JohnNord

They weren’t asked about McDermott specifically during the media access this week, as the article came out on the same day. I’m guessing it will happen Sunday or next week?

It’s going to make being a Bills fan insufferable in places like Twitter. TBH, I’m on the fence about McDermott. I think the concerns about the end of games are valid. I also think that because people don’t have confidence in him they’ll grasp at anything negative and assign blame to McDermott. An example as evidenced here is the dude who said every bad draft pick was McDermott and every good one was Beane. Or how Dorsey’s shortcomings as an OC, which have been well documented, were all on McDermott under the “he’s the head coach” cop out. While Dorsey was a lackluster hire, no one was a bigger proponent than Josh Allen. The hire, although a bad one in hindsight, made a lot of sense. I felt Dunne went a step further in his article with the negative personal stories from the Quinton Spain’s of the world. Which of course those people read and are “See…see…” As long as people are fair, I don’t have a problem with the McDermott criticism. Many of us have it as well. I think there always has been a strong emphasis on defense… I would love to see the inverse of that.

“He interviewed 25 people” is the answer to anyone criticizing Dunne’s story. So…based on your contract within the building (both past and present) what is McDermott’s job security for next season?

“I spent my 20 year-career reading people” - “This means I can tell you which people are frauds and which ones aren’t frauds by watching them on TV” Makes sense.

I feel a lot of people would agree with you based on what you said about him as a football coach. I think Dunne rubbed fans the wrong way for a variety of reasons including his style of reporting which relies on finding former players with negative p It’s as simple as people not wanting to patronize him. I completely get that

This is my criticism of the article. I think he had to work to construct this narrative with disgruntled sources (which Beane alluded to) rather than it happening organically. That’s why I laugh when people say “he used 25 sources.” He used 25 sources - some had good things to say about McDermott and were not anonymous. That leaves about 15-20 sources who likely had an ax to grind. It doesn’t mean these were good sources Yup and look at this quote from your link. Sound familiar: The thing is about this article it's not a mystery, this was smear attack by a writer looking to advance his career, talking with mostly irrelevant, bitter players who all have an agenda, rather they're advancing their own careers or just trying to stir old stuff up," Rodgers said. "Then what happens is the same tired media folks picking it up and talking about it. It's just emphasizing their opinion about me already. "The crazy thing is there's super slanted opinions in that piece stated as fact. And there's quote-on-quote facts which are just outright lies. In some cases where you maybe ignore something like this or you don't even really gloss over it, I don't think you can in this case."

His narrative is that McDermott folds late in games and it continually lets Allen down. So in Philly Josh Josh was absolutely awesome, drove the Bills to a GW TD, only to lose the lead due to a coach being “tight.” Then he had Allen take a knee rather than try to win the game with 20 seconds left. His second narrative that McDermott is holding Allen back. He thought both of these would be a talking point and that the interest would be high for this article. Plus he had an extra week to finish with the bye. And yes, I do think he wanted it before the Chiefs because the Philly loss demonstrated everything in his narrative. If you could guarantee a similar out against the Chiefs, he’d probably wait until this Monday or Tuesday

He explained on Cowherd that he was writing the story and sped up the process after the Eagles loss since he felt it summarized the issues he was writing about. Plus he had an extra week. So yes, it was 100% a strategic move on his part to get the story out. But it’s not like he was sitting on the article waiting for a bad time to put it out. Obviously no conspiracy. And if he put a lot of work into the story, I don’t blame him for not waiting until the right time to publish. One criticism that I do feel is legit - on Cowherd he was asked if the sources came to him or if he had to dig. He didn’t answer the question but it sounded like he had to dig. So I think it’s fair to wonder whether he started with a preconceived idea and sought out disgruntled players to support his thesis. This is where being critical works both ways. I think it’s foolish to bring that the “sour grapes” angle among some of his sources (cough cough Quinton Spain) is not a factor. So along with the conspiracy talk, it’s also foolish to believe that his “sources” didn’t have an agenda.

I feel that they had a pretty good plan on Kelce the last time they played in KC. They beat him up on the line with Siran Neal. My guess is they play some sort of variation of that so I guess Douglas could fit that role

He sure sounds like a GM that supports his coach. The brain trust here tells me that Beane will recommend firing him

Ummmm. What?

Is it within the guidelines to type up a summary of this article? Can you write a detailed summary here?

Oddly enough this article has taken a life of its own. There’s 3 different camps among fans: 1. People who want McD fired and are using this as their victory lap. 2. People who want McD fired and question the motives/authenticity of this article 3. People who support McDermott and question the motives/authenticity of this article Then you have those in the Buffalo media who have largely stayed quiet on the article, other than acknowledging it. And national media - who mostly recommend this article but have relatively little to say other than sharing the 9/11 story and saying “wow, that’s crazy.” So overall the response has been incredibly odd. I tend to think the intent & timing of this was wisely orchestrated by Dunne, as discussed here already. But I don’t think it was a slam dunk for his reputation.

This method might work for newspaper but it doesn’t work 2 w/ substack. You can read the preview but not the full article

I think a lot of people are aware of this conflict as well, and had the article been written by - say a Tim Graham - it would have carried more weight.

Can someone tell me who Victoria Zellner is?

Who in the blue hell is Zach Gelb?

I agree with you here. There is no doubt that Dunne is an excellent writer and storyteller but I noticed that he often forms an opinion and then writes his stories to support that take, using quotes from former players and coaches, rather than presenting the evidence and letting the reader decide. Case in point, years ago he believed that Jordan Love should take over for Aaron Rodgers, so he wrote a feature using anonymous former Packers players to paint Rodgers in a negative light. That year the Packers went 13-3. Now that Love is playing better and Rodgers tenure with the Jets has been a disaster, he gets to take a victory lap three years later and say “see I told you.” He did the same thing when he decided Mike Zimmer in Minnesota was too conservative a few years ago. Now it’s Sean McDermott. Dunne opined that McDermott is “tight,” freezes up in big games and changed the way Josh Allen played football. So of course, he writes an article that supports his narrative - using…you guessed it. Former players and coaches. Do you see a pattern here? He writes about polarizing, unpopular figures and disgruntled fans latch (like the ones here) who desperately want a change will blindly believe everything he writes. Like you, I don’t the article is pure bull####. I’m sure there is a lot of truth in it and that Dunne wouldn’t just slander McDermott for no reason. I do think he had a predetermined narrative about McDermott and carefully selected sources/quotes that would support his preconceived notion.

Except he’s not. The article hasn’t picked up traction yet outside of the typical Bills Twitter. There's some lower level blogs that picked up on it, but it’s not like McDermott is one of the talking points currently around the NFL.

This is so spot on…people here want to treat it like it’s some kind of bombshell expose when really it’s a commentary

Based on the reaction, I don’t think this article was a slam dunk Dunne. A lot of people seem to bringing up his integrity/sourcing which has also been questioned in the past. If this came from a different national reporter, I think the reaction would be different

I don’t care about your posts

I’m not sure how you can watch the offense over Dorsey’s final 5 games and say he didn’t deserve to be fired. Everyone in the forum is based. Sports fans almost always are. If someone is calling themselves a journalist you probably shouldn’t be biased unless it’s a schtick like Skip Bayless. I don’t think Diggs has much choice in the matter. Because of his contract he’s stuck in Buffalo whether he likes it or not.

It’s the same narrative Ty has been preaching for years. It’s not surprising that this article is a reflection of that. Some people have called into question his bias, and rightfully so.

I don’t think it’s that. The Bills have long had a stance that they only give press access to media organization. They will not give access to bloggers or independent writers like Dunne. For example, year ago Erik Turner from Cover 1 tried to access credentials and was rejected multiple times. Even Jerry Sullivan and Bucky Gleason were rejected when they worked for the Buffalo Maven LOL Not every franchise operates this way. I think Dunne’s vitriol is fueled by not being getting media access.