Ask Tim Graham, version 2.0

[RayFinkle]

Tim,

 

I heard through the grapevine that you were on the radio in the Buffalo area yesterday and commented that Wood was close to signing. Is this true or do I need book a flight to Buffalo so I can crack my buddy's skull for telling me this?

[TimGraham]

Tim,

 

I heard through the grapevine that you were on the radio in the Buffalo area yesterday and commented that Wood was close to signing. Is this true or do I need book a flight to Buffalo so I can crack my buddy's skull for telling me this?

 

Your buddy was correct.

 

But while I probably did suggest that, the emphasis I was trying to make is that Wood is eager to sign and supposedly in the area, not necessarily that a deal is imminent. But I would suspect it's close.

[CoachChuckDickerson]

I've read some negative press on Fitzpatrick recently. The Bills seemed to target Fitz early in free agency which would lead me to believe he is "their guy" at the nuber 2 spot regardless of how bad he plays. What is your take? Have you seen Fitz practice yet?

[Thurman#1]

Peter King is supposed to be here for Tuesday night's practice. I enjoy his stuff. What do you think of his work, and have you met him personally? Who are your top three football writers?

[TimGraham]

Peter King is supposed to be here for Tuesday night's practice. I enjoy his stuff. What do you think of his work, and have you met him personally? Who are your top three football writers?

 

I have met Peter, and he's a great guy. Loves to talk hockey. I felt like a minor leaguer who'd been called to the majors when he mentioned one of my stories in a Monday Morning Quarterback column a while back. I'm also a big fan of his work because he's so plugged in. He's one of those reporters who can get anybody on the phone whenever he needs them.

 

My top three writers would be tough to list because I concentrate on the AFC East so much that I have a tendency to miss a lot of great stuff from beat writers in other divisions. Way too often somebody will ask me something like "Hey, did you see that great feature on Matt Forte in the Chicago Tribune?" And I will have no clue that it even existed until I go looking for it.

[TimGraham]

I've read some negative press on Fitzpatrick recently. The Bills seemed to target Fitz early in free agency which would lead me to believe he is "their guy" at the nuber 2 spot regardless of how bad he plays. What is your take? Have you seen Fitz practice yet?

 

I must admit I liked the signing when it happened. I said it on the radio and my blog. I thought it was a good fit, a backup with starting experience whose presence wouldn't threaten the starter if there was turbulence (something the Bills haven't had for many, many years).

 

But he hasn't shown much on the field in the practices I've seen.

[JoeF]

I must admit I liked the signing when it happened. I said it on the radio and my blog. I thought it was a good fit, a backup with starting experience whose presence wouldn't threaten the starter if there was turbulence (something the Bills haven't had for many, many years).

 

But he hasn't shown much on the field in the practices I've seen.

 

Harvard men don't do practice.

 

Thanks for the coverage Tim. The articles on Parrish and McCargo were very good reads. Thanks for not doing the obligatory "charting TO's every move" article.

 

So after watching a few practices -- anyone surprise you to the upside. Maybe a player who you have watched for a couple of years who seems ready for a break out year?

[billsfan89]

Hey Tim what is Trent Edwards reputation around the league. Do other teams feel that his accuracy and low Int total are the product of good decision making or is it more of a product of him playing conservatively?

 

Do other teams coaching staffs and big time NFL scouts feel Trent is a legit QB or a guy who is not going to improve and be an good NFL starting caliber QB?

[The Dean]

Harvard men don't do practice.

 

 

Just ask Allen Iverson.

[bladiebla]

Hi Tim,

 

Both of the backup quarterbacks in Hamdan and Fitz seem to be struggling, is this due to their own ability or could it be related to the backup o-line or simply a lack of reps? Hamdan seemed to do a lot better during camp last year, it does seem a bit wierd to see such a degrading performance where as he's got a year more under his belt, with Fitz struggling as well I started to wonder if there wouldnt be any other underlying causes.

 

Cheers,

Bla

[Thurman#1]

I have met Peter, and he's a great guy. Loves to talk hockey. I felt like a minor leaguer who'd been called to the majors when he mentioned one of my stories in a Monday Morning Quarterback column a while back. I'm also a big fan of his work because he's so plugged in. He's one of those reporters who can get anybody on the phone whenever he needs them.

 

My top three writers would be tough to list because I concentrate on the AFC East so much that I have a tendency to miss a lot of great stuff from beat writers in other divisions. Way too often somebody will ask me something like "Hey, did you see that great feature on Matt Forte in the Chicago Tribune?" And I will have no clue that it even existed until I go looking for it.

 

 

That's right, I'd forgotten that mention of you in his column.

 

I probably shouldn't have put you in that position anyway, as it's asking you to grade peers publicly.

 

I'm a big fan of sports writing generally. One guy I love is W.C. Heinz. He wrote the great boxing novel "The Professional," in 1958, and it's now largely forgotten. I saw it recommended by none other than Elmore Leonard, so I picked up the book and it was great. So I looked up his other stuff and found an old collection of his sport writing called "What a Time It Was." Absolutely terrific. He was the big NYC newspaper guy of his time, so you get stuff like a piece on his relationship with Sugar Ray Robinson.

 

It was so good that I went out and got "When We Were One," a collection of his stuff from his time reporting on the U.S. army's progress in Europe in World War II. He went right along as they fought towards Germany, and it is also really terrific. I might get his co-write of Vince Lombardi's life, "Run to Daylight" next.

 

Heinz died in 2008, and that was a bad day for me.

 

One of my favorite possessions is an old published album more than a book which is a huge collection of sports reporting of the day on Joe DiMaggio. Goes game by game through his whole career. I love that kind of stuff.

 

Sorry, hope that didn't bore you too much.

[Dan]

Hi Tim,

 

Both of the backup quarterbacks in Hamdan and Fitz seem to be struggling, is this due to their own ability or could it be related to the backup o-line or simply a lack of reps? Hamdan seemed to do a lot better during camp last year, it does seem a bit wierd to see such a degrading performance where as he's got a year more under his belt, with Fitz struggling as well I started to wonder if there wouldnt be any other underlying causes.

 

Cheers,

Bla

Despite early camp "struggles", I still think Hamdan is the #2 guy come September.

 

Hamdan knows he has the Chroise -he doesn't have to prove anything. So, he's helping the defense gain some confidence, that all. He's a true team player.

[Haven Moses]

Timbo,

 

Was Kollar the problem? Am I wrong in thinking that Bob Sanders is a big upgrade over Kollar?

Timbo,

 

What is the word on the street about this?

[IndyJay1234]

Tim,

 

First let me say I did enjoy your article on John McCargo. It just seems that I read it every year the same article? Obviously not about John McCargo but Ashton Youboty and Mike Williams, JP Losman etc.... Too many times the Bills have missed in the early rounds of the draft. Each time it seems to me it is something that issue could have been detected. effort and or immaturity. The immaturity has also hit some of the players that have produced i.e Donte and Marshawn. I guess my first question is am I off base with this assessment? Is their anything you are aware of that the Bills are doing to improve in terms of more properly assessing the maturity of these young men? What are they doing as an organization to work with the maturity of the group of players they have? I know Dallas hired a former player whose name escapes me right now to work with players like Pacman Jones. The last question is specific to McCargo, Do you think we will see anything other than the John McCargo we have come to know the last 4 years this year?

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions on this site.

[Lori]

Thurm,

 

Not to threadjack -- if we want, this might even be worthy of a thread over in OTW -- but a few thoughts on your post:

Heinz was one of our very best, and "Death of a Racehorse" may well be the greatest deadline sports story ever written. My advice? Make Run To Daylight! the next book you read.

 

Here's some neat backstory about that book from "Heavyweight Champion of the Word," an appreciation by SI's Jeff MacGregor (no mere hack himself):

Heinz was skating on a backyard pond with Smith's son, Terry, during Christmas break in 1961 when Smith called to offer Heinz a book deal. Smith wanted him to cowrite a book with Vince Lombardi as part of a new series he was editing, a book that would take readers inside pro football. Heinz was already at work on a book, one that had grown out of his fascination with medicine. He had written a piece that year for LIFE magazine on J. Maxwell Chamberlain, a thoracic surgeon. He had watched three-dozen surgeries at Chamberlain's elbow and thought there was a novel in what he had seen. Heinz, being Heinz, wrote both.

 

The Lombardi book, which became Run to Daylight!, tested Heinz's patience as much as his skill. Lombardi was no storyteller and had a terrible memory for any kind of detail that wasn't an X or an O, so Heinz found himself filling his small Woolworth's notebooks with background from Marie, Lombardi's wife. He lived in their guest room for two weeks before the 1962 training camp, interviewing the coach every morning in his basement rec room to get the boilerplate epigrams about winning and losing and then talking to Marie in the afternoons for the color stuff, the psychology and personal history, while Vince played hurry-up, full-contact golf with Green Bay luminaries like Don Hutson and the local Pontiac dealer.

 

Heinz roomed with Lombardi through camp and preseason, a constant presence players dubbed "the shadow," those pale eyes behind the thick black glasses he wore then taking in everything while he filled those notebooks and Lombardi's office ashtrays. Over time they became guarded friends. Heinz has a sly sense of humor and to this day enjoys letting some air out of the pompous. Lombardi was, at times, as self-inflating as an expensive life raft. During the cocktail hour one night down in that rec room, Lombardi, in front of a large group of family and friends, barked, "Bill Heinz, wait'll you hear this! I got a letter the other day, and the only thing on the envelope was my picture and a stamp. But it came right here!"

 

Heinz didn't say anything. Bellows-chested and puffed full of himself, Lombardi needed an answer, an acknowledgment. "You're not impressed?"

 

Heinz paused. The room went quiet, just the sound of the ice in the glasses, everybody waiting for it.

 

"Coach," he said, "I'd be more impressed if your picture was on the stamp."

An acquaintance -- I'm guessing Tim has also crossed paths with him at quite a few hockey games -- wrote this shortly after Heinz died last year: Gare Joyce -- The cult of 'Death of a Racehorse'

Although nobody will ever mistake me for Gare, MacG, or Chris Jones (another great writer, and the guy who started the Red Smith Award petition GJ mentions in the story), I freely admit that I'm also a member of that cult.

[Thurman#1]

Thurm,

 

Not to threadjack -- if we want, this might even be worthy of a thread over in OTW -- but a few thoughts on your post:

Heinz was one of our very best, and "Death of a Racehorse" may well be the greatest deadline sports story ever written. My advice? Make Run To Daylight! the next book you read.

 

Here's some neat backstory about that book from "Heavyweight Champion of the Word," an appreciation by SI's Jeff MacGregor (no mere hack himself):

 

An acquaintance -- I'm guessing Tim has also crossed paths with him at quite a few hockey games -- wrote this shortly after Heinz died last year: Gare Joyce -- The cult of 'Death of a Racehorse'

Although nobody will ever mistake me for Gare, MacG, or Chris Jones (another great writer, and the guy who started the Red Smith Award petition GJ mentions in the story), I freely admit that I'm also a member of that cult.

 

 

Geez, I followed the two links to read the whole story. He wrote that on deadline? How is that even possible? It reads like he had been polishing it for weeks. Every word counts and there's not an extra one.

 

You got me all hopped up again now. I'll head over to amazon tonight and buy "Run to Daylight."

 

And I'd be on that thread if someone starts it, on great sportswriting. It could be long-continuing thing, with people recommending new stories, not to mention the old ones.

 

Thanks, Lori.

[The Dean]

Tim, there is another thread discussing your Madden ratings blog entry. I simply wondered why you decided to write it. Was this an edict from ESPN, as a part of their advertising/partnership contract with Madden, or did you decide to write it on the merits alone? If it was your decision, I'm curious as to why you found the ratings of this game to be worthy of an entry.

[TimGraham]

Tim, there is another thread discussing your Madden ratings blog entry. I simply wondered why you decided to write it. Was this an edict from ESPN, as a part of their advertising/partnership contract with Madden, or did you decide to write it on the merits alone? If it was your decision, I'm curious as to why you found the ratings of this game to be worthy of an entry.

 

 

I answered that over on the Madden thread. If I knew how to link to a certain post within a thread, I would. But I'm a certified moron.

[Dan III]

I answered that over on the Madden thread. If I knew how to link to a certain post within a thread, I would. But I'm a certified moron.

http://www.stadiumwall.com/index.php?showt...p;#entry1492305

[The Dean]

I answered that over on the Madden thread. If I knew how to link to a certain post within a thread, I would. But I'm a certified moron.

 

 

I saw it, Tim. Thanks.