All,
On my way back to Odesa. Flew from NYC to Istanbul and then to Chisinau, Moldova (cool, historical place. Look it up đ)
The blue dot is on the flight.
The pics are out of the plane window. Â Looks very green and fertile.
And we left JFK airport at midnight last night. Flew all night and all day. And look where I ended up back in New York City in my Chisinau hotel hahahahahaha.
More tomorrow.
-JB
All,
It’s pretty interestingâand excitingâthat the new Pope is the first American Pope after 275 predecessors. I also read this morning (though not yet confirmed) that his grandparents and great-grandparents were from the Dominican Republic and have French/African Creole roots in New Orleans, making him, in many ways, a reflection of the broader American story and of humankind. Pretty cool.
Even more amazing? Heâs a graduate of Villanova University in Pennsylvaniaâwhere, as it happens, my former son-in-law teaches.
That Villanova connection brought to mind a story that says a lot about how far weâve come.
Back in 1931, my DadâAlbert Berlinâwas a standout athlete in New York City, recruited by several colleges to play football, including Villanova. Their athletic director at the time was Harry Stuhldreher, one of Notre Dameâs legendary âFour Horsemen.â My Dad had been offered a spot⊠until the school found out he was Jewish.
I have the original letter, which is still on my wall today. In it, Stuhldreher regretfully withdraws the offer, citing overcrowding and limited scholarships. But in person, he admitted the truth: Jews were not allowed at Villanova back then. The name âBerlinâ had slipped through. Once discovered, the decision came down from above: no go.
To his credit, Stuhldreher was ashamed. He helped my Dad get into NYU and stayed in touch with him for years.
Decades later, when I was with Governor Ed Rendell (a Jewish New Yorker and proud Villanova grad) receiving the Pennsylvania Exporter of the Year Award, I showed him that very letter. We both marveled at how the world had changed.
And now, here we are. A new Pope, from America, from Villanovaâhopefully another sign of how far weâve come. From exclusion to inclusion. From shame to progress. From whispered apologies to global milestones.
The arc does bendâif we help it along.
Onward! -JB
I just had breakfast with Brandon Beane at the stadium. Thanks to M&T Bank for the invite, and to our good friend Bill Hanes for the private introduction. Iâve met Beane beforeâthoughtful guy. Smart. Grounded. You can see why players want to be here.
He talked shop, of courseâall the work it takes to build a winning team. (Thisâll be Beaneâs ninth season, and the Bills have won the AFC East five of his last six. Pretty damn good.)
He looks for guys whose arrows are pointing upâor at least sideways/not down. Bosaâs only 29. They picked up some great D-line talent in the draft. Said the priority this year was getting the defense younger and hungrier. New leadership. TreâDavious White will help coach up Max Hairston, their first-round pick, and others. On offense, Khalil Shakir is a guy who can go slot or wideâslot first. Josh Palmer can go wide or slotâwide first. Different puzzle pieces. Salary cap always in play (BIG thanks to the Pegulas for putting their money where their team is).
And Josh Allen? Beaneâs first draft pick as GM 8 years ago. (Nailed that one!) Still ascending, he believes. Arrow still up. And as good as he is at QB1, Beane said heâs an even better human being. Said heâs been around this league a long time and seen plenty of guys who turn on the ânice and humbleâ for the camerasâbut act like a**holes when theyâre off. âAsk anyone in the locker room or anyone working in this building,â he said. âTheyâll all tell you: Josh is the real deal.â
Awesome.
But what stuck with me most wasnât the roster or the draft board. It was the idea of players being there. Brandon talked about team buildingânot in the corporate âletâs-do-trust-fallsâ kind of way. Just being present. Showing up. Listening. Learning.
He said, âSure, you can lift weights anywhereâbut working out together and then hanging out afterward? Thatâs a whole different thing.â I agree. Same with any business. You want your guys to play for each other. That’s what builds success.
Afterwards we got to walk on the fieldâpretty cool. And it struck me, as it did others who I talked to: itâs bittersweet. I know itâs the second-oldest stadium in the NFL, but there have been incredible memories and moments hereâfor the team and the fans. And I know for me, for sure. Canât wait for the new stadium in â26, but still⊠sad to see the old place go.
As I drove home, I couldnât help thinking about the long arc that brought me back to this fieldâmemories of the old stadium, the drives down I-90 a thousand times from Buffalo, first to Jamestown, then to Erie. Starting way back in 1982 when I got the job in Jamestown, driving truck for Oneida Motor Freight. Headed down on Monday mornings, back on to Buffalo on Friday. Sleeping in my old Chevy Suburban at the Rt. 17 rest area four nights a weekâjust trying to make something happen. Trying to figure out what was going to be the path for our young family.
So yeah, maybe itâs cornyâbut sometimes, a stadium isnât just a stadium. Itâs a time machine. A mirror. A metaphor.
And who knows? Maybeâjust maybeâthis coming season–the last one in this well-worn, much-beloved stadium, will be the year the Bills finally get to lift the Lombardi Trophy.
Howâs that for an ending?
Frigginâ poetry.
Onward!
Brandon Beane addressing the group inside the stadium suite, with the field as his backdrop. Smart, grounded, and clearly in his element.
Me with Brandon Beane after breakfast. A good man, and a GM whoâs built a culture players want to be part of.
The same tunnel the Bills run out of on game day. Walking through it never gets oldâthis place is full of memories.
The Superman-themed image I gave Beaneâone for him, one for Coach McDermott, and one for #17 himself. Because sometimes, Josh really does fly.
LP has always prided itself on Hannibal’s old saying: “Find a way or make one”.
Here’s a wonderful example of a businesswoman who did just that.
Enjoy : )
JB
All,
Please see the article below about our good friend and colleague from TFA, Mark Antal.
Unbelievable.
How does our society allow people like this to repeatedly do what they do to innocent people? Â Luckily, Mark as a former US Special Ops team leader could protect himself, move that attacker away from his young daughters, and restrain this guy til the police arrived (while wisely holding back from using deadly techniques he knows all too well).
How does the guy have all these arrests and still get released back onto the streets time after time after time? Â I get compassion for people with mental illness but what if it had been Mark’s daughters, who could not have fended this guy off? Â What if this happened to you? Or your wife? Or your mother/father kids? Â TOO MUCH!!!
It’s like my Governor Shapiro said the other day after some nutjob broke into his home and tried to burn down his house with him and his children inside  and hoping to “beat him with a hammer”.
He said: “I don’t care which side of the political fence you are on. This is NOT acceptable.”
NYC (and other many communities) need a way more rational, effective and safe-for-its-residents policy than this “catch and release” IMHO.
This feels like Bizarro world.
Make it stop!
JB
âSavingsâ That Never Really Delivered
Back in the day, we were managing truckload freight for a large industrial company. The setup was solidâgood rates, consistent service, everything working as it should.
Then along comes one of their internal guysâletâs call him Brentâwho wanted to prove he could wring even more âefficiencyâ out of the operation. Without involving us, he went out and re-bid ten of their biggest lanes on his own. Soon after, he announced with great fanfare that he had found $800,000 in annual savings.
He got a big award. Some kind of internal hero. Made us look kind of bad (why couldn’t LP have done that) but we had to keep our heads down. Didn’t want to get in front of this news cannon.
But nobody looked too closely at the numbers. They just heard the word âsavingsâ and they all nodded approvingly. GOOD NEWS!
Eventually, I asked to see the actual data. Took some persistence, but I got it. And what it showed was that nine of the ten lanes were actually higherâby a combined $200,000 a year. The entire âsavingsâ was based on just one lane, which supposedly saved a million dollars.
Now, youâd think someone of the big execs would stop and ask, âWaitâa million-dollar savings on a single truck lane?â But no one did.
That lane? A short 150-mile âminiâ route on paper. But the freight was a huge, oversized partâover-width, requiring flatbeds, special routing, permits, no night driving, no driving in the rain or snow and no weekend runs. Ohâand customs clearance on both sides of a very congested, slow-moving international bridge thrown in for good measure.
The winning bidder came in at half the price of every other quoteâ$1,000 below the next-lowest. A number that only made sense if you had no idea what the freight actually was. But hey: $1,000 of savings per load x 1,000 loads a year = $1 million in âsavings.â Woo hoo, right?
Only problem? Once they realized what theyâd signed up for, that company just disappeared. Never moved a single load. Never heard from them again.
But those âsavingsâ stayed on the books. The award stayed on Brentâs shelf. And the myth of the great cost-cutter lived on.
Moral of the story?
Itâs easy to find âwasteâ when you donât understand the work.
And even easier to declare victoryâand then quietly slip awayâwhen no one notices that none of those trucks actually rolled.
