Alright folks, it’s all the news that’s fit to blog about Bills-wise for this week. Settle in and enjoy!
Down Goes Brady – With his defeat in the appeals court earlier today, Tom Brady now only has the recourse of the Supreme Court to overturn his 4 game suspension. That means, barring SCOTUS moving the case into their docket, Brady will miss the first game vs the Bills. Which puts the DEFCON situation of “can the Bills lose a game with Tom Brady out” at historic levels. We’ve seen them lose that game by the way – at the hands of Matt “GoodCheapDepth” Cassel. Le Sigh.
No Suspension for Shady – On the home front, the will they-won’t they between the league and Shady has come to an end – he will not serve any suspension for “debasing the shield” by way of the bar fight he had with off duty cops at a nightclub. Phew. With all the stuff going on in the NFL, I’m glad that they decided not to extra-judicially rule on something in which there is no definitive aggressor for the purpose of PR. This time.
Kelly Says Bills Players are too…Breaky – Jim Kelly likes to talk. A lot. And media likes to cover him. A lot. When it’s about his faith and fighting the good fight against cancer, or his love of family and hunting I’m all about it. But when it turns to the Bills, he’s a super-fan, which is great – but when you’re the QB of record of 4 Super Bowls for a team, your opinion is gonna get more weight than the schmoe that runs Buffalo Wins right? Right.
So this time, Jim was trying to walk back comments he made about Rex being on thin ice job wise. Instead he turned the hose onto the players,
“The bottom line is, I think any coach in the NFL, you don’t win, you’re not going to be around very long. But with Rex, Rex is a great coach. I hope he’s around for 20 years,” Kelly said. “But with our team last year, probably the last couple years, we’ve had star players, but when most of them are in their getting rehab and they’re not on the field playing, it doesn’t matter who you are, your job is going to be on the line.”
So, the players should suck it up and play hurt (“Hey Aaron! How’s that neck! Wuss!”) or Rex isn’t getting a fair shake? N-O-P-E. Nope nope nope. No way Jose. I cannot imagine a world where a coach gets more outs than Ryan. Over 16 years injuries aren’t what did the Bills in to the point they can’t get into the playoffs. Bad decisions on players? Sure. Bad decisions on coaches? Absolutely. But to throw it on “rub some dirt on it and get back out there” gimmick is not gonna fly with me at all.
Coming up in the next few weeks on #BW – Up in the next few weeks, I’ll finally have my pod with Joe on the site, as well some chats with Buffalo Wins staff, in order to give you insight into some issues of the day for the Bills and Sabres, as well as how and why each of them got into the scene and got to write here. I think it’ll be a fun series and allow me (see below) to provide you content without my brain exploding. Also, I’ll be starting my positional look pre-camp at the Bills and how the competitions look to play out.
Mind Dump Time!
Still here?
Okay.
I’ve had a bit of a hard time blogging about the Bills recently because of the insanity of the real world the past few weeks. Between men of color being killed while complying with police, police being killed while protecting citizens’ rights to assemble and protest, protesters being intimidated by police and my Facebook and Twitter feeds being very definitive lines in the sand it’s been a struggle to want to cover who pulls best on a toss sweep, y’know?
Black Lives Matter. I say this as a black man that has a 4 year old I’ll have to explain how to talk to the police and will be unsure if that’s enough for him to live through it. I say that as a man that loves his country and at times wishes it loved him a bit more. I say that as an editor of a Bills blog that has allowed me to meet tons of people of every walk of life that gives me hope this spinning ball isn’t gonna explode. I also say it not as a pejorative, but as a way to shine a light onto issues I’ve known most of my life, but because of technology has become easily seen by all. When times like these arrive I think of Mike Ditka saying on ESPN that the Rams players who played in the weeks following Ferguson who had their hands up were “idiots” for bringing politics into football. When is it appropriate to talk about the intersection of politics, sport and real life? All of this is intertwined – and to insist that
Cops have a tough job. Because of the decline of social services, they’re asked to . I’ve had some of the most important people in my life work in law enforcement – from neighbors, friends, my brother and a cousin. I don’t think and have never thought all cops are bad. I think like any job there should be more accountability – and that starts with internally. It starts with more of a focus of knowing your community for some instead of lording over it. And nationally, it needs to be less of media covering for ratings and sensationalism with focus instead of reasoned, measured investigative reporting. When Newt Gingrich and Paul Ryan can be a voice of reason in a din of “blacks are thugs/more prone to criminalization vs. all cops are racists” or the usage of all lives matter as the passive aggressive rebuttal of BLM (seriously, if you ever heard ‘save the whales’ in the 80s did you say ‘all animals need saving?’ I’ll buy you a drink when I see you) you know we’re through the looking glass.
But that stops for me today. The funk is over. Life’s short enough as it is, let alone for moping about. While I still hurt that this insanity is going on, do something nice for someone. Hold a door (RIP Hodor), buy a lunch, pay something forward. Let’s Go Bills, Let’s Go Sabres, Let’s Go John Cena.
(Cena Sucks)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
