AFC EastI really can't stand the city of
Boston (well, from a sports perspective, it's a nice city outside of that). But, I will say that I've generally found their coverage on the Patriots to be outstanding. When I was doing this it was in the Parcells-Carroll and early Belichick years. Nothing really glaring here in that they really liked Parcells at first and then soured on him as he left. Same with Carroll. That stuff happens. They seemed lukewarm on Belichick. His first season stunk, but they blamed it on Carroll. Use to really rip Belichick on their first 2 drafts, but after that they won the Super Bowl and all was forgiven. It is what it is.
Much tougher on the Red Sox than they've ever been on the other teams and I rarely read stuff on the Red Sox because my thoughts on them are similar to my thoughts on herpes.
Buffalo is homer city. I really don't get it. They'll rip on the team for a nano-second, then Ralph Wilson will come out and say something and all is forgiven. I can tell you point blank that the majority of the Buffalo press was for the Rob Johnson over Flutie move. Of course, they blame that on Wade Phillips (from reading it was obvious that it was Ralph Wilson's urging because they spent so much money on Johnson)
Miamipress generally never said much until Jimmy Johnson became the HC. Believe me, they were very pro-Jimmy. They were really sick of Shula, but they couldn't say it too loudly because Shula is such an icon in the city. This is where the Dallas press is different. They loved to bash Landry in his latter years. They also bashed Jimmy quite a bit, but Jimmy was perceived as so crazy that he might just go and bash your head in. Plus, they needed 2 Super Bowls and finally they shut up. In a place like Miami, Shula and Marino were basically off limits.
Now it's sorta sad because the city generally doesn't care much anymore. Other teams have had more success and better stadiums and they've never even come close to recovering from Marino's retirement.
NY Jets were sorta like a sad sack for many years and had this weird, sorta self depracting humor about themselves. The other pro NY teams don't get that. For years it was like the Jets were expected to be bad and the only real hollering came was when they were really god awful. Even the Mets don't get that treatment. Really weird. Now I don't follow the NY papers much anymore, but this is undoubtedly the most I've seen the press like both head coaches for both football teams, ever. On a sidenote, a family friend of mine worked for the Jets for close to 15 years. His perception of Bill Parcells as a person is quite good and his perception of Belichick as a person is quite bad. When they wrote that book about Belichick a few years ago and how Parcells ripped into him after a blitz Belichick called had worked...there was a good reason why Parcells ripped into Belichick. Of course, the book never goes into that because apparently, Belichick is a perfect and infallible human being
AFC NORTH
Pittsburgh press? C'mon.
I beleive the
Cleveland press only rips into the Browns because they've been so bad for so long that they have to rip into them. But, they are dying for the Browns to be good. They didn't like Belichick because the team wasn't doing good and the press there really likes to get into the X's and O's and Belichick ain't giving out X's and O's. But what was worse is he would talk down to the press and they pride themselves on their football knowledge. I tend to think that the Cleveland press is probably a bunch of homers, but since they've been so unsuccessful they have no choice but to rip into the organization. However, come draft day they are very optimistic.
Baltimore one team I haven't read a ton of because when they came back to Baltimore, the press and fans were just happy to have them there. Very defensive oriented press and really endear themselves to the Ravens style of football. One of those situations where if a new coach took over and the team was just as successful, but was an electric passing offense with a soft defense, they would eschew it completely (at least I believe that would happen). A press like Pittsburgh's would find a way to embrace it because hey...they're the Steelers.
Cincinnati reminds me of Michael Moore's movie 'Sicko' where Moore visits England and starts talking to an elderly scholar about how people in power run things. He basically said that if people don't like what's going on, those in power will try to strike fear in the people. And when that doesn't work...they'll make the people feel like it's a hopeless situation and they can do nothing about it. That's the Cincy press. Yeah, rip into Mike Brown...but it's been a long time now and they just look at it like it's a hopeless situation. They take joy in any little success the Bengals have...then come right back and say that Mike Brown will screw it up.
AFC SOUTHIndy's press is pretty non-existent. In fact, they seem whiny if anything.
Houston's press was another 'glad to have you here.' They also ripped into the Cowboys every chance they could. Now they are basically fed up with Kubiak.
Jacksonville's press mainly just rips into Del Rio and his style of football. They don't touch on the players very much.
Tennessee's press really didn't have much to say until Vince Young came there. They really liked Fisher, don't really like Bud Adams, but they liked that he brought them to Nashville.
AFC WESTRaiders fans have blind loyalty towards Al Davis. I really believe that they are more into the persona and mystique of the Raiders more than they are into winning games. The
Oakland press is weird because one second they really hate the Raiders because of Al Davis' horrible decisions, the Raiders being secretive, the Raiders lying to them, and just the overall tension between the Raiders and the press. Then the next second they'll talk about how great the Raiders are. LOTS of reminiscing on the old Raiders teams there. Really weird team here. I used to be a big fan of Ray Ratto as a writer. Haven't read him in years, though.
Kansas City. Outside of Jason Whitlock most of them are fanboys of the team although there was a stretch where they were fed up with Lamar Hunt. Now he's passed away and a new regime is in and it's back to being fanboys. Whitlock is from Indianpolis and had no bias towards the Chiefs so it's good to read his thoughts on the Chiefs from a guy who is close to the team. However, his Jeff George love (yeah I know, they played HS football together) is absurd which is too bad coming from a guy who at times...is superbly talented.
Denver press was probably more tough on the Broncos than most people think. They were fanboys for Shanahan, but more or less despised Brian Griese and hated every QB after Elway...but would still stick up for Shanahan. Where it gets strange is that once he signed Plummer for big $$$ they started to question Shanny, but he made it work. But once they lost to the Steelers in the AFC Championship game...the love affair with Shanny starting to end. And then when they drafted Cutler they really liked Cutler, but were starting to sour on Shanny. Then Cutler gets traded and they ripped him to shreds. Still, compared to the Dallas press with the Cowboys they are lightweights.
San Diego- Rarely heard anything that bad or unsubstantiated. They ripped Ryan Leaf to shreds...well, he deserved it. They were on the fence in the AJ Smith vs. Schottenheimer feud....well, that's something to be on the fence about.
I'll go over the NFC teams in the next post
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