I eventually grew up, traveled much more, even lived in a hotel for a year and a half (overflow housing at Binghamton), and realized that beloved Walden Galleria hotel was just a chain. A clean chain, a safe chain, a very nice hotel for a 14 year old on a Girl Scout trip to a large regional mall, but still…a chain.

So part of me was taken aback when Tom Brady may have taken a swipe at Buffalo hotels in a Super Bowl press conference on Wednesday. You don’t like Buffalo hotels? You specifically felt the need to call out Buffalo hotels? I’m sorry that the Rust Belt-but-still-surviving city of Buffalo doesn’t suit the taste of you, your Brazilian supermodel wife and your two small children who honestly just get excited to go swim in a hotel pool regardless of its Triple A star status.

Then the more rational, less defensive, and Boston conditioned side of me took over. He may have a point. Brady only sees Buffalo and the surrounding area during its coldest and grayest months. He’s not spending long periods of time there (unless he gets snowbound in the Hyatt in Rochester after the World Junior Hockey Championships prevent him and his teammates from lodging in Buffalo.) And the hotels around Orchard Park, much like the hotels around Brady’s home stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, are like the ones near the Walden Galleria: generic chains or sketchy motor inns best suited for home hair dyed hookers. (Nothing against home hair dye.)

Maybe it was not the best statement to make in public. Maybe he should have picked on Green Bay. (They’re small market too. They just…market their quaintness and sausages better?) But in the grand scheme of awful remarks to make, Brady’s jab ranks pretty low.

(I wrote this post Wednesday evening, before Tim Graham of the Buffalo News summed up Brady’s remarks and Buffalo’s knee jerk reaction perfectly Thursday morning. Read his column here. Brady isn’t the first athlete to bash Buffalo’s tourism, and most likely will not be the last.)

Another note: if any Western New Yorker uses this as an excuse to root for the Giants, I will…shake my head disappointingly (I’m not good with threats.) The Giants are not New York’s horse in this race; they are New Jersey’s. They are just as inherently unlikable as the Patriots. Remember the poorly officiated and entirely devastating Super Bowl XXV? Why would you even consider rooting for the team that caused Bills fans so much heartache twenty-one years ago?

After reviewing the press conference transcript, I decided to decipher Belichick’s statements, and translate them into what he really wanted to say about the Bills.

Belichick said: “Chan [Gailey] and his staff have done a real good job with that team.”

What he meant: ”At least Gailey has kept his job, despite an inability to make smart decisions in the red zone for the last half of the season. He’s done better than, say, Todd Haley. So there’s that.”

Belichick said: “They do a lot of things well; they’re not penalized much.”

What he meant: “The Bills may not be penalized much, but they also make brainless mistakes and mismanage the clock. The way Ryan Fitzpatrick has handled the play clock in the last few games, you would think he never played with one in the Ivy League. So what’s worse?

“And when I say they do a lot of things well, I mean their owners haven’t drawn the intense ire of their stadium’s neighbors by trying to build a Las Vegas style casino on a stretch of road where the traffic resembles sausage being pressured into casing. So there’s that. Oh, and I guess you could give them some credit for those new uniforms. So yes, they do a lot of things well.”

Belichick said: “You have to play good football against them, obviously a lot better than we played the last time. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that but it’s not easy.”

What he meant: “You have to not have a horrific record setting yard allowing defense against the Bills. Then again, that’s the same for every team we’ve played this season. Controlling the inabilities of our defense will be key not just for this week against the potential spoiler Bills, but in the playoffs. Some question our defensive leadership and coaching, but here’s a fun note about my defensive staff: if you add up the ages of the two coaches realistically in charge of the defense – Matt Patricia and Josh Boyer – they are still roughly thirty years younger than Ralph Wilson and Marv Levy.

“But our defense can allow all the yards they want – unless Gailey uses a back besides Tashard Choice in the red zone on Sunday, our questionable defense may be able to keep the Bills at bay.”

Belichick said: “They do a lot of things well; return the ball well. ”

What he meant: “They did a lot of things well, until 17 of them ended up on the injured reserve and they subsequently tanked the rest of the season. I mentioned returning the ball well because it was the only thing I could think of to praise them on. In reality, the Bills only have one return touchdown this year, and rank 22nd in the league in that category. But they are better than we are – my Patriots are a dour 29th.”

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Buffalo Bills fans aren’t taking Sunday’s matchup against the Patriots lightly. Northtown Automotive, the “official car dealer of the Buffalo Bills”, posted this as their weekend billboard in Buffalo.

The Northtown Automotive billboard for NFL Week 17. (From the Buffalo Bills Twitter account)

I’ll be in the Gillette Stadium crowd on Sunday afternoon, wearing Bills gear and holding my breath. I probably won’t be Tweeting (see my Gillette Stadium guide from earlier this week for why), but I’m sure I’ll share my thoughts as soon as I am able.

The Bills were playing the Tim Tebow led Denver Broncos at 1pm on Christmas Eve. Even though the miracle Broncos had been snuffed by the New England Patriots the week before, the consensus was that the hopeless and injured Bills would lose.

On top of that, the game would be blacked out in the Buffalo and Rochester areas because Ralph Wilson Stadium did not sell out. In some markets, an owner will buy out the remainder of the tickets to ensure a sold out game, but Bills owner Ralph Wilson (or whomever is acting on his behalf these days) did not. To add to that, the Bills had squandered a successful first half of the season to fall to a 5-9 record, with no chance of the playoffs in sight. Add to that the general pessimism surrounding the Bills’ brass after they signed shaky starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to a long term contract but have yet to restructure key cog running back Fred Jackson’s deal (they have merely “assured” him of one, but haven’t inked anything official.)

Given all of that negativity, why would a social media manager ask such a question? You could expect at least eighty percent bitter responses. But the Bills’ asked, and here are some of the actual responses they received:

The Facebook comments section – several hundred deep – felt like a big group therapy session, or at least an extremely curmudgeonly family Christmas dinner. Surprisingly, the Bills pulled out the upset and used a strong day on defense to defeat the Broncos 40-14.

Was it harmless for the Bills to ask such a question via social media, or does it illustrate how out of touch they may be with their fan base?

Sunday’s poor showing by Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson is a glaring example. His post-touchdown mime of New York Jets wide receiver Plaxico Burress’s accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound and a declining jet plane drew an unnecessary penalty (though it is somewhat amusing to see the Jets handed a taste of their own bombastic overstating medicine.) Johnson can’t claim naivety – he’s been a wide receiver in the National Football League for four years. He knows that the Merton Hanks, Deion Sanders and Terrell Owens post-play antics of the past are now looked down upon. But he did his display anyway, drew the penalty, and thus caused the chaotic kickoff that resulted in very favorable field placement and subsequent touchdown for the Jets.

Johnson then miffed two key catches on the last drive of the game – catches that presented a clear and easy run route ahead of him, and would have resulted in a game winning touchdown. Given that Sunday’s game was a must-win to keep the Bills relevant in the AFC playoff picture, that touchdown would have been the most important of the season to that date. The lack of extra hustle by Johnson to make them – or at least outstretch his arms a bit more and read the pass better – is disappointing.

Will any of Johnson’s lack of effort and focus – as demonstrated by the dropped catches and post-TD performance – be punished by the Bills? If history repeats itself, probably not.

The Bills have lacked systematic accountability since the days of Marv Levy. Levy was a coach that installed and rewarded responsible and vocal captains in the locker room and on the field, and didn’t mince words or actions himself. The Johnson/Flutie years saw some strong in-team leadership as well. Since then, the Bills coaching staff and roster have been more about leniency than accountability. Neither Chan Gailey or his predecessor Dick Jauron seem interested in asking for and expecting more from their team, and let antics and egotistical play slide, whereas in other NFL organizations it is not. And is it any surprise that the organizations that are most hard nosed about such things, like the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers, have a history of winning? (Further, if you read Michael Holley’s excellent War Room, you can see that while the Patriots still have a hard nosed coach, a lack of locker room leadership eroded the team at times, and it has shown since 2008.)

One could even surmise that this inability to discipline their team does not solely rest on the coaching staff, but the front office who hires such unaccountable coaching staffs and the owner, who we are unsure is even still alive. Buffalo’s front office showed a strong valuation of character and responsibility when late general manager John Butler was in charge, but began to wane when he departed for the San Diego Chargers. Ralph Wilson has been largely absentee for years, and his lack of leadership regarding key issues is apparent. Other owners get involved and step in when a lack of discipline is sullying their brand. When the Pittsburgh Steelers have their various situations of poor character, their owner, Dan Rooney, hurriedly steps in and tries to right the ship.

It is when owners are absentee, or when they relish a spirit of personality rather that team (categories the late Raiders owner Al Davis both fell into in points of his career), then lack of discipline runs rampant. You can’t expect a return on your investment if players think more of their own worth than the organization’s.

So Johnson’s Sunday antics may be making the national headlines today for their content, but what they are really indicative of is a culture of mediocrity and a lack of responsibility within the Bills. That Johnson had the sense that an extended touchdown celebration that would cost his team was worth it speaks to the inability of the Bills organization to instill a sense of responsibility across the board. The lack of effort Johnson showed on the final drive speaks to the lack of expectations instilled by the coaching staff. Until the Bills start seeking more from those that they hire across the board, they will be bottom feeders, and us fans, the laughing stocks of our non-Bills fans. How long must fans waste our time sticking up for an inept organization?

The article proclaims Buffalo as the “last simple place in the NFL.” But the article shows the very opposite. The rest of the nation sees being so tied and loyal to a football team as simple; but actually, if the Bills and Western New York were in a Facebook relationship, we’d have to check off, “It’s Complicated.”

For example, the Buffalo Bills regionalization plan isn’t exactly simple – nor is it exactly new or limited to NFL football. The Bills became the first NFL team to regionalize marketing in an effort to grow a fan base. Now team vice-president Russ Brandon’s regionalization plan kicked off in 1999 – years before the team’s Toronto series started. Brandon kicked off this plan by moving training camp to Rochester, opening a ticket office in Pittsford Plaza, and engaging the Syracuse community in marketing plans. Regionalization isn’t new – before the Bills existed, the 1940s and 1950s Cleveland Browns engaged in a more primitive form of extended reach, leaving pockets of Browns fans as far out as Syracuse to this day.

Regionalization is also not an idea limited to the Bills – many entities have gone regional in an effort to survive. Currently, TV news in the area is going regional – Time Warner local news is now run out of Buffalo for both Buffalo and Rochester. Colleges are going regional – Medaille College, located down the street from the Buffalo Zoo, opened a robust Rochester campus a few years back.

So regional marketing is not simple – it’s a strategic and complicated decision to keep entities afloat. And it’s a decision that would not work everywhere – it works in Buffalo and Rochester because inherently the two cities are tied to each other’s fates – geographically close, but philosophically closer.

The Bills’ emotional impact in the area – an idea demonstrated in the Yahoo! piece by the fact that Buffalo workers are much more productive the days after a Bills win – is also not exactly simple. Western New Yorkers are more tied to the Bills than most areas are to a sports franchise because it provides a sense of belonging and a horizontal allegiance for a geographical area that has always seemed rejected by two countries. We have Canadian tendencies, but Canada wants nothing to do with us. Like them, we tell long stories because we have to kill a lot of time indoors during the winter. We make idle chatter in grocery stores because, like Canadians, we’re too friendly. We have strange Canadian like accents. And we share Canada’s love affair with hockey and lacrosse. That Canadian way of living elicits scorn from the rest of the United States. Canada labels us pretenders and the United States laughs in our faces. Thus Western New Yorkers tightly grasp the allegiance that the Bills provides us. It is an identifier for an area outsiders do not wish to acknowledge.

The Bills also are a barometer of the economic fate of the region – another “simple” fact alluded to in the Yahoo! article. When the Rust Belt wrapped itself along the Great Lakes, the Bills suffered. Bills football became the escape for the downtrodden and out-of-work lower middle class abandoned by the flight of manufacturing jobs, but that football suffered because the economy was in the tank. Buffalo and Rochester have now started to find their way by engaging in the tech and education industries, becoming the two fastest growing areas economically in New York. And as that economic recovery starts up, the Bills have gotten better.

So to say that Bills football is simple could be considered misleading. There are few sports entities that are so embedded in the identity of a geographic area like the Bills are. The Bills are a cultural touchpoint and regional indicator instead of an aggressively promoted pastime. Let’s put it bluntly – there are not too many sports franchises you can make so many doctoral thesis style points about. But you can about the Bills.

First off, we had Buffalo Bills punter Brian Moorman’s athletic jump of celebration onto the shoulders of kicker Rian Lindell after he kicked the game winning field goal to give the Bills their first win over the Patriots since my first week of classes in my senior year of college (2003.) Sure, the hurdle onto Lindell was a tad on the awkward side, but I assume emotions just got the best of Moorman. After all, both players were on that 2003 team, and have experienced the frustration of the Bills against the Patriots first hand.

Brian Moorman and Rian Lindell celebrate the Buffalo Bills win over the New England Patriots. (Photo: Yahoo! Sports)

Later in the day, we had the gutsy, “carry the team on my back” move by Red Sox 2nd baseman Dustin Pedroia as he tried valiantly to score against the Yankees. As he approached home, he saw Yankees catcher Austin Romine fumble the catch and he leapt over him to try to score the run.

Dustin Pedroia leaps over Austin Romine. (Photo: Yahoo! Sports)

Two games involving Boston teams, two giant leaps.

Truth be told, I don’t mind the delayed start. I was able to approach the draft and subsequent roster moves with the feeling of being over-prepared for a test. On the plus side, I could see who had potential beyond their draft ranking. I could see what teams’ defense are weak and will allow for offensive players to rack up the points on them.

But, much like being over-prepared for a test, I went into drafts and lineups over-confident on picking upon Week 1 performances that may not end up indicating a darn thing. I picked up Buffalo Bills’ tight end Scott Chandler as my backup TE after his stellar performance against the Kansas City Chiefs, but he’s somewhat of an unknown quantity. Will that pick turn out to be a good one, or was I too motivated upon a performance that may be an anomaly?

The other plus to a late starting fantasy football league? A second chance. I started 0-1 in my other league, which is not quite the end of the world. But when you’re playing only 12 of those 16 weeks of the regular season, it can seem like it. Starting off another team in another league renews your enthusiasm.

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I hope the Buffalo Bills defeat the Oakland Raiders this afternoon for a very selfish reason. My high school’s colors were black and silver, and our uniforms always looked especially Raider like. The Raiders were the second biggest NFL team among the kids in my neighborhood on Rochester’s East side, where I grew up, so my classmates and neighbors coveted Raiders memorabilia. 

One fall, my parents’ dryer was broken and they couldn’t afford to replace it right away. All of our clothes were hung on the clothes line in the side yard – including my sister’s modified soccer jersey, a black and silver long sleeve with a giant silver number on the back. The jersey had been on the line all of four minutes when we saw a flash of a boy run through the side yard, grab the jersey and run. He thought he had snagged a Raiders jersey, but he would soon find out he had grabbed a girls modified soccer jersey.

So in a bit of revenge for all of the School of the Arts jerseys mistaken for Raiders jerseys and stolen over the years, I hope the Bills beat the Raiders.

On Tuesday, Rochester’s NBC affiliate reported that Levy will soon be releasing his first novel, entitled Between the Lies. Of course, the 288 page book takes place within the world of professional football.

Levy definitely followed the old writer adage, “Write what you know,” because the quarterback of one of the novel’s two key teams has a pretty familiar name:

“And there’s a quarterback named “Kelly James,” who Levy acknowledges resembles his former Bills star, Jim Kelly.”

Is there nothing this octogenarian can’t do? (Okay non-Bills fans, insert snarky “Win Super Bowls, haha!” comment here.) The man just turned 86 years old, and he’s releasing a novel. I hope I am as active as he is when I’m that old.

Are you a fan of Wes Welker, Danny Woodhead and Julian Edelman? Of course. You like them for their grit, their playmaking abilities, their chemistry with quarterback Tom Brady, and their ability as kick/punt returners. You also like them because they’re shorter than normal football players, and have found success in the NFL regardless of the freakishly large men around them.

If you adore what Welker, Woodhead and Edelman do for your team, then you need to cross team allegiance lines and thank the man who blazed their path twenty years ago: Steve Tasker.

Those who have read this blog for a while know my feelings on Tasker. I think it is honestly ridiculous that the legendary Buffalo Bill is not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He, along with his special teams minded coaches, made the position of kick returner/punt returner/wide receiver what it is today.

The 5-9, 183 pound Tasker defined the idea of a shorter statured wide receiver finding success in special teams. He used his short-and-stout body type as a positive and plowed over, around and through defenders double his size. He returned kicks and punts for touchdowns. He blocked kicks and punts, took down other kick returners, and mired the Bills’ opponents deep in their own territory or gave the Bills’ offense back the ball immediately. Tasker would just throw himself in front of whomever had the ball – the kicker, the kick returner, whomever – and make their life at that moment in time a living hell. He also had grit and determination that showed on every play – no matter if his team was dominating the early 1990s AFC or in the midst of being embarrassed by the Dallas Cowboys in a Super Bowl. One of football’s most influential football minds, Bill Parcells, once admitted that he had to change his entire special teams game plan specifically for Tasker.

Tasker made seven Pro Bowl teams, seven All Pro teams, and is considered one of the top ten players never to make it into the Hall of Fame. Voters are hesitant to elect him to Canton because he only played on special teams, though it is well documented that the main reason Bills’ head coach Marv Levy held him out of the offense because he feared injuring their key special teams player. You can see Levy’s logic at work: because of his work defending kickoffs and punts, Tasker got his offense the ball back much quicker, giving them more opportunities to score each game.

I’ll grant you that Tasker was used differently than Welker, Edelman and Woodhead are on the Patriots’ offense and special teams. The three aren’t used as much defensively as Tasker was. But had Tasker not been used the way he was, and had he not been so valuable to the Buffalo Bills, NFL coaches might not be so inclined to use smaller wide receivers and kick returners the way they currently do. In the lineage of NFL offensive players, Tasker begat Welker, Edelman and Woodhead. The three would have had less of a chance to succeed had Tasker not given opponents fits and his team such an advantage in the 1990s.

So Patriots fans, cross those party lines and give credit where credit is due. Steve Tasker made the quick, gritty and short wide receiver who can make an impact on special teams a desirable commodity. If Hall of Famer Levy is to be celebrated for his creation and curation of modern special teams play, then Canton should induct the pen with which Levy wrote his special teams manifesto: Tasker.

Sincerely,

Kat

P.S. Need video proof? Here’s some for you:

NFL Network’s package on Tasker as the ninth best player not in the Hall of Fame

Every time I visit my hometown, I am on the hunt for Buffalo Bills merchandise that I wouldn’t be able to find online or even in the most overarching of Massachusetts sports stores. I found the perfect item on the last day of my vacation at In The Zone, a sports collectable store in the Mall at Greece Ridge in Rochester, NY.

Yes, that is a Buffalo Bills purse.

It’s actually one of the most practical purses I’ve ever bought. It is made from heavy duty fabric, has several pockets, and is roomy enough for me to use on the commute to and from work. It also has studs on the bottom corners to prevent the bag from getting ruined.

Not a Bills fan, or not in Rochester? Don’t worry. The purse is created by Charm 14 New York, and they have an entire line of classy and practical sports handbags available online. Look at this one for the Boston Red Sox fans among us:

And this one, which immediately made me think of my friend Sara:

Charm 14′s sport handbags are between $17.95 for a wrislet and $35.95 for the tote (though I did get my tote for less at In The Zone – pricing in stores seem to vary.) They also have wholesale packs for sale, perfect for if I ever open the SportsGirlKat gift shoppe. (And if you want to give me some kind of funding or location towards the SportsGirlKat gift shoppe, you know how to contact me.)