Beck Water

You're entitled to your opinion. @john wawrow made it clear he was not condoning or defending Sullivan's comments, just presenting a different aspect of his colleague. Most of us want friends who have our back and will point out our good sides when we mess up in a public way. YMMV. Yep, We disagree 5x5

I guess we must have put in a claim? I don't know. Yeah, basically between Beaseley and Brown we have 4 elevations for 4 remaining games. The reports are that Beasley is expected to play against the 'Fins, but I dunno. I wouldn't expect the Bills to elevate both of them.

Maybe they're just sleeping on it to see if the furor dies down and maybe they'll keep him. He really isn't any of that. He isn't a columnist; he's a sports journalist, working for a media outlet with a high standard for verifying sources and requiring multiple sources with direct knowledge. He comes well-armed to a battle of wits, and has been an occasional (but valued) contributor here for years (though he did recently kinda stalk off in a snit) He's defending his friend, which is a trait most of us find admirable and hope to find in our own friends.

There we go! "I can't be sexist! Some of my best friends are women!": "He can't be sexist! He covers female athletes and women's sports!" What do you call sports reporters of the same era bonding together and having each other's backs? The "thin ink line"? The "typewriter ribbon connection"? Anyway, it's admirable in @john wawrow to defend Jerry Sullivan but sorry, if he sincerely respected women I don't see how he comes out with either of those comments - the one about women fans "not understanding critical journalism" and "just wanting to be cheerleaders" OR the one about "women are better than men".

They can call Brown up this game. It would be his 3rd call-up. Then AFTER this game they would have to move him to the active roster for an additional call-up.

Not really. It's not his thing, and certainly not on screens. Shakir has been getting better at blocking. It's not just the "good coverage LBs", it's that Josh was having to escape from pressure quite a bit (especially in the first half). quick throws over the middle are problematic unless there's a clear passing lane, and once the QB moves out of the pocket to the L or R they can be blocked off. It's not an accident that the passing chart for the Jets game shows a peppering of incompletions to the L, they were getting Josh to roll out to the L.

Who? Crowder? He had 1st downs on 4 of his 6 receptions. Here's the hitch: he had 6 receptions on 13 targets. That's a 46.2% catch %. He had a fumble, he had an INT on a target to him that I'm pretty sure was off a deflection on a catchable ball. He was a nice complement to McKenzie and I think it was valuable to have that competition and that change of pace, but let's not paint him with a Halo in hindsight.

I am probably too prejudiced against the practice of quoting tweets or social media posts made by someone else as sources, without any independent verification. If they did verify with independent sources (and since it's shown true, they may well have) then my criticism is off-base and I own the mistake. Brown gets 3. PS guys get 3. Then it re-sets for playoffs.

I wouldn't waste many brain cycles on the bad feels. For all you know: 1) Niagara Gazette may have had problems with Sullivan's behavior for some time but not considered it rose to fireable levels, and this was the proverbial "straw" 2) They may have asked him to go to some kind of training or take some kind of course and he told them to go get hosed Me, I think when someone tells you who they are, Believe Them. Sullivan says he's a "31 year veteran of Buffalo journalism" so he's at least in his mid-50s, possibly a decade older. I'm sure in that time, he's met thousands if not 10s of thousands of competent female media members and female fans who can diagram a play and critique the details of a player's performance with the best of them, as well as thousands if not 10s of thousands of male fans who actually don't want to hear a critical word and who think "fan" = "cheerleader". I don't think a few hours of sensitivity training are gonna change the core beliefs of someone who must have that background yet can still come out with that Dreck

If you feel all people have a right to their opinion, what is the problem with people demanding that he be fired? They are stating their opinion. Isn't that part of open dialogue? Why do you have a problem with them expressing their opinion, if they're strongly enough moved to want to do it? I think you've got things mixed. "Open dialogue" does not mean "guy has a right to a platform at a specific employer". Being fired by an employer does not mean Sullivan is being "cancelled". He is free to take his opinion down the road and work for someone else, or self-publish, or start a blog/subscriber service like Ty Dunne did, or stand on box on a street corner. If readers with differing opinions enjoy his brand of snark as you say, then surely he won't want for an audience. It has probably never been easier in the history of Humanity for people to reach a large audience by multiple means.

Hi. On the first page, no less.

I couldn't catch what Sullivan said there? Janine Talley told a story about Darryl exploding upon reading a Sullivan piece saying that he had "finally improved enough to achieve mediocrity". (This was in the days when Sullivan legit followed football and hadn't deteriorated into a hack). Apparently it really fired Talley up and may have helped him raise his game. But the story was, in those days the Bills players and the Buffalo News staff played an annual charity basketball game. Apparently for years afterwards, Talley would get with Kent Hull to set pick plays and really work Sullivan over, elbowing him in the ribs. I thought better of Sullivan that, in the cause of charity, he would willingly engage to be elbowed around the court by a 6'5" 280 lb dude. For a bit - it didn't last (edit: my thinking better of Sullivan, that is) Perhaps sport journalism would be more civil if these types of events still occurred.

Send it Get Well cards and stuff We need Big Ed and DaQuan Jones as well as our DE.

To the first: Yes, but it wasn't a question. "Do you feel the offense is performing at a level to win a Superbowl?" could be a legit reporter's question. "This offense isn't performing at a level to win a Superbowl" is his own opinion, not "critical journalism" in the context of a press conference. People who actually understand critical journalism know the difference... To the second: Yes, he asked them if they were embarrassed, which is a helluva thing to ask a professional athlete after a tough loss.

Hi. Neither you, nor I, nor Jerry Sullivan, are entitled to employment. If we violate the terms of our employment, embarrass our employer, or damage our employer's revenue sources, we will be fired. That's not being "cancelled", that's Reality. Check It.

I disagree with his opinion on several grounds but neither my disagreement nor the question of whether it's unanimous is the point. The point is: you made a connection between people disagreeing with Sullivan's viewpoint and "if anyone says anything you don't like you should instantly get them fired from their job and cancelled by the public. Everyone must think alike." Whether your wife couldn't care less about Sullivan's comments does not support the connection you're trying to make

Seems to me there's a lot of room between "anything I don't like" and broadly painting an entire group of people with the same smear brush. I don't think there's room in a free society where everyone has an equal opportunity, for the latter. I don't think that viewpoint comes anywhere close to "everyone must think alike" or "cancelling" everyone who says "anything I don't like"

Who might those be? Niagara Gazette pulled the plug on him. https://www.niagara-gazette.com/news/local_news/niagara-gazette-statement-on-jerry-sullivan/article_37230036-7b19-11ed-86fc-0724c30c4220.html WIVB Channel 4 keep him on? We'll see.

Garrett Wilson was, however, apparently whinging about not getting calls (he can get his when they're called equivalently on both defenses - looking at you "Sauce") I think it's just possible Josh Allen "piss missiles" may be harder to haul in when wet I also think the coaches need to strip the gloves off the Bills WR in wet weather and make them practice wet ball drills without gloves, because the gloves get slick when it's wet. Really, reading between the lines of what McK said, it sounds as though the coaches may be having them practice a fair weather game plan and then changing it up at the last minute, and not having them do enough wet ball practice stuff - which may be influenced by Josh since apparently he hates it. Note: McKenzie did NOT say this. It is my interpretation.

So first of all, it should really be called more like the "Ty Dunne Show featuring Isaiah McKenzie". Ty Dunne is the one who steers the show and pulls little tidbits out of McKenzie. Ty Dunne knows his ball, he's a good journalist, he writes entertaining stuff and he's an entertaining host. About 38 minutes in, they're talking about Isaiah's mini-bye tweet "can anyone give me a ride from Pittsburgh to Buffalo at 1am?" and what's behind it, and it's hysterical. Their 6-ish pm flight from Miami was delayed to the next day, and he was trying to find a way to get to Buffalo for his 8:30 am meetings. NYC, nothing; Rochester, Nothing. Syracuse, Nothing. He found a flight to Pittsburgh, which he thought was 2 hrs away (it's actually more like 4 hrs). They got on the plane, and it was missing "a piece". Isaiah thought it was a part that steers, so they might die. He thought about calling the coaches "Coach, I was late, because I'm dead". Dunne asks "would you still be punished for missing the meetings?" Isaiah deadpans "Yes". He wants the plane to take off, "Whatever happens, Happens" (His GF knew what the piece was, and of course the plane could still steer) So they get to Pittsburgh and Isaiah says OK, someone is coming to pick us up because I tweeted". His girlfriend is "so we're just letting some random strangers pick us up?" Isaiah is "well, do you have a better idea?" She tried Uber and Nothing. So they got a ride and his GF was happy: "The woman has to be happy - in the end. Not during the process...In the end" And he made the meetings! I can't do it justice, it was really funny. Then there was a bit about the World Cup and why Isaiah wanted Portugal. "Don't you believe in American Exceptionalism?" So that's what you get if you watch. About the wet ball contest, Ty Dunne took Isaiah seriously and brought a football, but the owner said "No" to any football throwing in his establishment. ---------- First quote from Isaiah: "We could have played better". Says the Jets are good, they have a good defense, they have a lot of young guys, they will be good for years to come. They discussed last season, how the Bills were 7-6 at this point now this season they're 10-3 but people are unhappy. McKenzie talks about wet ball drills. "We do wet ball drills at practice, the main person who hates it is Josh. He hates it. He hates it." How hard is it to catch a wet football? "Oh, it's hard, especially with gloves on" So take the gloves off! "Good luck!" (I assume the fingers get stiff from cold but he doesn't say explicitly what the problem is to be gloveless). Says on the end around, his left hand slipped off the ball and he was going down the left sideline with the ball tucked in his right arm because he couldn't change it, it would slip. Isaiah's perspective is in the first half, all the receivers were struggling to catch the ball "I'm the one who got us started (with his 2 completions on the TD drive before half), who else was catching the ball besides me?" On the TD drive, his POV is he got it going with 2 completions and drew a defensive hold on the ball he didn't catch, then Knox caught a TD, cool. I looked it up. Isaiah has a point. In the first half, Diggs was 3 targets, 1 completion; Brown, Shakir, and Davis all 1 target, 0 completions. Knox, who also takes flak as "Dropsome Knox" here, was 4 for 4 though. So, the answer to "who else is catching the ball besides me?" would be"Knox", but for the WR, Isaiah has a point, no one else was catching it. He doesn't say it, but between the lines ball placement becomes extremely important when it rains (and I'm sure, big hands help) Dunne asks him if it bothers him when people give him grief. He said "No". Said one guy told him he (Isaiah) was losing him a lot of money on his bets. Isaiah told him "Well, stop betting on me". Dunne: "Easy fix". A bit of talk from Dunne about the hypocrisy of NFL supporting betting then putting up a phone number for help. Anyway, McKenzie's POV seems to be: conditions were tough, he had some good plays that helped the team including a penalty he drew, some catches he didn't make, it is what it is. His point of view overall is he's not "pooping the bed", he has 5 TD, 38 receptions, if you watch the film, he's open a lot, and that's why he's still playing. Dunne suggests maybe the fix for the offense is "feed Isaiah McKenzie". (I can hear all of TBD groaning there). McKenzie says he doesn't beg for the ball, he doesn't want to be seen different by asking for stuff, he just watches the film with his girlfriend "hey, I'm open here, I'm open there" and then goes back to work. He feels that he's open in zone. So if anyone watched or listened who was expecting some groveling or apology, none of that; he says better play is needed but there's a "we" there. ---------- There might be a clue to offensive struggles in some stuff Isaiah says. He says during the week, "we got the plays, we're practicing hard, we're doing well, the sun is out, everything's fine. Then Sunday comes, it's raining, we got to change the game plan, we got to run different, catch the ball different. During the week, you're like ah, I'm feeling good I'm feeling good. Then you get out there and it's a snowstorm, you got to adjust the offense, you got to call certain plays a different way, catch the ball a different way, throw the ball a different way, it's different" If this is true, it begs the question why don't the coaches adjust the plays and the throws and the catches DURING THE WEEK when bad weather is expected? Why don't they practice the way they are, more likely than not, going to have to play? Craziness if true. Dunne points out football has always been played in the wind and the snow and the heat, and asks him "so how can these coaches get you be better prepared to handle whatever gets thrown at you on Sunday?" Isaiah hesitates and hems and haws then says "I don't think there's a preparation for elements...to be honest, I don't know. We just got to play better football, we understand that. It's not like we don't understand we got to play better football." (I think McKenzie is trying to stay out of trouble here). McKenzie asks Dunne, "I'm trying to figure it out, and I'm on the team, what do you do to be better?" Dunne suggests "run the ball more, if it's bad weather, just run it, is it that simple?" McKenzie says "No" Dunne says "why not?" McKenzie says "because we can barely run the ball when it's sunny out". (Ouch. McKenzie just opened a can called "Trouble" with his name on it) ----------

If he's a columnist, not a journalist - that's fine - but what is he doing at a press conference with journalists? The point of a press conference is to ask questions and hear answers, then go off and write about it which can include stating personal opinions or beliefs as columnists do. If he's not going to behave as a journalist in that venue, GTFO and let journalists, who use that time to ask questions, have his slot.

You seem to be confusing the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech, with freedom from consequences for what's spoken. There's a pretty nice explanation here: https://constitutionus.com/constitution/rights/what-amendment-includes-the-freedom-of-speech/ Specifically, "Freedom of speech does not mean that anybody can say whatever they want without consequence. (...........) private entities are not obligated to respect freedom of speech. For example, an employer can impose non-disparagement clauses to keep employees from speaking negatively about the company or its products, and non-disclosure agreements are common in modern contract law. Because none of the participating parties are part of or otherwise affiliated with government entities, they are not required to respect an individual’s freedom of speech." No one has ever had any kind of protection from personal consequences for what they say, only from government restriction or action against it.

Yeah, I asked who that was in another thread, the response was "Jerry Sullivan" The GMFB crew discussed. The GMFB host with the most actual training as a journalist is apparently Jamie Erhdahl (degree in broadcasting and communications). She seems to feel that Sullivan doesn't "get" journalism (critical or other) in the sense that the journalist's job in an interview is to - wait for it - ask questions, not state his personal views or beliefs. IOW: "Do you feel this offense is currently performing on the level to win a Super Bowl?" (wait for response) - critical journalism "This offense is not performing on the level to win a Super Bowl" - not journalism, statement of opinion out-of-place in an interview

Cool! Then can you explain the humor/joke in "The worst fans really are the women. They don’t get critical journalism. They’re all wannabe cheerleaders" Help me understand what's funny.

I shoulda known I wouldn't beat the YOLO. The Bills made it clear after pre-season they had Bryant graded >> CJ Brewer. So not a surprise to me they brought him back. I am a little surprised that Beasley was willing to sign to our practice squad though. I agree, but it's a bit of a surprise they haven't IR'd him if that's the case. Yeah, when you can't hold on to a PS spot that doesn't bode well for your prospects.