This seems to be the offseason for press conferences in Buffalo.

By my count, we've had 5 player conferences (Stevie Johnson, Mario Williams, Mark Anderson, Stephon Gilmore and Vince Young), not to mention Buddy Nix and Chan Gailey's multiple cameos. As much as I love the Bills signing players, I can live without those pressers. Cliche, simpleton questions and predictable answers comes to mind. Every time an athlete delivers one of these speeches, I get a Twitter feed of media members and fans telling me how amazingly articulate this or that player is.

You think some Sabres fans can't get over Daniel Briere?

Meet the Bills version of Danny Boy...Bill Polian.

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?

Vince Young is your backup QB.

Will there be a QB controversy? Are we just trying to stir the pot because that's what Buffalo fans do? Do we like this signing? Time will tell...but we can do some research here about Vince Young's time in Tennessee. We are joined by the boys over at Total Titans to help dissect what went wrong with VY in Tennessee. Yes, doing a Q&A about the backup QB is probably overkill, but I'm curious to find out what all VY's problems were.

I'm borrowing this post form the fine folks at Dear God, Why us? Sports. Be sure to check out their awesome website which is dedicated to snark, the Bills, the Sabres and the greatest invention in the history of the world...Cuss words. You can also follow them on Twitter.

 This news was a couple weeks in the making. Having opted against taking a serviceable QB in the draft, and having the likes of Tyler "Heads Up!" Thigpen as the presumptive #2 QB on the depth chart, I guess we shouldn't be all that surprised that Vince Young got signed today. On paper, there is plenty to offset the absurdity of this signing and to, at least arguably, keep Bills fans satisfied that Buddy Nix hasn't gone completely crazy. People I respect on Twitter (there are at least five of you) say that there's nothing to dislike about this deal, which I suppose is true from the "Thigpen is a weenie, Young is at worst an upgrade and we're probably only going to win if Fitz stays healthy anyway" perspective.

The Bills and the Flu

By Matthew Stewart 

This morning, thanks to my wife’s career as an educator of unkempt elementary and middle school children, I woke up with the flu. This is not a rare occurrence. As sure as a tree buds in spring -- every year, inevitably -- I come down with the flu.

It doesn’t matter if I get a flu shot or not. It doesn’t matter, frankly, what I do; it just comes and comes back. It’s like Charlie Brown trying to kick the damn football. Frustrating.

Last year, it happened in March when I thought I actually made it through the season without contracting a flu bug. When it came, though, it hit like a tidal wave. It was the worst one yet. The flu stuck around for too long, exasperated into various throat, lung and nose infections and put me out of work and on medication for over a week.

That might explain to Joe why I was constantly accusing him of being a rooster.

Matthew "Don't ever call me by my last name first" Stewart and Joe "I don't listen to anyone but myself" Pinzone are back for Talkamania XII! Our special guest is Double Z, Zachary Zielonka from Die by the Blade.

Talkamania XII is packed with action, adventure and thrills. Here are topics:

• Fred Jackson signing
• Taxes going into stadiums
• Sabres vs. Bills excitement
• NHL Playoffs
• NBA Playoffs
• Concussions
• ESPN
• Patrick Kane may need help

When the news broke that the Bills were going to have a press conference this past Monday, the majority of Twitter assumed that it would be for the announcement of Fred Jackson's contract extension....and they were right. There was also some chatter that it could be the announcement for Ralph Wilson Stadium improvement plans, which got me thinking...

What stadium improvements would I do?

For the first time in a few weeks, I was able to sit through the majority of a Bills game. Lucky me, eh? We've reached that unfortunate point of a Bills season when we mostly want the misery to just end. It's happened almost every year for the last 12 seasons. If you're like me, you've become numb to it; I don't even get disappointed anymore. It probably makes it easier to coldly evaluate awful performances like yesterday's but it's killing our once proud passion for this team. Probably good that many of us didn't completely "buy in" when the team was 3-0. Oh, well, on to the review.

Scene: NYC Sports Bar in 2007

Me: Who the hell was that?

Some Drunk: That's Fred Jackson.

Me: Kirby Jackson?

Some Drunk: No, Fred Jackson from Coe College.

Me: Where the hell is Coe College?

Some Drunk: I don't know, but he just zipped past London Fletcher for a 40-yard catch and run.