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Tim Graham Defends Mike Rodak. Says Bills Fans Treat Him Unfairly


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http://moranalytics.com/ep-100-tim-graham-the-athletic/

 

Listened to a great interview with Tim Graham of The Athletic.  He speaks openly about his departure from the BN, WGR, and of course his current work at the Athletic.  But I feel the most interesting quote was about his friend and co-host Mike Rodak.  Rodak famously gets a ton of backlash from Bills fans.  I never got the Rodak hatred, but many times I thought that this tweets were phrased very poorly, as to take the piss out of Bills fans.  Graham basically confirms that's the case.

 

I know that very few will listen to the his comments but you can find them at the 35 minute mark.  But here is what Timmy said:

 

Pat Moran:  "You mention MIke Rodak.  I like that dude.  I feel like Bills fans gave him such a bum rap his first couple years in Buffalo because where he came from, but that kind of has turned now.  

I sense now fans consider him one of their own." 

 

Tim Graham:  "Not quite Pat.   I still see and hear about the grief that he gets.  He'll tweet something along the lines of 'Buffalo Bills sign Jordan Phillips to a contract extension.'  Just a tweet.  Just an update.  And within 5 minutes someone will say 'kill yourself,' 'move back,' 'get out of town,' 'please leave."  And he does play the bit of the troll, a little bit, but I think part of it is, and I'm speaking for Mike here and he's been on your podcast, so this isn't anything that I haven't discussed with him over beers but....I get it because it's got to be a bit of a defense mechanism.  Because if you were just to sit there and take it, I think it would be a miserable depressing existence...just to constantly told that you suck, when you know that you're doing good work, which he does.  If it comes time for him to leave at some point, I think the quality of work that he does in terms of breaking down the Bills, the transactions and the data, the position battles and covering the hard stories....like he's all over the LeSean McCoy legal stuff when a lot of others haven't (myself included).  But he's taken the bull by the horns there, and he's done great work.  But if he had just absorbed all the punishment and never gotten to a point where he's got to have a little "FU" in him, then I think that he'd be in a fetal position somewhere."  

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Tim is shockingly sensitive considering what his job requires of him to the public eye. 

 

I didn’t even know where Rodak was from, but all of his articles came off like Pats propaganda and the Bills were a waste of his time.  His Bills coverage was never more insightful than what you’d read on a ticker. 

 

Neither are missed for me. 

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4 minutes ago, Virgil said:

Tim is shockingly sensitive considering what his job requires of him to the public eye. 

 

I didn’t even know where Rodak was from, but all of his articles came off like Pats propaganda and the Bills were a waste of his time.  His Bills coverage was never more insightful than what you’d read on a ticker. 

 

Neither are missed for me. 

 

Right and Tim is basically says that some of work deliberately was pro-NE to stick it to the Bills fans who gave him such crap

2 minutes ago, Stevie Ray said:

Seems like Timmah still lurks here.

At one point he did mention "the message boards" but never refereed to TSW LOL

 

I would be shocked if Pat Moran wasn't lurking as well

Edited by BillyWhiteShows
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I don't know that Rodak is that bad.  He says some thing fans don't like but so did very respected guys like Felser back in the day.  Don't know if Rodak is thin skinned, but I know Graham needs to grow a pair.  I dared to offer a rebuttal to him via email in one of his articles and he was just snide and completely unprofessional.   And from reading in this site and the old BBMC I am far from the only one who experienced his wrath. 

 

Graham can write great stuff (like his Talley article if memory serves correct) which it makes it all the more puzzling why he chooses to be a jerk.

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Just now, BillyWhiteShows said:

Wait....did Tim post there?

Not that I remember, I responded to him by email and his return email was just chilidish.  The old if you don't like it tough, don't read it.  Great way to build your readership.

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Just now, BillyWhiteShows said:

Really?  What was the snit?  Also are his posts still live?  He's an entertaining dude on Twitter

Entertaining until you dare to suggest he might be wrong on something.  Then he acts like a three year old.  A very talented writer but a child in some ways.

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1 minute ago, BillyWhiteShows said:

Really?  What was the snit?  Also are his posts still live?  He's an entertaining dude on Twitter

I honestly dont remember the exact nature, but I know he had some back and forths with a few here and pretty much said he was leaving. I know he was certainly subjected to some over the top snipes, but he was also quick to dish some out. Handle might have been Tim G, not sure.

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1 minute ago, Stevie Ray said:

I honestly dont remember the exact nature, but I know he had some back and forths with a few here and pretty much said he was leaving. I know he was certainly subjected to some over the top snipes, but he was also quick to dish some out. Handle might have been Tim G, not sure.

Seems like Tim would make this place pretty entertaining

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1 minute ago, BillyWhiteShows said:

Seems like Tim would make this place pretty entertaining

He certainly brought interesting insight, but as oldman stated, very thin-skinned if some of his insight was questioned.

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1 minute ago, BillyWhiteShows said:

Seems like Tim would make this place pretty entertaining

Tell you what.  Read one of his articles, email him and challenge him on it, and we'll see if you think he'd be entertaining when you get his response.

 

I have no problem with columnists being critical (although just being incessantly negative gets old).  But Graham, Sullivan, and Gleason all were the same; dare to offer an opinion that differed from theirs and all they'd do is resort to insult vs, have an actual intellectual debate.  They should not be missed by anyone.

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I’ve always liked Rodak more than Graham, by a lot.

Rodak is also a better beat guy than the numbed pile of nuts that preceded him.

 

James Walker ... used to make me spit.  Didn’t even know who was on the team.

Edited by hemma
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This isn't exactly surprising.  Tim doesn't take criticism against himself or his peers very well.

 

I don't really have anything against Mike Rodak.  He's a beat writer and has to deal with the ESPN conglomerate so I'm not really surprised if his articles are written through a particular lens.  I don't hold this against him, but I would also say that he's not "one of us" like John Wawrow or Sal Capaccio.  I don't think Rodak has any investment in the success of the Bills beyond any career advancement it might afford him.

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