Grumpy about our Press Corps

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

7 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

Until now...at times it's gone overboard in the direction of Sweetness and Light.  This week with I guess the huge "human interest" story of Josh's grandma's death and the spontaneous Oishei donation campaign, it Jumped the Shark for me.   I just listened to press conferences with Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, and Cole Beasley and I thought I was having flashbacks to reading People magazine or something.  It was just all about feelings - Josh's feelings, Josh's teammates feelings about Josh, Cole's feelings about Diggs, and then good grief, the last straw - fashions!  Is this football coverage, or Extra Edition?

 

  

AKA Bills Mafia.  

 

 

 

As to the "Press Corps" all those years ago .....  They were all suffering from BBFS.  

7 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

There are some legit questions there to be asked, which are not intrinsically rude or negative. 

-Injury Questions, such as questions about Josh's shoulder - how much did it affect him during the first several games after the injury?  About running - is he consciously trying to run less now that he has more "mouths to feed" on offense?

-General Performance questions - Cole Beasley is quietly rocking not only his career best YPG, but his career best catch percentage, 81.5%.  That's 18.3% better than last year with much lower drops.  What's driving that?  What's behind it - watching him, he is hauling in a lot of high degree of difficulty, contested catches.  Have the routes he's being asked to run changed? Have Josh's throws changed, and become easier to handle?

I could go on.

 

You have TBD and Yolo for all of that ^^ 

Edited November 12, 2020 by SlimShady'sSpaceForce

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

6 hours ago, The Wiz said:

Hate to break it to you, you're going to get the same BS answers as the last 8 weeks.

 

Film to watch

hungry and humble

showed his character

waiting for his opportunity

has been developing nicely

just needed to give him a shot 

 

....... the list goes on.  

 

Basically the Buffalo Bills Bingo Card.

 

already addressed  OOPS

[JMF2006]

7 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

So 4 years ago, it was painful to watch press conferences because from some, there was this unrelenting negativity and criticism.  Yes criticism has its place, but positive moves and outcomes also deserve some notice.  Gradually under Beane and McDermott, this improved. 

 

Until now...at times it's gone overboard in the direction of Sweetness and Light.  This week with I guess the huge "human interest" story of Josh's grandma's death and the spontaneous Oishei donation campaign, it Jumped the Shark for me.   I just listened to press conferences with Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, and Cole Beasley and I thought I was having flashbacks to reading People magazine or something.  It was just all about feelings - Josh's feelings, Josh's teammates feelings about Josh, Cole's feelings about Diggs, and then good grief, the last straw - fashions!  Is this football coverage, or Extra Edition?

 

Kudos to Stefon Diggs for turning the topic back to football and taking the opportunity to throw props to his teammate Cole Beasley.

 

Is this a side-effect of this year's Zoom meeting format?    Are guys who ask tougher questions getting edited out, or afraid that they won't be called on?

 

There are some legit questions there to be asked, which are not intrinsically rude or negative. 

-Injury Questions, such as questions about Josh's shoulder - how much did it affect him during the first several games after the injury?  About running - is he consciously trying to run less now that he has more "mouths to feed" on offense?

-General Performance questions - Cole Beasley is quietly rocking not only his career best YPG, but his career best catch percentage, 81.5%.  That's 18.3% better than last year with much lower drops.  What's driving that?  What's behind it - watching him, he is hauling in a lot of high degree of difficulty, contested catches.  Have the routes he's being asked to run changed? Have Josh's throws changed, and become easier to handle?

I could go on.
-Specific play questions - to Josh or to Stefon, what happened on that route against NE where there was an interception?  To Poyer, he blitzed on the long completion to Moore - what happened there?  To McD or Daboll, Why wasn't the Gabe Davis sideline completion that was really a TD challenged?

 

Please, ladies and gentlemen - a tad less feel-good and fluffy, and a tad more informative!

 

 

 

Try drinking some lemon juice you sour puss

[TH3]

Took a while this week......Media on the HOT SEAT!

[Kwai San]

6 hours ago, Buftex said:

I don't know if it is Zoom fatigue (though I love that concept), as much as it is just too much everything.  We are bombarded with this stuff constantly, and there is Bills/football content of every sort, to meet whatever level of interest you have in the Bills, or football in general...both of the real and the fantasy variety.  We are over-saturated. Personally, I pay less attention than I ever used to...but I love the games as much as ever. I grew up on Bills football in a time when, literally, the biggest thrill between games each week, was seeing if our beloved Bills did anything that week spectacular enough to make Howard Cossells weekly 4 minute highlight clip. And, if you were a real Bills degenerate junkie, you would listen to the Fred Smerlas and Jim Haslett radio show on Monday evenings before MNF. And then you had the Chuck Knox, or Kay Stephenson on WKBW Channel 7 to watch on Saturday evenings, before prime-time tv started for the evening.

 

Now, you have a 24/7 network devoted to the NFL...100's of radio shows, a 24/7 local radio station...dozens (100's?) of web-sites...podcasts!  Hell, I just found out last night, quite by acccident that Kim Pegula has a podcast!!  Who knew? There are endless angles to be taken, and everybody is trying to take theirs.

 

Point is, we just live in a world now where everyone cam immerse thyemselves in whatever thing they love...as great as it can be, personally I prefer to have to work a little harder than that. If you like touchy feely stuff, there is plenty of that out there... if X's & O's are more your thing, there is plenty of that too.  Don't even get me started on Fantasy Football! It's all out there. Enjoy as much, or as little as you want.  It's a game...a great game...but there is only so much to say about it, before it all "jumps the shark". Football is the most important thing in many of our lives..but ultimately it isn't really that important at all.

 

Very well said!  Kim has a podcast?!?!?!?!?  Wow....

[DrDawkinstein]

There is a lot less to ask about and dive into when we are GOOD and WINNING. It's that simple.

 

Same can be said for the way the board goes. Through the drought, there was a ton to talk about and debate because we were all trying to identify and solve the Bills' problems. How the roster was built, bad coaching decisions, bad execution by the players... all topics that lend to deeper discussion.

 

Now that we have far fewer problems, the only real discussion is "Did you see when they did that? Wasnt it awesome?" The topics and discussions here are way less technical. So go the media interviews.

 

There arent many screw-up moments to ask the players about, and far more positive plays. So it turns into asking the players about how great they feel about the other players and other superficial stuff.

 

It's a good problem to have!

[Whkfc]

8 hours ago, The Wiz said:

Hate to break it to you, you're going to get the same BS answers as the last 8 weeks.

 

Film to watch

hungry and humble

showed his character

waiting for his opportunity

has been developing nicely

just needed to give him a shot 

 

....... the list goes on.  

 

you forgot in sure he like to have that one back

[Captain Hindsight]

We're on to Arizona

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, JMF2006 said:

Try drinking some lemon juice you sour puss

 

Mmmmmm, lemon juice!  Anyone else care to peel lemons like oranges and eat them section by section?

 

1 hour ago, TH3 said:

Took a while this week......Media on the HOT SEAT!

 

The Hot Seat some put them on here worked well for Daboll since the beginning of the season and maybe it worked for McDermott, so if we're voting, I'm All For It

 

37 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

There is a lot less to ask about and dive into when we are GOOD and WINNING. It's that simple.

 

Same can be said for the way the board goes. Through the drought, there was a ton to talk about and debate because we were all trying to identify and solve the Bills' problems. How the roster was built, bad coaching decisions, bad execution by the players... all topics that lend to deeper discussion.

 

Now that we have far fewer problems, the only real discussion is "Did you see when they did that? Wasnt it awesome?" The topics and discussions here are way less technical. So go the media interviews.

 

There arent many screw-up moments to ask the players about, and far more positive plays. So it turns into asking the players about how great they feel about the other players and other superficial stuff.

 

It's a good problem to have!

 

Now this is an interesting point, but I don't entirely buy it.  For one thing, I see plenty of technical discussion here still, and plenty of real discussion beyond "did you see when they did that, wasn't it awesome?"  For one thing, there are still plenty of problems - no team with serious playoff aspirations can have a defense that's in the bottom half, lurking just out of the bottom third of the league - and we do. 

 

For another, there's no reason not to ask them about some of those positive plays

 

I think there is a fair point that the media is a bit giddy and doesn't quite know what to do with itself.  Maybe they could settle down and take it one game at a time.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, SlimShady'sSpaceForce said:

You have TBD and Yolo for all of that ^^ 

 

I love TBD and I love YOLO!  I just want the press to Do Their Job!

 

Surely there's some space in between fluffy and sweet, vs PCPS (Premature Curmudgeon Press Syndrome)

[TroutDog]

All the ‘love’ talk speaks to the culture of the organization and it’s important. With that being said, it has been addressed so should be left alone by the media in my opinion. 
 

As for not asking the ‘right’ questions, I’m not sure all of the media actually know what to ask. They’re good at writing but not so much interviewing. 

[JohnNord]

9 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

So 4 years ago, it was painful to watch press conferences because from some, there was this unrelenting negativity and criticism.  Yes criticism has its place, but positive moves and outcomes also deserve some notice.  Gradually under Beane and McDermott, this improved. 

 

Until now...at times it's gone overboard in the direction of Sweetness and Light.  This week with I guess the huge "human interest" story of Josh's grandma's death and the spontaneous Oishei donation campaign, it Jumped the Shark for me.   I just listened to press conferences with Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, and Cole Beasley and I thought I was having flashbacks to reading People magazine or something.  It was just all about feelings - Josh's feelings, Josh's teammates feelings about Josh, Cole's feelings about Diggs, and then good grief, the last straw - fashions!  Is this football coverage, or Extra Edition?

 

Kudos to Stefon Diggs for turning the topic back to football and taking the opportunity to throw props to his teammate Cole Beasley.

 

Is this a side-effect of this year's Zoom meeting format?    Are guys who ask tougher questions getting edited out, or afraid that they won't be called on?

 

There are some legit questions there to be asked, which are not intrinsically rude or negative. 

-Injury Questions, such as questions about Josh's shoulder - how much did it affect him during the first several games after the injury?  About running - is he consciously trying to run less now that he has more "mouths to feed" on offense?

-General Performance questions - Cole Beasley is quietly rocking not only his career best YPG, but his career best catch percentage, 81.5%.  That's 18.3% better than last year with much lower drops.  What's driving that?  What's behind it - watching him, he is hauling in a lot of high degree of difficulty, contested catches.  Have the routes he's being asked to run changed? Have Josh's throws changed, and become easier to handle?

I could go on.
-Specific play questions - to Josh or to Stefon, what happened on that route against NE where there was an interception?  To Poyer, he blitzed on the long completion to Moore - what happened there?  To McD or Daboll, Why wasn't the Gabe Davis sideline completion that was really a TD challenged?

 

Please, ladies and gentlemen - a tad less feel-good and fluffy, and a tad more informative!

 

 

This is actually a very interesting I’ve thought about before.  I don’t think there’s one answer but several factors that have contributed to what seems to be a less antagonistic relationship with the press:

 

#1 Team Success - The Bills have reached the playoffs in what likely should be 3 out of 4 years.  4 years ago, they have a 17 year drought.  Reporters were wisely doing their job by hammering team leadership.  There simply isn’t enough to criticism when you’ve had a degree of success as opposed to nearly two decades of pathetic play.  Of course, this should change as the bar should be set higher.

 

# 2 Bucky and Sully - Say what you will but these 2 always were the most vocal among critics in the press room.  While others certainly took people like Marrone, Rex, or Whaley to task, Bucky and Sully were the most direct.  When you remove the two strongest voice you get a much less critical room overall.  Their absence has resulted in less confrontation.  

 

#3 Better Team Relations - McDermott was smart to get rid of Berchtold and bring on Derek Boyko to run PR.  He’s developed good working relationships with the media, as have Beane and McDermott.  I think that overall the Bills operate like an NFL team should and not the mess that happened under the Russ Brandon/Berchtold mess.  McDermott and Beane seem to have good relationships with the press and don’t allow themselves to be combative when they don’t like a question.  They also don’t blatantly BS reporters by saying “I wasn’t privy.”  I think reporters respect that.   IMO this gives this helped give them some street cred

 

There are some members of the media who do ask tough questions - Matthew Fairburn comes to mind the most.  He can often be critical of McDermott but at the same time he’s usually pretty fair.  
 

Like I said earlier though, if the Bills lose in the 1st round of the playoffs again, I think you’ll start to see the questions get a little tougher

 

I also do find Zoom to be a little awkward and it results in a different type of press conference 

Edited November 12, 2020 by JohnNord

[Mango]

9 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

So 4 years ago, it was painful to watch press conferences because from some, there was this unrelenting negativity and criticism.  Yes criticism has its place, but positive moves and outcomes also deserve some notice.  Gradually under Beane and McDermott, this improved. 

 

Until now...at times it's gone overboard in the direction of Sweetness and Light.  This week with I guess the huge "human interest" story of Josh's grandma's death and the spontaneous Oishei donation campaign, it Jumped the Shark for me.   I just listened to press conferences with Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, and Cole Beasley and I thought I was having flashbacks to reading People magazine or something.  It was just all about feelings - Josh's feelings, Josh's teammates feelings about Josh, Cole's feelings about Diggs, and then good grief, the last straw - fashions!  Is this football coverage, or Extra Edition?

 

Kudos to Stefon Diggs for turning the topic back to football and taking the opportunity to throw props to his teammate Cole Beasley.

 

Is this a side-effect of this year's Zoom meeting format?    Are guys who ask tougher questions getting edited out, or afraid that they won't be called on?

 

There are some legit questions there to be asked, which are not intrinsically rude or negative. 

-Injury Questions, such as questions about Josh's shoulder - how much did it affect him during the first several games after the injury?  About running - is he consciously trying to run less now that he has more "mouths to feed" on offense?

-General Performance questions - Cole Beasley is quietly rocking not only his career best YPG, but his career best catch percentage, 81.5%.  That's 18.3% better than last year with much lower drops.  What's driving that?  What's behind it - watching him, he is hauling in a lot of high degree of difficulty, contested catches.  Have the routes he's being asked to run changed? Have Josh's throws changed, and become easier to handle?

I could go on.
-Specific play questions - to Josh or to Stefon, what happened on that route against NE where there was an interception?  To Poyer, he blitzed on the long completion to Moore - what happened there?  To McD or Daboll, Why wasn't the Gabe Davis sideline completion that was really a TD challenged?

 

Please, ladies and gentlemen - a tad less feel-good and fluffy, and a tad more informative!

 

 

 

 

Fair point. With no disrespect to JA's grandma, that story was dragging on and on with every single player they talked to. 

I think this happens for two reasons 
1. The press is always easier on good teams. When most things work they will look over what did not. 

2. Pegula has been pushing for the press to be positive for a long time. They hate being criticized locally. The distance of zoom may make that easier with editing, mute, and the always handy, "forgetting" to email the log in and password. 

[badassgixxer05]

Yeah i was quite annoyed this week when i was searching for some articles that would have some write ups/break downs of some of the plays from game and all I was getting back was the Josh Allen Grandma passing. Its a touching story, but I'm sure even Josh wouldn't want all that attention on it. I'm also a Notre Dame fan and all i wanted to read after the Clemson game was how they finally got over the hump this century and were able to not only hang with one of the best football power houses of the last decade, they were able to put them away for the W. Instead all i got back on a search for that one, was OMG! the Fans rushed the field after the game! how could ND let this happen!? Everyone should be fired! .....

[DrDawkinstein]

4 minutes ago, badassgixxer05 said:

Yeah i was quite annoyed this week when i was searching for some articles that would have some write ups/break downs of some of the plays from game and all I was getting back was the Josh Allen Grandma passing. Its a touching story, but I'm sure even Josh wouldn't want all that attention on it. I'm also a Notre Dame fan and all i wanted to read after the Clemson game was how they finally got over the hump this century and were able to not only hang with one of the best football power houses of the last decade, they were able to put them away for the W. Instead all i got back on a search for that one, was OMG! the Fans rushed the field after the game! how could ND let this happen!? Everyone should be fired! .....

 

Crazy how people dying (or potentially dying) takes precedence over a game!

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

Crazy how people dying (or potentially dying) takes precedence over a game!

 

Perhaps I'm missing your point here.

[DrDawkinstein]

7 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Perhaps I'm missing your point here.

 

Just being a sarcastic prick.

[ColoradoBills]

1 hour ago, Captain Hindsight said:

We're on to Arizona

 

Exactly.  Sean is not going to give us the game plan or anything else that matters.

The only thing that comes out of OBD of importance during the season is the Injury Reports.

[Buftex]

2 hours ago, Kwai San said:

 

Very well said!  Kim has a podcast?!?!?!?!?  Wow....

Yep...I watched/listened to some Bills clip on youtube.  I was making dinner, and it just kept going to the next clip.  I wasn't really paying attention, and suddenly I hear the unmistakable voice of Maddy Glaub, talking with Kim.  Turns out there is something called the "pod squad", hosted by Maddy and Kim.  I think it is geared to females...it is part of the Bills web-site... but you can also listen to it in podcast form.  Not a knock on Kim or Maddy (I like them both, and I think the concept is kind of cool)...but it is mind-blowing how much stuff there is out there...you could literally listen to new Bills content 15 hours a day, every day....we've come a long way baby!  Or maybe we've gone too far?

 

 

Edited November 12, 2020 by Buftex

[blitzboy54]

You ok?