starting to get more than a little nervous about all the positive atte

[Meathead]

here is such a perfect example of what im talking about:

 

Buffalo Bills safety Jairus Byrd told the team website “it’s hard not to get giddy.”

 

george wilson does a bit better job but still not explicit and mature enough:

 

“There’s a lot of hype around our team right now,” fellow safety George Wilson said. “All we want to do is live up to our own expectations of ourselves and really start to build that team chemistry.”

 

these guys need to be consistently communicating humility and respect for how difficult it is to win in the nfl. of course they need to be confident and its ok to express that, but in their next breath they need to overshadow that confidence with a humble professionalism that keeps them on the edge and intensely focused on remembering at all times what a difficult challenge it is to win consistently

 

it shouldnt be hard not to get giddy at all. byrd might have been referring to the fans, but i assure you if he had said what needs to be said about focus and the players turning a deaf ear to the ball riding, that would have been reported as well

 

every single time the issue of media expectations comes up there should be a response regarding tuning it out. every time. if that was my team i would be saying it in the meetings, and reminding guys every time they do an interview and dont mention it that they fkd up. it has to be hammered into the players minds at every opportunity if they hope to avoid what is essentially a mistake of immaturity

 

keep you eyes peeled for it during camp. im going to guess by then that chan will have that exact talk with them and we will see it corrected, but if not watch for the mushroom cloud forming over my house in lasalle around day two

[Meathead]

heres two guys that get it:

 

Cornerback Terrence McGee is taking a wait and see approach, knowing the test of the defense won't come until the season begins.

 

''I've been around when we had Takeo Spikes, London Fletcher, Nate Clements, and we looked great on paper then,'' McGee said, referring to the team's past defensive stars. ''But you know what, you've got to go out there and prove it.''

...

 

Wannstedt remains cautious.

 

''It's obvious that we've added talent,'' Wannstedt said. ''We're where we need to be today. Now it's important that we take the next step and keep things in perspective.''

 

wanny needs to get everybody saying it every day, every time it comes up in an interview, no more gushing without the mature and appropriate caveats

[Mr. WEO]

zombie thread...

[BuffOrange]

its about focus and desperation. sports is chock full of stories of teams that get a lot of attention and then crumble under their own expectations. in fact, this is much more the norm than the exception. its human nature to feel some satisfaction when people are talking you up, and at the highest level of professional sports it only takes a tiny edge to mean the difference between winning and losing. to a young team on the rise like the bills if it isnt put in check it definitely has the potential to set them up for overconfidence and destroying their psyche when things start to go wrong as they always do for every team

 

It's more the norm than the exception because winning championships is more the norm than the exception. 1 team out of 32 does it in the NFL. Out of the 31 that don't, some of them were hyped, most of them weren't. Which leads us to another aspect of human nature - selection bias, of which you obviously suffer from greatly.

Edited June 20, 2012 by BuffOrange

[Meathead]

if the bills get too wrapped up in their hype and go into an early swoon i will literally come to your house and eat your brains