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Dear America: The Buffalo Bills Are Not Really Simple. But Thanks For The Attention.

29 September, 2011 / Kat

At this point, every Buffalo Bills fan has read Yahoo! Sports‘ “There’s No Place Like Buffalo In The NFL” article from Wednesday. It is an amazingly well written account of how ingrained Bills football is in the area, and how tied both fans, current players and former players are to the team.

The article proclaims Buffalo as the “last simple place in the NFL.” But the article shows the very opposite. The rest of the nation sees being so tied and loyal to a football team as simple; but actually, if the Bills and Western New York were in a Facebook relationship, we’d have to check off, “It’s Complicated.” Continue reading

White Guys CAN Jump: Moorman, Pedroia Reach New Heights On Sunday

25 September, 2011 / Kat

Both the New England Patriots-Buffalo Bills game this afternoon, and tonight’s New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox night cap featured men reaching new heights in gymnastics-style jumps.

First off, we had Buffalo Bills punter Brian Moorman’s athletic jump of celebration onto the shoulders of kicker Rian Lindell after he kicked the game winning field goal to give the Bills their first win over the Patriots since my first week of classes in my senior year of college (2003.) Sure, the hurdle onto Lindell was a tad on the awkward side, but I assume emotions just got the best of Moorman. After all, both players were on that 2003 team, and have experienced the frustration of the Bills against the Patriots first hand.

Brian Moorman and Rian Lindell celebrate the Buffalo Bills win over the New England Patriots. (Photo: Yahoo! Sports)

Later in the day, we had the gutsy, “carry the team on my back” move by Red Sox 2nd baseman Dustin Pedroia as he tried valiantly to score against the Yankees. As he approached home, he saw Yankees catcher Austin Romine fumble the catch and he leapt over him to try to score the run.

Dustin Pedroia leaps over Austin Romine. (Photo: Yahoo! Sports)

Two games involving Boston teams, two giant leaps.

Hockey Ad Fail: If It’s Time For Hockey, Is It Beach Season?

23 September, 2011 / Kat

While on the Boston Bruins official website this morning (the first morning of fall), the right sidebar ad showed me the following:

“Bruins Beach Wear.”

I’m not going to complain about the fact that there is a Bruins bikini. I don’t really have a problem with that – if it sells (and after this Stanley Cup season, I bet you it does), then go ahead and sell it.

But…it’s September 23rd. If I’m visiting the Boston Bruins website, odds are it’s not beach weather. In fact, if it’s NHL preseason time in Boston, the odds are that you will not be wearing any beach gear for a good six months (unless you’re going on a warm weather vacation, but in this economy, how many people are? I know I’m not.) The NHL Shop is advertising beach wear at the same time Starbucks has broken out the Pumpkin Spice Latte and I’ve already bought a bag of candy corn.

And yes, I do realize that that ad is most likely placed by analytics and is part of a rotation, and they probably haven’t switched out their summer rotation for their fall rotation of square sidebar ads. I forgive them, I really do. But the irony had to be pointed out.

A Week 2 Start To Fantasy Football and Why A Bills Win Over the Raiders Would Be Sweet Revenge

18 September, 2011 / Kat

One of my Fantasy Football leagues kicks off play at 1pm today. It’s a Fantasy Football league that couldn’t get its act together soon enough to get drafted and ready for a Week 1 start. It’s understandable – two of our long time participants are about to become first-time dads, so they’re a bit distracted.

Truth be told, I don’t mind the delayed start. I was able to approach the draft and subsequent roster moves with the feeling of being over-prepared for a test. On the plus side, I could see who had potential beyond their draft ranking. I could see what teams’ defense are weak and will allow for offensive players to rack up the points on them.

But, much like being over-prepared for a test, I went into drafts and lineups over-confident on picking upon Week 1 performances that may not end up indicating a darn thing. I picked up Buffalo Bills’ tight end Scott Chandler as my backup TE after his stellar performance against the Kansas City Chiefs, but he’s somewhat of an unknown quantity. Will that pick turn out to be a good one, or was I too motivated upon a performance that may be an anomaly?

The other plus to a late starting fantasy football league? A second chance. I started 0-1 in my other league, which is not quite the end of the world. But when you’re playing only 12 of those 16 weeks of the regular season, it can seem like it. Starting off another team in another league renews your enthusiasm.

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I hope the Buffalo Bills defeat the Oakland Raiders this afternoon for a very selfish reason. My high school’s colors were black and silver, and our uniforms always looked especially Raider like. The Raiders were the second biggest NFL team among the kids in my neighborhood on Rochester’s East side, where I grew up, so my classmates and neighbors coveted Raiders memorabilia.

One fall, my parents’ dryer was broken and they couldn’t afford to replace it right away. All of our clothes were hung on the clothes line in the side yard – including my sister’s modified soccer jersey, a black and silver long sleeve with a giant silver number on the back. The jersey had been on the line all of four minutes when we saw a flash of a boy run through the side yard, grab the jersey and run. He thought he had snagged a Raiders jersey, but he would soon find out he had grabbed a girls modified soccer jersey.

So in a bit of revenge for all of the School of the Arts jerseys mistaken for Raiders jerseys and stolen over the years, I hope the Bills beat the Raiders.

The Four Things Writers/Higher Education Administrators Must Have (and my Yahoo! contest)

15 September, 2011 / Kat

I present to you the four things I have become completely reliant on in my quest to pursue two careers at once:

Me, caffinated.

Coffee (preferably Dunkin Donuts), my iPhone, good eye makeup and a physical, old school paper notebook. The iPhone serves as my audio recorder and long commute multi-tasker. The notebook because there are still times it is quicker to write in longhand, plus it holds all of my to-do lists. The eye makeup helps me not look like a crazed zombie, and the coffee is pretty self-explanatory.

Thus, my silence here is understandable. Between move-in at work and a plethora of writing assignments, I am engaging in mega-prioritization.

One of those writing (well, kind of writing, more social media) assignments is that I have been named a Yahoo! Trending Insider. A few weeks back, I entered a contest to find one of Yahoo’s most influential users, and I was named a finalist. I was whisked away to a day of training, and am now in the midst of the contest…of which I am losing badly.

This was to be expected in the first two weeks of the contest. Student move in at my full time job was going to be my handicap, plus the fact that I had every single writing assignment ever assigned to me due in the same week. But I am ready and willing to make up for lost ground.

How does it work? I’m supposed to share Yahoo’s trending content via my social networks. Thus, I give you a link, and you click on it and read it. Now, I won’t link to every piece of trending content, given that I know my audience doesn’t turn to me for “Scarlett Johansson cell phone pictures.” (But if you do, here’s a link to Yahoo’s story on that, so please click on that so I get points.) I’ll try to pick content that is trending that you might actually be interested in. I’ll link to it here, on Twitter, Facebook and Google +. The links will be tagged #YInsider or say “I’m an Insider!”

So click on the links, and let’s see if I can make up for lost ground. The contest ends during the first week of October. They will name a top five – my modest goal is just to crack the top five. Right now, I’m in the bottom three. If I lose, oh well. I got a lot of great stuff from the contest already (like a yodeling Yahoo button and a night in a swanky hotel), and I am already flattered just being included in the top nine.

Now let me get back to my students, my coffee and checking off to-dos like Buffalo Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick checked off touchdowns last Sunday against Kansas City. It was like a Oprah giveaway. “Scott Chandler, you’re getting a touchdown. CJ Spiller, you’re getting a touchdown. Stevie Jackson, you’re getting a touchdown. YOU’RE ALL GETTING TOUCHDOWNS!”

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And now, here’s the legal fun!

“I have been selected to be a Yahoo! Trending Now Insider! For the next six weeks, Yahoo! will be providing me with exclusive trending content, which I will be sharing with all of you.”

Kat Cornetta