This is what I’m thinking:
ABC newsman David Muir and NBC newsman Willie Geist did excellent stories over the weekend on the fundraising drive of Kansas City fans that raised almost half a million dollars for John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital after the Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills, 42-36, in overtime in the divisional round of the playoffs.
On Friday night, Muir reported the heartwarming story that represented good sportsmanship on ABC’s “World News Tonight.”
At the end of the newscast, Chiefs fans were honored as Persons of the Week.
Geist reported the beautiful story on the Sunday edition of “Today.”
But there was one important detail missing that would have made their stories even better and given Western New Yorkers the credit they deserved.
People are also reading…
Neither Muir nor Geist mentioned that Kansas City’s gesture was inspired by a Bills Mafia practice that has gone on for four years.
That was a noteworthy omission since the gesture of sportsmanship and charity has been passed on from Buffalo to fans in other cities.
Geist did mention that Bills fans donated more than a million dollars to Oishei Children’s Hospital last season in honor of Allen’s late grandmother Patricia Allen. But he didn’t mention the Buffalo donations to the charities of players on opposing teams.
In January of 2021, more than 18,450 Bills fans donated $553,000 to Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson’s charity, Blessings in a Backpack, after he was concussed in the Bills’ divisional round playoff victory.
In 2017, more than 17,000 Bills fans donated $442,000 to the Andy and Jordan Dalton Foundation after the then-Cincinnati Bengals quarterback threw the winning touchdown pass against Baltimore in the regular season finale that ended the Bills’ 17-year playoff drought.
As of this Saturday night, Oishei received more than $474,000 from more than 21,000 donors, most of them in the Kansas City area.
New York Giants fans have joined Kansas City fans in contributing after the Giants hired Bills assistant general manager Joe Schoen as general manager and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll as head coach.
Most donations have been coming in at $13 each to represent the Chiefs making two plays in the final 13 seconds to get the field goal to send the game into overtime, $17 to represent Allen’s jersey number and $32 for Allen’s number combined with the No. 15 worn by Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Oishei also has received larger donations of $117 and $1,017 that use Allen’s number.
Twitter was abuzz over the weekend after Peyton Manning’s hilarious appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” that ended with the Hall of Fame quarterback saying “Go Bills ... They are still in it, right?”
It undoubtedly will be a meme that will be used constantly next season and beyond.
The comment ended a five-minute bit in which Manning explained to “Weekend Update” co-host Colin Jost that he missed the exciting four games in last week’s divisional playoffs because he was watching the Netflix series “Emily in Paris.”
Manning proceeded to do a Xs and Os presentation into Emily’s (Lily Collins) complicated romantic life.
Spoiler alert: Emily is involved with Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) but appears to be in love with handsome French chef Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), who is back with Emily’s new best friend in Paris, Camille (Camille Razat).
Even if you didn’t suffer through season two as I did and don’t know all the players in “Emily,” just hearing about Manning’s obsession with Emily and friends was laugh-out funny.
I hate-watched all 10 episodes of the second season, which reminded me of high school romances.
The line “Go Bills ... They are still in it?” undoubtedly was designed to prove that Manning hadn’t watched any football the weekend of Jan. 22-23.
Of course, some Bills fans read more into the joke than they should have. Some thought Manning said “Go Bills” because he told Allen in the quarterback’s appearance on his ESPN Manningcast that his son wore an Allen jersey.
Others thought it could have been taken as a slight making fun of the Bills' loss to Kansas City.
I wouldn’t read anything into it other than he likely was delivering a line written for him that made the bit end perfectly.
Manning jokingly claimed that he didn't know there was a season one of "Emily." He may be happy to know that Netflix has announced the series from Darren Star ("Sex and the City," "Younger'") has been renewed for two more seasons.
Mark Preisler, who was fired Friday as the executive vice president of media and content for Pegula Sports and Entertainment, isn’t commenting about his departure after about eight years with PSE.
That usually happens so one can keep their severance package.
His firing comes after a year in which Preisler, whose staff has won multiple New York State sports Emmy awards, has had to make some difficult calls.
Preisler had to skillfully navigate the pending retirement of legendary play-by-play announcer Rick Jeanneret without offending Jeanneret or his fans. Jeanneret is retiring after this season and will be celebrated with a banner-raising ceremony at the April 1 game with Nashville.
Preisler had to implement the decision not to send Jeanneret’s apparent replacement, Dan Dunleavy, and analyst Rob Ray to road games again this season and have them work from Western New York. Dunleavy initially questioned the practice, which also has led to some ridicule on social media.
He was unable to keep Andrew Peters and Craig Rivet after their two-hour WGR program on the Sabres was reduced to an hour. Brian Duff and Martin Biron replaced them on the one-hour version after Peters and Rivet decided to start a podcast.
And according to sources, Preisler had to be the one to sell the idea that announcers will work year-to-year without contracts.
All of these decisions undoubtedly had to have been done with the approval of Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula.
It would have been preferable for the owners to put out a statement on why Preisler was released. It is believed to be another downsizing move meant to save money in a season where the losses must be considerable because of poor attendance as the Sabres rebuild.
However, the decision to let Preisler go without announcing why, a successor or who is going to pick up his duties makes one wonder about where PSE is headed.
