By Tim Graham
Buffalo Bills players have soft-stepped around the issue of
playing in Toronto.
They dutifully refer to the series as a home away from home. Here and there, players would bemoan the atmosphere not being as energetic as Ralph Wilson Stadium but not take their comments much deeper.
Bills center Eric Wood didn't hold back his feelings on his weekly segment with "Norton in the Morning" on 97 Rock.
"I think that Toronto series has turned into pretty much a joke," Wood said in an interview with DJ Jickster and Chris Klein. "I think they started it hoping that we'd have a lot of fan support in Toronto. We have none.
"I mean, it's a crucial third down for them in the first quarter, and they're running just regular snap count, where I don't care if we have a half-filled Ralph Wilson Stadium, they don't do that."
The Seattle Seahawks drummed the Bills 50-17 in the Rogers Centre on Sunday. The Bills are 1-4 in their Toronto games.
Tickets have been a tough sell, with rows and rows of empty seats. Of the fans who do attend, a healthy percentage wears the opposing team's jerseys. Another noticeable segment wears jerseys from players not involved in the game such as Tom Brady or Troy Polamalu.
"You're making a team from out west travel, and then you give them the comfort of a dome, and you don't make them play in our stadium," Wood said. "We have no home-field advantage allowed. We travel, too. I just think it's a joke.
"And it's a bad atmosphere for football. I mean, nobody wants to play there. I guess for opposing teams it beats the hell out of going in somebody else's stadium and dealing with a bunch of crowd noise.
"I don't think it's turned out the way we wanted, and I hope we don't renew it. That sucked."
