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Buffalo Bills head coach Joe Brady
The Bills have gotten off to a 2-0 start this season, which is certainly a promising beginning for Joe Brady, who is currently the youngest coach in the NFL. His lack of experience was highlighted by one man who’s covered the team for more than three decades, and he seems convinced he was denied a press pass for voicing his skepticism.
Every player, coach, owner, and executive in the sports world knows that virtually every move they make has the potential to be subjected to criticism by members of the media, who often have a fairly contentious relationship with the teams they cover.
Those teams are responsible for passing out the credentials that allow reporters to post up in the press box, access the locker room, and attend the press conferences and briefings they rely on to do their jobs, which can create some awkward situations when it comes to dealing with particularly adversarial members of the media.
There have been a number of situations where those correspondents have accused teams of taking retaliatory measures after writing something that rubbed someone the wrong way, and we’ve been treated to our newest one courtesy of some drama involving the Bills.
Former Bills radio announcer John Murphy believes the Bills rejected his request for a press pass for criticizing new head coach Joe Brady
John Murphy has been covering the Bills in various capacities since he landed the job as the analyst for radio broadcasts on WBEN during the 1984 season. He worked that gig until 1989 before returning from a five-year hiatus in 1994, and he switched over to play-by-play duties in 2004.
Murphy suffered a stroke in 2022 that forced him to retire from his longtime position, but he’s continued to cover the team while contributing to WIVB, a CBS-affiliated local news outlet in Buffalo.
In August, Murphy used that platform to publish a column where he advised Bills fans to temper their Super Bowl expectations heading into the season while primarily citing the age of Joe Brady. He asserted the new head coach doesn’t have what it takes to deliver a Lombardi Trophy during his first season at the helm due to his inexperience, citing NFL history that suggests that won’t end up being the case.
It wasn’t a particularly inflammatory piece (nor a particularly vital one), but during a recent conversation with The Buffalo News, Murphy made it clear he believes it led to the Bills boxing him out of the press box where he says he’d been promised a spot.
Murphy told the outlet he was informed WIVB was unable to obtain a press credential just a couple of days after the column was published (a policy concerning reporters classified as part-time contributors was cited). He also says it subsequently declined to run another piece predicting a 10-win season, which he says stemmed from outside interference from the Bills.
The plot thickened when he mentioned a marketing executive for the Bills had promised him he was set on the credential front in July and even pointed out the seat that was reserved for him in the press box.
He called out the station for failing to go to bat for him before waving the white flag, saying:
“They didn’t fight for me. It wasn’t that bad. I am insulted. But I don’t care anymore. I’ll watch on TV. That’s fine. I don’t want people feeling sorry for me.”
There are two sides to every story, but the Bills haven’t elaborated on theirs as of this writing.