Each Friday, a member of the Bills will provide his insight from the NFL's front lines. This week, Donte Whitner talks about opening the season on Monday night against the New England Patriots and reveals his passion for Facebook.
Opening the season on a Monday night in New England against the Patriots will be both a challenge and an opportunity.
The team has practised all week in Buffalo and we'll fly out to Boston on Sunday night.
Monday night games are special because it's an opportunity to play in front of a national TV audience in front of your friends and family.
But before Monday, just like the rest of you, I'll be watching all the games this week -- on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
(The Saturday game is a big one as my alma mater Ohio St. takes on USC in Columbus.)
On Sunday, I'll be watching the NFL games with whoever wants to join me, but the only thing I know for sure is, I'll be watching the games on my TV.
As for our own game on Monday night, playing against a team like the Patriots presents plenty of challenges for a defensive player like me.
But the way I look at it, there's no better preparation for going up against the likes of Tom Brady and Randy Moss than going head-to-head in practice every day against our own Terrell Owens and Lee Evans.
In the past week our offensive co-ordinator Turk Schonert was replaced by Alex Van Pelt while left tackle Langston Walker was cut.
A lot has been made of this, and while it's always tough to see people go, in this business you understand it's part of the game. The vibe in our locker room is positive, as always, and everyone is focused and excited about the start of the season.
As for goals, I do set some personal ones for myself but I prefer to keep them private and keep my focus on the team. All of my goals are tied to the success of the team and I know that if the team reaches its goals, my personal goals will take care of themselves.
Finally, a lot of people may not know this but I love using Facebook. I'm on it all the time and I interact with a lot of fans on it. I've enjoyed talking with the fans since college and just because I'm in the NFL now I don't think that should change.
People seem to enjoy interacting with me and I've got almost 5,000 friends now. Some of them don't even believe it's really me when I respond to one of their questions!
Obviously with the fans and the Facebook comments, there's some good and some bad, but I know that once we start winning, it'll get a lot better.
