NBC Sports’ Mike Florio, the most insidery of insider NFL writers, wrote a post yesterday headlined “The saber-rattling over the new Buffalo Bills stadium officially has begun.” In it, Florio wrote:
Although the initial story from the Buffalo News expressly stated that the team had made “no overt threats” to leave town, something far closer to an overt threat has happened…
“The Pegulas have made a proposal,” [Bills spokesperson Jim] Wilkinson said. “They would like to build it right there [in Orchard Park] and we need to hear back. You can’t really do plans and designs on things until you have a deal, and right now the City of Buffalo and the State [of New York] are going to have to decide if they want a team.”
So far, so good: Decide if you want a team is indeed closer to an overt threat, in almost exactly the same way as “Paratroopers — be a shame if someone was to set fire to them.” And that’s exactly what saber-rattling refers to: Making threats that are designed to win concessions through intimidation, whether or not you ever plan on following through on them.
Scroll down to the end of Florio’s post:
For the first time, the Pegulas (through their paid spokesman) have sent a clear message to the world that, if they don’t get what they want — i.e., if the public officials in and around Buffalo decide they don’t want a team — the Pegulas will take the team to a place that does.
Wait, what? That’s not a clear message at all. Sure, it’s possible that the Pegulas intend to take their team and move to, say, Greensboro if they don’t get a ton of public cash for a new stadium in Buffalo — given the way NFL finances work, with all teams regardless of local market size equally sharing a large pot of national TV revenue, it’s way more likely than, for example, the Cleveland Guardians up and moving. But it’s also possible it’s just an idle threat, or a “don’t make me come in there” threat that one makes before exactly figuring out what one will do if one’s bluff is called.
Not to be overly melodramatic about it, but this is how propaganda works: Someone important says something, and counts on everyone else repeating it unquestioningly because they’re so important. It’s why the job of the media needs to be afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted: Not because the comfortable are all naturally evil supervillains, but because they have the power to do things, like hire spokespeople and lobbyists to get quotes into news outlets and bills onto legislative calendars, so it’s extra important to shine a light on how they may be manipulating the process.
Anyway, Kim and Terry Pegula’s hired help is hard at work creating leverage. This isn’t especially new, but it’s worth investigating, especially to consider how serious they are, whether there are other potential destinations that would offer more than New York state, and exactly how much of a payoff they’ll require to put down their sabers and go quietly. Maybe what we need here are fewer insider NFL writers and more ransomware consultants.
What an interesting way to put an extortion attempt – “…decide if they want a team.” Now, I’ve been in the process of deciding whether I want a new Bentley. I do have the option of mortgaging my house, children and dog to get that Bentley. Sadly, I have concluded that the dealer will have to sell it to someone who does want it.
You know, many years ago I once called Mike Florio an idiot for a truly unintelligent sports article he wrote on Yahoo! in its comment section, and I forget what that article was even about. Not long after I said that, Mike himself brought up the fact that someone called him an idiot in a later article of his. It shows how narcisstically aware he is as a propaganda journalist. (that he couldn’t let that go is what I find odd)
So in summary, it doesn’t surprise me that Mike uses words he still doesn’t understand when trying to write a convincing sports article in 2021. Narcissists never learn from the mistakes they make.
Hmmmn. If we are expecting the Mike Florio’s of this world to channel Eleanor Roosevelt, we are in very deep trouble indeed.
Aren’t NFL insiders called that because they are effectively publicists working solely for the interests of the league and it’s teams while maintaining a (theoretical at best) wall between their own incomes and the league office?
I consider sports commissioners and “insider” writers and broadcasters like Florio et al to be the peep show or carnival barkers of our age. (Ok, maybe we still have actual peep show and carnival barkers, I don’t know, but this type seems much more prevalent than the originals). They aren’t reporters. They are PR people masquerading as reporters. Living and walking advertorials.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I just got a text saying my online bid for Hunter Biden’s latest, ummm, installation has just been topped…. gotta go!!!
Florio really has to up his game here pun-wise. “Sabre-rattling” should be the preferred headline in all posts about the Pegulas’ lame leverage attempts.
If this deal doesn’t happen quickly, I expect the actual Sabres to become part of the sabre-rattling: “If Buffalo/Erie County/New York State don’t get this done, the Pegulas may just lose all interest in sports, and sell the Sabres to someone who may threaten to maybe move the team elsewhere in a decade or so.”
Beautiful. I can see it now.
“Wouldn’t you pay $1.5bn to stop a couple of billionaires from losing interest in owning professional sports franchises? And if not, what is wrong with you people? Why don’t you CARE?”
Where could the Bills go?
Toronto seems like the best alternative. St Louis?
Now that LA is taken, owners don’t have so much leverage.
Thanks Neil for the Pulitzer link! Awesome tipping story!
The stadium extortion dance just isn’t much fun since Stan the Man leaned in with his Walmart dough and took L.A. off the board. We’re reduced to playing hardball in outback weed-whacker territory like Buffalo, and leaning on cardboard cutout Mike Florio for p.r. grease. I’m hard put to find one terrified legislator out in western NY right now–you think they give a shit what Mike Florio says about anything? Does anyone?
It’s not like the old days of wine and roses and rivers of public stadium cash! Piggy feels wistful…