BTN: Good marks all the way around. The news had 6 stories on its site for Saturday’s coverage of the Hall of Fame. BTN had stories up on the bios of both Ralph Wilson and Bruce Smith. Sully had a great column on Wilson’s love for the game and his daughter, who recently passed away. The post hall of fame coverage also received high marks with interviews with all the Bills Alumni attending the HOF, and a good piece on the fans attending. To be honest, their stories were better than the HOF speeches themselves.
WGR: I wonder if Schopp and the Bulldog have any sort of anger towards the Bills when it comes to covering the team. Howard Simon throughout the week had Jim Kelly, Marv Levy, and Bill Polian talking about the Hall of Fame. The afternoon show didn’t have much besides talking about team sponsorship deals. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I was also surprised that WGR didn’t send out any of their bigger hosts to cover the HOF. They sent out Nick Mendola to do a broadcast live from Canton. The WGR staff did work hard getting some good interviews with the likes of Chris Berman, Frank Reigh, and Steve Tasker. But no disrespect to Mendola, but people want to hear what the hosts who make 6 figures have to say. Of course, WGR did send Paul Hamilton to Montreal for the Sabres draft and had a live pre-show with Schopp and the Bulldog. Did I mention, WGR is the home for the Buffalo Sabres.
WIVB: Maybe having John Murphy on WIVB has turned their sports coverage around. The station aired a 30 minute special on both Bruce Smith and Ralph Wilson going into the HOF. Besides the corny theme music, the show was pretty good. The show was broken into 4 acts. The first 2 acts was an interview with Smith and Wilson, talking about their careers. The 3rd act was a bit of a snooze. Paul Peck went to visit the HOF and was given a tour of the AFL exhibit. I’ll be frank, I’m not a big AFL fan, because I wasn’t born during the time period. Not to mention, I didn’t care to see a Joe Namath jersey on the tour being talked about. The last act was an interview with Marv Levy, where he talked about the 90’s Bills and this years class of the HOF.
WGRZ: Incomplete. The channel 2 website is suppose to have a pre-show tonight, prior to the Bills vs Titans game. It’s suppose to include a preview for the game, along with profiles on Wilson and Smith. I did like Ed’s Blog on his memories of Bruce Smith and Ralph Wilson. Kilgore told a great story about how Ralph Wilson went crazy after a game in the 70’s, where the Bills lost to the Dolphins on a controversial call. I’ll be looking forward to watching their pregame show tonight on my lab top.
The coach is still angry
Gotta give it up for Chuck Dickerson, who didn’t mix words when talking about the addition of Terrell Owens to the Bills. Dickerson was on Brad Riter’s radio show last week talking about Bruce Smith and Ralph Wilson’s hall of fame enshrinement. When Riter asked Dickerson what he thought of T.O., Dickerson stated the obvious, “I think he is an A#$hole.” Not sure if Riter’s producer was able to hit the dump or bleep button when hearing that gem. Dickerson also went on to say that he thinks Owens was a bad pick-up and will ruin the team. Then you wonder why no one at One Bills Drive liked the guy when he was on air.
Someone call Dennis Hopper
Just to follow up on my commentary from last week, but someone needs to either fire Chris Mortenson’s agent or an ESPN producer. The Mort Bus Tour has been nothing more than a disaster. This week we saw Mort playing Guitar Hero with Jared Allen and making cheese in Wisconsin. Please, if they end up making the movie Speed 3, can they cast Mort’s bus and blow the s#$t out of it. Mort has had some interviews with players from his camp visits, but it’s squeezed in the middle of Mort doing some stupid stunt. Doesn’t Mort remember what happen to Kenny Mayne when he decided to go the comedy route? Yeah, D-List celebrity.
Look for Bias media coverage for Schonert
Turk Schonert may be under a lot of pressure from Bills fans and the local media, but the 2nd year offensive coordinator does have a safety net. Chris Collinsworth and Boomer Esiason, who have very prominent roles in the national sports media are really good friends with Schonert. Both players played with Schonert in their days with the Bengals, where Schonert was the back-up quarterback. Collinsworth has admitted that he looks for Bills coverage everyday on the web to see how Schonert is doing. I’m not saying they are going to not tell it how it is. But if the Bills offense gets on a roll, look for Schonert’s ex-teammates to give him some love.
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