ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — What if a professional sports team held a retirement press conference and the spotlighted player didn’t retire?
That’s exactly what happened Monday afternoon inside the ADPRO Sports Training Center, best known to Buffalo fans as the Bills’ fieldhouse.
For a team that has had its share of bizarre press sessions, this one was right up there with Doug Whaley’s embarrassing final meeting with the media last January, shortly before his overdue firing.
It was supposed to be a feel-good day, a final press conference for veteran center Eric Wood who had been diagnosed with a neck injury that ended his playing career after nine seasons.
But that’s not the way it played out.
Begin with the fact that the event commenced nearly an hour later than its scheduled 1 o’clock starting time as over 100 people — family, friends, members of the Eric Wood Foundation, current and former teammates and the press — pondered the reason for the delay.
Even before Wood walked to the podium, the media was told he would take no questions.
Sure enough, he read a prepared statement that took less than 90 seconds … then left the stage.
The whole dynamic was odd.
There was no seating, just the bare podium. And though the press release indicated general manager Brandon Beane and coach Ryan McDermott would be part of it, neither went to the microphone, instead speaking to small groups of the media, off to the side, after Wood read his brief statement.
Later, Associated Press sports writer John Wawrow quoted an unnamed source as saying Wood’s retirement was on hold due to questions whether the team could ask him to return a portion of the contract bonus he received for signing a two-year extension last August.
Teams can ask that a portion of the bonus money be returned if a player retires before the contract expires and that’s not an uncommon occurrence. But there’s a question whether that holds true if the retirement is the result of a career-ending injury.
Thus, after consulting with his agent by phone and possibly the NFL Players Association, Wood delivered his carefully-worded statement.
He did not announce his retirement and clearly noted the fact that he was still on the team’s roster. Even Beane admitted the Bills don’t have any salary-cap space to release the veteran center — due to the accelerated hit for the entire value of Woods’ signing bonus — until the NFL’s business year begins in March.
Wood, who turns 32 in two months, explained his injury as being in two discs that were “alarming(ly)” close to the spinal cord in his neck. He said he’d suffered the first two “stingers” — also known as “burners” or “pinched nerves” — of his career in back-to-back games about a third of the way into last season.
No damage was discovered at the time, but in his end-of-season physical, an MRI revealed Wood’s career-ending injury.
Finishing his statement, the former first-round draft choice conceded there were a lot of unanswered questions and indicated he would answer them at a later date.
But I have one now.
Wood admitted Monday’s press conference had been planned two weeks ago … couldn’t the reported issues have been addressed well before the session was supposed to start?
It’s worth noting that owners Terry and Kim Pegula didn’t attend the press conference. And that, in itself, is unusual.
Wood, the Bills’ second-longest tenured player behind defensive tackle Kyle Williams, has been one of the team’s all-time fan favorites over his career.
A popular, high-character, blue-collar, community-active player is exactly the type the Pegulas would normally fete.
It’s worth wondering why they weren’t there and why Beane and McDermott didn’t address the guests who showed up, including players such as Williams, one-time Bills’ QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, running back LeSean McCoy, fresh from the Pro Bowl, linebacker Lorenzo Alexander and former Buffalo offensive tackle Will Wolford.
At very least, the whole event was a bad optic.
By default, the Bills end up looking bad just because the press conference was such a disaster. But it’s hard to imagine the team trying to financially stiff a player who was such a model citizen and gave so much … especially having his career ended by a serious injury. Over the years, the Bills have paid tens of millions of dollars to get rid of players of questionable character in the form of dead cap money. Wood is the antithesis of all of them.
Maybe the issue is with his agent, or the NFLPA.
What’s certain is, Monday’s retirement press conference was an embarrassment to everybody involved.
(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
