A very candid Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott took the virtual podium on Monday prior to his team’s training camp practice in Orchard Park. Just prior to McDermott speaking, there was news out of South Beach and it evidently struck a chord with McDermott.
The Dolphins announced that their home opener in Miami will involve a capacity of 13,000 fans despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
That opener sees the Bills head to town.
That contest, scheduled for Week 2, comes after the Bills open their season against the Jets at home. At this time, the Bills will not be hosting any fans in their home opener. Because of that discrepancy, Buffalo’s bench boss is none-too-happy.
“I think it’s honestly ridiculous,” McDermott said. “On the surface, this would appear to be a playing field that’s like that… inconsistent across the league with the different away stadiums… but it is what it is. We control what we can control. That’s got to be our mindset and that’s how we attack it.”
McDermott is often one for not wanting an opponent to have any single advantage. We’ve seen that time and time again between injury reports and other aspects of game planning. Heck, the Bills don’t even let the media report on training camp in 2020, using the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason to contain their reporting on the depth chart and other things they see.
But you’ve still got to side with McDermott here, at least a bit. Florida is a region of the United States causing the continuation of the pandemic because of their lack of locking down in the face of it. New York State, on the other hand, has had weeks of reported cases under one percent of those being tested. The political game might affect the upcoming NFL season, but if things continue to trend in the right direction, there’s a chance we could see Bills fans in Orchard Park… eventually.
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