Shank takes a trip to Buffalo to cover today's Patriots - Bills game, then says
next to nothing about the game he's ostensibly there to cover.
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — A year later, once again, we have Patriots, Bills, Red Sox, Orioles, and Yankees.
We have Ralph Wilson Stadium, Camden Yards, and Yankee Stadium.
We have a football coach hoping to make it to the Super Bowl, and a baseball manager scheduled for a firing squad at the end of the week.
It is the last weekend of September, and our local teams are playing the same opponents in the same places where they played at this time last year. Everything is the same . . . and everything is different.
Much like the content of this column. The casual Boston sports fan already knows what's going on with the Patriots and Red Sox; Shank simply restates the obvious in order to fill up column inches. He devotes three thin paragraphs on the subject he's allegedly in Buffalo to talk about:
The view is a little different now. The 2012 Patriots arrive in Buffalo with a two-game losing streak. They are in last place in the AFC East, trailing both the Bills and the hated Jets by a full game.
Once again, we have questions about the young New England defense. The Patriots couldn’t stop Joe Flacco in the fourth quarter last week at Baltimore, just as they couldn’t stop Harvard’s Ryan Fitzpatrick when they played in Buffalo last year.
We are no longer talking about the Patriots as a 16-0 team. We are no longer certain that they will finish first in the AFC East. The Patriots have lost three of their last four games. They are suddenly vulnerable.
At least we are updated on the important things, like "Where do New England area sportswriters go after a football game?"
A few hours after the football game, members of the New England media gathered at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo. It’s the birthplace of Buffalo wings. When you cover sports for a living and travel to Buffalo, you are required to close the Anchor Bar.
We did the job.
Bars in Buffalo
close at 4:00 AM. I know Mike will be
shocked, SHOCKED at Shank's revelation. Any bets that Shank wrote this column on the back of a napkin while he was waiting on his order of chicken and beer?
2 comments:
This is the same Shank who just four weeks ago said we'd see New England in the Super Bowl (presumably as participants), no?
Yep. Typical Bandwagon Shaughnessy.
I'll give him this much slack - he was hardly alone in the Lamestream Sports Media in thinking the Patriots were on a downward spiral entering this Buffalo game - but I doubt Shank will notice they won 52-28; he'll harp on them trailing 21-7 in the third.
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