Pro Football HOFer Jim Kelly "recently met with Jon Bon Jovi to discuss partnering up in pursuit" of the Bills, but Kelly "declined to enlist over lingering concerns the team could move," according to a source cited by Tim Graham of the BUFFALO NEWS. A source last night said that Kelly "met with Bon Jovi face to face in Buffalo last week, but they didn’t merge." Members of the Kelly family and Doubleline Capital Founder & CEO Jeffrey Gundlach "met with the Bills’ trust Aug. 7." They "asked to be matched with an established group because they’ve had trouble latching on with any of the big bidders." Jim Kelly's brother and business manager Dan Kelly "met with Bills bidder Donald Trump." Sources said that the Kelly group "has not met with perceived front-runners" Terry and Kim Pegula, who own the Sabres. For Bon Jovi, reaching out to Jim Kelly "was seen as a public-relations Hail Mary to spawn public support" (BUFFALO NEWS, 8/18). QMI AGENCY's John Kryk noted the fact that Kelly and Bon Jovi have "considered the unlikely liaison at all speaks to how desperate each has become to grab a share of NFL ownership." It is "telling that Bon Jovi reached out to Kelly within days, or even hours, of his group's unpromising, desultory official meeting on Tuesday in Manhattan with the sellers." That Bon Jovi "did this lends enough credibility to finally report the many rumours" heard since June: that Bon Jovi "at various times had been looking to latch on with other bid partners -- either to replace his Toronto investors or to augment them" (QMI AGENCY, 8/17).
LASHING OUT: In Toronto, Terry Davidson notes around 20 CFL Argonauts fans yesterday took a handful of Bon Jovi CDs "soaked with lighter fluid and set [them] ablaze on a bed of charcoal" in a downtown parking lot in response to the singer being part of the Toronto-based group looking to buy the Bills and "possibly move them to the city" (TORONTO SUN, 8/18). Also in Toronto, Josh Rubin noted a T-shirt was "spotted for sale in Buffalo" listing Bon Jovi's name "along with Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gadhafi and Osama bin Laden." Those "last three get a checkmark; Bon Jovi doesn't" (TORONTO STAR, 8/15).
WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE: In Buffalo, Donn Esmonde noted Erie County Exec Mark Poloncarz "came out swinging last week, pounding away at Roger Godell's logic-defying suggestion that the NFL can't make it here without a new stadium." Instead of "being a pushover, Poloncarz is pushing back." It would be "easy for him to curl into the fetal position in the face of the NFL juggernaut." But by standing tall, Poloncarz "isn't just forcing the NFL bullies to prove their case." He is "watching taxpayers' backs, in a way that will help to keep the team in town" (BUFFALO NEWS, 8/17).
