Buffalo sports anchor Jonah Javad makes blooper reel to trash departing Bills’ corner

Local sports anchors sometimes show off their fandom, and it sure looks like Jonah Javad is the latest to do that. A sports anchor for Buffalo NBC affiliate WGRZ, Javad decided to make a reel of Stephon Gilmore being beaten in coverage or missing tackles after Gilmore (a former Pro Bowl corner with the Bills who signed with the New England Patriots back in March) tweeted Monday about how excited he was to play more nationally-televised games that his friends and family could watch. Here’s Gilmore’s tweet:

My People finally going to get to see me play on tv. #Patsnation#aboutthattime

— The Gilly Lock (@BumpNrunGilm0re) July 17, 2017

Javad then retweeted this with the interpretation that it was a shot at the Bills:

#BillsMafia is not going to like this one… https://t.co/qiP03HQKhY

— Jonah Javad (@JonahJavad) July 17, 2017

And then used his next sports segment that night to show off a compilation video of Gilmore missing tackles:

Stephon Gilmore took a jab at the #Bills for not playing on national TV as much as the Patriots.

My clap-back column: pic.twitter.com/1zsFAYjmkV

— Jonah Javad (@JonahJavad) July 17, 2017

This feels a little silly on a couple of levels. First, Gilmore was hardly directly bad-mouthing the Bills; it’s a simple fact that they play less nationally-televised games than the Patriots, thanks partly to relative fanbase sizes and partly to the teams’ respective performances in recent years. Javad and others certainly interpreted as a shot at Buffalo, and that’s their right to do so, but going to the level of deliberately highlighting six plays or so where Gilmore came out on the wrong side feels more problematic, especially when you consider that all defensive backs are beaten at times and that Gilmore has regularly been ranked as one of the league’s best cover men:

https://twitter.com/lyncejr/status/866403825745362944

“I guess if you can’t beat them, join them, right?” Yes, Gilmore is solely responsible for the Bills being worse than the Patriots, something which has nothing at all to do with general managers, coaches, quarterbacks, other offensive players and so on. And yes, he made such a horrible decision to leave Buffalo in free agency for a big-money long-term deal in New England. And sure, his tweet about the factual nature of playing more nationally televised games was totally worth this level of response, and totally worth glossing over all the good moments he had for the Bills and all the big plays he made. And a sports anchor should absolutely be playing up perceived insults to a fanbase and responding on their behalf with inaccurate portrayals of a departed player. This is from the Rob Rossi school of inflated homerism and wrestling promos, and it’s becoming a depressing trend in local sports media. Here’s hoping Gilmore responds with a blooper reel of Javad.

[The Sporting News]