For a league with a season which lasts for all of 5 months, the NFL has a remarkable ability to maintain fan interest during the other 7 months which follow the Super Bowl. March features free agency signings and multiple roster moves, as teams prepare for the April draft. Have the Bills been active in this year's free agency bidding frenzy? Absolutely. How about the signing of CB Drayton Florence from San Diego to counter the loss of Jabari Greer to the Saints? Or, C Geoff Hangartner from Carolina? Don't forget former Bengals QB Ryan Fitzpatrick who will have his work cut out for him if he wants to be worse than JP Losman. Re-signing with the team was OL Kirk Chambers and gone are TE Robert Royal and OL Derrick Dockery. RB Marshawn Lynch plead guilty to being an idiot for having been caught in an expensive car in Oakland with a bag of pot and a gun. He will likely not be suspended by the league. So, until Saturday March 7, the Bills were going about their regular off-season business, shuffling their roster - as were the other 31 teams in the league - and generating media coverage of the various no-name player visits to One Bills Drive, and generally doing little to change the team's fortunes.

I had heard, last Thursday I think, that Cowboys President and GM Gerry Jones and Terrell Owens had decided to part ways and then, on Saturday at the cottage, I heard the very end of a radio report about Owens signing a one year deal but I missed the name of the team. Probably Oakland or maybe Washington, I thought, but I never suspected what I learned on Sunday when I got home and logged on to the chattering posts about the Bills that I read when there's stuff going on with the roster. So, it's actually happened - they have signed him to a one-year, $6.5 million deal. The circus has come to town and it's not going to be boring. Even Dick Jauron will seem interesting now that TO is in the fold. I can't wait for the first OTA's next month. Maybe he will bungee jump off Niagara Falls.

So, why make this move? Were season ticket sales a little slow this winter? Was this an opportunity to energize the fan base? Will this put the small market Buffalo Bills on the national media radar like they have not been since the Music City Miracle? Yes, yes and yes but is this a good move for the football team going into 2009? Aside from the concerns about his attitude and propensity to be an attention seeking and selfish cancer in the locker room (which may be greatly over estimated - both in terms of what his attitude is actually like and in terms of how much it really matters anyway), this guy can play. Yes, he's 35 now but he can still run, get open and score touchdowns. He has always done this and he sure looked pretty strong to me with Dallas last year. Defensive coordinators will now have to defend Lee Evans and TO at the same time and they can't both be double-teamed, can they?

I remember Marv Levy being asked once about whether or not a certain player was "a good guy in the locker room". He replied by saying that he had never really understood what that meant and that the characteristics which he always looked for in a player were talent and commitment, and that success in football came from combining those with practice and execution. "The Equipment Manager - now there's a good guy in the locker room", is how he wrapped up his answer. So, will TO be a good guy in the locker room? We'll see. I don't know that it really matters though. If he is healthy, his production should speak for itself and, hey, whatever happens, it's going to be fun.

Well, spring is on its way in Muskoka. The skiing was challenging as the snowpack has lost its structure, has developed sink holes and the tracks we have worked on all season are becoming unstable. Perfect conditions for pulling a hamstring. We are reading travel books and studying maps of Arizona and neighbouring states as we go in mid April for 8 days.