Speaker 1: Woodcliffe Hotel and SPA has the perfect gift to blow
somebody's mind. Right, wouldn't you love to do that? Just
have them be so shocked that you got them something
that they really wanted to get them selves, but they
wouldn't get themselves, right, A SPA treatment. Yeah, go to
Woodcliffe Hotel SPA dot com and really, I want you
to think about this. The holidays get stressful. Everybody's running around,
You're trying to do things for maybe your kids, other
family members. You forget each other, you forget your relationship.
If you go to Woodcliffe Hotel SPA dot com, they
have all kinds of really great packages. Let me tell
you about the Winter Side by Side SPA package. You
get to revitalize with your loved one in their side
by side package for two enjoy serene overnight accommodations. It's
a lavish welcome amenity delivered to your room and a
three hundred and twenty dollars spot credit to indulge in
a variety of tranquil and re juvenating services together. Extend
your peaceful experience with a complimentary one hour late checkout.
So this includes overnight accommodations of your choice three hundred
and twenty dollars SPA credit to the spot Woodcliffe the
welcome amenity of sparkling wine and cheese and a fruit
plate delivered upon arrival. That's just just a nice touch,
just a great touch at a one hour late checkout.
When you go to Woodcliffe hotelspa dot com, book the
code side by side an offer based on availability and
not combinable with any other offer or promotion. Offer is
non transferable for canceled or rebooked reservations. Woodcliffe Hotel and
SPA could really be the gift that they'll remember, especially
if you're doing something together Woodcliffe Hotel SPA dot com.
Speaker 2: When your old career gives you lemons throwing some ice,
mix in some vodka and call it a podcast from
the Mac of All Trade Studio in Fairport and driven
by Victor Chrysler Dots Geeve Brahm. It's Billified, the Bill
Moran Podcast.
Speaker 3: Well, hello and welcome, and thank you forgetting your pot on.
Thank you for telling a friend and spreading the word
about the pirate ship. Thank you for sponsoring those a
sponsor US. I love hearing about you going to BETVS.
Speaker 1: I love hearing about you going to Victor Chrysler Dodge,
Jeeve Ram. Yeah, so tonight's gonna be uh or. This
episode is gonna be a little different because anybody who's
apparent nos sometimes you got to call an audible to
last minute and uh boy. Normally we have Matt from
BTV in here and the Soldier and Kevin and I
waved them all off and we'll get into why and
in just a little while. But we're gonna have Greg
Connors come on and we'll talk a little bit about
being a parent and of course about the Buffalo Bills
game he was at in the snow and how you
know the team is shaping up and just amazing, how
amazing they look. And the record that Josh Allen set yesterday,
I mean, that's pretty damn impressive. But what I want
to do right now is I just want to thank you.
I sincerely mean this from the bottom of my heart.
So many of you have come along and spread the
word about the podcast, and we've grown over the past
two years more than I really expected it to, and
it is just fantastic. And I sincerely thank you, and
I mean that with all the love from my heart.
Because we're coming up on our second anniversary and kind
of debating what we're going to do and when we
may air it and all, but it's all really really
thanks to you, and thanks to our great sponsors who've
been able to keep us on the air, like bTB,
who by the way, I don't know if you know this,
but bTB has dropped their winter specials and one of
my favorites is on there. The Paisano. It's a chicken cutlet,
super soda, pepperoni, salami, capacola, fresh mozzarella or arugelo roasted
red peppers, balsamic vinaigrette, served with fries. You gotta bring
your appetite for this. It is on the Winter specials.
You're gonna absolutely love it. How about meatloaf cupcakes? That's right,
meatloaf cupcakes topped with garlic, mashed potatoes, cheddar jack, cheese,
and bacon, choice of supersalad. You got to check out
the specials. You can do that at btbroc dot com,
bTB rock or follow bTB wood Fire, Pizza and Grill
on Facebook. But I think that places blows me away.
The brunch is great. They just had a nineties themed
brunch and I think the doors were blown off the joint.
So that is all fantastic. We'll say just a moment
and be right back with our friend Greg Connors. We'll
get to that right after this. Oh, Leo's knows you're busy.
Maybe you're looking for a delicious, grabbing go gift. Leo's
has their famous festive and best tasting butter cookies in town,
all decorated for Christmas for you. Plus, don't forget the canoli.
Leo's makes a variety of delicious, authentic canolis and mini
canoli's perfect is a gift, perfect for yourself. Maybe you
just want a gift for you And with all the
busy hustle and bustle, why not pick up dinner to
go in the deli or order a hot meal from
Leo's Cafe. Come on, what's the best thing about Leo's
Everything on Desbats Drive in East Rochester open every day.
Tell them Billified sent you. Have you been accused of
a crime you didn't knowingly commit? During this holid season,
a celebration with friends and family could unexpectedly lead to
legal troubles. Even finding yourself over the legal limit. That's
when you need circu and circu for years They've successfully
litigated every type of criminal case, from misdemeanors to the
most serious felony offenses. Their thorough preparation and dedication to
protecting your rights makes all the difference when your personal
freedom is at stake. Experience matters at Circu and Circue.
They bring integrity and proven courtroom expertise to every case
they handle. Don't let legal troubles ruin your holidays. Call
Circu and Circu at five eight five, three eight five,
twenty five ten or visit Circu law dot com. Tell
them bilified. Send you feel an achey, tired of popping
pills that make you feel like a zombie before you
turn into one. Swing by MJ Dispensary at nine hundred
Jefferson Road and Henrietta. They're in Sweet nine oh two,
and you got to let their bud tenders work their magic.
These aren't your average employees. They're like wizards of wellness man.
Whether you're looking for gummies, pre rolls, oils or creams,
they've got just the thing to help you chill and
feel better. Head over to MJ Dispensary five eight five
dot com. They'll even deliver to your door. MJ Dispensary
nine hundred Jefferson Road and Henrietta. They've got what you
need to live better and maybe smile a little more too.
I gotta baby.
Speaker 2: O'Connor gets some Cavin top, turn around and drop it, drop.
Speaker 1: It just in my Oh, Greg Connors, man, I I
can't thank you enough. Things got a little topsy turvy
for me today. And uh, but I did want to
talk to you, and you were gonna be on with
us to talk about the exciting game in Buffalo. I
mean that was just nuts and we'll get into all that,
but I gotta tell you like parenting, and I think
you'll be able to late to this a little bit
better than maybe some other people. With Jamison, you know,
he's he's fourteen, wanting to try out for basketball, big
big focus for him, and yet at the same time
is absolutely petrified to try out for basketball, like it's
been it's been this like tug of war thing. And
then on the way back from Thanksgiving, he's telling me
about how he really, you know, basketball, he wants that
to be his path and you know this and that
and the other thing. And then last night I don't
think slept at all. He was up by five a
m h. And then I get a text later in
the day saying, Dad, I don't want to do this.
I think I just want to go to a cyo
basketball you know, a league or something like that. I
think it would be better. I don't. I don't think
I'm ready. I don't think this. I don't think that.
So I had In the meantime, I'm scrambling.
Speaker 2: Normal all normal and natural reactions one hundred.
Speaker 1: So here's where things get a little funky for me,
because now I'm caught in the middle of this because
I had to take him out early the day. They
had a meeting, so we're a little behind on getting
stuff in and I'm, you know, emailing back and forth
with different coaches and things. And I got to tell
you that, like the team where he's at has been
so amazingly wonderful. I have been blown away. And I
told that to the athletic director today. So I say
to him. He says to me, when I pick him up,
you're disappointed, your you're upset, and I said, I'm not.
I said, this is your choice, and he goes, well,
that's a passive aggressive thing, and I said, and I said,
it's really not, because it is your choice and that's it.
And I said, I don't really want to say anything
because I don't want you to think I'm being passive aggressive.
That's horrible. I don't want to do that to you
and this. So we go home and he said, well,
I just think you're disappointed, and you know, I know
you really wanted me to do this. And I said, why,
I think you really wanted you to do this. So
he decides when he gets home, he's going to take
a shower and I'm thinking and I'm thinking, and he
comes out and I say to him, hey, listen, have
a seat for a second. I said, I've been thinking
about what you said and how you said. I'm disappointed.
And I said, I'm not disappointed if this is your choice,
but I am disappointed because I don't think it's the
choice you want to make. And I wish you would
just push through the fear. I'm disappointed that you're not
pushing through the fear, I said, because there's going to
be other moments in life where you're going to have
to push through that fear. And I said. Then he goes, fine,
I'll do it. I don't want to talk about it. Anymore.
And as it turned out, since not all the paperwork
was in, I went and I said to him, then
we'll go and watch. You'll see what it's like. You'll see,
you know, how they're running things, and you'll have a
leg up and hopefully everything gets cleared by tomorrow and
you can participate in the in day two of the tryouts.
And they were all cool, right, So we went and
we watched, and I think it changed the perspective. But
there is that thing in life where everybody has that
human experience where you push through fear. And I go, Man,
if there's anybody I know who was pushed through fear
from you know, football and then playing at the collegiate
level and pushing yourself through law school, I mean, don't
tell me that there wasn't fear along the way, or
at a couple of moments going what the f am
I doing? You know, I gotta think.
Speaker 2: Bill, I mean, every step along the way, there was
that fear. And the fear is failure, right. The fear
is letting my parents down and failing, and then letting
my family down and failing, and you know, and then
being judged is not being the person who I wanted
to be. And you know, I mean the easiest story
I can tell you about the fear of failure and
not in questioning whether I was worthy or whether I
had what it took. Just like Jameson went through that,
I was. I was at law school, yeah, and I
was out in Ohio all by myself the first time
in my life. I was really ever away from home
where I couldn't be and see my parents in like
an hour or so. And I'm out there on an
island and I before school even started. Classes hadn't even
started yet. And I called my dad up and I
was like, Dad, I don't belong here. I don't belong here.
The people here smart, I don't fit in. I'm in
the middle of nowhere in Ohio. This isn't the right
thing for me. And my dad was like, look, you've
never quit anything. He goes, you got to give it
a try. He goes, You're quitting before you're even starting,
so you don't even know what you're quitting on. What
you're quitting on is is a fear of not succeeding.
He's the only way you can improve yourself, the only
way you can move to the next level. The only
way you can grow is by going through these stages
of fear and breaking through it. You're going to find
out what your ceiling is. You can never touch your
ceiling unless you unless you fail. Right, And he goes, look,
do me a favor, He goes, finish the first week,
stay there for a week. If after a week you
feel like you don't belong and this isn't the right
thing for you, that's fine, he goes, Whatever you do,
I support you, he goes, But I want you to
three yourself. I want you to give yourself a week.
By the third day I was there, I was good. Yeah, right,
but I had I needed that. You know, my dad
and just like you, you're you're not going to be
disappointed in him. No, if you try something and fails.
And I think what you were saying, and what my
dad was saying, is that the disappointment comes in where
you don't feel the comfort or the security in the
relationship to try something and fail, right, exactly, the biggest
successes come after failures.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you know, and I said to him, what's
the worst that's going to happen. You're going to be
right where you are today, right if you don't make
the team. And so then we went there. I think
he felt a lot better and hopefully all the paperwork
there's things from because he was living with his mom
in Alabama, just some paperwork, things that may have gotten
lost along the way, and some of that is I
take full responsibility on. We'll figure it out. But in
the meantime, it's more the attitude, because he did say
to me, you know, I was really upset, and I'm
in with a counselor now and I just I just
don't want to do it, and I just I don't
want to disappoint you. And I'm thinking, You're never going
to disappoint me, right, You're just not. I don't want
you to disappoint yourself because I see what you're saying,
and I know where you want to be, and I
know what the path is that you want to go there,
and it's this is an excellent coaching staff. So just
getting through that fear. But boy, it's such a human thing.
How many of us have not tried something for the
fear of failure. And that's what he said to me,
is if I don't make it, I don't I couldn't
handle it. I wouldn't be able to handle it coming
back here. And I thought even that I understand really
well because I never tried out for basketball, because I
never got cut from a team, and I knew I
wouldn't make basketball. And I always wish that I had,
especially had got cut, worked hard and came back, because
that teaches you so much that you know, those are
the things. And I think sometimes I go, boy, that's terrible.
I didn't have parents that were sports people. My dad
was like, you know, his his father was a big athlete,
got very injured and wouldn't let my dad or my
uncle really play sports. So my dad had no interest,
and I don't know where mine came. I loved it.
I loved all of them. I wanted to play everything.
Speaker 2: You know, and a lot of that is competition. I
mean in sports, the easiest thing for children to kind
of get or kids and even adults for us, is
that level of competition. You go to a court, you
go to a basketball court, you need a competition anywhere local, YMCA,
you know, out of a park, but but you know,
it's that level of competition and where do you size
up and then how can you improve yourself? It's it
it's I mean, you asked me in one of our
prior discussions. You know what motivates you, yea, What motivates
you and what motivates me to work harder than everybody
else and to do the things that I do is
the fear that fail. I don't want to fail. I
never want to fail, and I have failed. I have
failed many, many, many times. But the fear comes in
that I think sets people. Part is how do you
deal with the failure? You know? Do you take the
failure and bury your head in it and be like,
you know I'm no good I'm not good enough, you
know I'm not smart enough, and then just bury it
and then just do something else and stay in your
comfort zone. Or do you use that to then propel
yourself to say, how can I what can I do
differently so I don't fail the next time? And that's
always been my mindset is what can I learn from
this so I don't fail?
Speaker 1: And I do think that failure is one of the
biggest teachers. As long as you don't let it, you
don't bury yourself under the weight of the failure, you
don't let it get so in your head that you're
you're paralyzed now to even try anything again, because that
was just so devastating. And in that case, figure that out,
talk to somebody, have them help you get through that,
because you shouldn't, you should never let that happen.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the one thing when people talk when you
have extremely successful people, and they talk about their support network,
their support system, whether it be family, whether it be partners,
whether it be spouses or loved ones. It's when you fail,
how do they treat you? How do they build you up?
How do they help you? How do they catch you?
And in the support structures you have of the people
who have failed miserably but have come back with ultimate success.
Was the catch? You know? How did how did your
support network catch you when you failed?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: You know? Was it critical? Was it like, yeah, you
knew you couldn't do it. You know, there was too
many people doing podcasts. You were never going to make it.
You know, do something else, you're right there, then you're
going to get buried in that. Somebody says, oh, yeah, well, hey,
how about a different niche, how about a different vibe,
how about something else that you're interested in? You know,
what can you do to kind of catch your passion,
work with it, and and then and and and then
become better at you know, like, if he doesn't make
the team, Okay, what do you need to do to
get better?
Speaker 1: What is it?
Speaker 2: Do you need more court time? Do you need more
handball handling? You need you need to get stronger? What
is it? You got to do better footwork? And then okay,
go cyo, go cyp, do that program, get the extra
core time, work with a trainer, do whatever it takes.
And then to come back. I mean again, the other
the athletic story everybody talks about in our generation is
Michael Jordan, Right, Michael Jordan got cut from his freshman
basketball team, became the best basketball player ever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I you know, I've refrained from saying that
because I didn't want to. You know, it's almost like
it's expected. I think that I would say something like
that to him. He's always, you know, waiting for the thing.
And I've just laid back and done more listening. But
I thought, on this one, you got to push through
the fear because if you don't do it now, it's
going to hold you back a bunch of other things,
whether it's something simply as asking a girl out right,
that fear and what could be a great relationship or
just something that you again you can learn from and
enhance your life, and you know, I mean just make
life better. Well, fear holds us back.
Speaker 2: Well, look, I mean the fear of asking the girl low.
Speaker 1: That was me, right, it was me too.
Speaker 2: Come on, you know that I was.
Speaker 1: I was afraid of the rejection, you know, and yes, the.
Speaker 2: Ridicule that comes with it as well. And you know,
a kid his age coming from a different district back
into this district, you know, he's looking for inclusion, he's
looking to be accepted, he's looking to be all those things.
And then the easiest way to then separate yourself to
do that is to be rejected, not make the team,
be ridiculed because you didn't make the team, all those
different emotions that come with it. So him him having
these questions and going through that as a natural thing.
And you know, I think what you're doing as a
parent for me is what I would hope every parent
would do is listen more and then just give him
a hug, tell him you love him the matter what
he does. You just want him to be able to
know that he's done everything he can to do and
achieve the goal that he.
Speaker 1: Has for himself, right, And I think that that's really important.
And I think that on any level, right you've in
ourselves what are we kind of? You know, if you
took a good look, what am I afraid of? And
I should push through that? You know? I think I
heard that once from somebody going what is your biggest fear?
Go do that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, go do that?
Speaker 1: And that sometimes is pretty scary. The Bills though, I mean,
holy AFC East Champions, they sense that up yesterday. That
was a game that in the beginning, and I don't
know what it was like being there. I'm not sure
what it was like. You know, we can all look
at conditions. We can hear the guys talking about, you know,
not being able to get footing and the running being
a little bit slower. I saw some pictures from the
stands where people didn't even bother shovel it out. They
were just shoving their beers and making a nice smaller
and iglow cooler. But Greg, in the beginning, when I
saw McCaffrey, he looked like he was gonna run all
over the Bills. And then he leaves with an injury
that now has turned into a season ending for him.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean look, let me let me kind
of give you our perspective of going to the game,
decisions about going to the game when we were going
to lead. So we're in Rochester. Yeah, the grass is
green here, there's snow.
Speaker 1: No such thing. This is all nothing.
Speaker 2: It's cold here. It was cold here, don't mean wrong,
it was freezing, but there we didn't have any snow.
So having been back and forth so many times to Buffalo,
it was like, okay, you want to once you get
to the stadium. Because of lake effect, we drove. There
was one patch between Pembroke and and and Clarence where
there was snow on the grass, but the road was fine.
We then get to Clarence, snow goes away. We get
to the air port, there's no snow. We get to Walden
ad which are where our office is, and all of
a sudden there's snow on the ground again, and then
there's snow into into Orchard Park. You get to Orchard Park,
there's two three feet of snow.
Speaker 1: It's crazy.
Speaker 2: It's freezing too, right because you're that much closer to
the lake now, you know, I don't know if people
can understand how close you are to the lake. When
you're at the stadium, You're pretty close. You're a mile
maybe or so, maybe two, and so you get the
winds coming off there, and it's it's just colder. It's
like going to the lake. It's like going to Lake
Ontario from Rochester. The closer you get to Lake Ontario here,
it just gets.
Speaker 1: That much closer, older, noticeably cooler by the lake, noticeably.
Speaker 2: Cooler about it. And it's just freezing. It was like
twenty seven degrees, but if the feel like temperature in
the weather forecast was like ten and it was cold.
But we get there, we start to tailgate the people
to camaraderie, the back and forth. There are people next
to us we do fireball shots with, and you know,
the whole thing. It's going. All of a sudden, you
get the juices flowing, you're listening to the radio, we're dancing.
All of a sudden, you're not as cold. We go
into the stadium and it's it's it's snowing, but it's
not accumulating. It is the perfect snow globe experience for us. Now.
One of the things I am so excited about for
our new stadium and the fans that didn't go. It's
gonna be so exciting because I've the stadium with the
canopy is going to cover the whole upper deck, so
there'll be no snow in the seats. There's no heaters,
but there be no snow in seats. It's a three
sixty stadium with the canopy, so there's gonna be no
internal strong winds like there were last night coming off
the lake. The lower bowl will have access to snow.
So when the snow was coming down and you saw
how I was coming down, you know, like a snow
globe softly on. The whole reason why the Pokoulas didn't
do the didn't do the dome was so that game
will allow the snow to fall onto the playing surface
area but not necessarily accumulate up top and effect the
full effect of the stands. We were underneath the overhang
of the three hundred levels, so we weren't getting snow
and you don't get rain, and we're protected from the wind.
It truly was like you were sitting in a snow
globe watching an NFL game in front of you, in
perfect conditions. It was magical, Absolutely magical. And you know,
but then you go down to the level, the one
hundred level, in the three hundred level, which doesn't have
a can if he doesn't have anything, and build there
were people. It was it had to have been miserable
for them because it's ten degrees but you're standing in
snow your feet or in the snow. They're wet and
they're cold. And if you sit down you're standing, you're
sitting on wet, cold snow. It must have been miserable.
The Bill's Muff has got to be the toughest fan
base in all of the NFL because that those conditions
were unbelievably miserable.
Speaker 1: And they had guys with their shirts off, and every
time they scored, they you know, the snowballs were going
in the air and it sounded Chris Collinsworth was saying, oh,
if they get in that end zone, look for the
snowballs to be and sure enough, and they weren't. Really
it didn't look like they were going on the field.
It just looked like people just throwing them straight up.
Speaker 2: I can't remember which game it was, but it was
it was one of the playoff games. And they scored
and the fans in the end zone, took the snow
and threw it up in the air and they created
it was truly it's very theatrical, and they put it
in slow motion and all that, and so that was
That was really what a lot of it was going on.
You know, there's always gonna be a couple of Yahoo
nim nas who are so drunk and they're trying to
throw snowballs onto the field, see if their arm can
still make it. The next year they got torn rotator
cuffs and they got kind of light. But but it
was a great It was a tremendous atmosphere. It was loud,
it was raucous, it was cold. But after that first series,
getting to the game itself, right, we get the ball first,
we don't score, We got a punt, and it's just like, okay,
the defense has got to shut him down. McCaffrey in
that first series was like, oh my god, he's back. Yeah,
the defense bends, but they don't break. They get they
hold them to the field goal and it's like, okay,
now we gotta score. We go down, we go seven three.
It's like, all right, game on. Now. These guys stay
ahead of them and that's where the defense really adjusted
to the running game. The offense continued to do well,
and then McCaffrey went down with that season any injury
to his calf crazy to.
Speaker 1: Think, well, I hate you know, I hate that stuff.
And it was I think it was a non contact injury,
was it not. I think it was non contact.
Speaker 2: He had just taken a handoff, he was running, Yeah,
and then you could see him. He he went down.
He went down all on his own. Yeah. I was
a good buddy of mine and his wife with us.
He's an Alfred Grad frattorney, brother of mine, lives here
in town. Uh, and we were joking and he was
a forty nine Ers fan and it was just like
and as soon as McCaffrey went down, he's like, Okay,
we can leave any time you're ready.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's too bad because he really you see how
important he is to that offense. But on the other side,
how important Josh Allen is to our to the Bills offense.
I'm gonna say our offense, but the Bills offense. I mean,
this is the guy who I don't know where he
is in the MVP talk, but that yesterday, being the
first quarterback in NFL history. To score touchdowns, running, passing,
and receiving in a single game is just crazy.
Speaker 2: In a single play.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, yes, yes, play it was insane. And watching it,
you know, you see a Mari Cooper who buy they
made a great catch. I mean he had a grant that.
Speaker 2: I still think. I still think the way that when
I saw the replay, Josh makes a horrible throw to him,
Amari gets his hand on it, brings it into his body.
It looked like Josh ran over there thinking because the
ball bounced in the air if he fumbled it or
they caught it took it out of his hands. He
wanted to be there to make sure that they didn't
run up the field, that he would then make a tackle.
But when he got there, Amari has it in his possession.
Amari says, we made eye contacts, and he goes, I
just tossed to the ball. You gotta love that.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just veteran play, right, I mean, that's
just veteran play, and it's some of the things we've
come to know about Mahomes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know what it's like. It was like
many football games on Thursday and Friday in all the
United States where everybody went back and did their turkey Bowl.
How many times did that play get thrown where he
took it and do the hooking ladder and you tossed it.
They were all over the play, all over the place,
and these guys at the highest level instinctively played the game.
They were having fun. This team is having more fun
playing this game than I've seen a Bills team even
back to the Kelly days, because the bickering Bills were
paying the ass to each other. These guys are not
the bickering Bills. This is the family Bills. This is
the love Bills.
Speaker 1: And it shown on the field, and it showed even
after the game. I saw McDermot getting interviewed. Josh comes up,
they do a snow angel, each of them a right
side by side, and then he gets up and takes
off the Bills cap on mcdermot's head and gives him
an AFC East Champion at And that.
Speaker 2: That camaraderie, that feeling, that love, that thoughtfulness doing it
for the person that's next to you and making sure
that you don't fail because you don't want to let
them the guy next to you, that's what raises that
level of competition. That's what raises that level preparedness, because
that's what it's all about. And in the end, it's
those little things. I made a comment earlier in the
game where Greg Russo I think was the first or
second quarter, Rousseau makes an upfield rush. He comes back
all the way back around up the field and then
hits the guy from the back, finishes the tackle with him,
but finishes him from behind. And I said to my buddy,
I was like, Rousseau's play right there, and that situation,
that's the difference at the end of the game, when
nobody quits and everybody gives that last ditch effort on
every play, that's how you win championships. And that's what
these guys are doing.
Speaker 1: It sure seems like that's where things are headed, right.
I don't know if every Bills fan feels a little
snake bitten by you know so that you don't want
to say too much. Of course, we do in any direction.
Speaker 2: Stars from four years years.
Speaker 1: Ago, I know, but the you knows you as you
watch this, you think this really could be the season
and who would have thought this was supposed to be
the dip. I don't want to say rebuild, but the
dip year and boy, if anything that they've learned or
I as a fan have learned, this is a team
that is a team. You know, it's an absolute team
and you can see on both sides. I mean you
had I was saying, really, what were the names on
your defense? Once you got past linebacker and into the backfield?
You know, Damarrow Hamlin. There were people who are saying
DeMars shouldn't have been on the team, right, you know,
there was talk of that. So, boy, I got to
tell you that the coaching job has been unbelievable. Now
could there be better on every level? Yes, we've talked
about clock management, We've talked about all that stuff, but boy,
get past those little hiccups in the regular season. As
you head into January. Who knows where this could end up?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, Bill, it's like we were talking about
with jameson earlier. It's about learning from it. Right, And
you make a mistake, you foul, you didn't you didn't
get the goal, you didn't accomplish what you want to accomplish.
Would you learn from it? Don't repeat the same mistake,
learn from it? And you know, I think what Dermott
and his staff have done this year is that they've
learned through the failures and they've learned through the adjustments
they've had to do in order to adapt to the personnel.
I think Bobby Babbage on all accounts as a defensive
coordinator for the first time in his life under McDermott,
has done a phenomenal job with adjustments in game adjustments,
halftime adjustments, putting the guys in the right positions, you know,
understanding and anticipating how the offenses are going to run,
what they're going to be doing. You know, it's an
exciting time. The one thing in the NFL, anything can
happen in any given week, and it's all about emotion
and it's all about being prepared. And at this stage
of the season, it's about who is emotionally and physically
prepared to go out and to compete. And the one
thing about McDermott that he seems to do day in
and day out, just like Tomlin, I mean, Mike Tomlin
is the same way. You can never count that guy out.
Oh no, you know we're traveling to LA this weekend.
Speaker 1: You are, are you l A yeah, Jens, all right.
Speaker 2: And you know it's they've lost two games we haven't
been there's only two games we haven't been to they've lost.
So I have to make the trip out to LA.
I can't let them down.
Speaker 1: You are their good luck charm. That's it. We need
to You need a Connors and First West Coast office,
right right right.
Speaker 2: Magret Regret. I think Gret would agree with that.
Speaker 1: He probably would. I think you gotta make make that,
make that call. As you were watching games over the
holiday weekend, I don't know if you were like me,
but really rooting for the Raiders to beat Kansas City
that was the Black Friday game, I was so, I mean,
I really thought and I don't know, because that game
is so hard to play, you know, it just is,
and and every team is trying to out do the
other team to the point where there's probably been some cheating.
I don't know right now in the league. I don't
want to say that, but we know of trying to
steal signals and get plays and anything that's going to
give you an edge, right because it's yeah, it's just.
Speaker 2: That you're not trying to win.
Speaker 1: It's just you just that little edge, right, and then
sometimes that's all the difference but boy, Kansas City, you
would think would be handling these teams better. I don't
think the Carolina Panthers. They have a terrible record, but
they're not an easy out. They gave them a run.
They gave this past weekend. They made a run.
Speaker 2: Look, the worst teams in the NFL have a ton
of potential. Yes, look at the Jets for example. The
Jets have got talent on that roster. But what one
thing they are not is a team that's true any
given day, that those individuals can come together and catch
a little energy, catch a break, catch a car, catch
a fumble, whatever anything can happen. And was that rooting
for the Raiders.
Speaker 1: I was a die hard Raiders on so side.
Speaker 2: We went we actually went into the we went into Fairporks.
We wanted to go get a little Tk's and we
stopped at the Village in and we went some o'conneries
to watch the Raiders Chiefs game and it was brutal.
I mean to see the Raiders play. And again last
week I was saying, anybody that would listen to me,
I was saying, there's one team who's playing in the
Super Bowl this weekend. There's one team that had a
super Bowl game this weekend. It was the Raiders. That
was their super Bowl was being playing against the Chiefs.
They're out of it, they're done. They wanted to win
one game this year. It was beating the Chiefs in
Kansas City. They had an opportunity, and what blew it
lack of discipline. It was the discipline that that team
did not have from the top down that ended up
blowing it right. And the one thing that McDermott has
instilled in this team is that consistency of the discipline
in preparation, which is why when you go into a team,
you know, look, if you're talking about if there is
a if there's one of the trap weeks for the
Bills at this stage of the season, it's this one. Right,
you're going west coast, You're going across the you're going
across the country, time differentials, all the different things to
travel to air floid, all that Dehay duration, all that
stuff that goes into it. And then the week after that,
you got the best team in the NFC, arguably the
best team in the NFL right now, the Detroit Lions.
You look past this team going the West coast. ALSOFF
because you're looking to play the Lions. Oh and by
the way, the Rams are the ramsstinctive since the think, well,
they're one game behind in the NFC West, but you
like barely five hundred. So that's a team you can
you can look through or look past. I have the
confidence and the trust the way that McDermott is about
that discipline, about that preparation, and about making sure these
guys are emotionally and mentally prepared to play the game
at a high level. It's him and that's the thing
over the years that he has done in going into
LA I think they can. They've played there before, they've won,
They've got the routine down. But you get a team
like the Raiders, they didn't do it. They lose a snap,
a bobble snap. Are you kidding me? Driving me crazy,
that's a mistake. I would have lost my mind. If
that were the Bills, I'd be yelling McDermott to get fired.
I'd be firing the center. I'd be throwing the quarterback out.
Speaker 1: You know, talk real quick about the Lions, because much
like the Bills, they've come together as a team. They too,
have lost key components on defense, and yet haven't really
lost a beat, and there is this whole thing of
a buy in. And I think, you know, in the beginning,
their coach was taking a little bit, uh, this is
a joke, I think, a little you know, talking about
we're gonna break their knees and we're going to do this.
And then he was crying at one point, and I think,
but you look at him now, and you go, he
did it. He got the guy, He got that team
to be a team. You know he took I mean,
I don't think Jerry Goff wanted to go to Detroit.
I say that, so you took that guy, and who
was a number one overall pick. Right, they just swapped
number one overall picks in a way and sure paid
off for the Rams for what they wanted at that time.
But here you're starting to see, wait a second, Jared
wasn't done and the whole thing, and I I boy,
that's just an amazing, amazing turnaround.
Speaker 2: You know, when you talk about the importance of coaching, right,
you can't underscore the significance of what a leader does
to an organization. Dan Campbell Sean McDermott are probably the
two pre eminent examples of how leadership and how leaders
changed organizations. Right, The Bills hadn't been in the playoffs
in seventeen years, right, seventeen years, seven out of the
last eight. Dan Campbell the Lions. The Lions had been horrible.
They've been a laughing sock of the NFL for how long?
Thirty forty years?
Speaker 1: He always knew they were going to lose on Thanksgiving always.
Speaker 2: Dan Campbell came in and gave them a toughness, gave
him something to believe in, gave them, gave him everything
what it took a path of accountability and leadership to
be successful. And they had bought in and look where
they are. I mean, I mean, Candilly, I don't know
if I've told the story on the podcast. I think
I've shared with you is that I'm like a closet
Lions fan because when I met mister and Missus Wilson,
and I learned that he was a part owner of
the Detroit Lions before he became owner of the Buffalo Bills,
and his passion just for football was from him growing
up in Detroit. Uh. And with the Lions team, it
was just like oh yeah, and then they then they
you know, then they had Barry Sanders, a Nuggage run. Yes,
they had all these great players, but they just couldn't
win the games. It was a town of losers, right,
it was rust Belt city. He there was once great
city and now now the city's run down. And they
had this once great football tea. Even another team is horrible,
and it was like, this team is destined to lose.
And then you bring in this strong leader like Dan
Campbell and the whole things have changed. And you know,
I would love it would be a great It would
be a great Disney movie to have the lines and
the bills in New New Orleans.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in February, yep, And that is a possibility at
this point. I think a lot of people are putting
some money on that in vecers as we speak. I
really do. Oh yeah, yeah, Well, Greg, I really appreciate
you taking some time tonight, and thank you for all
the advice, all the support through the years. We're coming
up on our second anniversary, so we're excited about that
and things are are good, and I greatly appreciate it
all from you.
Speaker 2: That it's my pleasure. I always love to talking with you.
Sorry I couldn't get there tonight. Out coming in from
Buffalo and the dogs and dinner, and I got you
trying to make sure that I take care of everything else.
So yeah, but it's always great to talk to you.
I hope Jamison does well. I just remember to keep
just and and you know, one thing for me is
when you're trying something new and you're going through those
different challenges, is it's all about attitude, right, It's all
about attitude and effort. There's only you know. You can
control your attitude, You control your effort. You can't control
what other people are doing. You can't control the other
things that are that are around you. All your control
is how do you respond to it? What is your
attitude about it? And then what is the effort you
put into it? And one thing that my parents instilled
in me is always do it with a smile, Always
stay positive, and then always make sure that you leave
everything wherever you're at. Leave it on the court, leave
it in the courtroom. Don't don't walk away thinking had
I just done this or just on that? Just do
it and if you fail, you fail, learn from it,
move on. If you don't put everything out there and
you fail, you always wonder have I done that? You
got it.
Speaker 1: Oh God, so yep, So good luck to Jameson.
Speaker 2: Tell me to keep my don't keep working hard and
keep putting that effort in, and no doubt he'll be
an ultimate, he'll be a hoopster.
Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate it, and thank you, and say hi
to the dogs in the background and all Jen and
all the people at the Connors. I'm gonna say mansion,
but yeah, the Connors, the Connors Resort. How's the kitchen
by the way.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's finally done.
Speaker 1: Look at that.
Speaker 2: We'll have you over. You can have a little part
of your deathite.
Speaker 1: Well that would be great, Greg, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Thanks, Bills, great seeing you go, Bills.
Speaker 1: Go, Bills. There he goes Greg Connors for Greg Connors.
I'm Bill Moran. We'll see you tomorrow, California, baby.
Speaker 2: Things of god Worth. He's a land up opportunity for me.
Is just a curt
Speaker 1: Eight