Tuesday, December 31, 2013

2013 in Review: Buffalo Sports

by Steve

Yet another banner year of losing for Buffalo sports. Then again would we ever expect anything different?  From the UB Bulls to the Bills and Sabres, even throw in Canisius and Niagara basketball failing in the MAAC tournament and it was an utter clusterfuck of ineptitude losing and despair. How depressing..

The Bills basically doubled down on ineptitude and losing in 2013 unsurprisingly.  Of course, they went their typical 6-10 (third straight year and four out of five[last in the division for the sixth straight year]).  Not only was the AFC down in general but even the Patriots weren't as dominant as usually but the Bills nevertheless lost a lot more than they one making things taste just that much worse. 

How did they double down?  By hiring what appears to be an inept buffoon of a head coach.  He didn't bring in a qualified QB coach, he hired his cronies from pathetic Syracuse and had the quote of the year right near the end, "I am 110% certain EJ Manuel will play against the Patriots" ouch. The un-ironic thing about it all is that the coach's name almost spells moron (Doug Marrone). Not only did the Bills bungle the coach they apparently bungled the quarterback too.  They reached for a guy they weren't certain enough about to take at their original draft position and instead gambled on Manuel being available at 16 instead of 8.

Erik James was uninspiring for large portions of the season yet worse he barely played a majority of the season.  He missed two preseason and six regular season games because of three, yes THREE, different knee injuries in a four month span. Harrumph.

Let's move on to the Sabres.  They fired not one but two coaches, are an embarrassing laughing stock in the league (currently 30th out of 30 teams in points, 28 points out of first in their division) and are still waiting on novice "president" Pat LaFontaine to hire a GM.  But hey at least they have a lot of draft picks that may or may not work out in a few seasons.  Oh and we're still waiting to hear anything substantive from Terry Pegula.

Not depressed enough yet?  A couple quick hits:
  • There were rumors Jon Bon Jovi (with connections to billionaires in Toronto) was interested in buying the Bills.
  • Canisius and Niagara flamed out in the MAAC tournament even though both teams had high seeds and veteran players.
  • Niagara doubled down the sadness by losing Joe Mihalich to prestigious Hofstra.  Not only did he leave but he took young stud guard Jaun'Ya Green (first team all-maac as a sophomore and maac freshman of the year) and Ameen Tanksley with him.
  • UB flamed out in the semifinals of the MAC tournament and fired Reggie Witherspoon (a surprising highlight of '13).
  • The UB football team was on a roll for several weeks before flaming out embarrassingly to Bowl Green at "home" in Ralph Wilson Stadium and then got stomped in their second ever bowl game to SD State.  I'm still waiting on another extension for Jeff Quinn.
Holy god damn shit what a terrible awful year for Buffalo Sports.  I say it seemingly every year, things can't get worse, but who knows if this is the bottom?

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