Grumpy about our Press Corps

[Hapless Bills Fan]

So 4 years ago, it was painful to watch press conferences because from some, there was this unrelenting negativity and criticism.  Yes criticism has its place, but positive moves and outcomes also deserve some notice.  Gradually under Beane and McDermott, this improved. 

 

Until now...at times it's gone overboard in the direction of Sweetness and Light.  This week with I guess the huge "human interest" story of Josh's grandma's death and the spontaneous Oishei donation campaign, it Jumped the Shark for me.   I just listened to press conferences with Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, and Cole Beasley and I thought I was having flashbacks to reading People magazine or something.  It was just all about feelings - Josh's feelings, Josh's teammates feelings about Josh, Cole's feelings about Diggs, and then good grief, the last straw - fashions!  Is this football coverage, or Extra Edition?

 

Kudos to Stefon Diggs for turning the topic back to football and taking the opportunity to throw props to his teammate Cole Beasley.

 

Is this a side-effect of this year's Zoom meeting format?    Are guys who ask tougher questions getting edited out, or afraid that they won't be called on?

 

There are some legit questions there to be asked, which are not intrinsically rude or negative. 

-Injury Questions, such as questions about Josh's shoulder - how much did it affect him during the first several games after the injury?  About running - is he consciously trying to run less now that he has more "mouths to feed" on offense?

-General Performance questions - Cole Beasley is quietly rocking not only his career best YPG, but his career best catch percentage, 81.5%.  That's 18.3% better than last year with much lower drops.  What's driving that?  What's behind it - watching him, he is hauling in a lot of high degree of difficulty, contested catches.  Have the routes he's being asked to run changed? Have Josh's throws changed, and become easier to handle?

I could go on.
-Specific play questions - to Josh or to Stefon, what happened on that route against NE where there was an interception?  To Poyer, he blitzed on the long completion to Moore - what happened there?  To McD or Daboll, Why wasn't the Gabe Davis sideline completion that was really a TD challenged?

 

Please, ladies and gentlemen - a tad less feel-good and fluffy, and a tad more informative!

 

 

[The Wiz]

Hate to break it to you, you're going to get the same BS answers as the last 8 weeks.

 

Film to watch

hungry and humble

showed his character

waiting for his opportunity

has been developing nicely

just needed to give him a shot 

 

....... the list goes on.  

Edited November 12, 2020 by The Wiz

[Logic]

[QLBillsFan]

Seems to me the mid week questions are generally of the soft variety. Generally the post game questions are where the more pointed questions come. McClappy is not a great interview. From the keep it close to the vest camp.

 

I’m actually a bit enlightened with a less negative vibe from what seems like a younger group of         “ Bills beat guys”. Not as much the grumpy kind of angry Sullivan and Tim G approach. It can’t all be the Bills homer Chris Brown (Bills employee) all the time. But I think on balance they blend the fluff with the needed tough questions. 

Edited November 12, 2020 by QLBillsFan

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

28 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

So 4 years ago, it was painful to watch press conferences because from some, there was this unrelenting negativity and criticism.  Yes criticism has its place, but positive moves and outcomes also deserve some notice.  Gradually under Beane and McDermott, this improved. 

 

Until now...at times it's gone overboard in the direction of Sweetness and Light.  This week with I guess the huge "human interest" story of Josh's grandma's death and the spontaneous Oishei donation campaign, it Jumped the Shark for me.   I just listened to press conferences with Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, and Cole Beasley and I thought I was having flashbacks to reading People magazine or something.  It was just all about feelings - Josh's feelings, Josh's teammates feelings about Josh, Cole's feelings about Diggs, and then good grief, the last straw - fashions!  Is this football coverage, or Extra Edition?

 

Kudos to Stefon Diggs for turning the topic back to football and taking the opportunity to throw props to his teammate Cole Beasley.

 

Is this a side-effect of this year's Zoom meeting format?    Are guys who ask tougher questions getting edited out, or afraid that they won't be called on?

 

There are some legit questions there to be asked, which are not intrinsically rude or negative. 

-Injury Questions, such as questions about Josh's shoulder - how much did it affect him during the first several games after the injury?  About running - is he consciously trying to run less now that he has more "mouths to feed" on offense?

-General Performance questions - Cole Beasley is quietly rocking not only his career best YPG, but his career best catch percentage, 81.5%.  That's 18.3% better than last year with much lower drops.  What's driving that?  What's behind it - watching him, he is hauling in a lot of high degree of difficulty, contested catches.  Have the routes he's being asked to run changed? Have Josh's throws changed, and become easier to handle?

I could go on.
-Specific play questions - to Josh or to Stefon, what happened on that route against NE where there was an interception?  To Poyer, he blitzed on the long completion to Moore - what happened there?  To McD or Daboll, Why wasn't the Gabe Davis sideline completion that was really a TD challenged?

 

Please, ladies and gentlemen - a tad less feel-good and fluffy, and a tad more informative!

 

 

Buffalo media people were never prepared for this. When they lose is easy to get technical, what happened here, why’d you do that?
 

When there winning it’s like they don’t even know what to do. I mean where do you go...

 

Why did you have to punt those two times? 
 

are you frustrated with only 4TDs? 

 

your passer rating was still 15 pts from perfect, what’s the plan to fix that? 
 

what’s the concern this passing offense still hasn’t broken the 500 yard mark? 

Edited November 12, 2020 by Over 29 years of fanhood

[QLBillsFan]

I think the negativity really hurt the Sabres. It became so negative I do believe it impacted the ROR trade. A cloud exists over that team and I do think naturally the poor play led to depressing coverage. I’m going to enjoy the relative balance with the Bills. 

[Jay_Fixit]

39 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

So 4 years ago, it was painful to watch press conferences because from some, there was this unrelenting negativity and criticism.  Yes criticism has its place, but positive moves and outcomes also deserve some notice.  Gradually under Beane and McDermott, this improved. 

 

Until now...at times it's gone overboard in the direction of Sweetness and Light.  This week with I guess the huge "human interest" story of Josh's grandma's death and the spontaneous Oishei donation campaign, it Jumped the Shark for me.   I just listened to press conferences with Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, and Cole Beasley and I thought I was having flashbacks to reading People magazine or something.  It was just all about feelings - Josh's feelings, Josh's teammates feelings about Josh, Cole's feelings about Diggs, and then good grief, the last straw - fashions!  Is this football coverage, or Extra Edition?

 

Kudos to Stefon Diggs for turning the topic back to football and taking the opportunity to throw props to his teammate Cole Beasley.

 

Is this a side-effect of this year's Zoom meeting format?    Are guys who ask tougher questions getting edited out, or afraid that they won't be called on?

 

There are some legit questions there to be asked, which are not intrinsically rude or negative. 

-Injury Questions, such as questions about Josh's shoulder - how much did it affect him during the first several games after the injury?  About running - is he consciously trying to run less now that he has more "mouths to feed" on offense?

-General Performance questions - Cole Beasley is quietly rocking not only his career best YPG, but his career best catch percentage, 81.5%.  That's 18.3% better than last year with much lower drops.  What's driving that?  What's behind it - watching him, he is hauling in a lot of high degree of difficulty, contested catches.  Have the routes he's being asked to run changed? Have Josh's throws changed, and become easier to handle?

I could go on.
-Specific play questions - to Josh or to Stefon, what happened on that route against NE where there was an interception?  To Poyer, he blitzed on the long completion to Moore - what happened there?  To McD or Daboll, Why wasn't the Gabe Davis sideline completion that was really a TD challenged?

 

Please, ladies and gentlemen - a tad less feel-good and fluffy, and a tad more informative!

 

 

Did you cry writing this?

[Augie]

36 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

So 4 years ago, it was painful to watch press conferences because from some, there was this unrelenting negativity and criticism.  Yes criticism has its place, but positive moves and outcomes also deserve some notice.  Gradually under Beane and McDermott, this improved. 

 

Until now...at times it's gone overboard in the direction of Sweetness and Light.  This week with I guess the huge "human interest" story of Josh's grandma's death and the spontaneous Oishei donation campaign, it Jumped the Shark for me.   I just listened to press conferences with Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, and Cole Beasley and I thought I was having flashbacks to reading People magazine or something.  It was just all about feelings - Josh's feelings, Josh's teammates feelings about Josh, Cole's feelings about Diggs, and then good grief, the last straw - fashions!  Is this football coverage, or Extra Edition?

 

Kudos to Stefon Diggs for turning the topic back to football and taking the opportunity to throw props to his teammate Cole Beasley.

 

Is this a side-effect of this year's Zoom meeting format?    Are guys who ask tougher questions getting edited out, or afraid that they won't be called on?

 

There are some legit questions there to be asked, which are not intrinsically rude or negative. 

-Injury Questions, such as questions about Josh's shoulder - how much did it affect him during the first several games after the injury?  About running - is he consciously trying to run less now that he has more "mouths to feed" on offense?

-General Performance questions - Cole Beasley is quietly rocking not only his career best YPG, but his career best catch percentage, 81.5%.  That's 18.3% better than last year with much lower drops.  What's driving that?  What's behind it - watching him, he is hauling in a lot of high degree of difficulty, contested catches.  Have the routes he's being asked to run changed? Have Josh's throws changed, and become easier to handle?

I could go on.
-Specific play questions - to Josh or to Stefon, what happened on that route against NE where there was an interception?  To Poyer, he blitzed on the long completion to Moore - what happened there?  To McD or Daboll, Why wasn't the Gabe Davis sideline completion that was really a TD challenged?

 

Please, ladies and gentlemen - a tad less feel-good and fluffy, and a tad more informative!

 

 

 

So, how did this make you feel? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I miss most of the interviews, just not my thing. Not sure why really, but maybe because there is so little to really learn? I suspect most of us could say in advance what the answer will be. If there is actual news, I’ll read it here. Thanks to all for that! 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

15 minutes ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

Buffalo media people were never prepared for this. When they lose is easy to get technical, what happened here, why’d you do that?
When there winning it’s like they don’t even know what to do. I mean where do you go...

Why did you have to punt those two times? 
are you frustrated with only 4TDs? 

your passer rating was still 15 pts from perfect, what’s the plan to fix that? 
what’s the concern this passing offense still hasn’t broken the 500 yard mark? 

 

I see your point, but I believe I called out some relevant and positive questions that could be raised - Beasley's much-improved catch %, what happened with the OL when the run game broke out against NE, ask Diggs or Beasley what Josh meant when he said "we left a lot of meat on the bone".  Ask Josh the two questions Daboll deferred with "that would be a good question to ask Josh".

 

31 minutes ago, The Wiz said:

Hate to break it to you, you're going to get the same BS answers as the last 8 weeks.

 

Film to watch

hungry and humble

showed his character

waiting for his opportunity

has been developing nicely

just needed to give him a shot 

 

....... the list goes on.  

 

Oh, that's McDermott.  His pressers are pretty much just good to generate Bingo cards.

 

I'm more talking about the player interviews and to some extent Daboll and Frazier.

[Malazan]

It tends to annoy me when it's extreme in either direction because real questions don't get asked. There's a thread here about the Davis non-TD.. ask him if he was in, ask McDermott why he didn't challenge. Deep dive into how the Bills handle the replay challenge. 

 

There's a lot of football related things to talk about and people who write words about sports seem to often have a hard time not going for the soft questions whether it's about somebody's recipe for apple pie or the "Do you think you'll be fired?" type of stuff that's never going to get an interesting answer about football.

[machine gun kelly]

39 minutes ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

Buffalo media people were never prepared for this. When they lose is easy to get technical, what happened here, why’d you do that?
 

When there winning it’s like they don’t even know what to do. I mean where do you go...

 

Why did you have to punt those two times? 
 

are you frustrated with only 4TDs? 

 

your passer rating was still 15 pts from perfect, what’s the plan to fix that? 
 

what’s the concern this passing offense still hasn’t broken the 500 yard mark? 

The first statement holds some truth to it.  I also think there is some zoom fatigue.  It was funny a lot of the shows new season started tonight, and on Chicago Med, they talked about this phenomena, and made me think I’ve felt it too at times.

[Buftex]

I don't know if it is Zoom fatigue (though I love that concept), as much as it is just too much everything.  We are bombarded with this stuff constantly, and there is Bills/football content of every sort, to meet whatever level of interest you have in the Bills, or football in general...both of the real and the fantasy variety.  We are over-saturated.

 

Personally, I pay less attention than I ever used to...but I love the games as much as ever. I grew up on Bills football in a time when, literally, the biggest thrill between games each week, was seeing if our beloved Bills did anything that week spectacular enough to make Howard Cosell's weekly 4 minute highlight clip. And, if you were a real Bills degenerate junkie, you would listen to the Fred Smerlas and Jim Haslett radio show on Monday evenings before MNF. And then you had the Chuck Knox, or Kay Stephenson on WKBW Channel 7 to watch on Saturday evenings, before prime-time tv started for the evening.

 

Now, you have a 24/7 network devoted to the NFL...100's of radio shows, a 24/7 local radio station...dozens (100's?) of web-sites...podcasts!  Hell, I just found out last night, quite by accident that Kim Pegula has a podcast!!  Who knew? There are endless angles to be taken, and everybody is trying to take theirs.

 

Point is, we just live in a world now where everyone cam immerse themselves in whatever thing they love...as great as it can be, personally I prefer to have to work a little harder than that. If you like touchy feely stuff, there is plenty of that out there... if X's & O's are more your thing, there is plenty of that too.  Don't even get me started on Fantasy Football! It's all out there. Enjoy as much, or as little as you want. 

 

It's a game...a great game...but there is only so much to say about it, before it all "jumps the shark". Football is the most important thing in many of our lives... but ultimately it isn't really that important at all.

Edited November 12, 2020 by Buftex

[Ecmic82]

You’re right, I think, but you’re in the wrong timeline right.

Edited November 12, 2020 by Ecmic82

[MJS]

I've felt for YEARS now that pres conferences are useless. Pretty much for any team. I guess I don't really see the point of them. The players and coaches don't want to be there and they don't want to answer the questions. They just try to get through without saying too much of anything and keep things general (and I don't blame them at all).

 

But you're right. 90% of the questions are stupid or irrelevant. And when you do get a good question the coaches and players don't answer because they don't want to give anything away to opponents or give them any bulletin board material.

 

I find it much more interesting when a journalist sits down for a 1-on-1 interview. Players and coaches seem to open up more in those situations. And even when they come on radio shows they tend to loosen up some.

[MJS]

2 hours ago, jeremy2020 said:

It tends to annoy me when it's extreme in either direction because real questions don't get asked. There's a thread here about the Davis non-TD.. ask him if he was in, ask McDermott why he didn't challenge. Deep dive into how the Bills handle the replay challenge. 

 

There's a lot of football related things to talk about and people who write words about sports seem to often have a hard time not going for the soft questions whether it's about somebody's recipe for apple pie or the "Do you think you'll be fired?" type of stuff that's never going to get an interesting answer about football.

 

You can ask him that, but why? We all know the answer. He didn't challenge because he was across the field and didn't see it, he didn't get a call down to challenge it, and they were on the 1 yard line anyway (not that you'd get that much out of McDemott anyway). And then he'd add "we are constantly evaluating how we can get better. We have a growth mindset and that starts with me."

 

Really there isn't such a thing as a good question in those settings because you won't get the REAL answer out of them (nor should you) and everything else we already know the answer to.

 

Ask Allen about the INT against the Pats? He'll say "Diggs and I had a bit of a miscommunication on that route and we talked about how we can get on the same page. We feel really good about that going forward and we're constantly trying to improve in our communication."

 

I just really don't see why these press conferences are even done. They are more than useless. They are just a waste of time.

 

[Warcodered]

3 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

So 4 years ago, it was painful to watch press conferences because from some, there was this unrelenting negativity and criticism.  Yes criticism has its place, but positive moves and outcomes also deserve some notice.  Gradually under Beane and McDermott, this improved. 

 

Until now...at times it's gone overboard in the direction of Sweetness and Light.  This week with I guess the huge "human interest" story of Josh's grandma's death and the spontaneous Oishei donation campaign, it Jumped the Shark for me.   I just listened to press conferences with Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, and Cole Beasley and I thought I was having flashbacks to reading People magazine or something.  It was just all about feelings - Josh's feelings, Josh's teammates feelings about Josh, Cole's feelings about Diggs, and then good grief, the last straw - fashions!  Is this football coverage, or Extra Edition?

 

Kudos to Stefon Diggs for turning the topic back to football and taking the opportunity to throw props to his teammate Cole Beasley.

 

Is this a side-effect of this year's Zoom meeting format?    Are guys who ask tougher questions getting edited out, or afraid that they won't be called on?

 

There are some legit questions there to be asked, which are not intrinsically rude or negative. 

-Injury Questions, such as questions about Josh's shoulder - how much did it affect him during the first several games after the injury?  About running - is he consciously trying to run less now that he has more "mouths to feed" on offense?

-General Performance questions - Cole Beasley is quietly rocking not only his career best YPG, but his career best catch percentage, 81.5%.  That's 18.3% better than last year with much lower drops.  What's driving that?  What's behind it - watching him, he is hauling in a lot of high degree of difficulty, contested catches.  Have the routes he's being asked to run changed? Have Josh's throws changed, and become easier to handle?

I could go on.
-Specific play questions - to Josh or to Stefon, what happened on that route against NE where there was an interception?  To Poyer, he blitzed on the long completion to Moore - what happened there?  To McD or Daboll, Why wasn't the Gabe Davis sideline completion that was really a TD challenged?

 

Please, ladies and gentlemen - a tad less feel-good and fluffy, and a tad more informative!

 

 

I think it's a bit of that plus they can't go into the locker room after the game to ask questions so they're kind of filling in for that. But the thing that drives me insane is if somebody ahead of you asks the question you wanted to unless you have some sort of nuance to change it and get something they didn't ask a different question. The Josh's grandma questions wouldn't of been so bad if 4 or 5 of them didn't ask the same damn thing.

 

3 hours ago, The Wiz said:

Hate to break it to you, you're going to get the same BS answers as the last 8 weeks.

 

Film to watch

hungry and humble

showed his character

waiting for his opportunity

has been developing nicely

just needed to give him a shot 

 

....... the list goes on.  

I don't think this is completely true because there are a few good reporters that'll ask some more technical questions and the players actually seem to enjoy it. I mean who knew Pro Football players actually like talking about what goes into their craft.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

Good lord, this would be a wild season for the New Jersey Jets to have a live post game press conference, wouldn't it? 😁

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

?

Edited November 12, 2020 by Ridgewaycynic2013

[JerseyBills]

6 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

So 4 years ago, it was painful to watch press conferences because from some, there was this unrelenting negativity and criticism.  Yes criticism has its place, but positive moves and outcomes also deserve some notice.  Gradually under Beane and McDermott, this improved. 

 

Until now...at times it's gone overboard in the direction of Sweetness and Light.  This week with I guess the huge "human interest" story of Josh's grandma's death and the spontaneous Oishei donation campaign, it Jumped the Shark for me.   I just listened to press conferences with Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, and Cole Beasley and I thought I was having flashbacks to reading People magazine or something.  It was just all about feelings - Josh's feelings, Josh's teammates feelings about Josh, Cole's feelings about Diggs, and then good grief, the last straw - fashions!  Is this football coverage, or Extra Edition?

 

Kudos to Stefon Diggs for turning the topic back to football and taking the opportunity to throw props to his teammate Cole Beasley.

 

Is this a side-effect of this year's Zoom meeting format?    Are guys who ask tougher questions getting edited out, or afraid that they won't be called on?

 

There are some legit questions there to be asked, which are not intrinsically rude or negative. 

-Injury Questions, such as questions about Josh's shoulder - how much did it affect him during the first several games after the injury?  About running - is he consciously trying to run less now that he has more "mouths to feed" on offense?

-General Performance questions - Cole Beasley is quietly rocking not only his career best YPG, but his career best catch percentage, 81.5%.  That's 18.3% better than last year with much lower drops.  What's driving that?  What's behind it - watching him, he is hauling in a lot of high degree of difficulty, contested catches.  Have the routes he's being asked to run changed? Have Josh's throws changed, and become easier to handle?

I could go on.
-Specific play questions - to Josh or to Stefon, what happened on that route against NE where there was an interception?  To Poyer, he blitzed on the long completion to Moore - what happened there?  To McD or Daboll, Why wasn't the Gabe Davis sideline completion that was really a TD challenged?

 

Please, ladies and gentlemen - a tad less feel-good and fluffy, and a tad more informative!

 

 

I understand what you mean but it doesn't bother me to that extent. 

I guess the last 2 weeks were big time, emotional wins , first McDermott finally defeats the hoodie and then Joshs grandma passing away on the eve of a huge huge game vs a legit SB contender,  the way he performed is a big deal. The story, the money raised , is a big deal. This isn't a common situation so I feel the press is justified in their questions but I also understand why you feel that way. 

27 minutes ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

Good lord, this would be a wild season for the New Jersey Jets to have a live post game press conference, wouldn't it? 😁

I live in Jersey.  Man , that'd be a sight to see. 

WFAN and ESPN NYC are really starting to disrespect the Jets. I ALMOST feel bad for them😁

But ya , they're really going through it. 

[machine gun kelly]

4 hours ago, Buftex said:

I don't know if it is Zoom fatigue (though I love that concept), as much as it is just too much everything.  We are bombarded with this stuff constantly, and there is Bills/football content of every sort, to meet whatever level of interest you have in the Bills, or football in general...both of the real and the fantasy variety.  We are over-saturated. Personally, I pay less attention than I ever used to...but I love the games as much as ever. I grew up on Bills football in a time when, literally, the biggest thrill between games each week, was seeing if our beloved Bills did anything that week spectacular enough to make Howard Cossells weekly 4 minute highlight clip. And, if you were a real Bills degenerate junkie, you would listen to the Fred Smerlas and Jim Haslett radio show on Monday evenings before MNF. And then you had the Chuck Knox, or Kay Stephenson on WKBW Channel 7 to watch on Saturday evenings, before prime-time tv started for the evening.

 

Now, you have a 24/7 network devoted to the NFL...100's of radio shows, a 24/7 local radio station...dozens (100's?) of web-sites...podcasts!  Hell, I just found out last night, quite by acccident that Kim Pegula has a podcast!!  Who knew? There are endless angles to be taken, and everybody is trying to take theirs.

 

Point is, we just live in a world now where everyone cam immerse thyemselves in whatever thing they love...as great as it can be, personally I prefer to have to work a little harder than that. If you like touchy feely stuff, there is plenty of that out there... if X's & O's are more your thing, there is plenty of that too.  Don't even get me started on Fantasy Football! It's all out there. Enjoy as much, or as little as you want.  It's a game...a great game...but there is only so much to say about it, before it all "jumps the shark". Football is the most important thing in many of our lives..but ultimately it isn't really that important at all.

Buftex, well said my friend.  For an example I typically jump on the in morning and use as a coffee wake up things to scan here.  Usually busy during the day and take a quick look at night as all if you are good about posting different interesting articles, etc.  

 

I just don’t have the time or the inclination to watch much of anything.  Confessions, I’m in sales so while driving around I have either WGR in the obvious Bills spots, or NFLR.  Just passes the time while traveling from hospital to hospital.  It’s funny, I typically like the interaction between the callers and hosts better than many of the interviews as it is all coach type speak whether a player or coach.