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Bills/Dolphins rivalry heads north By Jim Krencik When the Buffalo Bills agreed to play five regular season games in Toronto, most fans wanted this year’s Canada game to be against Seattle, Oakland or San Francisco. The games looked to be the easiest for Western New Yorkers to give away to Ted Rogers, but instead SkyDome will be treated to Buffalo’s biggest rival. The NFL schedule revealed that Miami, a division opponent and longtime rival, would be the opponent for the moved game. At first it was disappointing that this would be the lost game, but there’s two big reasons why this is the right decision. If ownership is serious about this road trip being an attempt to grow the team’s fanbase — which they probably aren’t — then the most spirited matchup of the season is the way to do it. A passionless game against the Seahawks won’t bring in new fans. Sixty minutes of Bills/Dolphins will. The NFL also helped Buffalo by scheduling this season’s other Bills/Dolphins game not too early in the year. Buffalo will lose home-field advantage Dec. 7, but by not playing Miami until Oct. 26, the NFL has neutered the Dolphins of their home-field advantage — the ridiculous September humidity of Southern Florida. It hurts to lose that snowy showdown with Miami, but they didn’t gain an advantage when they hosted. It might be the beginning of some dark days for the Bills, but hopefully it’s not much better for Miami either. Tejada’s Birthday Surprise ESPN’s “Gotcha!” interview with Houston Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada, in which it was revealed that Tejada is two years older than previously known, proved two things. One is that the sports media is willing to embarass athletes for lesser actions after being blind to the steroid era despite having a presence in locker rooms across sports. Tejada, like many Latin American baseball prospects, lied his age down in an effort to be better viewed by scouts (a 15-year-old who can hit like a 17-year-old is more impressive than a 17-year-old acting his age). Lying is bad, but this is baseball’s little white lie. There are some good investigative journalists at ESPN, but this was shallow. Secondly, Tejada was able to progress into an all-star in part because he was given extra time to develop as a player. Every team in majors has a guy somewhere in the minor-league system that is older than he says, earning him an extra chance others don’t have. But since it’s proven that some of these guys are late-bloomers, why don’t teams ignore age at the lower rungs of the baseball pyramid? Giving guys one more chance would clog the minors somewhat, but with most teams having at least five teams — AAA, AA, High A, Low A, Rookie as well as teams in the Dominican Republic and Venezeula — in the minors there’s enough space for everyone showing at least some progress and promise |
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