Death. Taxes. Media beefs.
Yes, 2016 may have been the worst year since the Ice Age, but don’t worry, I got your best Buffalo sports media beefs to help warm us up. I’ve been doing this for a few years and this is by far our most read piece because
- A) I love dissing lamestreamers
- B) Media (Hi BN and WGR!) and fans love reading about the media’s fights
How was 2016 when it came to beefs? I’d say it was about as beefy as Jim’s Steakouts. Some of the beefs remained the same, while others blew up. Let’s blaze this out.
TBN vs. Bills.com
I would pay anything to have an old school WCW War Games Style cage match between these two factions. We got the Dungeon of Bills apologists in Chris Brown, John Murphy, Mark Kelso and Lauren Hall. On the other side we got the 4 horses[Ass]men in Sully, Skurski, Graham, and Bucky. Hell, I threw Lauren Hall in there because Mike Harrington blasts her voice on Twitter for all Sabres games. Maybe Mike has a crush on her or something. While I’ve always felt the BN Vs WGR rivalary is more contrived as I believe people like Harrington/White are high-fiving each other in the press box when they cause a Twitter commotion, the News and Bills.com do NOT like each other. They ain’t sharing any of the press box cookies, pens, sources or ugly polo shirt fashion advice.
The beef has always been there, but recently it really got heated over Whaley/Ryan. We can start with the press conference that happened during the week after the Steelers game. This was where Bucky/Vic went at it with Rex about when he learned about the LaCalifornia (Credit to Del Reid for nickname) report about him being fired. Rex, who decided to play very dumb after the game by saying he never heard of the report, kind of went back and said he didn’t remember if the Bills PR told him. In my opinion, I think Rex knew about the report as I bet PR HAD to have told him about it before he went to the podium after the Steelers game, and Rex just played dumb. Too dumb. Anyways, I didn’t really think it was that bad of an exchange or it really mattered if he knew or not.
However, there were some pissed off press people in regards to it
That same afternoon, Chris Brown went on the John Murphy show and basically said that some people in the media need to go back to college and learn media 101. Ouch. Brown even went on to say how LaCalifornia’s report was false and they shouldn’t have been asking him about it since he wasn’t fired after the Steelers game. (Footnote: It wasn’t wrong. LaCalifornia said he MAY be fired as early as Monday which he wasn’t. However, almost every reporter in the Buffalo media has used the “may” when it comes to reporting. Hell, people locally are saying he may or may not be fired, so, you are kind of doing the same thing, right?) So with that, Bills.com is “ALL IN” On this beef.
However, if there’s one thing I’ve seen over the years when it comes to media beefs, it is to not fuck with Tim Graham if you are a member of the media. Just ask Matthew Coller who moved to Minnesota because he lost in a loser leaves town match against him last year (OK. I made that part up). We all read Graham’s piece on Whaley and how most of his draft picks are, well, don’t play here anymore.
But aside from the numbers crunching, I saw Graham basically call out the Bills website for slanting any sort narrative towards Whaley.
A January 2014 BuffaloBills.com review of the Hughes trade quoted only Whaley and didn’t mention Nix. A March 2015 BuffaloBills.com article stated: “Buffalo GM Doug Whaley swung the trade that sent LB Kelvin Sheppard to the Colts for Hughes.” At the Bills’ 2013 postmortem press conference, President Russ Brandon praised Whaley for the “personnel brought in not only in the draft, but acquisitions like Jerry Hughes, Ty Powell, Stefan Charles and Dan Carpenter, a lot of players that contributed this year.” Nix wasn’t mentioned during the entire news conference.
This was a subliminal FU to Bills.com. I don’t think it’s a coincidence it came out 5 days after Brown said people needed to go to Media 101 training.
Everyone knows TBN have always been touchy when it comes to team run websites. They bitch about not getting access and feel they deserve as much time. It even got weirder when John Murphy went to town on some 11 year old kid who had the audacity to ask about Doug Whaley’s hand in this mess. And credit to Tim Graham, he somehow found the kid and had him as a co-host on his radio show.
(Hey kid, we are always looking for writers here)
For what may be the first time ever, I’m declaring TBN the winner in this. While I think both outlets do have their own agendas at time, Bills.com propganda is just incredibly eye-rolling. Hell, John Murphy said on the show after the Steelers game that he didn’t hear anything about LaCalifornia’s report. WTF is up with the Bills not hearing anything about this guy’s report? Is LaCalifornia blocked on their Twitter feeds? Do they only read NBCsports.com and not CBS Sports? Yeah, TBN may be bigger dicks, but no one bullshits more than Bills.com and I would rather pick the assholes over the bullshitters.
LeSean McCoy vs. Bucky Gleason
We got two guys who aren’t new to the media beefs on this site, but are facing each other for the first time. Last year, Sullivan was outraged at McCoy because he was trying to have a brothel type party on Instagram and he wasn’t invited. While Bucky has been on here for Kim Pegula and beefs with Howard Simon. Anyways we got McCoy Vs Gleason. What started this? Cops and booze. We all remember when McCoy, Turtle, Drama and the rest of his entourage friends fought a bunch of off duty cops. The Cops got their asses handed to them and people wanted blood. Of course, the news met that we had to cut his ass (Eye roll) and Bucky was the first to write a piece on how McCoy was overrated and was a menace to society basically. Bucky made it out that the cops McCoy roughed up were based on the cast from Police Academy 6: City under Siege, and not from the movie Copland or Training Day.
Yeah, off duty cops at a bar who are drinking champagne at 2am is normally not a good look. Put this in a bar stall or police station: Off duty cops are bigger assholes at bars than athletes. Nothing came from the incident, probably cause the DA realized the cops were giant assholes. But the narrative was done. Now, for once, we have kind of a happy ending here. Gleason would have gotten destroyed if he didn’t write a follow up column after a game where McCoy blazed it up. I wouldn’t say it was a mea culpa for normal people, but in comparison to Bucky, who admits to being wrong as often as Donald Trump does, it was an act of contrition with your local priest. Hey, I’ve always said if you criticize a player/coach and they prove you wrong, write about. When you do that, you will get my respect….for like a day or so.
Doug Whaley vs Everyone
Doug Whaley has only #Brandonfinger and the Pegulas for the mess he’s in. They put him in a position to basically not act like the GM or at least speak like one. All the outlets and Twitter are pissed off as it is basically the scene from “Airplane!” where everyone is lining up to smack the panic girl. You got Mike Rodak pissed off because he was never invited into Whaley’s office to enjoy a Boston Lager and talk Boston. Jay Skurski pissed off cause he’s on WGR and not his podcast. Jerry Sullivan said his press conference on Monday was the lowest point in franchise history (Um, a presser….as the worst moment in THIS franchise’s history? Please). It doesn’t help that Whaley doesn’t talk to the local press and that he’s basically the GM without GM power and has to cover [badly] for the Pegulas mistakes. Yeah, its an epic mess. I hope he isn’t privy to social media, because he’s not liked by anymore. It is hard for me to really hate Whaley because I do think there’s some validity to him not having that much of a say as say #Brandonfinger and the two previous coaches, but he does kind of suck. The Bills better turn things around next year or he’ll be on this list next year.
Jerry Sullivan vs. Marcell Dareus
These two made it on the list back in 2014 when Dareus was caught doing his best Fast Five with Jerry Hughes on the streets and being caught smoking fake weed. The Skinny Newman doppleganger was so outraged, he wanted Dareus cut. Not shocking. Of course, Dareus had a hell of a year and made Sully look foolish. Now, was there a mea culpa from Sully like with Bucky towards McCoy? Of course not. Sully was too busy commending the Bills on signing Incognito or telling Bills fans to root for his man crush (Fitzpatrick) to beat them in the 2015 season finale. Sully wanted to wait for Dareus to slip so he can pound his chest about how right he was and this past year, he got his wish to chastise #99. Between another weed suspension and acting like his return press conference wasn’t to his liking, Sully went to town on Dareus. I am not going to lie, but I was not happy with Marcell this year. Getting caught for weed again to go along with injuries and dancing the night away at Encore on the day you said you were going to rehab (Reminds me of when Henry Hill got drinks and took pills before he told the limo driver to take me to jail in Goodfellas), was not a good look. Still, Sully not writing anything remotely positive about Dareus stellar 2013 and 2014 seasons, leaves a bad taste in mouth. Basically, both can go fuck themselves is what I am saying based on this year.
Stephon Gilmore Vs. Everyone
This poor fucker. Wait, he’s about to be a rich fucker. No athlete in Buffalo has gotten the most criticism for being good than this guy. Because Gilmore’s due a large contract, anytime he made a mistake, it is as if he allowed a Super Bowl game winning TD. He had 2 picks against the Bengals and there will still people who were completely shitting on him. “Oh, the ball was thrown right at him and he allowed a 3 yard TD” WHAAAAT?! Like guessing the route or not having the ball thrown your way or when the safety fucks up coverage on a TD doesn’t count??? I’m seeing dipshits on Twitter or in the media pissed off that he did a jersey exchange with Richard Sherman? Big fucking deal. Google jersey exchange and see how many fucking players do this. I got Vic “I pray that Bill Polian returns to the Bills to give me exclusives” Carucci who wrote a piece last week where the headline says “player questions Rex Ryan’s defense”. If you got past all of the ballyhoo of Vic talking about Stephon, here was Gilmore’s death knell quote:
“We probably play the most man in the league,” he said. “You can’t name a team that plays more man than we play, so you’ve got to stop everything. You can’t just play vertical passing game. You’ve got to stop every route.”
That’s calling someone out? I’m not a journalism major over here, but my reading comprehension is telling me this an observation, not a criticism. Then we can hit up Jerry Sullivan and Bucky who tweet out that Gilmore isn’t worth half of what he’ll get in the open market (This is where I mentioned Gilmore was ranked in the top 15 at CB by PFF in 2014 and 2015). Sullivan has even bitched about Gilmore’s body language which is such a crap observation. How about WGR and specifically, Jeremy White. Jeremy has been the biggest Gilmore fan since 2012. It’s been his go-to talking point when it comes to trying to rile up fans because he felt Gilmore was elite and fans didn’t know what they were talking about when it came to criticizing him. And guess what happens over the summer? White decides to say “Thanks, but no thanks” when it comes to paying him. Really? He’s elite, but you wouldn’t pay him. Call it a hunch, but I’d bet dollars to donuts the Bills have basically leaked out that Gilmore wants too much money and once some of these guys hear that a player wants too much money and probably isn’t coming back, well, fuck them, why should I stick up for them if they are leaving town? And to top it off, Gilmore had a really nice 2nd half to his season which NO ONE is talking about. Great.
Anyways, have fun with Robey/Darby/Mark Kelso/Dwight Drane secondary next year when Gilmore is balling in LA.
Doug Marrone vs. Local press
Yes, even from BEYOND the Bills football coaching grave, Doug Marrone is still hated by the local media When the Jags came to town, a number of people couldn’t take enough photos of Doug on the sidelines or speculate on how he wasn’t talking to anyone on the Bills side. And when he was named interim coach to the Jags? Forget it. Jeremy White gets a tremor in the force whenever a national guy mentions him for a job and he blasts it on Twitter. Forget getting Amber Alerts on your phone, these guys get Marrone alerts. Please move on. We get it. You are all still angry at him for being a dick to you.
TBN Vs WGR
Then. Now. Forever.
This will never die. Anti-Tank vs. Pro-Tank. WBEN Stealing BN Stories. Bills/Sabres coaches exclusives on WGR. Jerry Sullivan throwing shade against WGR on his radio show on 1270 The Fan (Yes, it is a radio station that exists in Buffalo). When the Sabres win 3 games in a row, WGR acts like the tank was the greatest thing ever and we are on the road to a cup. When the Sabres lose 3 straight, BN acts like the Tank destroyed humanity and we are never going to win again. It is the absolute extremes. Twitter battles between Mike Harrington and Jeremy White that would make you have to pick a side between King Joffery Vs. Ramsey Bolton or Phantom Menace Vs. Attack of the Clones. Yeah, this will never die until Eichel retires.
Tyrod Taylor Vs TBN
Don’t you ever think about giving just Yes or no answers to yes or no questions. That’s what happened to Tyrod after the Raiders game. Tyrod was about as articulate as Hodor and our friends at BN weren’t happy about it. In fact, within 24 hours of that game, I read 3 pieces (Skurski, Sully, Bucky) that made a ton of references to it.Hell, Bucky and Skurski’s entire pieces were about that press conference. People…you have one of the worst passing offense in the league which basically writes itself for criticism and you gotta cry about your fucking quote notebook? For the 200th time and allow me to use the horn the Ewoks used in Episode VI to get your attention: NO ONE CARES ABOUT QUOTES FROM PLAYERS OR YOUR JOB!
Jay Skurksi Vs. Bills access
Mr. argyle sweater vest is a combination of Louis Lane, Perry White, and basically the cast of The Paper when it comes to being a pushy bastard in regards to access. If Jay doesn’t get access or quotes he likes, he’s gonna write about how much he hates your quotes (Tyrod) and hates your access (Doug Whaley doing WGR shows). In my opinion, you wanna know why Jay asked Doug Whaley about shutting down leaks in that epic shitshow presser after the season? It was because he’s probably pissed that LaCalifornia has a bat line to Whaley/Monos at One Bills Drive and Jay doesn’t. I mean, do you think if Jay was getting scoops like LaCalifornia, he’d be asking about shutting down leaks? Fuck no. He’d want Whaley here forever.
BN vs The Pegulas
Man, I wish I didn’t have to mention TBN this many times, but they are the biggest assholes (Compliment…kind of) in the region. I have to say, the Pegula/BN rivalry was kind of down the last 2 years. Sabres were in a rebuild last year and I feel its a bit harder to criticize owners when you are in the 1st year of the “OFFICIAL” rebuild and the Bills were better than normal in 2014/2015. This past year? The shit was on. The Bills were a dumpster fire and the Sabres actually had legit expectations that weren’t being met. I’m pretty sure I read at least 5 columns for the Sabres/Bills in the last 4 weeks that culminated at how the Pegulas were basically the Clampetts of Fracking.
I have to admit, I’ve been on the side of the Pegulas when it came to NOT having a presser, but when it comes to the Bills, they have to come out and set the record straight when it comes to their power structure. The Sabres? Meh. I feel Murray is the main guy in charge there and I can live with him being the mouth piece since I haven’t heard any sort of infighting there since LaFontaine was fired/quit/died/senile during his mini-run. You see, the Sabres can get away with being invisible with the Sabres because the national media doesn’t give a fuck about hockey.
However, and even with the Bills being an afterthought by ESPN, when you have like 24/7 football coverage and your franchise is a dumpster fire, it is going to get way more notice because the NFL is king and the NHL is a garage league. Like Bills.com vs. BN, this runs deep and I don’t see it dying anytime soon.
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