Remember when people were calling talk shows and saying they weren’t going to watch the Buffalo Bills games on television anymore this season?

Well, the Bills’ 17-14 victory over the Miami Dolphins had a 33.1 local rating on Channel 4 and 56 percent of people with their televisions on last Sunday were watching it.

And now that this Bills edition is the most popular 4-10 team in recent memory, I’m pretty sure more people will be tuned in for Sunday’s game with the New England Patriots on Channel 4, the local CBS affiliate.

The theory that armchair fans had given up on the Bills was nonsense.

After all, the Bills games are always the highest-rated television programs in Western New York, delivering two or three times the viewership of top prime time programs here.

But there’s been a lot more nonsense and foolishness tossed out about the Bills this season, most of it on sports talk shows.

Being a talk show host is one of the great jobs, primarily because you never have to be right as long as you attract an audience. In that way, it is like being a TV critic with one key difference. TV critics give subjective opinions and therefore can’t be wrong.

But I digress. Let me count the Top 11 silly comments about the Bills this year. No.1 concerns TV fans giving up on the Bills.

2. The Bills are going to go 0-16. This is the NFL, where every team is pretty close in talent except for three or four clubs. It is almost impossible to go 0-16. Still, this theory filled hours of air time on WGR-AM.

3. Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick (see above) may get cut. This theory made the rounds in preseason, with Bills preseason TV analyst Steve Tasker making it sound like either Fitz or Brian Brohm would be cut and rookie Levi Brown would be kept. Sounds pretty ridiculous now, doesn’t it? Brown was cut, then brought back after starter Trent Edwards was cut.

4.  Fitzpatrick doesn’t have much of an arm. This has been repeated constantly, which made this statement by CBS analyst Rich Gannon during the Miami game so startling: “I’m really impressed with his arm strength.”

5. The offensive line stinks: This one got much mileage, but it disappeared after Edwards disappeared.

6. Edwards looks like a new man: This was the popular preseason view before live bullets started and Edwards again became reluctant to get his gun out of the holster.

7. Bills Owner Ralph Wilson doesn’t want to win and the Bills have given up on the season. Puh-lease. This was a popular stance with malcontents when the Bills were 0-8.  There were no credible facts behind it, and what do the malcontents think a 90something owner is saving his money for?

8. Rookie running back C.J. Spiller is guaranteed to get 1,500 total yards in running, receiving and returning. You have to play to get the yards. He hasn’t played much.

9. C.J. Spiller is a bust. Puh-lease. Give the guy a break before calling him Aaron Maybin. It is too early to write Spiller off unless you have hours of air time to fill.

10. Chris Kelsay is way overpaid and never should have been given that new contract. The guy  has played pretty well since he got the contract, hasn’t he?

11. The Bills need to draft Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck or some other stud at quarterback after they go 0-16 and get the No.1 pick. How’d the last Stanford quarterback (Edwards) work out for Bills fans? Luck could become a stud. But he could be Alex Smith, Ryan Leaf or Tim Couch, too. In the NFL, you’re almost as likely to find a Tom Brady or a Ryan Fitzpatrick in the sixth or seventh round as you are in the first round.

pergament@msn.com     

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