Media Day: Free Food, Football, Fights

Among those intrepid souls who cover the National Football League, Wednesday is better known as Media Day, with reporters from print and electronic media receiving extended access to players and coaches, as well as conference calls with the opposing coach and a player, usually the quarterback.

This is necessary so that everyone in the local media can do the extensive reporting and analysis required to produce the exact same story previewing the coming week’s game.

During my days as a Bills beat writer, Media Day meant something even more important than pack journalism – free food.

I remember 1994 the most fondly. As a freelancer covering the team for The Associated Press, Shout! Magazine and anyone else who would toss a few bucks my way, Media Day was the foundation upon which my weekly food budget rested.

Sometime after 11 a.m. each Wednesday, a Bills intern would bring in a stack of pizzas and cartons of chicken wings from Ilio DiPaolo’s, the franchise’s restaurant of choice. I would make sure to eat enough that I wouldn’t need to worry about dinner. That was easy, since I had not eaten breakfast.

So the Bills missing the playoffs after seven straight postseason appearances, the last four ending in Super Bowl losses, presented an existential crisis. Not only did the evaporation of my primary source of income become imminent around the time Jim Kelly went down with a knee injury against Minnesota in Week 14, my food costs swelled by more than 16 percent as 1995 dawned.

A few years later, the Bills began serving the same food to the media that the players had for lunch – usually grilled poultry of some sort, vegetables and salad. Less satisfying, perhaps, but still free.

So the editorial board of We Want Marangi has declared every Wednesday to be Media Day, when we will present an assortment of media-related links and commentary from both the previous and approaching NFL weekends. Gotta buy your own pizza and wings, though.

BUTCHERED NAME THAT IS ACTUALLY AN IMPROVEMENT: Marv Albert, the CBS play-by-play guy for the Buffalo-New York game, referred to the Jets’ No. 10 as “San Antonio Holmes.”

TRUTH IN QUALIFIERS: Though the Jets themselves have given no indication that they trust Tim Tebow enough to let him throw a forward pass in an actual game, the Gotham press has done its best to promote the idea that there has been some sort of competition between Tebowie and fourth-year starter Mark Sanchez. In keeping with this mind-set, Albert referred to Sanchez as New York’s “alleged starting quarterback.”

UM, WHAT? “That’s the one thing Ryan Fitzpatrick can do,” said CBS analyst Rich Gannon, who has apparently never been taught the value of occasional, momentary silence during a broadcast. “He can drive opposing defensive coordinators crazy with his legs.”

Fitzpatrick is certainly no statue – he is more adept at avoiding pass rushers than, say, Trent Edwards and he finished 2011 with 215 yards rushing. That was good for third on the team. It also averages out to 13.4 yards per game. No defensive coordinator has ever spent more than 30 seconds worrying about the possibility of Fitzpatrick beating him on foot.

UM, WHAT (PART II)? Jets safety LaRon Landry, who has been criticized for dancing over Fred Jackson after the Buffalo running back was injured early on, was flagged for spearing Jackson’s replacement, C.J. Spiller, early in the fourth.

Since network analysts and play-by-play men are forbidden by a jocular code that forbids any serious criticism of the National Football League or its participants, Gannon got a good chuckle out of the helmet-first hit by Landry. He worded his obvious amusement rather oddly.

“Laron Landry, really trying to lay the wood today,” Gannon said.

Seems something like that should be good for more than a 15-yard penalty.

GODFATHER REFERENCE OF THE WEEK: Discussing the mysterious non-performance by Buffalo’s highest-paid player ever, defensive end Mario Williams, Mike Schopp may have retired the trophy in this category during WGR’s post-game show.

“Could have been Mario Puzo out there today,” Schopp  said.

Anybody can drop names like Vito, Sonny, Michael or even Fredo Corleone. Someone clever might find a way to work Luca Brasi into their football analysis. Spontaneously (I’m assuming) coming up with the author of the novel upon which the epic cinematic saga is based, is a different game entirely.

Well played, Mr. Schopp. Well played.

FIGHT! Brawls between fans of opposing teams -- and quite often, fans of the same team -- are part of the NFL's rich pageantry. Kissing Suzy Kolber (a much funnier blog than this one -- you should probably just go there now) brings us, via Youtube, a bit of fun from MetLife Stadium, formerly known as Giants Stadium, or the Meadowlands, or Where The Jets Play Too, Because No One Wants To Build Them Their Own Damn Stadium.

In defense of the Bills fans involved, they were badly outnumbered. Even if they did put up about as much fight as Buffalo's defense.