Donald Trump yesterday stressed that he is "committed to buying the Bills and keeping them in Western New York," according to a front-page piece by Tim Graham of the BUFFALO NEWS. Sources said that Trump "already has spoken" to Bills President & CEO Russ Brandon twice. Trump said, "I’m going to give it a heavy shot. I would love to do it, and if I can do it, I’m keeping it in Buffalo." He added, "I live in New York, and it’s easier for me to go to Buffalo than any other place. Where am I going to move it, some place on the other side of the country, where I have to travel for five hours?" Trump indicated that he is "willing to get into a competitive bidding process for the Bills." Trump: "Somebody could come out and bid through the roof for the Bills, something crazy. In which case, I’m sorry I can’t do anything about that. You have to be sane. But maybe there’s not going to be any other bids. You never know with these things." He added of how soon the Bills could be sold, "I think it’s going to go quickly. I hope it goes fast." Trump insisted that his casino dealings "wouldn’t impede his purchase and denied any bad blood still exists" from the USFL’s $1.7B antitrust lawsuit against the NFL in '84. Trump was the USFL’s "driving force behind switching from the spring to direct competition with the NFL in the fall." Trump said, "I think the NFL owners respected me for it because I took a dead league and made it hot. But my thing when I bought the team was, ‘I will not play football in the spring’" (BUFFALO NEWS, 4/15).
