Willis McGahee - Articles - Zimbio

Ravens’ Willis McGahee Wins the Battle, Buffalo Bills Win the War

Sat, 21 Oct 2007 21:54:56 GMT

posted by kruise

Filed under: Bills, Ravens, AFC East, AFC North, Baltimore, Buffalo, Breaking News

Running back Willis McGahee gained 115 total yards and scored a touchdown in his return to Buffalo, but it wasn’t enough as the Bills went on to defeat the Ravens 19-14.

The game, not surprisingly, proved to be a defensive battle that went down to the wire. For the Bills, they improve to 2-4 and get a well earned home victory, while Baltimore falls to 4-3 heading into their bye week.

Although the game was all about the D, Bills wide receiver Lee Evans finally broke out of his season-long slump, hauling five passes for 98 yards. Today market the first time the former 1,000 yard wide out was able to gain over 75 yards, and was only the second time all season he caught five or more passes.

Meanwhile, for the Ravens, Derrick Mason was the star of the show today. The former Titan caught a team-leading seven passes for 78 yards and a touchdown. Unfortunately for Baltimore, outside of the production by Mason and McGahee, no one really showed up. It’s a common theme for this offense, and something that needs to change if they want to stand a legitimate chance of competing with New England and Pittsburgh.

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Willis McGahee Has Nothing on Rob Johnson

Thu, 19 Oct 2007 21:51:38 GMT

posted by kruise

Filed under: Bills, Ravens, NFL Fans

I mentioned yesterday that Bills fans are taking the whole “McGahee hates our city” thing pretty hard. There anti-Willis tee-shirts, and there’s even a song! Baltimoresun.com’s Sheil Kapadia spoke to Buffalo News writer Mark Gaughan about when, exactly, things went horribly wrong in the Willis McGahee-Bills fans relationship.

Q: At what point did things turn sour for McGahee?

Mark: Things didn’t go really sour — ugly sour — until Willis’ comments in Penthouse that maybe the team would be better off in Toronto, and there’s nothing to do in Buffalo (which compared with Miami is not untrue), and there’s no good restaurants (which is way off-base), and there was a reference to the women or lack thereof in Buffalo. That pretty much burned the bridge.

Nothing new there, but here’s something I didn’t know: “Willis did catch some flak for the season opener in 2006 in New England when he didn’t hit the hole very hard on a key fourth-and-one play in the red zone, and he said after the game he didn’t realize it was fourth down. That wasn’t very good.”

Didn’t know it was fourth down, huh? See, I find that really funny, but for Buffaloans, it’s just one more painful memory, probably forgotten until now, of what it means to be a Bills fan. Good news for McGahee, though. According to Gaughan, he’s not the most hated player in Bills history. It’s not even close, actually. That distinction goes to Rob Johnson, once again proving that everybody’s good at something. In Rob’s case, he was great at being hated. Solid work.

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Bills Fans Ready for McGahee’s Return to Buffalo

Thu, 19 Oct 2007 15:02:51 GMT

posted by kruise

One of the more interesting storylines for Week 7 is the backlash that now Ravens running back Willis McGahee takes upon his first return to the home of his old team - the Bills Sunday. It was no secret that the back made some rather unflattering comments about the city of Buffalo when he was there, as well as at one point suggested that the team should explore a full-time move to Toronto for more fan support.

Now McGahee will suit up with the purple of the Ravens, and it will be a most hostile welcome back to Western New York for the former first-round draft choice of the Bills. His session with the Buffalo media on Wednesday basically was a 20-minute Q&A with trying to dance around topics like his tenure in Buffalo and his careful use of words when it came to the city. The best line was when he was asked if he regretted saying the team should move to Toronto. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

Bills fans have such hatred for McGahee that they are buying in bunches a “Willis Is Trash” t-shirt that can be brought online. The back seems to think that Sunday will be just another game in just another city. Little does he know what he has awaiting him. “The stuff I hear on road games … it’s not going to be anything new, to tell you the truth,” McGahee said. “That’s stuff I hear in any city.”

McGahee even took the role of victim in his press session, stating that he was misunderstood by the fans and the team. “Once something leaves your mouth, it never comes back the way you said it,” McGahee said. “[The Bills players] know I’m nothing like people seem to say I am. Once you get to know me … you would be like, ‘He’s really down to earth.’ I just be chillin’, man.”

He’d better be ready to take some heavy shots Sunday, if not from the Bills defense, then from the fans that will shower him with rants and taunts like no other player has seen in Rich Stadium since the glory days of Brian Cox giving the fans the double middle-fingers.

Jemele Hill on Willis McGahee: ‘He Looked Like a Moron’

Wed, 30 Aug 2007 22:06:33 GMT

posted by kruise

Filed under: Bills, NFL Media Watch, Buffalo

Before she worked for ESPN, sports writer Jemele Hill was best known for writing a profile of Willis McGahee in which she rode in his car while asking questions like, “What’s more troublesome, an ex-wife or a baby momma?“

Hill was criticized in many quarters for seeming to condone McGahee’s rather casual attitude toward fatherhood, but at an ESPN media workshop today in Bristol, Hill made clear how she feels about McGahee: “He looked like a moron because he starts ripping on the mother of his children,” Hill said.

And although the uproar surrounding her piece led to Hill receiving a written reprimand from her boss at the Orlando Sentinel, Hill says it also led to her moving on to bigger and better things, leaving the newspaper world for the Worldwide leader. (Although I’m not sure you can call arguing with Skip Bayless bigger and better.)

“I swear, I got a letter in my file — even though I didn’t publish the story myself — for inappropriate content,” Hill said. “That’s when I knew I had outgrown newspapers.”

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Welcome to our blog about Willis McGahee

Mon, 19 Sep 2006 19:03:05 GMT

posted by The_Zimbio_Team
This is our group blog, which is unique because any Zimbio member can post an entry to it. Some members blog about recent news and trends related to the portal topic, others recount relevant personal stories. You can also comment on and rate existing blog entries, to voice your opinion and to help the community identify which members and entries on the portal are must-reads. Got an interesting idea or story to share with other members of this portal? Well, then put on your journalist's cap and add your own blog entry!