Buffalo Bills fans went from thinking that Antonio Brown was coming to town to learning he wasn’t in a matter of hours. It was a wild ride.
Thursday night into Friday morning was a wild time for Buffalo Bills fans.
I was alerted to the Antonio Brown to Buffalo news when the account known as “Freezing Cold Takes” retweeted an article I had written saying Brown likely wasn’t coming to Buffalo.
Turns out the take wasn’t that cold after all.
This was a unique situation because the news wasn’t given by some random source. It came from Ian Rapoport who not only tweeted about it, but went on television to share even more information.
Yet Adam Schefter remained quiet through it all. That was a somewhat ominous sign.
Brown himself declared the news “fake news” and fans were left wondering if such a trade would actually happen. Rapoport reported it so it must be true.
Until it wasn’t.
Schefter began tweeting before the sun came up about how the Bills and Brown were not going to be a match.
Another source on a potential Antonio Brown-to-Buffalo trade said it will not happen. “I don't think the Bills trade was ever close to happening,” said one source involved in those talks. Steelers snd Bills briefly talked but “this is an old story. It was dead on Wednesday.”
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 8, 2019
Then Brandon Beane went ahead and clarified the report.
A statement from GM Brandon Beane. pic.twitter.com/GK8wMqFTCA
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) March 8, 2019
My main takeaway from all of this is that we shouldn’t overreact to news until it is confirmed. I know that will never happen given the way Twitter works, but this situation made a lot of people look foolish.
At least I got an apology from “Freezing Cold Takes.” Although not retweeting the article in the first place would have been better since I never said a trade was impossible.
My B, @BuffaLowDown pic.twitter.com/JIEhNKpiKa
— Freezing Cold Takes (@OldTakesExposed) March 8, 2019
This news led to Bills fans getting mad at Brown for the perceived belief that he said no to the trade. Yet we don’t even know if the process got that far. Everyone was going off one tweet from Rapoport.
In the end it may be a good thing that this trade did not end up happening. There is clearly a lot of negative feelings toward Brown and if he actually didn’t want to join the Bills, that would be a bad way to start his tenure.