Walking With Larry Felser

A few hours after Tampa Bay finished what turned out to be a season-crippling 31-17 win against the Bills in late November of 2000, I was packing up my notes, tape (yes, tape) recorder and laptop and getting ready to head out of Raymond James Stadium.

"Dave, can I catch a ride with you back to the hotel?" asked Larry Felser, who died Wednesday at the age of 80. Mark Gaughan and Alllen Wilson, his Buffalo News travelling companions that year, which would be the last of his 41 seasons covering the Bills on the road, were still plugging away, and likely would be for at least another hour or two.

Of course, I said, if you don't mind a bit of a hike. As the beat writer for the Niagara Gazette, I did not rate one of the parking passes afforded the representatives of larger-caliber outlets, and so my rental car was parked in one of several large, identical lots across the street from a community college.

"That's OK -- I could use a walk," Larry said.

So we said our goodbyes to Allen and Mark and headed out.

It was at least a mile stroll, and we talked about the game just completed, in which the Bills had jumped ahead early, suffered a surreal string of injuries that ended the seasons of three defensive starters. We turned off the road and up the very long driveway of the lot where I thought I had parked. After getting past the trees and fences that partially hid the property, we saw that it was empty.

"Are you sure this is the right lot?" Larry said with a wry half-smile.

"I guess not."

So we walked back up the driveway, further down the road, then down the next driveway, talking about Buffalo's playoff chances which had faded rapidly through the second half, and about the ongoing fiasco over just exactly how many votes George W. Bush and Al Gore had received in the state we were visiting in the presidential election held earlier that month. Having added at least a half-mile to the walk, we finally reached my car.

When we got to the hotel in Tampa, I apologized for at least the fifth time for the mix-up, and for at least the fifth time, Larry chuckled and told me not to worry about it.

The following Sunday, with the Bills hosting Miami, I noticed Larry was not in his customary spot in the center seat of the front row of the press box at what had been renamed Ralph Wilson Stadium two years earlier.

During halftime, I asked News columnists Jerry Sullivan and Jim Kelley about Larry's absence. Surprised that I had not heard, they told me he had been stricken as he was about to speak at a high-school sports banquet on Thursday evening, and was in the hospital, undergoing tests.

Given my guilt-driven personality, I assumed my parking-lot blunder had contributed to Larry's heart problem, if not been the sole cause. They told me where he was hospitalized, and I went to visit the following night. He was not in his room, so I left a copy of that day's Gazette, which included my coverage of a hideous 33-6 Miami win, along with a note that read something like, "See what happens when you miss a Dolphins game?"

Working the desk at the Gazette the following evening, my phone rang. I answered, expecting to take a report from a high-school basketball game. Instead, I heard a familiar and very welcome voice.

"'John Fina couldn't block a recount if his brother was the governor,'" Larry said, quoting my column from Sunday's game, in which the Buffalo left tackle had been repeatedly smoked by Miami's Trace Armstrong. "I wish I'd written that."

Having received the highest compliment a young writer can get, especially from someone of Larry's stature, I apologized for any extra strain or stress our car search had caused.

Larry laughed again, and told me he would be out of the hospital in a day or two.

When we hung up, I thought about another call I had gotten from him a couple years earlier. Vic Carucci, longtime Bills beat writer for the News, was leaving the newspaper. That created a much-coveted opening on the sports staff, and Larry wanted to know if it was OK if he put in a word for me with the sports editor.

Yes, I said, that would be fine, and thanked him. Before starting to update my portfolio, I sat for a minute, amazed that someone of his stature would take the time to even think of me, much less take action on my behalf. I didn't get the job, but never forgot how Larry and other News staffers had tried to help.

We shared another connection that had nothing to do with sports. Larry's wife, Beverly, with whom he shared their 47th wedding anniversary on Tuesday, was from my hometown. Her mother and my grandmother were close friends, regularly playing bingo together.

When I started covering the Bills on an occasional basis for the Batavia Daily News in 1990, it probably would have been smart to work that angle. But I have never been very comfortable with overtly schmoozing as a career-advancement tool, so never dropped his mother-in-law's name during the brief encounters I had with him in the locker room or the press box.

One day, after Marv Levy's weekly Wednesday media conference, he walked up to me.

"Your name is Staba?" he said. "Are you related to Helen?"

We started talking regularly after that, at the then-Rich Stadium and, once I started travelling with the team, on the road. One fall Sunday morning, he sat down with me as I shoveled in the pre-game breakfast provided by the home team -- Kansas City, I believe.

"Do yourself a favor," Larry said, "and take a walk around outside the stadium. They've got a really good set-up out there."

I did, and it was a great walk. And I swiped his introductory phrase, and have been advising others to "do yourself a favor" ever since.

The last time I saw Larry was at the wake for Allen Wilson, who died of leukemia in December 2011. We cheered each other up with stories about the road trips we had made with our good friend, and parted as usual -- reminding each other that we were due to have lunch.

We never made it to that lunch, but I did make sure Larry knew that he had unwittingly helped launch my journalism career some 35 years ago.

I was about 9 or 10 when my parents took me for a tour of the Buffalo News. I was already addicted to sports, especially football, and when the tour reached that department I asked where Larry Felser sat.

The guide pointed to a desk covered with piles of football magazines, copies of the Sporting News (where Felser wrote weekly columns on the National Football League) and a row of media guides for every NFL team.

That must be the best job in the world, I thought. What a great life he must have.

After being lucky enough to count him as a colleague and a friend, turns out I didn't know the half of it.

Because You Haven't Had Enough Draft Hype

Due to budgetary constraints Due to malfeasance, ineptitude and chronic workplace substance abuse, we had to lay off summarily dismiss the We Want Marangi NFL Draft Research Team for cause.

As a result, I can safely say I know as much as you do, probably less, about this year's annual rookie draft, which begins tonight.

But I suppose it's obligatory for a football-based blog to post something about what has become a three-day carnival, so here's the best piece I have read about the festivities.

The fact that the draft is not and cannot be foolproof is what makes it dramatic. The draft isn't fun without the Leafs and the JaMarcuses and the KiJanas. Those busts stand as historic proof that the NFL draft remains out of control, even to the NFL's biggest control freaks. I'll never get tired of people like Mel Kiper, who spends all of his time dedicated to a single weekend, fucking things up so badly. The man once had Jimmy Clausen at the top of his draft board people. Jimmy Clausen. This is what makes the draft so very special.

And if you're really into mock drafts, potential trades and other Bills-related draft ephemera, Joe Buscaglia of WGR 550 does a fine job of all that on his draft blog.

As for We Want Marangi, we'll be back with a post-draft analysis soon. Probably as soon as we're done contesting all those unemployment claims from former members of our NFL Draft Research Team.

Kolb Just Another Rob?

As of this writing, it has not been officially announced by the team, but Wikipedia identifies Kevin Kolb as "an American football quarterback for the Buffalo Bills."

So it must be true.

Just about every media outlet that cares about such things reported the same thing over the weekend, with even the NFL's official site saying the former Cardinal and Eagle agreed to terms on a two-year deal worth up to $13 million -- if he can win what is certain to be a scintillating quarterback competition with fellow two-time washout Tarvaris Jackson, someone named Aaron Corp and whichever rookie the Bills draft next month.

On the plus side, Philadelphia and Arizona each thought enough of the University of Houston product to make him their quarterback of the future. Each time, though, the future proved extremely fleeting.


Kolb's emergence in Philadelphia made Donovan McNabb expendable after the 2009 season, an adjective quickly applied to Kolb himself after an injury put Michael Vick on the field a year later.

He had showed enough, though, to convince Arizona to sign him to a five-year, $60 million deal. Two injury-riddled seasons -- a shoulder injury sustained against Buffalo, video of which is embedded in the link above, ended his 2012 season less than halfway through -- convinced the Cardinals that they were mistaken.

Before his shoulder gave out against the Bills, Kolb threw eight touchdown passes and three interceptions in leading Arizona to a 4-2 start last year. The most remarkable number from Kolb's time in red, though, is how many times he was sacked in the 14 games he got on the field -- 57.

Kolb was dropped just 20 times in 19 games with the Eagles, so you could blame Arizona's dismal offensive line and general offensive ineptitude for the spike.

You could also wonder if the beating Kolb received in the desert may have left him with a case of Rob Johnson Syndrome, a condition that dulls a promising quarterback's instincts, repeatedly causing him to take sacks when he should be getting rid of the ball.

Either way, it would be tough to make an argument that Kolb does not strengthen the Bills at the position. At least with the regular season more than five months away. He has clearly been a better traditional passer than Jackson, though somewhat less athletic and significantly less durable.

Possessing two quarterbacks with both starting and backup experience also figures to allow Buffalo more flexibility in the draft. With only Jackson and Corp around, General Manager Emeritus Buddy Nix and his successor, Doug Whaley, would have been all but forced to take a quarterback in the first round, even if it meant reaching to do so.

That option is still there, if the front office, along with Doug Marrone and offensive coordinator Paul Hackett, feel strongly that one of the less-than-acclaimed prospects at the position could play right away, or at least take over at some point this season.

Only Geno Smith of West Virginia and USC's Matt Barkley are consensus first-round picks. The Bills worked Smith out last week and are scheduled to do the same with Barkley in the next few days. If they're not sold on either with the eighth overall pick, the addition of Kolb allows them to consider waiting until the second round or later.

Which might not be the worst thing, since two of last year's breakout quarterbacks, Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson, were drafted in the second and third rounds of their respective drafts.

Of course, Trent Edwards was also a third-round pick.

Then again, J.P. Losman went in the first.

All of which makes signing Kolb seem like a sensible move, under the circumstances.

At least for now.

Another Press Stopped

Having written for a few alternative weeklies -- including Bills game-day coverage through the 00s -- and other low-budget media operations, it sucks to see one that, along with the Village Voice, defined the medium succumb to natural causes.

During its 47-year run, the Boston Phoenix provided its readers with journalism from future Pulitzer Prize winners alongside the finest in skeevish adult advertising. After years of financial trouble and a recent full format change, The Phoenix -- which was successful enough to spin off  sister papers in Providence, R.I., and Portland, Maine -- announced its own demise.

The cause of death is the same as for every departed print outlet -- the digital revolution and the resulting remaking of media advertising models, dwindling attention spans and the ultimate authority of the bottom line.

From the obituary written by Phoenix alum Camille Dodero:

So yes, yesterday, we lost the paper whose name appeared on so many imposing resumes. We lost the paper that bred Pulitzer Prize winners, that was responsible for breaking the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal. But we also lost a place where kids who were never supposed to be writers and reporters and photographers and illustrators and storytellers could start out by refusing to leave the building, people whose parents didn't have the money to help with rent while they struggled to make their long-term pathways better, and try, however minutely, to change things. 

What we lost Thursday was Clif Garbonden's dream. The world is a far worse place without it. Fuck. 

In the end, the surprise of the Phoenix's death is not that it happened, but that it took this long.

Who's Next?

After yesterday's surprisingly unsurprising release of Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Bills officially find themselves where they have been realistically since Jim Kelly retired in February 1997 -- without a quarterback.

Yes, Todd Collins (and when I first compiled this list, I had briefly forgotten him ever getting under center for Buffalo) , Rob Johnson, Doug Flutie, Alex Van Pelt, Travis Brown, Drew Bledsoe, J.P. Losman, Shane Matthews, Kelly Holcomb, Trent Edwards, Brian Brohm, Fitzpatrick, Levi Brown and Tyler Thigpen have all taken snaps and thrown season passes over the last 16 seasons.

Of the 14, though, only Johnson and Flutie ever started a postseason game for Buffalo. Among the rest, only Bledsoe came close, falling short when he failed to get the 2004 Bills past a group of backups wearing Pittsburgh Steelers uniforms in the season finale. At home.

We're not here to bemoan past failings, but to look forward.

Looking over the list of available free agents, though, the immediate future does not look a whole lot brighter.

(Note: The above was compiled before Baltimore re-signed reigning Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco, who no one ever thought would hit the market, anyway, and Miami and Buffalo re-upped Matt Moore and Tarvaris Jackson, respectively.)

When Moore's re-signing with the Dolphins pushes Rex Grossman and Jason Campbell to the top of the list, you know one thing. You need more options.

Unless new coach Doug Marrone and general-manager-in-waiting Doug Whaley find this year's Russell Wilson, a questionable prospect who turns out to be ready to thrive the day he arrives at training camp, the Opening Day starter for the first campaign of their new era will be someone who has failed elsewhere.

The last two names on the linked list are worth noting.

Losman's time as Buffalo's Quarterback of the Future may have largely faded from most memories, but he is still out there, looking for one more shot.

Then there's this guy.

Oh. The WWM fact-checking department informs me that the Kevin O'Connell in question is NOT the longtime Channel 2 weather guy, but a well-traveled scrub whose entire professional resume is comprised of six passes thrown for New England in 2008. That's much less fun.

Releasing Fitzpatrick, who was in the middle of a contract signed at the high point of his Buffalo career, when the Bills were 5-2 in mid-2011, made sense from a financial standpoint. It was a must in terms of marketing a team whose last playoff game took place eight days into the new millennium.

Given what else is out there, though, it is tough to see how it makes them any better.

And The Other Shoe Drops

The Bills released Ryan Fitzpatrick this afternoon after efforts to restructure his contract failed, reports Mark Gaughan of the Buffalo News.

This, of course, comes as no surprise to regular readers of We Want Marangi, or at least those who have been here in the last few hours.
The team has confirmed Fitzpatrick's departure at buffalobills.com.

Fitzpatrick's career numbers with the Bills saw him complete just under 60 percent of his passes (59.8) for 11,654 yards with 80 touchdowns and 64 interceptions and a passer rating of 79.8. His won-loss record in his four seasons with Buffalo was 19-34.

(Emphasis ours.)

'We're Still Struggling Here With Our Quarterback'

If you were worried that new coach Doug Marrone is stuck with Ryan Fitzpatrick as his quarterback going into his first season in Buffalo, well, listen to this.

Deadspin.com published a piece this morning detailing how Bills GM-For-Now Buddy Nix got snagged by a couple of prank-calling 20-year-olds last week and, thinking he was having a private conversation with his counterpart with Tampa Bay, Mark Dominik, inadvertently told the world that his Starting Quarterback-For-Now probably won't have that title for long. And that Fitzpatrick will probably have to take a pay cut if he wants a clipboard-carrying gig in 2013.

"We're still struggling here with our quarterback ... We're not really struggling -- he's going to have to do something, or we'll have to." 

More Nix on Fitzpatrick: "We just can't afford to pay that kind of money for a guy who's probably fighting for a backup job."

This should not come as a tremendous shock to anyone who has watched Fitzpatrick play quarterback for the past four years, especially with a new, offensive-minded coach taking over. But it is interesting to hear that Nix shares the same opinion as most fans regarding Fitzpatrick's value. Especially since Nix himself signed Fitzpatrick to a six-year, $62 million extension less than two years ago.

With the NFL's free agency period scheduled to start this afternoon at 4 p.m., and Fitzpatrick scheduled to receive a $3 million roster bonus if he's on the team tomorrow, there's a decent chance he will be an ex-Bill by the time you read this.

And if he reads Deadspin, he probably knows what's coming.

(In case you missed the link above, the full story, replete with audio clips of the conversation between Nix and Dominik, is here. Give a listen, if only to hear a man use the term "Dadgum." And, like Dwight Adams before him, I could listen to Nix read the phone book.)