“Just when do you compromise your beloved "culture" for a player with elite talents?”
—Mike Schopp - WGR550.radio.com - 2/14/19
https://wgr550.radio.com/articles/opinion/can-we-least-talk-about-antonio-brown
“Back in the day we used to tell players we'd send them to Siberia, aka Green Bay, when they'd ask for a trade. Now I guess it's Buffalo.”
—Gil Brandt (@Gil_Brandt) - Twitter - 12:57 AM - 3/8/19
“Brown turns 31 in July and Buffalo has been a virtual black hole for wide receivers in recent years --- their top wideout in 2018, Zay Jones, tallied just 652 receiving yards on 52 catches -- so the seven-time Pro Bowler could have decided to either retire or hold out rather than play for the Bills.”
—Darren Hartwell - www.nbcsports.com/boston - 3/8/19
“All fun and games until it's Week 3 and Josh Allen short hops his 55th pass at AB's feet.”
—Will Brinson - Twitter (@WillBrinson) - 3/7/19
“If AB was mad at the occasional bad throw by Big Ben, imagine how pissed he is going to be playing with the least accurate QB in the league. Sheesh.”
—@FF_DownUnder - Twitter - 3/7/19
You are probably wondering why am I quoting a bunch of internet rubbish from February and March of 2019? Well, in case you’ve been living under a rock, the news broke, on 9/5/19, that The Raiders’ GM, Mike Mayock, had a little dust-up with The Golden 'Stache (a.k.a. Antonio Brown) that we—Buffalo Bills fans—WE so tragically missed out on. In fact, the very same Will Brinson who so adroitly trolled the Bills and Josh Allen in his 3/7/19 Twitter post, quoted above, wrote the following, today, of the former Steel-City Savior:
“The Oakland Raiders probably regret their investment into Antonio Brown already, given that the team is planning to suspend the star wide receiver before the season even begins after he got into some kind of incident/altercation/heated argument with GM Mike Mayock, according to a report from Adam Schefter of ESPN.“
—Will Brinson - www.cbssports.com/nfl/news - 9/5/19
In case you, dear reader, wish to read the entire article, here’s the whole juicy morsel:
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/raiders-reportedly-planning-to-suspend-antonio-brown- after-incident-between-wr-and-gm-mike-mayock/
And, of course Brinson and the Twitter-verse rabble may be laughing at the Raiders, now, but I’ve found nary a mea culpa from the Bills hater-aide purveyors out there. Brinson and the Anti-Bills-Trolls are keen to cackle at The Chuckie and Mayock Show, but they can’t seem to tune their rabbit-ear televisions onto this imminently clear fact:
They.
Were.
Wrong.
Wrong for saying the Bills were made the fools for “missing out” on Brown. Wrong to try and pin it on the arm of Josh Allen. Wrong to think that we missed the boat, or became a worse team, or lost the lottery when Beane turned his nose up at the stink wafting off Brown’s attitude. McBeane could probably smell it drifting over the Alleghenies. But what do we hear from the hater-aide purveyors?
Crickets.
Typical...
But tonight—Bills Mafia—we can rejoice in the knowledge that we aren’t suffering through a Whaley Fever-Dream, where “all it takes to win are players and winning.” Far from it, ladies and gents; this McBeane-led team is a fundamentally different operation than Bills teams of the past. I see this whole long-burning story as further confirmation that the Buffalo brass are making wise—not brash—decisions, moving doggedly in the right direction. We all should know that the pundits won’t admit that this latest Brown bombshell should suffice to prove that McBeane was right. I have no beef with the Raiders; in fact, I half-heartedly feel bad for them, in light of the Brown debacle. Gruden took on Peterman, and gave the G.O.A.T. of INTs a second chance. As much as we mocked him, you have to admit that The Peter-Man handled his weekly meltdowns with dignity and class. I’ll always pull for the kid. No, I’m not penning this op-ed while laughing at the Raiders; I’m laughing at the anti-Buffalo media. Come on: have a good chuckle with me. We deserve it!
In closing, Schopp: I guess to answer your question—“When do you compromise your beloved ‘culture' for a player with elite talents?”
Two words: you don’t...
There will be more players every year: another crop of coachable young men, some with great motivation who haven’t been given the structure, services, and guidance that others receive. This pre-season alone, we have seen how some of the strongest performances came from our two least-heralded picks: 7th rounders Darryl Johnson and Tommy Sweeney. The back of the back of the back of the 2019 Draft Class. And how does this kind of thing work? This kind of diamond-in-the-rough finding? I’m apt to believe, on the eve of 2019’s NFL debut, that sound choices, strong coaching, attention to detail, brotherhood, hard work, and the much-maligned term “culture” may hold some real power, after all.
I’m proud to be a Bills fan, tonight.
Now let’s go wallop the Jets! —Tim Avery