The Barrister

Listen, I'm not a huge Chan Gailey fan.  In the midst of my fantasies about what the Bills could be this year, there is more than enough of a realist in me, telling me that there are hordes of things wrong with this team and that at least some of those things fall directly on Chan's shoulders. 

But, there's realism and then there's churlish pettiness.  One merits a simple nod of the head, the other deserves a water balloon full of herpes. 

Earlier today, the triggering event for many comments and criticisms to follow, Chan was quoted as saying that he expected to win every game this year.  Better yet, let's get the whole quote, so that we're all on the same page: "If you don't expect it, something's wrong with you," Gailey said when asked about expecting his team to make the playoffs.  "If you say, I hope we're just a little bit better than last year, you ought to get out.  That's wrong.  I expect to win every one of them.  I expect to be undefeated."

Gailey, in charge of selling his players on the idea of winning, and in charge - at least partially - with convincing us fans that the team is in the winning business, gave us what we should all hope for in a head coach: Hope.  He didn't coat it with the realism we Buffalonians seem to value; he didn't tell us the actual truth about what, if a gun was pointed to his head, he would bet on for the Bills' season record.  Instead, he gave us what we need as sports fans -- a reason to watch; to see if he can prove himself right, even if we know that he can't possibly really believe it. 

But, goddammit if those clowns at WGR don't want to make us all feel like knuckle-dragging morons for seeing the real truth behind Gailey's lie.  Goddammit if those clowns don't want to express their intellectual superiority - as if there's something so fucking brilliant about pointing out that, clearly, the Bills will not go 16-0, duh - while making us feel just a little bit less than ourselves for getting behind Chan for speaking confidently about his team and his job. 

Good lord, the contempt with which these ass clowns hold the plebeian Bills fans for whom they apparently speak is OUTRAGEOUS.  Mr. White, Mr. Schopp, I'm not one for cheap shots - wait, yes I am - but you two, and many of your comrades over at WGR, are sanctimonious knob gobblers.  With great power comes great responsibility, and fuck it if these guys don't consistently thumb their noses at the special place that they have in Buffalo sports media and the trust that we fans, in essence, have invested in them.

I won't waste my time with the reasons Schopp and White put forth (apparently over the course of THREE HOURS on air today) about why they think Gailey was stupid or silly or out of his mind.  As I noted above, logic tells us that Gailey probably doesn't believe that the Bills will win every game.  And even if he does, logic can also tell us that there is a benefit to his statements apart from their truth. 

Nay, I take umbrage with the way that these guys went about this whole argument, and about how it turned into one big joke for them -- "Everyone look and laugh at the stupid fans who respect Gailey for what he said.  They're Stoopid!!"  While the real fans, and the real sentient beings amongst us, get that there is a difference between the truth a coach gives us in a presser and the actual truth, Mr. Schopp and Mr. White are so adamant that we have to choose between the two; that we can't see the good sense in Gailey's comments without ignoring the fact that those comments are, in a sense, ridiculous; that we can't be sensible and realistic about the Bills chances without seeing the value in Gailey's simple act of speaking those ridiculous words out loud.  While the twits at WGR are always telling us - over and over - about how they want to give us the "straight truth" about our sports teams, and about how it's about respecting us fans enough to give us that truth, they have today shown themselves to think so little of us that they can't possibly fathom that we understand that Gailey's comments will probably be shown to be faulty in the end - NO FUCKING WAY!! - but that we can, at the same time!, validly feel that he's right to make those comments.  Gailey loves our Bills (and his job), and he loves them enough to feed them a little (read: BIG) white lie, a lie that hurts no one except for the sensibilities of dumbass radio hosts who care more about semantics than the big picture.  Who care more about being right than about increasing a fan's enjoyment of the sport.

I'm not even really sure why all this bothers me so much.  Of course, Mat thew Stewart at Buffalo Wins already covered Schopp's douchebaggery earlier today, and maybe that should be enough.  But, on the eve of the season, maybe the only moment where Bills fans can allow themselves to swim in the depths of foolish hopes and dreams for the return of a winning franchise, our coach comes out and stands with us in that hope.  And these dipshits, with their soapbox monopoly over the Buffalo sports airwaves, choose to poop all over it, and all over us who choose to stand behind Gailey in the shared hope of success in 2011 rather than wallowing in the likely reality of a failed Bills season.  This is the same old-world mentality that shits on new ideas that might spark a rejuvenation in Western New York, constantly focused on the likelihood of failure rather than the chance of success.  This is the same old-world mentality that pushes vibrant voices like Nick Mendola's off of the air, seemingly preferring a solidarity of thought, marketplace of ideas be damned. With so many voices across the blogosphere who speak with a wit and intelligence and variety that make WGR seem laughably quaint in its narrow-mindedness (as Matthew so much more eloquently put earlier today at Buffalo Wins), I think it important to join in the fray and let my intentions be known.  So long as Buffalo sports radio is limited to the, largely, asshat population guiding the reigns at WGR, and so long as those clowns continue to make money off of local listenership while unpaid blogger minions routinely outperform them, I will continue to call foul on the status quo and hope for a day when Buffalo sports receives more adequate coverage and consideration by those that get paid to do it.

Of course, by jumping into the fray - where Schopp and White live daily - I think it fair for people to disagree with me.  Maybe even call out the hypocrisy of my calling foul on WGR after calling Tim Connolly-apologists idiots, for instance.  It's fair.  Can't take faceless internet potshots without expecting a few in return. 

Either way, there's one thing that all of us can agree on, even if the guys at WGR want to make us feel a little like fools for doing so: Let's Go Buffalo.

And now for a video that is, perhaps, more dramatic than is appropriate for this ultimately petty post.  But, it certainly suits my mood, at least so long as I have the growing urge to punch Mike Schopp in his ugly, unfortunate-looking face.

The Barrister

It's been quiet here of late.  The Scizz, typically dependable for frequent musings on the trashy side of sports and entertainment, was on vacation last week and into this one.  He's truly blessed with good luck, as he'll get the chance to be hit by Irene twice as a result of these travels.  Good job, buddy.  Serves you right for your hiatus.  

I, too, have been quiet, as I was forced into submission - finally - by the needs of my first trial this past week. I had the urge to write Tuesday night, inspired by the bizarre events of that afternoon... dramatically giving my closing argument only to feel the earth shake below us minutes later, leaving me with a lingering sense of wonder at how we, as people, choose to live our lives when confronted with a daily threat of diaster - both by acts of man and God (if you believe in that sort of thing...which I do sometimes, depening on the day).  Without going into the entirety of those thoughts I was having after the quake while waiting for the jury to render its verdict, I do think it bears mentioning that it is truly something special that we so routinely choose to seek out shared moments of joy and hope through sport, even when a life of self-preservation above all else might be the smarter move.  Smart we are not, but committed to seeking joy we always are. 

In any event, the trial is now over and, victory in hand, I have opted to take today off and be productive with non-work-related things, including ending DGWU's lull in content.  And, as New York City and the Atlantic Coast prepare for what may be one of the worst storms to hit this area in the past 50 years, Mother Nature provides a suitable theme to at least focus some of the thoughts going through my head as we enter the weekend.

Of course, I'll be talking about our Buffalo Bills.

I start with the news about Freddie Jackson. CHAN! BUDDY! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GUYS DOING?? I mean, Jesus H. Christ, I could not be more confused about the decisions coming out of the Buffalo Bills management and coaching staff these days.  The season hasn't even started - a season no one expects to be successful anyway - and Chan, et al. have already gotten a full roster and full fanbase scratching their heads or worse.  Reports this week that Freddie is uphappy and uncertain about his role, about his desire for a trade. Un-fucking-real.

“I feel like a No. 1 back, and I should be treated like one. As far as what’s going on, you would have to ask them. I’m going to come out here and compete. I feel like I have been competing. I feel like I have done everything I can. It’s been like that for two or three years, and nothing has changed.”

Freddie, you're right.  Nothing has changed.  Same old hapless Bills.  Why would any of us excpect talent and productivity to be fairly and objectively evaluated? (Though, to be fair, Freddie's a #1 back on a shit football team. He's being treated like a #1 back on a shit football team, and that's part of the problem...but, I digress).

Listen, I get that CJ Spiller needs touches in preseason.  In fact, I think it's completely appropriate that he gets most of the touches during preseason, because he needs some work.  Everytime I see him run the ball, it's a disaster, and I figure it has to get better with work, right? But, with all that being the case, how is it that Chan hasn't made it abundantly clear to Freddie that he's the #1 RB? How is it that Tim Graham from the Buffalo News has heard that it's Spiller's job to lose? WTFFFFF.  Even if CJ has a great preseason - which has already been shown not to be the case - the changing of the guard can't happen until he shows it during real games, and until that happens Freddie has to be your guy.  He's been one of the only bright spots on this team over the past couple years, not to mention that he's a fan favorite and is one of the hardest working guys on the team.  He has earned everything he's gotten in the league including the respect of everyone in that locker room - I mean, hell, I feel like I'm in crazy town that I even have to write this.  Think back to those off-season, player-run workouts.  Fredie was there, CJ was not.  THAT MATTERS.  If CJ is the future, fine, no argument.  But why put the cart before the horse? Why not, at a mimimum, promise Freddie equal touches going into the season, as so many teams are successfully using multiple backs on individual Sundays these days?

This is turning into a serious morale issue, and it just shouldn't be.  The only thing the Bills ever have to bank on is that they're underdogs who, despite being so overmatched in talent and skill, want it more than their opponent.  With these reports coming out of camp, it looks like Chan might be losing that x-factor as well. 

Contibuting to this is the fact that it comes on the heels of Lee Evans's trade to the Ravens.  Honestly, I didn't mind this deal when it came down a couple weeks ago - Evans was barely productive last year and, while he was an asset in terms of drawing double coverage, I wanted to believe that this reason was not enough to keep him.  However, after seeing the shit with Freddie this week, and after seeing Evans tear up the secondary in the Ravens' latest preseason game, my gut is telling me that Evans wasn't useless, he just wasn't being used.  An under-utilized talent on the field, probably due in large part to the chemistry that Fitzpatrick and Stevie Johnson had developed in their second team roles on the practice squad, it may soon become apparent that the issue with Evans was not his waning effecitiveness on the field, but the Bills' waning effectiveness in getting him the goddamn ball.  If Evans has a decent year - 10 touchdowns, say - it will prove what the rest of the league knows about Buffalo...that this Bills team is an embarassment.  And, as soon as that happens, the players in the locker room will start to feel it, too.  What we all want to be a two or three year project will get extended yet again, and we may not see a playoff team for five years or more.

Like many Bills fans, I was really looking forward to this season.  I liked what Chan Gailey did last year, and I thought the team had a pretty good draft.  Things were looking up.  These days, though, I'm yearning for those days of locked out football when we didn't have to dread another season of embarassment for our team, our fanbase and our City.

Let's Go Buffalo?