This is a true story. I used to hate Terrell Owens and believed everything I heard about the guy. I thought he was a terrible teammate, a terrible person, and an overrated player.

Then he came to Buffalo. I hated the move, mostly because of what I said above. But I opened up to him very quickly. Some can call it a flip-flop opinion, but the truth is that once he was on my team, I started to realize the truth about T.O. and not believe things I read in the media. For example: T.O.'s "outburst" on the sidelines during a game against the Titans that was blown up on Sportscenter the following day. But I saw the game. I saw what T.O. actually did. And to be honest, any player that cares about winning would've lost their cool during that game. It was absolutely horrendous. Come to think of it, Dick Jauron was fired following that game so as you might imagine, things weren't going well for the Bills.

This is what major media outlets do though, they love to take non-stories that have little to do with the game and hammer them to death 24 hours a day. And yes, this is specifically aimed at ESPN because they are by far the biggest offender of this.

(On a quick little side note: I find it hilarious when everybody clamors about what a great leader Tom Brady is when he's flipping out on the sidelines during the Pittsburgh game, but if T.O. or Ochocinco pull the same stunt, they are a cancer to the team. Hypocrisy at its finest.)

As we speak, ESPN is going on about LeBron James bumping into his coach, Eric Spoelstra. Do you know what they aren't talking about? The 14-2 San Antonio Spurs. The 14-5 Utah Jazz. (Although to be fair, they talked about the Jazz quite a bit when they beat the Heat.) I understand that LeBron James is one of, if not the biggest, stars in the NBA. I understand that his decision to leave Cleveland was an enormous sports story. And I understand that since the Miami Heat decided to become a super team, they would be covered ad nauseam. But as a sports fan in general without an NBA team, I'd like to know what's going on in the league. I actually had no idea the Spurs were the best team before I wrote this because I had to look it up. I shouldn't have to do that. It's not just with the NBA either.

When ESPN isn't camping out in Minnesota (which isn't nearly as often since Brad Childress was fired), they can usually be found in Dallas covering the most high profile 3-8 team in NFL history. Seriously, the Cowboys get more attention than any team in the NFL and they suck. But hey, when ESPN is running the show, they will tell you what they want to tell you and you're just gonna have deal with that.

As an NFL fan, I care about the two huge games this Sunday; Jets at Patriots and Steelers at Ravens. Do you know which game you'll hear more about going through the week? Jets at Patriots. Do you know why? Because Rex Ryan hoards attention and ESPN loves to feed into it. The Bears and Packers are in an absolute slugfest for the NFC North title this season, but I'd doubt you'll hear about that when we can talk about the 2-9 Bills losing an irrelevant regular season game and Stevie Johnson's Twitter account.

On the topic of Stevie's tweet, there are a few things I want to point out. First, I do not think for a second that Stevie Johnson was blaming God for dropping the game winning touchdown on Sunday. He's a kid and had one million different emotions running through him immediately after the game. Foolishly, he went to Twitter first and vented. It came out wrong and I don't think it was the right move, but people need to stop claiming that be blamed God.

(And if he honestly did, who cares? Players consistently praise God after a victory, as if some higher power cared about the outcome of an NFL football game. That is just as ridiculous as this, if not more because it happens on a daily basis.)

Second, what the hell? The Bills are 2-9 and this loss is just as crushing as the losses against Baltimore and Kansas City this season. What about the losses against Dallas and New England on Monday Night Football in past years? Those were much worse in the grand scheme of things. But you wouldn't know this listening to ESPN. I actually heard Steve Levy on Sportscenter relate Sunday's loss to the "No Goal" incident for the Sabres. Was he serious? Yes he was. He actually compared a regular season loss for a team already eliminated from the playoffs to Buffalo's hockey team losing the Stanley Cup on home ice to a goal that should have been disallowed. Are you kidding me? This might be the dumbest thing I've heard in my entire life. He should've been fired on the spot for saying that.

So why is this game getting so much attention? I'd assume it's because Stevie took to Twitter after the game. You know what else Stevie did? He opted to not ignore the media, not face them at his locker, but to actually go to the podium and man-up for his mistake. Don't think for a second that it was easy for him to do that. Any human being could see how devastated he was for dropping the ball. Instead of pulling a stunt I've seen dozens of times before where the player avoids the media, Stevie faced it like a man. Outside of a few columnists on Around the Horn and Peter King, I haven't seen anybody truly give him credit for this. But hey, why give someone credit in a moment of failure when we can pile on him and make it 100x worse?

My likeness for Stevie Johnson has been no secret throughout this season. He played a major role in losing the game against Pittsburgh, which was equivalent to my Super Bowl this season. And yet, I think I like him even more now. He manned up and took his medicine. He showed genuine emotion. He bawled his eyes out because he let his teammates and the fans down. I want players on my favorite team to care as much as him. We always hear about how it's a business and some athletes come off like they're robots designed to play sports, make money, and be a celebrity with no emotion. Here is a kid who really cares about what happened and the media wants to pour salt in the wound instead. Screw you guys. I wish the Bills had 53 players like Stevie Johnson. Hell, I wish the Sabres had one player like Stevie Johnson (who isn't the goalie).

I know Buffalo fans know this, but I wonder how many others know just how difficult Scott Norwood's Super Bowl XXV kick was. All they know is what they're told. Norwood missed a field goal at the end of the game to win the Super Bowl. He cost them the game. What they don't know is that it was a 47 yard attempt on natural grass. In other words, it was not an easy kick to begin with, and then you add in the pressure. According to Pro-Football-Reference, Norwood was 6 of 10 in 1990 on field goals from 40-49 yards. I won't continue to rehash this story because I think I've made my point. There are several different reasons why the Bills lost that game, one of them being Scott Norwood. However, it's no fun to focus on all those other factors when we can pile on one individual and beat away at him about it.

I'm not pulling a Steve Levy and comparing an overly significant moment in Buffalo history to this overall insignificant one, but I needed to give another example of how most factors are thrown out the window when the opportunity arises to publically humiliate someone.

I suppose the moral of the story would be how this situation could've been avoided if Stevie just stayed off Twitter. Almost. He still would've felt Cris Carter's wrath on Monday Night Countdown because apparently Johnson wronged Carter at some point in his life. I've never seen a supposed unbiased TV personality hammer away at a player the way Carter has in the last two weeks.

First it was over the way Johnson was dressed during his presser at the Cincinnati game. I guess he could've been dressed up in a suit like Tom Brady usually does, but maybe Stevie wanted to do the interview right after the game (he did) and not wait until later. Is it a big deal? No. Lots of players do their pressers right after the game. Ryan Fitzpatrick does his in full pads. No big deal. Who cares? I shrugged it off because Stevie poked right back at Carter when he appeared on ESPN's First Take wearing a tuxedo t-shirt. There is no doubt that in my opinion, this made me like Stevie Johnson even more than I did before.

But yesterday I had to draw the line as a fan of Johnson and the Bills. In the morning Cris Carter went on Mike and Mike and basically said that Johnson's bad game against Pittsburgh was because he did TV and radio interviews Tuesday through Thursday. Right, I totally believe that. Then Carter (and I knew this was coming all night but watched anyways) finished him off on the C'Mon Man segment during Monday Night Countdown. Carter not only highlighted every single drop from Sunday, but then rolled tape of himself hanging out with Hakeem Nicks and catching passes in a dome, with nobody around, and really no other circumstances involving the situation. This wasn't a typical C'Mon Man segment. Not even close. This was a flat out attempt to embarrass Johnson even more for his drops and for that, Cris Carter is an absolute joke. Keyshawn Johnson highlighted several key drops for his fellow USC Trojans on the weekend and that was that. He didn't then roll highlights of himself catching balls over the weekend and drag them through the mud even more. But hey, I guess Carter has to do what he has to do to feel good about himself. Maybe one day he'll get in the Hall of Fame and that will take away some of his pain from making a whopping zero Super Bowl appearances in his career.

All of this is why I've enforced a self-imposed ban on ESPN for the rest of the week. I can't stomach it anymore. I used to laugh and roll my eyes when they'd be going on about T.O., but I think I've hit my breaking point this week. We'll see how it goes but there is a chance this lasts longer than a week. I watch the games, so I know what happens on Sunday. I read enough during the week to catch up on the news. I follow enough people on Twitter to get updates without ignorant opinions. And it's not like ESPN even bothers with the NHL, so I won't be missing out on anything there either.

As for Stevie, he'll be fine. He'll learn from his Twitter mistake and I'm sure it won't happen again. He has the support of the Bills organization, including Ryan Fitzpatrick and his teammates. He also has the support from the real fans and that's all that matters. I just hope Stevie saw what Carter said and did on TV Monday night because last time I checked; the Bills play Carter's former team in his former home. Should be interesting. Hey Cris, why so serious?

In an effort to keep things a little more up to date and fresh around here, I'm going to chime in a little more frequently with my thoughts on some current stories and happenings from all over the world of sports. So here is what I'm thinking about right now:

The Dodgers and Manny Ramirez

Let me start by saying that while the Detroit Tigers are surely my favorite baseball team, I've also always followed the Dodgers and would consider them my NL team. Usually all that leads to is a Yankees type syndrome where I wonder why they spend a ton of money on guys and then inevitably come up short late in the year or the postseason. This year has been different however. While they have spent some money, many of the guys contributing for the team right now aren't exactly household names. They came out of the gates firing and haven't looked back despite the suspension of Manny. He's half way through his 50 games already, but Juan Pierre has stepped in admirably, and LA is going to be faced with an interesting decision when Ramirez comes back. I'd also like to say that I love what Joe Torre has done. How many Yankee fans out there now are still saying "it wasn't Torre, it was the team he had". I think he's proven he knows what he's doing and up until about 2-3 weeks ago, the Yankees probably would have been dying to have him back.


The French Open

I realize most people don't give a damn about tennis, and I don't generally care all that much myself, however the streak of Rafael Nadal has to be noted. The man finally lost on the clay at Roland Garros yesterday, for the first time EVER! He had won 4 straight French Opens and won 31 consecutive matches, which for the record is ALL of the ones he had played there. That's a phenomenal accomplishment and one not likely to be matched there, or anywhere else anytime soon. Roger Federer is struggling this morning as well, maybe American Andy Roddick will finally have a chance at a Grand Slam title?

LeBron James

A couple of points to be made here. Let's just say I'm a bit disappointed in his behavior after Game 6 and I think it's kind of disrespectful to walk off and not even congratulate the Magic on winning the series. Now I understand that the guy is ultra competitive and he probably felt like "his" year was ruined at that point. Everything pointed to the Cavs at the very least making the finals, and quite likely winning the championship after collecting the best regular season record and sweeping 2 straight opponents in the playoffs, but they couldn't solve Orlando. Now, LeBron is usually one of the most respectful and genuinely nice guys you see in the NBA, so I'll give him a pass this one time, but I hope this doesn't signal some sort of change in him. Unhappy and upset as he may have been, and no matter how much he disliked getting beaten, he still needs to show the proper respect and congratulate the opposition as the better team. Additionally, the next year is going to be incredibly annoying, as we have to listen to all this discussion of where he might end up for 2010 nonstop. Many people are going to be very turned off and I'm betting there is some sort of backlash, more so than has already begun, towards James throughout the year, even though it's not exactly his fault.

Stanley Cup Finals

Thus far the Red Wings just have too much depth for the Penguins to do anything about. Detroit has done a fairly good job of neutralizing Crosby and Malkin while also getting scoring from all over their own roster. Marc-Andre Fleury has not looked particularly sharp thus far either, allowing some weak goals along the way. He'll obviously need to turn it around big time heading back to Pittsburgh if the Penguins want to make this a competitive series. As for Malkin's antics last night and the league's subsequent actions, I think it's a complete and total joke. Malkin did what needed to be done in showing some fire and trying to get his teammates to turn up the intensity heading into Game 3, but how he did it was stupid. He basically snuck behind the net and went at Henrik Zetterburg from behind, and the first punch he threw in their "fight" was with his stick still in his hand.

At the time he was given an intstigator penalty, which I think was clearly the right call, he literally is the one that started a fight out of what was just a small scrum (caused by a Penguin poking at Chris Osgood when he clearly had control of the puck, something you just don't do). The problem with that was that if a player is called for an instigator penalty in the last 5:00 of a game, it's an automatic suspension for the following game. Well, the NHL quickly reviewed the incident after the game and deemed that the call was wrong, and that Malkin's penalty would be rescinded, therefore no suspension. Wow, doesn't sound like the league just wants one of their top stars to be playing in the Finals and wants the Penguins to have a shot at getting back in the series at all does it? A complete farce in my opinion and I think most people other than Penguin fans would agree. It's bad enough Sidney Crosby already gets the Golden Boy treatment and is pretty much allowed to do whatever he wants, but I find this quick change by the NHL to be appalling. I was already against Pittsburgh from the outset, but now I think my dislike has grown even more.

ESPN

Now, I've steadily like the network less and less for awhile now, but it just keeps getting worse. Sportscenter is more or less a joke these days with highlights and stats being secondary more often than not (I suggest ESPNews if that's what you're looking for). Now a show looks more like this: NBA Finals coverage, baseball highlights, LeBron did this, tennis highlight (during a grand slam event only of course), Dwight Howard wants to win a title, baseball highlight, Kobe ate dinner, NHL highlight (60 seconds maximum, only for the Cup Finals, and only if Crosby/Malkin are involved), stupid fabricated story, etc. They only care about whatever sports are on their network and the biggest market teams at this point. Even 5 years ago things were much better. Add to this the fact that college softball has been all over their networks for the past week, which I'm sure must be a ratings juggernaut, though, it's still better than marathons of the World Series of Poker all weekend long, and you can see what I'm saying. I know this is the slow time of year in the sports world, and it only gets worse once the NBA and NHL wrap up, but the channel as a whole has become mostly unwatchable to me.