This Buffalo Reporter Just Threw a Lot of Shade at LeSean McCoy

Does anyone remember when players and fans from other teams would comment on LeSean McCoy not shaking anyone’s hands after losses? Some of us liked it, some of us didn’t. At the time, I didn’t really care. It’s the players’ jobs to win on the field, but it’s my job to assess what they do on and off the field and write something that I think will interest someone in reading.

A lot of times, that was about McCoy. He did some good stuff, some bad stuff, some embarrassing stuff, what have you. I feel like I know Shady because of his time spent in Philly. Buffalo is just now learning about him, and yesterday’s game against the Eagles was a whole new learning experience for those Bills reporters.

Jerry Sullivan of The Buffalo News certainly learned something about Shady yesterday, and took him to task for pretty much the entire week leading up to the game and the game itself. Sullivan starts:

On Saturday night, ESPN aired a moving two-hour documentary on the Bills’ four Super Bowl losses, titled “Four Falls of Buffalo.” If you haven’t seen it yet, make a point to do so.
 
Bills fans all over the world, and sports lovers in general, had to be in tears watching that film. Its message, brought home most eloquently by Scott Norwood and Jim Kelly, was that an athlete and a city can dignify themselves in defeat, and that it’s how you handle loss that defines you as a man.
 
Someone should sit down LeSean McCoy and make him watch it. The man known as “Shady” might learn a thing or two about showing class in defeat. One day after the old Bills were ennobled in posterity, McCoy disgraced the current team with his sullen, petulant act after a 23-20 loss.

Oh, man. I already have a feeling this one is gonna be good. Real good.

McCoy wasn’t lacking for commentary on Wednesday, twice spitting out curses when discussing his fractured relationship with Kelly. So what did McCoy have to say about this loss, which dropped the Bills to 6-7 and effectively eliminated them from the wild-card race?
 
Nothing.
 
It was actually worse than nothing. When McCoy arrived at his locker, there were at least two dozen reporters surrounding his stall, most of them from the Pennsylvania he loves so dearly. He sat down, looked up at the cameras and notebooks, and shook his head derisively.
 
“You going to watch me dress?” he said. “Give me some space.”
 
McCoy then turned his back and went through the slow, self-conscious routine of putting on his clothes. After about five minutes, he put on his watch and his gold necklace, pulled on his sports coat and turned to face the gathering.
 
“I got nothing to say,” McCoy said, walking away. “Excuse me.”

At this point, you can tell McCoy was trolling those media members. So much so, that the reporters felt like he was taking pleasure in keeping them from working on other assignments. I mean, I get McCoy was pissed, but not being able to just say, “Hey, I’m not talking,” is too much? I’m no professional athlete, but I’m pretty sure I can tell someone to leave me alone on my worst day. I guess Shady can’t.
 
Sullivan wouldn’t end there, though. He definitely had his mojo going and continued.

Maybe McCoy didn’t want to explain how he was held to a pedestrian 74 yards rushing on 20 carries, his lowest output since London, against the Eagles’ 27th-ranked run defense. Or how he managed to run eight times for an embarrassing 11 yards in the decisive second half.
 
Of course, McCoy might also have been quizzed about a Bills team that committed 15 penalties in their latest “must-win” game, including three on his offensive linemen (plus another that was declined) in the fourth quarter alone.
 
Heaven knows, some wise guy might have asked if it might have been a better idea to give more touches to the estimable Mike Gillislee, who broke one of his three carries for a 19-yard TD.
 
Maybe McCoy realized that the buildup to this game had been too much about him, and not enough about a 6-6 team that was desperate to keep its slim wild-card hopes alive.

Boom. There it is. This game was way too much about McCoy exacting revenge on his former team than it was the team focusing on getting a win for themselves. It’s that Rex Ryan effect.

Let’s be real here, though. There was going to be two outcomes from the media coming out of this game. Either the Buffalo media was going to react the way they did above, or the Philly media was going to char-broil up a Chip Kelly special on the grill and ask him why McCoy had a career day. Lucky for us, the one where McCoy disappears was the act of the day yesterday.