Sports writer - Grant writer

Category: football (Page 3 of 8)

To All The 9 – 12 Year Old Girls In Baltimore This Monday (From A Buffalo Fan Who Has Been There)

From the Kansas City Star.

Maybe that was the first whole football game you watched. Maybe it was the thirtieth. Maybe your father has gotten you into the great sport of football because he doesn’t have any sons…yet. Maybe you desperately wanted to hang out with your older siblings or uncles and were watching football in order to do so. Maybe you were at your friend’s giant game watch party in her giant house and her seven brothers and sisters and all of their friends.

Maybe it was your turn in the awesome wicker hanging chair in the den (quite the hot commodity in a party fill of 40 kids from the ages of 5-18) when Billy Cundiff’s kick went wide left Sunday afternoon, sealing a win for the New England Patriots and costing the Baltimore Ravens a chance at the Super Bowl.

You’ll probably remember that exact moment for the rest of your life. It’s either the moment where you gave up on football forever, or discovered how intriguing and mysterious football – and sports in general – can be. Continue reading

Decoding Bill Belichick’s Thoughts On Sunday’s Patriots-Bills Matchup

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick gave one of his regular cagey and depreciating press conferences Friday, answering questions about Sunday’s regular season ending matchup against the Buffalo Bills. He was displeased with many of the questions, and gave little insight into how he views Sunday’s opponent.

After reviewing the press conference transcript, I decided to decipher Belichick’s statements, and translate them into what he really wanted to say about the Bills. Continue reading

A Gillette Stadium Guide for The Non-Regular

Gillette Stadium during Monday Night Football on 11/21/2011On New Year’s Day, I’ll join hundreds of fellow transplanted Buffalo Bills fans and thousands of New England Patriots fans and take in the last regular season game of the year at Foxboro’s Gillette Stadium. It will be my second game at Gillette this year, and my fourth ever game at the massive complex.

Like any stadium, you learn a few tricks and tips after a few visits that make your trip all the more enjoyable. After I attended November’s Monday Night Football Chiefs-Patriots game, I jotted down this list of the tips I’ve learned to share with other non-Gillette regulars. Continue reading

It’s Time For Accountability In Buffalo

Buffalo Bills Stevie JohnsonThe difference between great sports teams and bottom feeders is discipline. And the Buffalo Bills biggest problem since the start of this century? No systematic discipline in the organization from top to bottom.

Sunday’s poor showing by Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson is a glaring example. His post-touchdown mime of New York Jets wide receiver Plaxico Burress’s accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound and a declining jet plane drew an unnecessary penalty (though it is somewhat amusing to see the Jets handed a taste of their own bombastic overstating medicine.) Johnson can’t claim naivety – he’s been a wide receiver in the National Football League for four years. He knows that the Merton Hanks, Deion Sanders and Terrell Owens post-play antics of the past are now looked down upon. But he did his display anyway, drew the penalty, and thus caused the chaotic kickoff that resulted in very favorable field placement and subsequent touchdown for the Jets.

Johnson then miffed two key catches on the last drive of the game – catches that presented a clear and easy run route ahead of him, and would have resulted in a game winning touchdown. Given that Sunday’s game was a must-win to keep the Bills relevant in the AFC playoff picture, that touchdown would have been the most important of the season to that date. The lack of extra hustle by Johnson to make them – or at least outstretch his arms a bit more and read the pass better – is disappointing.

Will any of Johnson’s lack of effort and focus – as demonstrated by the dropped catches and post-TD performance – be punished by the Bills? If history repeats itself, probably not.

The Bills have lacked systematic accountability since the days of Marv Levy. Levy was a coach that installed and rewarded responsible and vocal captains in the locker room and on the field, and didn’t mince words or actions himself. The Johnson/Flutie years saw some strong in-team leadership as well. Since then, the Bills coaching staff and roster have been more about leniency than accountability. Neither Chan Gailey or his predecessor Dick Jauron seem interested in asking for and expecting more from their team, and let antics and egotistical play slide, whereas in other NFL organizations it is not. And is it any surprise that the organizations that are most hard nosed about such things, like the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers, have a history of winning? (Further, if you read Michael Holley’s excellent War Room, you can see that while the Patriots still have a hard nosed coach, a lack of locker room leadership eroded the team at times, and it has shown since 2008.)

One could even surmise that this inability to discipline their team does not solely rest on the coaching staff, but the front office who hires such unaccountable coaching staffs and the owner, who we are unsure is even still alive. Buffalo’s front office showed a strong valuation of character and responsibility when late general manager John Butler was in charge, but began to wane when he departed for the San Diego Chargers. Ralph Wilson has been largely absentee for years, and his lack of leadership regarding key issues is apparent. Other owners get involved and step in when a lack of discipline is sullying their brand. When the Pittsburgh Steelers have their various situations of poor character, their owner, Dan Rooney, hurriedly steps in and tries to right the ship.

It is when owners are absentee, or when they relish a spirit of personality rather that team (categories the late Raiders owner Al Davis both fell into in points of his career), then lack of discipline runs rampant. You can’t expect a return on your investment if players think more of their own worth than the organization’s.

So Johnson’s Sunday antics may be making the national headlines today for their content, but what they are really indicative of is a culture of mediocrity and a lack of responsibility within the Bills. That Johnson had the sense that an extended touchdown celebration that would cost his team was worth it speaks to the inability of the Bills organization to instill a sense of responsibility across the board. The lack of effort Johnson showed on the final drive speaks to the lack of expectations instilled by the coaching staff. Until the Bills start seeking more from those that they hire across the board, they will be bottom feeders, and us fans, the laughing stocks of our non-Bills fans. How long must fans waste our time sticking up for an inept organization?

I Can Has Hard Handshake?

While on the commuter rail into work this morning, I asked the following via Twitter:

Has anyone started a Tumblr full of captioned Jim Harbaugh-Jim Schwartz tiff photos yet? We’ll call it, “I Can Has Hard Handshake.”

I was slammed with work all day, but the minute I got home, I knew what had to be done. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present “I Can Has Hard Handshake?”

But wait, there’s more! I’m not exactly great at these (it’s my first time), but I tried my best. Give me at least a B for effort.


By the way, word came out early this evening that the NFL will not fine either coach for their confrontation.

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