Enough already. Cut the whining.
Bills fans — the North Country is loaded with them — need to stop embarrassing themselves. There is no vast conspiracy within the National Football League to rig games, to boost the fortunes of the Kansas City Chiefs, or to persecute the Buffalo Bills.
Just to be proactive, the Chiefs don’t have a server filled with naked pictures of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell; Taylor Swift did not use the $2 billion gross from the Eras Tour to pay off referees; there is no grassy knoll outside Arrowhead Stadium.
A steady drone of conspiracy theories have been floated since the Chiefs stopped the Bills, 32-29, in the AFC Championship Game in Kansas City. Like any NFL game, there were close calls that were debated by fans:
- Chiefs receiver Xavier Worthy wrestling the ball away from safety Cole Bishop as they tumbled to the turf, leading to a KC touchdown and a 21-10 lead.
- The positioning of the ball when Buffalo tight end Dalton Kincaid was tackled on third down with about 13 minutes to go.
- The forward progress of Josh Allen on the next play didn’t achieve a first down. KC took possession and scored.
The closer you get to Orchard Park, the louder the din on sportstalk radio and the Internet. About 57.4 million viewers watched the game on CBS. Bills interest has peaked locally, which was recognized when Ogdensburg’s WQTK-FM (92.7) joined the Buffalo radio network.
So as a former sports editor of the Rochester morning newspaper, as content editor for four Bills’ Super Bowl appearances, as a Bills fan since 1975, as a lacrosse and basketball referee who endures whiny fans throughout the winter and spring, let me put this controversy to rest. It was the Bills’ fault.
Five times in the playoff loss, the Bills attempted a quarterback sneak. Philadelphia originated the Tush Push; in Buffalo parlance, it is called the Snow Plow. During the regular season, the play worked 20 out of 21 times. Against KC, it failed three out of five times. Forget the spot, forget Clete Bateman’s officiating crew; win the line of scrimmage. Your front seven didn’t push KC’s front seven off the line of scrimmage.
The trouble with being a fan is that loyalty to your team and disappointment allow your psyche to entertain excuses.
I have three observations on how the course of public debate has become so mangled:
Age of opinion – Sportswriters have moved from reporting factual accounts of the game to interpreting players’ performances, coaches’ decisions and referees’ judgments. I chuckle when I read game stories that label playcalling as “putrid’’ and performance skills as “inept.’’ Remember the Baltimore writer who called Buffalo “a city of losers,’’ then declared he was stating “facts.’’ I thought it was amateurish 40 years ago when I saw several sportswriters in the Ohio State pressbox wearing the team’s colors (scarlet and gray); this generation can’t wait to trumpet its partisanship.
Unqualified authors – The definition of media, once the bastion of newspapers, TV news and radio, has grown to include any neophyte with a website, editing software or social media. They post screenshots that are out of context, insert voiceovers on highlights to support their opinion, feign outrage over playcalling and refereeing, and demand, without any credentials or deep insight, that coaches should be fired. Many are clueless about fair comment. They offer their opinions but pass them off as “facts’’ and “objectivity.’’
Greedy conspiracy theorists – These hacks are the worst. They post comments on social media that “it’s hard to beat the Chiefs and the refs.’’ They manipulate photos so that the NFL refs wear red stripes – Chiefs’ colors – or QB Patrick Mahomes handing a wad of cash to the refs on the field. Before Detroit was eliminated, Lions haters doctored a referee’s white hat to include a blue Lions logo.
The saddest example was on the Buffalo Pride Zone Facebook page, claiming seven referees from the playoff game were “suspended for an investigation into their potential involvement in one of the largest bribery scandals in history.’’ A Snopes fact check debunked the reports and learned the website originated in Vietnam and The Philippines. Gullible fans who click on these stories are generating advertising revenue for the web hosts.
Be assured that referees don’t conspire to “rig’’ games. Officiating is difficult enough when one must learn the mechanics of positioning, foul and violation recognition, and what contact to disregard, all while having to make instantaneous snap judgments.
Besides, I read on the Internet – so it must be true – that NFL refs were pre-occupied with faking the next moon landing.
Morristown native Jim Holleran is a retired teacher and sports editor from Rochester. Reach him at jimholleran29@gmail.com or view past columns under “Reflections of River Rat’’ at https://hollerangetsitwrite.com/blog/
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