt five random questions. We also have a new open to go along with a way to finally download the cast. Goodbye, Youtube. Hello, Soundcloud. Great stuff. Enjoy.

Oh, and one last thing...What you going to do when the 24 decibel of Matthew Stewart's voice and the power of Joe's Egomaniacs, runs wild on you?! BROTHER!

The Core of the Buffalo Sabres is a reference to the players this team has been (and will continue to be) built around. Vanek, Pominville, Stafford, Roy, Gaustad, and Miller are the team’s core players. It would be hard to reference the core without discussing the architect of the core, Darcy Regier, and the team’s coach, Lindy Ruff.

Regier is the rare general manager in sports that has a personal connection to every single player in the organization. How many general managers in professional sports can say they drafted or traded for every single player in the organization? Darcy Regier can, and while it’s easy (and correct) to be disappointed with the team’s players, the blame should be shared by all parties involved.

Ryan Miller has been a lightning rod this season. The Lucic thing, the goalie "controversy," his ongoing duel with the media,  trade rumors, and much of the fans ire continues to be directed towards him. My question is: Why?

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written anything for our site. The truth is I needed a short break from the Buffalo sports scene. My reasons were two-fold: 1. With the Sabres entering the all-star break and the Bills offseason in its infant stages, there really wasn’t much to say that time. And 2., I found the current state of our teams to be exceedingly depressing. Whether it was the Bills second half season collapse or the Sabres dropping to dead last  in the conference as “hockey heaven” and the Pegula hype took a major hit, all was highly unpleasant in the Western New York pro sports landscape.

But I’m an optimist at heart. So in an effort to look at the bright side of things, I’ve decided to list 5 areas to be positive about with the Bills. Alex did a nice job in a similar vein with the Sabres early last week. So consider this a companion piece to his article.

Before starting, one interesting point. I had no trouble coming up with 5 items for the team, and probably could have come up with more. I was somewhat surprised by this. Maybe Buddy Nix is making more progress than we give him credit for? I think next season is a big benchmark – more tangible evidence in the win column really does need to take place.

Well, enough of an intro. What are the 5 reasons not to drive your car off the Skyway about the Bills?

I happen to be a dreamer. I've been a dreamer in every walk of life. Playboy, millionaire, bar owner, athlete, sports blowhard, or actor. You name a cool profession, I've probably dreamt it. If there's one career that a number of people have imagined being, it's probably being an athlete.

As a kid, I think we can all say that we have dreamt to be the next Jim Kelly or Pat LaFontaine when we were playing in the backyard with friends or dad. Of course, you wanted to be like them. They were the best. For me, sometimes I wanted to mirror the player's personality. Like if I were in their position, how would I act? Would I be like Jim Kelly and his tough, blue-collar attitude? Would I be a moody, angry soul like Thurman Thomas? Would I be fake like Bruce Smith? Would I be a family man like Steve Tasker or as astute as Marv Levy?

What the hell have I gotten myself into? Write a post that the Sabres should lose out?! It is like waking up after a terrible drunken one night stand and thinking to yourself, did I really write that?

OK, maybe I'll regret writing this post as well. It will probably come off as homerish, settling for less and being positive, or in other words, Jeremy White.

I'm also at a point where I haven't written anything remotely positive in months about any of our teams from Buffalo. So, I'm due and really need to like something.