I'd like your opinion

[TimGraham]

Hello, everybody. Tim Graham from ESPN.com here. I hope you don't view this as self promotion by posting a link to one of my blogs, but the comment section has totally floored me and I'd like your opinion.

 

When I covered the Sabres I became a member of the SabresFans message boards and got quite familiar with the general displeasure diehards have when it comes to local media coverage of the Bills and Sabres. And I don't disagree in general (although I did find the Buffalo News bashing sometimes unfair because it's the only outlet that spends money to cover every game home and road).

 

So I was troubled that when I made my usual rounds of newspaper sites for my daily AFC East roundup, the WNY papers had a grand total of one story from Indianapolis on the game. It was a comprehensive story by Mark Gaughan, but as somebody who follows NFL coverage at dozens upon dozens of newspaper sites, one story was shocking to me. This is, after all, the NFL. And coverage from local media plays a role in how the league views a market.

 

I also have to say that there were zero blogs on the game as of 11 a.m. this morning. The Rochester D&C used an Associated Press report, which remains the lead story on the D&C site as I write this early Tuesday.

 

I must point out this is not a reflection of the reporters, who are disgusted at the constant layoffs and belt-tightening, particularly with travel. They want to be at the games and reporting the news for their readers. They take immense pride in their jobs. It's more a testament to the sad state of the newspaper industry and mismangement. The Buffalo News just offered 108 buyouts. The Palm Beach Post, where I most recently worked before joining ESPN.com, cut 135 of 299 editorial jobs a couple weeks ago.

 

The way I view it, the reader is getting screwed.

 

So I made a comment on my AFC East roundup today that it was disconcerting to see such a lack of coverage on the most important preseason game of the year (and the scariest injury of preseason).

 

And the response pretty much was to go screw myself.

 

Please tell me I haven't totally misread Buffalo after spending eight years there. You really do want more coverage, right?

 

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/afceast/0-2-133....html?post=true

[Kelly the Dog]

I would say of course we want more coverage. As much as possible. Personally, I was shocked I couldn't find a D&C article on the game on the front page of TBD. I thought we had a slacker at the controls who simply didn't link the stories when they were put on the site.

[clownments22]

Hey Tim-

 

To be fair, you did throw in a jab about the Toronto media in there, and most bills fans are extremely paranoid about the potential of the bills moving/not happy about the bills playing in Toronto/not happy about any media outlet questioning the long term viability of a football team in buffalo, so any small mention of it is going to make people a little cranky.

 

Also, I think the media coverage may have had a slight lull surrounding this game because Studwards didn't play. He's the big question mark of the season, and I would have been much more into what happened in the game if he played.

 

Don't worry about a few nasty comments from a couple cranky Bills fans though. You'll have that; see: The Stadium Wall.

[TimGraham]

Hey Tim-

 

To be fair, you did throw in a jab about the Toronto media in there, and most bills fans are extremely paranoid about the potential of the bills moving/not happy about the bills playing in Toronto/not happy about any media outlet questioning the long term viability of a football team in buffalo, so any small mention of it is going to make people a little cranky.

 

Also, I think the media coverage may have had a slight lull surrounding this game because Studwards didn't play. He's the big question mark of the season, and I would have been much more into what happened in the game if he played.

 

Don't worry about a few nasty comments from a couple cranky Bills fans though. You'll have that; see: The Stadium Wall.

 

I think people need to realize the NFL looks at this stuff. Media coverage will play a role in whether the NFL stands up for a market. Do you think they would rather be covered full-time by 10 newspaper reporters in Toronto or what has become three (Mark Gaughan/Allen Wilson/Sal Maiorana) in WNY? While the WNY media is scaling back, the Toronto papers are taking reporters off other beats and putting them on the NFL full-time to get ready.

 

And that's not intended as a shot. It's happening.

[TimGraham]

And to make one thing clear ... my point in all this is not about the Bills and their viability.

 

My point is that your local newspapers are giving you less and less as time goes on and unless you demand more they'll continue to cut back.

[SilverNRed]

So I made a comment on my AFC East roundup today that it was disconcerting to see such a lack of coverage on the most important preseason game of the year (and the scariest injury of preseason).

 

And the response pretty much was to go screw myself.

 

Please tell me I haven't totally misread Buffalo after spending eight years there. You really do want more coverage, right?

 

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/afceast/0-2-133....html?post=true

You haven't misread Buffao and I'd say we would ALWAYS love more coverage of our sports teams.

 

If anything, you overestimated the fans who post on espn.com. The message boards and article comments there have been ridiculous and pathetic for years now. I don't know if it's a lack of moderators, but most of what is posted is "My team is awesome, your team sucks, blah blah blah!!!"

 

Thanks for your work in Buffalo while you were here. I hope you don't hesitate to spend more time on this board, especially after the season starts.

[TimGraham]

I plan on hanging around the message boards. I might lurk more than I post, but I've been checking in about twice a day for the past couple weeks to see what everybody's talking about.

 

SilverNRed, you're right that I probably should've just ignored the comments. The person called "msjohns" deleted his first post to me, which was "Why don't you go vote for Bush you looser." That should've told me all I needed to know right there.

 

Thanks for the input so far. I look forward to reading more of your opinions on this.

[clownments22]

I think people need to realize the NFL looks at this stuff. Media coverage will play a role in whether the NFL stands up for a market. Do you think they would rather be covered full-time by 10 newspaper reporters in Toronto or what has become three (Mark Gaughan/Allen Wilson/Sal Maiorana) in WNY? While the WNY media is scaling back, the Toronto papers are taking reporters off other beats and putting them on the NFL full-time to get ready.

 

And that's not intended as a shot. It's happening.

 

I understand your point of view and I realize that you're just commenting on the situation, but I wouldn't have unless I had read your other comments on this thread and in the thread on the ESPN page. It's really just a question of how people will take it.

 

The extremely loyal fans of Buffalo are really really scorned by that situation. I'm actually writing this from Charlotte, NC, visiting my brother, and I was talking to him today about how the fan support around here for the Panthers seems a little lacking, and I commented that the Panthers should move to Toronto (not thinking that would or should ever happen, just making conversation). Charlotte has a lot of subplants, including a lot from WNY (my brother), so the town identity isn't that strong, and college sports are king here...BUT... Here's the thing.... There's a lot of rich people here! There's huge businesses buying corporate suites in bunches, the economy and population are booming, and it doesn't matter if the people that are going to the game are die hards, it matters if they have money.

 

It's extremely insulting to the fans of the buffalo bills to think that a team like this can survive with a fan base that is a tenth of what buffalo's fan base is because their community is rich, or because other cities have 10 reporters on a game instead of 3. It's a slap in the face. The NFL I'm sure would say the most important thing is their fans, but it's not, it's the dollars.

 

Getting back to the issue...I'd say that if what you intended to do was make a comment about how there's something the fans should be doing to get more media coverage, to make it a little clearer, that's all.

[Huuuge Bills]

You haven't misread Buffao and I'd say we would ALWAYS love more coverage of our sports teams.

 

If anything, you overestimated the fans who post on espn.com. The message boards and article comments there have been ridiculous and pathetic for years now. I don't know if it's a lack of moderators, but most of what is posted is "My team is awesome, your team sucks, blah blah blah!!!"

 

Thanks for your work in Buffalo while you were here. I hope you don't hesitate to spend more time on this board, especially after the season starts.

 

Exactly, You have a bunch of people who root for different teams taking cheap shots at each other with very few moderators. After a few days of that, any good poster is going to leave. What you're left with is a bunch of immature (and quite frankly, dumb) people trying to get on each others nerves.

 

I wouldn't take anything you read in the comments section there too seriously. Take a look at the comments on Youtube once in a while, you'll see the same thing. A bunch of people posting with few rules in place, and almost nothing in common.

 

BTW, keep up the good work on the blog. It's good to get a few Bills pieces on ESPN.

[DonInBuffalo]

Tim,

 

I was very surprised and disappointed when I went to TBD earlier today expecting to find an update on L. Walker's injury. Nothing. I had to hunt through the Bills official site to find any information at all.

 

It wasn't really all that long ago that Bills fans had media coverage that pretty much anyone would envy. Adelphia Cable had a channel it called Empire Sports Network, a "regional sports channel". From the first day of training camp to the last day of the season, ESN had Bills coverage from 4:30-6:00 each afternoon, including but not limited to highlights from training camp, player/coach interviews, and the like. They also had a great postgame show that ran from as soon as the network stopped their telecast until 6:00 for typical 1:00 games. On top of that, Adelphia owned an FM sports radio channel, competing with WGR, in many ways "keeping them honest".

 

Unfortunately, John Rigas was a crook and Adelphia went bankrupt. Time Warner purchased the local Adelphia cable, and ESN shut down. The company that owns WGR purchased Adelphia's FM sports station and changed it's format. All of the local sports coverage went way, way, downhill. WGR doesn't even have local sports until 3:00 in the afternoon, and most of their 3-6 show, with supposedly their "best" broadcast team, (I call them Schmuck and The BullFrog) contains so little legitimate sports talk it's not worth the bother of listening to for any length of time.

 

Local TV isn't much better. WKBW, "The Official Bills Station", is owned by a company trying to break the union. Pretty much every legitimate sportscaster left that station, with them hiring nobodies with very limited experience in small town markets as replacements. The other local channels aren't much better.

 

The Buffalo News? It's owned by Warren Buffett, who I understand is a very rich (and cheap) man. It was one of the last newspapers in the country to even offer any news at all on it's website. He couldn't give a rat's ass about what people here think about the sports coverage or lack thereof.

 

Sorry for the rant, but I just wanted to give you a little bit of historical perspective. Locals now generally expect the local media coverage to be so pathetic that they'll have to go to national outlets more often than not to get pertinent information.

[kota]

Tim,

 

Thanks for asking this question. I have never seen anyone of the media dare post in one of these type of boards before. I am sure people look but to actually post and possibly open the floodgates takes some guts if you ask me.

 

The lack of outcry for more coverage of the Bills has occurred because of the dislike for most media outlets. I know there is a general dislike for the media from people on this board. I count myself as one of them. My main reason for the dislike is the lack of accountablity the media seems to have. It seems nowadays the Media in general not just football will print anything to make a dollar. If they are wrong you rarely seem a retraction. I realize that with the Internet Newspapers are dying so people are reaching to keep a job but it does more damage in the eyes of the consumer then anything if you ask me.

 

If you need an example i can give you a good one of what i am talking about in regards of accountability. Ralph Wilson voted against the CBA a few years ago. When he did that he was called a senial old fool by numerous media outlets. I heard it on the radio, on websites, and read it in the newspapers. Ralph Wilson dared to vote no against the CBA where people like Dan Snyder, Jerry Jones, and Robert Kraft voted YES. The so called great owners of our time who will be first ballot HOF'r someday voted YES so it must have been a good decision right? It turns out it wasn't and I have yet to see anyone of the media outlets retract their "senile old fool" comments. It's just wrong if you ask me.

 

ON top of all that I also dislike the Media for not making a push to get Ralph Wilson into the HOF. He deserves it considering back in the day he loaned money to financially troubled teams so they could make payroll for the week. Al Davis was one of these people and i believe he is in the HOF. The media has a large say in the HOF voting but they turn Ralph Wilson down. I don't know why and i assume it's due to him making waves in Large Market Club Pools.

 

So no you won't see me doing any dances to get the media to print more items about the Bills. I have no reason to believe that they would print anything good about our football team. Why would i want to read negative things about a team that I love no matter who gets the W on Sunday?

 

One last note. Don't get discouraged by the comments sections on blogs. It's a internet toughguy playpen. If you want an extreme example go to http://www.break.com Pick one video and read the comments. I am willing to bet you willl see somekind of racist comment within the first page.

 

Thanks for reading this response.

[JohninMinn.]

Dear Tim,

 

Sadly the Bills like the newspapers that cover them are on life support. When Ralph passes the plug will be pulled on a proud franchise and our print media will be able to devote more time to Paris and Brittany as it circles the bowl.

[KnightRider]

Vic Carucci/Milt Northrup/Larry Felser or Mark Gaughan/Allen Wilson/Jerry Sullivan? There's some large boots to fill, and for whatever reason, they are not. I guess my feeling is that the first trio were reporters first, commentators second, and radio talk show personalities occasionally. Jerry Sullivan just seems to look for something controversial to write about. Larry always seemed to be fair imho. It gets wearying after a while. The other guys are mostly fine, but they are lumped in with the editorial staff.

 

PS- I actively look for Chuck Pollock's stuff. He most reminds me of what I used to get with the News.

[KRC]

I know that fans want more coverage for their team, but the problem is that the coverage we get is pretty bad. I am a football historian. As a result, I am constantly looking through old newspapers for game accounts and coverage of the teams for the books and articles I write. There is just no comparison. The quality was far superior. Don't get me wrong. There are a few quality beat reporters out there, but they are becoming more rare. I am not sure if I can put my finger on a single reason for this.

[plenzmd1]

Tim,

 

I certainly can understand your sentiments, as being an old timer of 45 I still like the feel of newsprint in my hands in the morning. However, as you well know, many folks are just as happy to consume their local news in electronic format. And, until the publications can figure out a way to make money on that side of the house, layoofs, buyouts, etc are going to continue to happen.

 

But, i do not blame the Buffalo News for that, nor do I blame the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun etc. Does the News have an obligation to lose money while covering the Bills? Would everyone here(well here yes), but the more casual fan be willing to pay $10/month for access to the News online? No, we want our content for free(ask the New York Times) and ad sales are just not paying the bills right now. However, at some point we will, when the local newsprint operations shut down, and our only choice will be to pay.

 

Like I said, I think it sucks for guys like you who made their living in print journalism, and like I, will miss newsprint as it fades to oblivion. But I also believe it is a bit disingenious to lay the blame on the News, or scare the bejuses out of folks by saying your team is leaving without more beat writers from the local rags. Times change, and we must change with them. Look at yourself, Vic, Jim Kelly, all of who have seen the writing on the wall.

 

Keep up the great work on the blog, I enjoy it every day!!

[Whites Bay]

Hello Tim,

 

I check the D&C every day, and look forward to coverage by Maiorana and Roth. Bob Matthews, not so much. I was surprised to see zero coverage of a very solid-looking offensive performance at Indy the other night. Understand that the reason I visit TBD (and occasionally post) is BECAUSE of the compendium of Bills information herein. I don't have the time or patience to listen to/watch/read about every snippet of information from a multitude of sources. Although much of the information presented on TSW is...well....inane, this is usually the best place to get the latest breaking news, because many people here DO watch national media outlets, and post instantaneously.

 

Let me make a gratuitous statement - Lori Chase's gameday summaries are about the best thing going. Chuck Pollock is also well worth reading, and Scott Pitoniak's articles in the D&C are a must-read. I guess I don't take the time to tune into the national outlets because - God almighty - places like ESPN and the like are virtually unwatchable any more. I'm proud to say that I don't even know where ESPN resides on my cable channel array.

 

As for the cutbacks in the local papers, this is sadly inevitable. The only reason my brother and I occasionally purchase the local paper (The Watertown Daily Times) is so that we can use the newsprint in the charcoal chimney to start the barbecue. That's not being said to be funny, it's reality. And it's a reality to which the Toronto Sun, The Toronto Star, and the National Post are not immune. You certainly know better than I do that the local papers are pulling people from other beats to cover the NFL north of the border. Fair enough. I think you'll see a high-water effect at the beginning of coverage, followed by a steady ebbing of interest. Toronto is a big, beautiful, self-absorbed city with hockey, followed by hockey, complimented by hockey, basketball, baseball, and a couple of other things to do besides sports. My gut call - and it's only a hunch, nothing more - is that the NFL is going to find it a MUCH harder slog to get the faithful to buy into the product north of the border. The league does appear to be a juggernaut at times, and it seems that they can put $%*#-in-a-box and make it sell, but keep in mind that they have failed on occasion, and have failed significantly. Witness two failed attempts at placing a team in Los Angeles, and witness the NFL Europe. The NFL Channel's ongoing struggle with Time Warner leaves THAT venture in the "jury's still out" phase.

 

Thanks for dropping by. It's nice to know we're being included.

[nucci]

Do we really want to read any more of Sullivan, Gleason , and DiCesare?

[MattyT]

It's possible that the D&C guys had cable and were unable (or grudgingly unwilling) to sufficiently cover the game...thus relying on the national story instead.

 

After all, why should they expect to be able to watch a preseason game that was sold out and completely out of the Rochester market?

[Dan]

I think people need to realize the NFL looks at this stuff. Media coverage will play a role in whether the NFL stands up for a market. Do you think they would rather be covered full-time by 10 newspaper reporters in Toronto or what has become three (Mark Gaughan/Allen Wilson/Sal Maiorana) in WNY? While the WNY media is scaling back, the Toronto papers are taking reporters off other beats and putting them on the NFL full-time to get ready.

 

And that's not intended as a shot. It's happening.

Seems like the suggestion here is that as Bills fans interested in keeping the team in Buffalo, we'd be wise to start lobbying and urging the local print media for more coverage of the Bills.

 

I'm sure there are a multitude of factors, but the national and, now it appears, local coverage of the Bills has been pretty miserable over the last decade. I'm sure much of that would change with a winning product on the field. But, it does seem reasonable that in addition to trying to sell out games, we fans should be trying to urge the local media to expand their coverage of the team.

 

Maybe the local guys don't have NFL Network. Therefore, they didn't see the game. Consequently... little to no write ups about it.

[Chandler#81]

I, too, was surprized and bummed to see virtually nothing about the game -print or electronic. Even the Bills websites only posted the same story -FROM THE MIAMI HERALD!! Yeesh!

 

Frankly, I'm disgusted overall with Bills beat writers as they seem aimed at shock value over substance and team updates. Even if there were still writers like Jim Peters from the Courier Express, it's unlikely their format would be appreciated today.

 

BTW, will Langston be ready for the opener?