It was supposed to be different this time. There were big promotions. There were special appearances. There were lower ticket prices; there was even live ‘Gangham Style’ dancing led by PSY himself. Unfortunately, there was a lot of show for a whole lot of nothing. It appeared that the Bills didn’t even show up.
Yesterday was the last official game of the Toronto-Bills series and it was supposed to be a big one — only, it wasn’t.
There were roughly 35,000 people in attendance yesterday for a really, truly awful Bills game. Of course, Bills fans are used to losing now and then. However, the 50-17 score was more than just a little loss.
The biggest surprise wasn’t the loss, the lack of interested Torontonians or the standing ovation PSY got. It was the fake punt that the Seahawks ran and the reaction from the sports world.
The Seahawks punt protector Chris Maragos took the snap and flipped the ball to Michael Robinson. Robinson ran up the middle for a 29-yard gain. Normally, this would be a neat little play that the Jets have tried about 1700 times this season. However, the Seahawks were already in the lead by 30-points. That, and it was the fourth quarter. This comes on the heels of Carroll running up the score on the Cardinals 58-0.
The ‘Hawks are now facing a lot of criticism for running up the score on an already badly beaten Bills team. Carroll spoke to the media after the game and said he regretted the fake punt, but that it was the play that they had orchestrated based on the Bills look, pointed out on every sports talk app out there.
There are two odd things about this incident. First, Carroll has previously been sensitive to running up scores. He spoke out against Harbaugh for calling a two-point conversion in a USC vs. Stanford game. The score then was 48-27, not even as bad as the 47-17 lead the Seahawks had. The second interesting thing about this reaction is that THIS IS FOOTBALL. Who cares if the score gets run up! This is the National Football League! This isn’t peewee football! These players are paid to play this game and there is no mercy rule. The sensitivity that is developing in professional sports is unsettling. Let’s try and remember that these are all grown men that are paid to participate, and hopefully, try and win. If one team happens to be playing at a higher level on that certain day; so be it. Any given Sunday right?
Anyways, it looks like the Toronto-Bills series is a only a one game win at ‘home.’ It’s okay, it’s Toronto, we’re used to it.
