Buffalo Rising Online

Mar 8th 2007, 2:26pm By Dave Staba

After auditioning possible replacements for running back Willis McGahee earlier in the week, the Buffalo Bills shipped the former first-round draft pick to Baltimore for two choices this year and one next, ESPN.com is reporting.

In return for the two-time 1,000-yard rusher, the Bills received third- and seventh-round picks in next month’s draft, as well as a third-rounder in 2008.

So ends a Buffalo career that had its moments, but not enough of them to justify extending McGahee’s contract, which expires at the end of the 2007 season, or put up with the incessant renegotiation chatter already emanating from agent Drew Rosenhaus.

McGahee’s departure seems like an appropriate time to answer a vital question: Was he more annoying when talking about his performance on the field, or when contemplating life off of it?

“I’m the best back – case closed,” he said in 2005, right before the Bills took on San Diego and LaDainian Tomlinson, who the less enlightened largely agree is the National Football League’s best running back.

McGahee backed up his bold talk by going out and running for all of 39 yards and losing a fumble, while Tomlinson scored the first touchdown in a 48-10 San Diego blowout.

Then there were his sage words in Penthouse magazine, where he bemoaned the lack of nightlife in Buffalo and gave this response when asked if the National Football League should consider putting an expansion team in Toronto:

"That would be a good situation. Toronto is a beautiful place. But if they're going to put a team there, they should just bring the Buffalo Bills to Toronto. Case closed."

It’s hard to say which is more irritating – McGahee’s ignorance about a place he chooses not to live in the offseason, or his apparent love of the phrase “case closed.”

Interestingly, he wasn’t nearly as certain about his move-the-Bills point a few days after the interview was published, issuing a statement claiming his quotes were, altogether now, taken out of context.

Now that the question of whether the Bills should and would trade McGahee has been answered in the affirmative, the focus shifts to replacing him.

Marv Levy has two options: Re-sign Anthony Thomas, an unrestricted free agent, or get another veteran, like one of this week’s visitors to One Bills Drive, Dominic Rhodes or Chris Brown. Either way, selecting a runner on the first day of the draft becomes a must with McGahee’s departure.

But such speculation is for another time and another post. For now, we can just enjoy one of those rare moments in professional sports when what the fans want is also the right thing for the organization and the people running the show realize it.

Case closed.