Changing your underwear. Everyone changes it daily.
As much as I love sports, sometimes, I wish I could just turn the TV and radio off and become oblivious to what happens between Monday-Saturday. Last week, Bills fans were talking about the flex schedule and how we could fight for the division title. This week, it’s whether we should extend Fitz and if we will win 8 games this year. The NFL is the most over analyzed sport in the country. It’s just a constant revolving door of opinions.
It gives me a headache, because as a blogger, I have to do the same thing.
Obviously, I’m happy the Bills are 3-1. Fitzpatrick has looked good for the most part, Stevie Johnson and David Nelson have come up strong, we actually have a tight end who caught a touchdown pass this year and Fred Jackson looks great. As for the flip-side, the defense has been a disaster and that is really my biggest worry going forward. Last year, the Bills were ranked 26th in passing touchdowns with (28), while this year, they are ranked 24th (8 touchdowns allowed). Remember when fans use to bi#ch about how Dick Jauron would constantly draft defensive backs? Don’t you wish we were still trying to draft more?
It worries me even further when you look at the schedule and you see Mike Vick, Tom Brady, Tony Romo, Phillip Rivers and Eli Manning. I know Eli and Romo are erratic, but they do have the ability to shred defenses if given time. Even still, those guys are better than Jason Campbell, Matt Cassel and Andy Dalton.
With all that being said, I still don’t know what the future holds for this team. I hate predictions. I think fans/media members love doing it because it makes them feel important and they are hardly called out for being wrong, because people don’t really remember. And let’s just say they are wrong, they will play the “Like you knew” card. However, it’s the thing to do. There’s nothing wrong with predicting, but if you don’t have enough information, what is really the point?
It’s all about being impulsive without the element of control. Blame ESPN and the Internet. The bottom line is that the NFL season is a quarter old and it’s impossible to have a real stern look at what the future holds. Frankly, I hate doing it.
Will hating it stop me?
No.
My perspective: I can’t help but think back to watching the movie “Money Ball” (Great flick, btw). The line that I’m sure you’ve all heard from the trailer goes like this:
“There are rich teams, and there are poor teams. Then, there’s 50 feet of crap. And then there’s us.”
Now, let me remix it for the NFL Version.
“There are elite teams, and there are bad teams. Then, there’s 50 feet of crap. And then there’s us.”
I’m not using it as a top-to-bottom baseball pyramid. I’m using it as what the NFL has become. It’s parity. The 50 feet of crap may as well be 14-18 teams, which represent that 6-10 to 10-6 record. When you look at the stats, there’s not that big of difference between those teams. Was there a huge difference between the Jags and Chiefs last year? How about the Jets and Chargers?
Then you have the elite teams, which are the Pats, Packers, Chargers and Ravens. Then there are the bad teams like Miami, KC, Minnesota and Jags. As for us? I’m not sure where we are..
Why?
Because it’s too early to figure it out. This is all new for us. This is new for Detroit. New for the 49ers. New for Houston.
NEW is the key.
I can tell you where the Eagles are because I’ve watched them over the years and know their 1-3 record is kind of fluky. I could have told you after the Pats game that they were still going to win the division. All I’m saying is that it is hard to try and figure out where your team is at when they are moving from one category to the other. Actually, we are kind of in a holding pattern.
Now, If I’m a betting man, I think we are in the crap. That 6-10 to 10-6 realm. I think what makes it difficult for Bills fans is that we are in a world where you need to have an opinion right now. Opinions equal ratings. They equal hits on websites. They make Sal Maiorana public enemy #1 on Twitter. We just can’t let stuff play out. We flip flop more so than John Kerry.
We also are kind of new to this and I do think that us BIL-LIE-VING tends to make us not be the most objective fans. It has been soooooooooooo long since the Bills have done anything well, that we gravitate to any sort of positive news and then we tend to over blow it. It’s not by accident the Bills slogan is “Billieve” because we do it a lot and the team kind of wants us to. Maybe we have a tendency to make the believing part become fact. Hell, we saw what happens when the Bills add T.O. and trade their LT. “SELL 53,000 SEASON TICKETS!?” Give us a glimmer of hope and we turn that glimmer into the Sun of Krypton. I can already envision what will happen if the Bills lose to the Eagles. You can kiss goodbye Air ESPN coming to Buffalo anytime soon. How about if we win? Fitzmagic: The Movie.
Alright, well, before we get to Sunday, let’s just get to saying “At least we are 3-1 and we are a fun football team.”
Those are facts.
How long will it continue to be fun? Let us hope it lasts until December.
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