Thursday-and-Long: Bills Hunt for Fans (and $$) in Toronto

TORONTO -- The thing about playing one of your home games in a foreign country is that it's so ... well ... foreign. Buffalo Bills safety George Wilson remembers being here last year, walking outside Rogers Centre a few hours before the game and listening to a couple of Canadian fans debate which team they'd root for. He laughed when he heard them say they'd decide based on which team's colors they liked better.

"That's what really let me know that this was going to be a sporting event that's a little bit different," Wilson said Wednesday.

The Bills will play the Jets Thursday night in Toronto. It's the second year in a row that the Bills will play a regular-season home game in this Canadian city -- the second year of five in which they're scheduled to do so. And while it may seem like a sign that the financially troubled Bills are contemplating a move out of Buffalo, the people behind the plan all keep saying this is actually a way to make sure the team stays put.

"I think the best way to describe it is as a Buffalo Bills initiative to strengthen their position in their marketplace," said Mark Waller, the NFL's Chief Marketing Officer. "The logic was, if we want this franchise to be strong and sustainable, we need to make it more appealing to a broader geography."

Hence, the agreement that was struck last year between Bills owner Ralph Wilson and a couple of Toronto businessmen (Maple Leafs and Raptors owner Larry Tannenbaum and the late Canadian cable TV magnate Ted Rogers, who owned the Blue Jays) to play one regular-season game in Toronto each year (plus a preseason game every other year) through 2012. The Bills pocketed a reported $78 million as part of the arrangement last year, which is heavy money for a team that makes so little off its own stadium. But they also hope to spark a satellite fan base in a town that lies only 60 miles, as the crow flies, from the one in which they actually play.

"It's not exactly a long trek from Toronto to Buffalo, so you broaden the catchment area, if you will," Waller said. "But creating new fans does not happen overnight. This is a long-term commitment in the same way that taking the NFL to London is a long-term commitment."

Last year, as they have when they've played the regular-season games in London, the league found that the fans who attended the Toronto game wore a wide variety of jerseys and caps -- all 32 team colors were represented in the crowd. And the Toronto game's organizers seem to have learned a lesson that should help beef up the crowd, having cut last year's exorbitant ticket prices by about 17 percent.

"People tell me the Toronto game is a little lackluster," said Terrell Owens, who's in his first year with the Bills. "But hopefully I brought some excitement here with me."

The game's Toronto organizers hope so, too, since the city has interest in making itself home to an NFL team someday. Of course, there are issues to overcome there as well -- finding an ownership group that fits the NFL's criteria, not to mention a stadium that does. NFL stadiums are supposed to seat at least 65,000 people, and Rogers Centre held about 54,000 seats for last year's game.

And while it may seem logical, looking from the outside, to move the Bills to Toronto if they can't ever get a new stadium in Buffalo, it's not an idea that would sit well with Bills fans. The people of western New York don't feel any kind of connection to cosmopolitan Toronto, and maintaining geographical proximity wouldn't likely help the Bills maintain their fan base if they were to move.

"I would wager that the majority of Buffalo Bills fans aren't going to be Toronto Bills fans," said Chris Colburn, a Bills fan who lives in Jamestown, N.Y. "We don't look at Toronto as part of our region. The Bills are part of the fabric of the culture here. There's so little going on in western New York, it'd just be a devastating blow to the culture to take it away."

Bills owner Wilson has repeatedly assured Buffalo fans that he's not planning to move the team as long as he's alive, and he has said in several interviews that the Toronto idea is aimed at keeping the Bills in Buffalo, an idea the fans seem to grasp.

"If keeping my Buffalo Bills in Buffalo requires that they play two more away games, by all means, let's do it," Colburn said.

If you take all of the movers and shakers at their word, that's the plan. Thursday's the latest test to see if it can work. If nothing else, the Bills will make more money Thursday in Toronto than they would have if they were playing the Jets at home.

Hat Tip of the Week -- Ben Roethlisberger and Kurt Warner, star quarterbacks.

As Steelers receiver Hines Ward showed with some ill-informed comments about Roethlisberger, the NFL's macho, win-at-all-costs culture makes it difficult and courageous to tell your team you're sitting out with a concussion. But Roethlisberger and Warner did that Sunday, each wisely deciding that his long-term health was more important than a single football game. That they did so, and that Ward and not Roethlisberger was the one who took the heat in the Steelers' situation, says a lot about the way the culture in the NFL is changing with regard to head injuries.

"And the best part is that no one had to die on the football field," Wilson, the Bills' safety and union rep, told me Wednesday. "The league and the union stepped up and did something in advance, so nobody had to suffer a fatal injury and kind of be the sacrificial lamb for the rest of us. That's what's really great, is that all of this came about before that happened instead of after."

New players union head DeMaurice Smith said when he took office last spring that he'd make player health and safety a front-burner issue. And in holding congressional hearings, calling into question the extant studies that were serving as the standard for head injury matters and educating the players about the seriousness of this issue, he has proven that he wasn't all talk. The NFLPA should be very proud of what it's accomplished on the concussion issue in a very short period of time. Commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL are responding appropriately to the heightened attention and awareness by instituting stricter rules regarding head injuries. But no legislative remedy can possibly have as profound an effect as the example that's set when players the caliber of Roethlisberger and Warner stand up and say they're not playing because they don't want to risk more serious injury.

It's taking hold. Philadelphia's DeSean Jackson all but ruled himself out for Sunday because he's still seeing stars. The Redskins' Clinton Portis has been cleared by doctors to play, but he's decided to sit out one more week and see at least one more doctor before going back on the field. Less high-profile players should see these examples and realize it's okay to fess up to concussions, and the whole league will be a lot safer and saner for it.

Chris Johnson Update

I got to see "Sonic the Hedgehog" rip off an 85-yard touchdown run in person Sunday, and it was breathtaking. The Titans' running back is the real deal -- talented enough to break a big run at any time and yet patient enough to wait the whole game if that's how long it takes. And with a league-leading 1,396 rushing yards through 11 games, he has a real chance to break Eric Dickerson's single-season record of 2,105.

Johnson needs to average 142 rushing yards per game over his last five to break the record. He's exceeded that figure in four games this year, including his last two. In Tennessee's last five games (all since the bye, all since Vince Young took over at quarterback), he's averaging 160 rushing yards per game. And the defenses he's going to face in his final five games aren't among the best in the league at stopping the run. Johnson's final five opponents average 118.8 rush yards allowed per game and none of them rank in the top third of the league against the run:

Week 13: Indianapolis (15th vs. run, 108.9 ypg)
Week 14: St. Louis (28th vs. run, 148.5 ypg)
Week 15: Miami (12th vs. run, 108 ypg)
Week 16: San Diego (21st vs. run, 118.1 ypg)
Week 17: Seattle (18th vs. run, 110.7 ypg)

After Sunday's game, Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt said he felt his team had actually done a pretty good job against Johnson ... except for the 85-yard run. When you run for 154 and that's what the other coach says about you after the game, you've arrived. If Johnson can roll up another 150-plus in Indy on Sunday, Dickerson is on notice.

Three for the Road -- Ooh, it was a rough week for the Three Road Teams I Liked. Washington and Arizona each lost a heartbreaker on Sunday while New England got blasted in New Orleans on Monday night. I swear, that's the last time I'm picking the Patriots to win a road game against an undefeated team.

But we move on. Road teams in the NFL were 3-13 last week and are a combined 72-104 for the season, for a winning percentage of .409. Since I started picking three of them a week, I'm 8-7. Remember, I don't pick the obvious ones. So with that in mind, here are the three road teams I like this week:

1. Cowboys over Giants: Tell me everything you want to tell me about the Cowboys in December, but I say these Giants are over. Dead in the water. And any hope they still have is leaving on a train from the Meadowlands to Secaucus Junction at around 7 pm Sunday.

2. Ravens over Packers: The Green Bay secondary is banged up. Joe Flacco's been playing better than the numbers indicate. And Ray Rice is unstoppable. If the Ravens are going to make their run, it has to start Monday night at Lambeau.

3. Titans over Colts: Because what's a week without picking against an undefeated team? Isn't this whole exercise about bashing your head into a 72-104 brick wall? Come on, Sonic, make me look good...

It's Just a Fantasy -- Three guys I wish I had on my fantasy team this week:

1. Philip Rivers vs. Cleveland: He's playing the Browns. The Chargers don't run. We could be looking at 500 passing yards here, people.

2. Maurice Jones-Drew vs. Houston: Once again, refer to earlier chart. The Texans can't stop the run. Jones-Drew can't be stopped anyway. Bad combo for sinking Texans.

3. Wes Welker vs. Miami: Got this hunch that Brady, Belichick and the gang are going to come out of the tunnel mad this week.

Traveling Man

Already traveling! I am currently in Toronto for the Bills-Jets game. And while the Jets are technically still alive in the weak AFC wild card race if they win, I'm most interested in seeing what this Toronto crowd is going to be like. Will they care? Will they cheer for the Bills? Will the Bills give them any reason to?

I also will be in Green Bay on Monday night for the Ravens-Packers game, which has massive playoff implications for both teams. And I'm very curious to see if the Baltimore defense can get control of the game. The last time I went to Green Bay, I watched a red-hot Cowboys team get manhandled by Charles Woodson. He'll need to have another big one if the Pack is to overcome the injuries it has on defense.

So no Sunday game for me this week, which means I'll be spending Sunday at home, watching football with a very excited six-year-old boy who's my favorite person in the world to talk and watch football with.