Former Buffalo Bills center Eric Wood joins Always Gameday in Buffalo

Former Buffalo Bills center Eric Wood joins Always Gameday in Buffalo

hey everybody welcome to another edition of It’s Always game day in Buffalo s capacho Matt B want to get to Father’s Day in a little while to make sure you had a great Father’s Day weekend we’re gonna have a special guest that we’re going to do that with as well but uh Matt it is what we like to call the dog days of summer there’s nothing wrong with dog days of summer because it is summer it is hot we got a lot of heat coming to Buffalo in Western New York this uh this week basically as we sit here on June 17 but um you know now it’s the time where we have to kind of figure out things to talk about when it comes to the Buffalo Bills yeah we got to figure out some topics to talk about but at the same time there’s always something to talk about hence the name of the podcast it’s always game day and buffalo it’s not actually always game day and buffalo but there’s always something bills related to talk about so I think we’ll certainly manage over the next couple months all right so before we bring in Eric wood who’s gonna join us on this podcast you’ll notice I have a new wind screen here here’s what happened so this this I had to put this on this this is what the microphone looks like without a wind screen okay and I had this thing that just look at what happened to this thing it was on here and it got sh this after years yeah yeah and it got torn up right so now I just put this new wind screen on but it goes with my like Syracuse colors and all that it’s not the right wind screen but it kind of looks cool on the podcast so I’m just G to keep it right there it looks like an auto the orange windscreen specifically made for capacho exactly from the new house School of Communications well I also did that because anytime I could needle and our ACC friend and of course former Buffalo Bills Center and current Buffalo Bills radio analyst Eric wood I like to do that as well he joins us now and it’s always game day in Buffalo Eric thanks for coming on uh here on it’s always game day with Matt and me yeah my pleasure always always a pleasure uh getting to be on with you guys um yeah I was going to make a comment about that it looks like something like out of the 80s like I know you know when Greg and Todd Todd in the broadcast Booth like we’ll have something like super old school and it’s like our headphones will have like a dark brown wind screen on it it kind of reminds me of that maybe I I figured they set you up with that no I’ll have to get a new one from then though for the next podcast uh Eric one of the reasons why we’re gonna have Eric on the podcast is he has a really cool golf event coming up this week that both Matt and I are gonna play in again out in bavia and also gives him a chance to talk about his flights and bites which is his annual event at Resurgence coming up in November so Eric Thursday is your golf event money for the Evan wood foundation it’s always a great event I have the pleasure and honor to be the MC for the auction afterwards and you know hang out with a bunch of people Matt’s gonna be playing in it this year so why don’t you tell everybody a little bit about that yeah and honestly I just get to come be a part of it and it’s that’s actually rare as far as I don’t want to say celebrity golf tournaments go but you know fundraisers that are tied in with an athletes Foundation this is B&L Wholesales annual tournament a few years ago actually let’s say I think it goes back back about five years ago they decided we built a relationship with them to donate all of their funds from the golf tournament to the evanwood fund well most golf tournaments don’t raise that much money this one does they are very great stewards of the money of of everybody’s donations that it brings in for the golf tournament and it’s just been an absolute blessing honestly we wouldn’t be able to do maybe half of what we get to do for these families if it wasn’t for this golf tournament so we’re extremely grateful last year I believe I was talking to my wife about it I believe we were in we do we do we generally do one big family trip a year I believe we were in Alaska last year so I couldn’t make it in and so this year I’m excited to be back up for the event it’s always a great event and then yes again this fall we’ll have our annual fundraiser that we do during the season and that’s flights and bites it’s at Resurgence again this year so be a part of it Matt will’ll have to get you out there this year it’s a ton of fun it’s it’s Unique it’s kind of a old school no cell phones no pictures uh fairly small crowd banned I mean it’s kind of like an old school Throwdown but we’re we make sure that we raise money for the families and that the cause is the central point of the night as well that means you can have fun with no cell phones you can actually just have a good time you don’t have to worry about it being recorded Eric tell everyone what the evanwood fund does and what it goes towards yeah so it’s name it it all started originally I had a foundation in Buffalo first thing that came to my mind was just called the Eric wood foundation we’re going to raise money for families that have chronically ill or disabled children in Buffalo so you know help out the families provide unique experiences we do game day experiences with a suite where families can come from the hospital go there we provide uh Christmas support we provide you know just financial assistance for families that are on hard times because they have a sick or disabled child well it was named after my little brother Evan who passed when he was 11 years old who was born with severe saal py and so it was all in his honor from the start and so when I decided to move from a foundation to a fund under the Children’s Hospital which is allows us to donate a lot more um nearly every single dollar really every single dollar that comes in now gets donated we don’t have a foundation director we don’t have kind of all the bells and whistles that a foundation has and so we’re able to donate uh every single dollar that now comes in to the fund and so it’s it’s a really cool way for me to be able to honor my brother and Buffalo who never got to walk or talk or breathe on his own now in Buffalo New York in Western New York he hopefully his name uh will be remembered forever because of the impact uh that he had on me and now in his name that it has on the community it’s G to be the Heavy Hitters out there for us the three Sports directors in Buffalo the three main television channels 2 four and S ABC NBC and CBS Matt boet Josh Reed John Scott joining me on force them to play in the Eric wood um you know Foundation the EV wood foundation I should say Eric Wood Golf event at bavia but I do have a question about this now we’re okay Matt’s a really good golfer you know Matt Matt’s good he you’re one of the better golfers I know Eric okay I’ll say that but Matt’s a very good golfer um but I do want to know Eric what is the etiquette about someone winning their own golf tournament before we start this it’s not good and it happened two years ago and I felt bad now Colin who grew up in our program he a cancer survivor I played with him and his dad and I played with Andrew lhaa from the hospital foundation and Colin was our big hitter and honestly we we played well that day we we won outright I mean it was fair and square I I hate cheating in a scramble like that’s one of my least favorite things on earth back in the day for and let me just Sidetrack for a second so back in the day Jim Kelly’s gol tournament used to have a volunteer on every single green so maybe if you moved your ball into the Fairway or whatever you could cheat to an extent but someone recorded all the scores on every single hole and minus 15us 16 would generally win it they took away the volunteers on every hole and now minus 22 wins at each year and so to me uh we won at fair and square that year and I did say on the microphone I appreciate you bringing that up I did say on the microphone that you know it’s it’s not very classy to win your own event now I wanted Colin you know a kid who came through the program I was fighting hard to win it for him that day um and we’ll we’ll see what happens this Thursday though well we have handic days uh I’m on a I’m on a six index I’ve played some rough golf this year but I I like myself on a six for tournaments I just like when you go to play some better players or try and getting in different events you know it sound a lot better when I was a three or four but that’s okay I put my pride aside and you know I like for gambling purposes for tournament purposes I love being on a six index you just got to put your pride aside sometimes uh when you feel like you should be a little bit lower it’s it’s always a tricky thing because um I I think the way to eliminate a lot of that too though is to not have Mull but of course everybody buys Mulligans and goes to a great CA so why not why would you eliminate Mulligans right so it’s always a a tricky thing when it comes to that kind of stuff so bavia is now Eric if if people want to be a part of this they just you know they want to play golf or they want to donate something anything is there is there anything they they can do to be a part of this on Thursday June 20th at Terry Hills Golf Course yeah I would reach out to BNL wholesale supply if if you’re interested in supporting the event like I said extremely great stewards of that money I believe it’s sold out for this year uh but in future years we would we would love to have that support yeah yeah get in now for sure if you want to do that and of course if you do want to be a part of flights and bites also Resurgence uh that’s going to be coming up on November 4th and um you know that’s always a great event Now Matt truth be told Eric said no no recording my wife always records me playing the drums I get to play the drums every year with chrisopher r and the common good they allow me to get up there I play the drums for a song and inana Records me playing because I want to be cool yeah and when I say no cell phones I mean we don’t make you check it and at the door but kind of rmo is over the years sometimes the players come out and they’ll have some fun it’s it’s a Monday night they’re off on Tuesdays and so the players like to come out and have fun and the last thing I would want is look someone’s innocently having a beer it’s out of Brewery and then all of a sudden it’s used against them when they’re there supporting a great cause and so you know if you want to picture with maybe one of the guys on the teams that comes out we would love to take a professional photo of you guys together and so it’s not necessarily like you people are unapproachable we just like to keep the cell phones at Bay that way some of the bigger name guys on the team that come out they can really enjoy themselves and it actually leads to better conversations and it like it allows you to actually get to know someone as opposed to hey let me wait in line with my camera pH you know with my cell phone get a picture and then that’s the end of the experience there’s a certain uh guy who wears number 17 who I know a lot of people are probably very eager to see but in a serious note I know that you overlapped with some of the guys on the team but there’s now this entirely new wave of players here in Buffalo what is it like though for you to have that connection still to this organization even though you are several years removed from when you ultimately retired yeah it’s great and and look there’s a certain trust factor that needs to be uh acquired when you technically work in the media but I’m also there like on game days I’m there at breakfast and there’s times where maybe they bring BR a new offensive alignment and chromer will say hey reach out to Eric and you know maybe you know ask him about me or see if he has any advice kind of acclimating to my system whatever it may be Aaron Kromer came in in 2015 to the bill so I had been playing for a while before he came there so hey give them some pointer so it it’s just kind of an interesting balance and look I I tell them all the time like I’m not Adam shefer I’m not in this business to ever break a story like there’s nothing you could say to me that I’m going to just shove out there on Twitter I’m never going to make you look bad and so it’s kind of been an acquired trust with a lot of guys and me being you know fairly good buddies with 17 helps when you know when those guys are like okay well if Josh is pretty good buddies with him then goes to derby with them then I guess you know I can trust this guy Eric wood joining us here on its always game day in Buffalo speaking of 17 Eric played in his 117 holes of golf just a few weeks ago at craigburn they got very wet Josh Allen’s dad was there as well that was super cool and I want to ask you guys about Father’s Day here on it’s always game day in Buffalo Eric wood joining s capacho and Matt B it’s always game day in Buffalo you guys get anything really cool or do anything really cool for Father’s Day go ahead Matt I’ll let you start off I mean I golfed right I think that’s what people do on Father’s Day I had the morning and you know I went I played around to golf and it was lovely and then I watched the US Open so that is what I dedicated my day towards basically golf because I do not get to play nearly as much as I would like anymore so I considered that the practice round for Thursday tournament with Eric there you go what did you end up doing s well we had a double header baseball game in Niagara Falls for Max’s travel baseball team where I’m the head coach and it was awesome it was great to be with the kids and the boys and um my wife and another woman are the team moms so they organized Pizza in between the double header for all the kids and um we we played just by Sal magley Stadium out there which was amazing split the double header but we came home winners so that was great to end on that and then went out to dinner afterwards watched the golf on a TV at the bar out dinner and then sat down for a great dinner which was really cool but here’s what I got that’s really cool guys this is what Max got me I want to show you this all right so whenever Max comes home from school first thing he says to me every day I’m hungry and he’s a growing boy he’s 10 years old and my response is always hi hungry I’m dad so here is my father’s day gift oh that’s great that’s great that is great I love that look at you look at you that’s well done I want to know was that a custommade shirt or was that a targeted Instagram based upon your cell phone listen I know right to the conversations and then they realized that you would probably want that shirt uh either way I’m not really sure they got it somehow I think that I think they sold it somewhere actually because apparently this is what happens to all hey your son is almost there how old’s your son Eric he’s six there he always hry he’s hungry as well yes always hungry wait till he gets off that bus Dad I’m hungry right everything he’s gonna be doing that so I’m Dad I’m hungry what’ you do we hung out with our families yesterday went to church in the morning I didn’t play golf I was invited to and I I Matt I I do get to play a decent amount of golf especially in the summer time when you know in the fall I try and really limit it because I’m gone every weekend and but during the summer times I get a good amount of golf in so uh I did not play yesterday we went to church in the morning had our families over and hung out and had a good day we we watched golf all day and luckily uh you know my family’s pretty into it so I didn’t feel bad sitting around watching the US Open all day felt terrible for Rory I don’t know if you guys saw his statement today basically saying in 17 years a professional golf this is probably the hardest thing he’s had to deal with and you know there’s all the memes there’s the huge holes that people have you know mocked up of the gifs and then you know it’s him missing these monster holes and whatnot but you feel for the guy but but I’ll say this I I was I was rooting for Des Shambo I got to meet him Tuesday night of um PJ championship week at a small event in Louisville and talked to him for a few I was actually invited to his golf tournament the year before and couldn’t make it down but it wasn’t him personally texting me and invited me I got invited through a mutual friend but it told him about that and you know love to make it in the future but just a super super nice guy just really enjoyed my time you know short time with him and then just watching how he treated everybody the week of the PGA here in Louisville and look people might say okay he’s got a great PR guy he’s flipped his image 180 well I think he said it best when he said look earlier in my career you know I didn’t get the spotlight I didn’t get the responsibility that comes with it and was I hothead at times yes did I handle every situation great absolutely not but I’ve learned and I’ve taken a step back he got out of the spotlight a little bit when he went to the live tour and now when he’s playing in these featured events on the P these Majors that he’s coming back for it’s amazing how he’s treating everybody what he’s done for his image through the YouTube golf and whatnot so I was happy for him I in that shot he hit on 18 I mean 55 yards from the sand that’s one of those risk reward and he he said it best he’s like I purposely chunk and runed so you know hit behind the ball knowing that the worst case I come up short I can still get up and down go to a playoff but if it works out if it rolls out then I can get in and uh win it and it worked out for him my thing about Bryson is I totally agree with you about him kind of turning around his image over the years my biggest thing with him I love the accessibility that he has brought golf specifically from the YouTube side of thing just because that is now an Avenue for so many people to take in golf content literally if I turn on my television right now it’ll come up with all of my recommend stuff on YouTube and it’ll be a bunch of podcasts about the Buffalo Bills and then it’ll be a bunch of YouTube videos with GM Golf Grant Horvat Bob does Sports him and I just think that it is bringing the game to such a new generation of people and to me that is invaluable so Bryson for me went from I would have been happy either way because I really like Rory but Bryson to me has been a 180 because two or three years ago I would have said yeah I I can’t really do it with this guy now I almost almost felt myself rooting for him and was certainly not disappointed when he did win no I’m with you 100% Matt I mean and and it’s amazing what the game of golf has become with this YouTube uh golf sensation to where like my little boy will get into a golf tournament on the weekend but for him to just sit there and watch for hours on end you know he’s probably going to lose a little bit of interest but he sat there when Josh Allen played Grant Horvat on uh YouTube he sat there for an hour and 15 minutes and I walked away and he’s yelling score updates to me with Josh first grant in the other room he’s into the Bob D Sports guys like and he’s six years old so for me like I want Garrett to be into golf because that allows me to steal time with him like we can go out on the golf course together spend time doing that that’s a lot more fun to me than sitting around you know watching whatever on T watching some Disney movie whatever it may be and so uh I’m I’m Allin on the YouTube golf guys I’ve gotten to know some of these guys and you know like the Bob does Sports guys we connected for a round in Jupiter I had then FP came in with me for Derby and we’ve I’ve connected with those guys paig fanic played with her recently uh she came with us to Oaks Derby weekend and so that that whole YouTube Golf Community it’s amazing how they all kind of like piggyback each other it’s not like um yes they’re competing against each other but in a sense they’re all kind of in the same boat trying to elevate each other as well it’s it’s a neat deal Eric Qui what is the deal sorry S I didn’t mean to cut you off there what is so Perez is there’s a somehow Buffalo conect or Rochester connection right is he from there or his dad’s from there or something like that yeah so he has family from the area and then he grew up in Virginia but he remained a Bill’s fan and so he married a girl from Louisville and then they moved to Jupiter I belong to a country club in Jupiter Florida and so a mutual friend basically introduced us via text and said hey there’s you know Zero Degrees of Separation here I feel like you guys should hang out and you’ll hit it off and he was right we became Fast Friends very cool Eric wood joining us here and it’s always game day in Buffalo Eric’s getting ready for another season on the Bills radio network as am I to be on the sidelines and unfortunately we know now that John Murphy won’t be coming back for play-by-play duties Chris Brown’s done a great job over the last year and a half it’s no secret that um that job is currently open and being posted so we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen with that but we do know it won’t be John Murphy Eric if you could just kind of reflect on your time calling games with John in the booth with you next to you every game yeah I’ll forever be grateful for how John took me into the broadcast he was so close with Mark Kelo I was brought in to replace him Mark stepped away and I was replacing Mark Kelo he was close with and for me the way that murf just brought me in and murf is just the ultimate professional he made it so easy on me every single Sunday and we had so many laughs together we had so many great meals together and I’m going to miss them and I hope there’s some way shape or form that he’s a part of Sundays and whether that’s hanging out in the booth or whether that’s a segment in the pregame we can get him in for I I don’t know exactly what that looks like but um you know I just hope that there’s some way we can work him in I had him on my Center on Buffalo podcast recently and uh didn’t plan on it but completely broke down crying at the end of it talking about how much I’m going to miss him and so you know to me uh just a special person and the guy that um I’ll remain close to and friends with forever and you know this will be a transition and it already has been a transition with Chris taking over the last year and a half and there was hopes that murf would be able to come back into the booth and he’s basically said you know it wasn’t fair for him to just continue to leave the gig uh you know just on hold in in limbo and so he’s stepping away from the play-by-play duties but hopefully there’s some way he can be involved and I wouldn’t even mind if it’s just him being in the booth with us on Sundays you know hanging out after the game and giving his thoughts yeah Buffalo broadcasting is better because of guys like John Murphy obviously Eric worked with him s worked with him I had a chance to work with him for a couple years we’re all better because of it and we all you follow you followed in his seat so to speak he was there many years before you but I mean you’re in the exact same role that he was me watching growing up yeah I mean there was only six Sports directors in the history of WKBW one of them is John Murphy and one of them is me and actually the guy then there’s Jeff Russo Joe Balia Rick AAR and then Bob kashinsky so those are the six people I always love that murf is a North you know Niger County guy Bob kashinsky is a weatfield guy I’m a weatfield guy so we have kind of the Lion Share of the WKBW Sports director titles hopefully that’s not something that I give away anytime soon but yeah we’re all definitely better because of murf so Eric thank you for that but we also do want to talk about the current bills team and a lot of stuff offensive line go ahead before you do I wantan to I wantan I want to say this this is how small the six degrees separation two degrees whatever how small Western New York is you brought up Rick AAR Rick AAR passed away in 2021 uh 2021 he was 990 something years old I went to watch the Turkey Trot this year which runs by my house okay I go up to Del watch watch The Turkey Trot this gentleman who had to be in his 50s or 60s stopped saw me watching I wasn’t running he was running said s capap man I listen to you all the time my dad was Rick AAR no kidding really unbelievable yesol is that that’s one of my Idols growing up watching just like murf obviously yeah that’s really cool oh my gosh all the best all the best all right let’s talk some football coming up all right let’s talk about what the bills are going to do at Center this year because all signs point to Conor McGovern transitioning from guard to center it’s a position Eric wood played he knows it very well he could speak better than anyone we could bring on about what that entails especially playing for Aaron chromer now there’s been a lot made of Conor McGovern’s size look Mitch Morris wasn’t a wasn’t wasn’t a small guy either right he was also a guy that was you know a pretty big Center but is there something to be kind of maybe concerned about or is there an adjustment that Josh Allen has to make to having one of the bigger centers in the league no and actually Connor is what an inch shorter than Mitch Moore so the only thing you’d be concerned about and the only person I ever really heard talk about it was Tom Brady when he wanted his centers and maybe this is just you know something else that people brought up but Tom’s centers were always like 6’2 or smaller but you know I was 6’4 Mitch 66 Connor I believe is 6’5 and I don’t think there’s that much you know of a big deal there with him being six fo5 and being in front of Josh you know to me when I look at this transition though this is a guy who played a ton of ball at Center in college he’s comfortable with it he said multiple times that centers his natural position that’s exactly how I felt when I entered the NFL the bills put me at guard for a year and a half Jeff ha Gardner got hurt my second year I actually had a high ankle sprain at the time and had missed the previous two games at least one game and got hurt the previous so I was out you know almost two weeks and they said hey if you come back this week we’ll let you play center so I taped it up you know did what I had to do to get through that game but I wanted to go back to playing Center because that was my natural position when I hear Conor McGovern talk about wanting to get back to Center I could see it from my own perspective because that’s exactly how I felt and not that you know there’s a huge difference between playing Center and guard but when you’re the center you get to make all the calls you direct the offensive line you’re the leader of the group so it’s from a leadership perspective from a you know if you have that uh Knack that that want to be able to make the calls in each and every play and run the show um then then you want to be in the pivot and that’s where I can hear it in Connor’s voice and then also from a skill set yes Connor has been a very good guard but if you have what it takes to be a good Center and you get those guys right on top of you a lot of plays and you get your hands on them you can really dominate that position if you have you know kind of the muscle memory if you’ve built up those reps of playing Center comfortable you know snapping and stepping at the exact same time and so to me I I feel like it’ll be a natural transition for him now he played so good at guard last year next to Dion and you know Dion played well too it almost makes me think well was there any else is it a Alec Anderson is it a van pran Granger can those guys you know hop into the pivot but the way it’s looking right now it’s looking like they’re going to put mcgoverin at Center and I think he’s gonna have a heck of a year Eric what would need to happen for the line to take a step forward and I know how difficult that would be considering how good they were last year felt like everybody last year played exceptionally well is there a possibility though that this young line could could continue to get better I think so I mean Dion played at such a high level last year there’s no reason to think that he couldn’t replicate that Spencer Brown took a step forward last year can he take another step forward Osiris torren was playing as a rookie last year and I thought he played extremely well but it was far from perfect and you don’t expect the rookie to step in there and and and and be perfect at a lot of times but I think he can definitely uh make improvements this year and then you know David Edwards will see what he can do at left guard and then you know Mitch Morris played great last year but can Conor McGovern you know step in and play equal or maybe even better he’s younger he’s likely more powerful you know is he as athletic as Mitch Morris I’m not sure but you know I have a lot of confidence in Joe Brady to be able to utilize each of their skill sets um to their advantage and and I say that you know we pull our tackles in Buffalo more than anyone in the NFL but Cromer will tell you when you have guys is athletic as Spencer Brown and Deon Dawkins then you do that because Spencer Brown even though Osirus Thorn has a shorter way let’s say they’re running trap to the left well a lot of times that’s the Right Guard pulling well Spencer Brown so athletic he can get there and so it this is getting way into the woods but it’s easier for osir Torrance to block back on the three technique and then pull Spencer Brown as opposed to Spencer Brown trying to cut off the three technique and then you pull Osiris torren so to me I I’ve always been impressed with how Aaron chromer can scheme up uh run blocking schemes up front was really impressed with what Joe Brady did for the the remainder of the season last year when he took over and I’m excited to see what he can do full-time duties as offensive coordinator with a full year or full offseason to prep for this upcoming season as well yeah I mean maybe the way I asked it was about Conor McGovern maybe maybe you know we all we think he’ll be fine but can the guards be what they were right and you’re right can David Edwards fill the role of Conor mcgu and can Osirus Torrance take a step and replicate by playing every POS every single snap which was incredible by the way last year that he did that but also Eric I mean you mentioned it Al you know Alec Anderson they have they signed LEL Collins who they can play at guard and Tackle Ryan vandemar is a really nice player I think this team has a lot of depth on offensive line and that’s something you’re going to need to sustain a 17 Game season through 18 weeks plus playoffs right and these offensive linemen also become very valuable as far as you know end training camp moves as well we’ve seen Brandon Bean flip these guys for draft picks when they’ve you know had a ton of depth on the offensive line you know they bring will CL in he’s got some experience in this league and they got a lot of guys that can play ball up there so to me uh they’re in a very very good spot on the offensive line right now it’s far from any of my concern heading into the season Eric what do you think the Bill’s identity should be on offense this year because we’ve kind of gotten used to what it has been for the last like four years and then at that point when Joe Brady took over last year it changed a little bit but that also led to more team success should it be more of what we saw during Joe Brady’s eight games or is that just kind of what he could do with the pieces that he had and we’ll see a completely new spin on it coming up this season that’s a great question I mean to me it looks like it’s going to be somewhat of a balanced attack in you know but but I honestly think it’s going to be game plan specific if you know when I looked at how Joe Brady would scheme against defenses for that remainder of the Season he even said look I I’m using plays that were in kend dorsey’s Playbook because you can’t you know change all the terminology and you know midseason like they were in so he’s kind of using Ken’s plays maybe some one-off game plan specific plays but to me it’s going to be a a balanced attack but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s 5050 run and pass I think they’re always GNA have some type of run element in there whether that’s with Josh in the Red Zone but you know we’ll see a lot of James Cook throughout the season but I think it’s going to be game plan specific and where they can catch advantages out there you know they have you know kind of a group receivers right now when you look at it on paper they all kind of have their individual roles to where maybe it’s you know we don’t have the Stefan digs out there but it’s going to be more just specifically attacking matchups or attacking what the coverage is giving you and not necessarily saying hey we need to get this guys this guy eight balls a game and so I I’m honestly excited about what this offense can be and although they lose dig on the outside I I don’t have concerns that this is not going to be a team that top three in the NFL and offense again this season we can talk a lot more about the bills on the field with Eric wood I’m sure as we head closer to training camp once again he’ll be on the radio call for the Buffalo Bills radio network before we wrap up with there a couple questions for both you guys here first of all it’s it’s sad to say it’s sad to report but obviously big news out of Buffalo today The Old Pink is gone The Old Pink burned down in in Allentown on Allen Avenue on Allen Street it’s just it’s just horrible seeing it and before we went on the air we recorded by the way June 17th is Monday night we’re recording here um before that I was watching the wrecking ball already taken to it man it’s just just tough to see I don’t know if you spend any time down there Eric but I know you know Allen Street pretty well in that area at least um but both you guys I mean just um it’s sad to see obviously a staple a landmark for a lot of buffalonians and whether you’re older or younger you might have a memory or two from there yeah I never got to go there myself but uh have heard about it and have spent some time on Allen Street and Allen Town and to me downtown Buffalo is so incredible with just the historic areas down there and to see a piece of that uh go up in Flames I it was it was honestly the first thing I saw when I opened social media this morning it was it was tough to see yeah my favorite post that I saw on social media because I feel like this paints a perfect picture of what the pink was I don’t know who the guy is but somebody tweeted I met my wife and my weed dealer at the pink on the exact same night in 1992 and I was like that is the perfect way of describing what the pink was and just the different people that it brought in from all of these different walks of life I had only been to the pink probably three or four times in my life it had been several years since I’ve been there but I am extremely grateful that I have had the steak sandwich from the pink and when you got to the pink at least for me I never really knew what was going to happen next or how the night was going to go but I also think that that was part of the kind of lore of a place like that it was so mysterious and felt just so different than what I was used I mean I’m from weed I’m from weatfield guys we don’t have a pink and weed field so it was really really cool hanging out there when I did get a chance to do we know if that weed dealer and wife aren’t the same person for that guy I mean it could very well be right could have been I I don’t know maybe I doubt it probably probably not all right uh and then let’s let’s go on the Wayback machine now Eric I know you would have only been eight nine years old maybe around there but um this is also the anniversary 30th anniversary of the OJ car chase and I know that you know do you remember your parents watching it Eric or any anything at all from that time no I do remember it and I remember you know seeing it on network television watching the chase you know obviously you know as a kid I’m you know trying to take it all in probably didn’t understand the circumstances right uh involved with what was at stake and what was he was on the run from but I do remember that I was playing go ahead mat well I I don’t remember any of it because I’m 31 so I wouldn’t remember anything that happened 30 years ago but the stories that I’ve heard from Keith Radford so Keith Radford longtime anchor at Channel 7 he covered all of it while everything was happening in La the trial and he also got OJ for his first ever sit down interview following the trial and I remember Keith telling me like this fascinating journalism dilemma of OJ agreed to do the interview but said he wouldn’t answer any questions about the trial now now journalistically that’s like a no-go you have to ask that’s the question that everybody wants to know about now Keith said yes to the terms because he said there’s no way I’m gonna turn this down I’m just gonna get there and I’m gonna see what I get and the first question he asked on his own OJ started talking about how he was innocent and the trial and all the different layers to it so that is the only thing I know about everything that played out but yeah I mean come on I mean it’s an iconic it’s one of the probably most memorable moments in television news history if not the most memorable yeah no doubt and I do remember watching game five that night because I was 21 years old so I was legally able to drink and I was playing baseball for a team that was sponsored by a bar that was located at the time on Delaware Avenue Delaware in hurdle which is now a like a strip a strip shop you know strip mall shop basically or shouldn’t say it that way it’s bunch of shops inside it’s a new you know what I don’t know how you say it you don’t understand some shopping there’s a m strip shop and a strip mall I feel like different things you get my point so different um yes but anyway this was a bar it was called Chester Fields by the way so Chester Fields was a bar we were in there and I remember we played a game at Delaware Park went to the sponsor because that’s what you do after the game we’re having a beer or two we watching and game five is on and there goes you know OJ on the loose and on the run and you know people just um you know kind of riveted by all that so yeah it was a memorable night for sure let’s uh did you drink beer back then or were you still a wine guy back then I was not a wi I I did not acquire a taste for wine until I was older in life actually Eric I did not I was I would have thought wine was not cool and yucky I would think um I was never a big Beer Drinker but you know what when you went out in 21 you go out after the game with the boys and this is before like seltzers are now and things like that you know you had a beer but I still didn’t drink a lot I remember my first like kind of alcoholic beverage I like that I acquired a taste for was Emir sour you ever ever have an emir sour and I would order that and that would be something I’d drink but no I didn’t drink a lot of beer uh back then but you had to have one or two and you went out with the guys after baseball game that you know was sponsored by the the bar where you went to for that makes sense yeah Eric every time you have somebody on the podcast you always ask them where their favorite Wings Spot is and I feel like they all say the exact same thing or at least most of them say the exact same thing so I’m going to ask you what is your favorite Wings Spot but then I’m also going to ask you what is your second favorite Wings Spot in case you give me the answer that I’m assuming you’re going to give me yeah so most the answers and and look guys on the team they come in and so if Josh says barbill are the best wings and that’s what everyone’s been saying is barbill Well then you know most of the guys live in Orchard Park eor is right there it’s fairly close to get them from and so people will get them but it’s kind of word of mouth and just kind of you know routine plus these guys aren’t eating they’re not getting wings multiple times a week if anything it’s like you have people in town for the most part you’re eating fairly healthy you know throughout the week and so you’re and you’re not generally going out to eat you’ll get food from the facility a lot of these guys now have chefs all that being said everyone’s been saying barbill I really do like barbill y they they may be the top for me I love uh Sonny Red’s Wings which were kind of a spin-off from Mulberry Mulberry Never Had Wings before but the first time I ever went to eat at Mulberry Joe made me wings and so I started requesting him down there and finally put him on the menu then they did Sonny Reds love that spot absolutely love the big tree this is not a fact but my jerseys on the wall at the big tree and they made a joke for a while that the only way your jersey can get on the wallet to big tree is if you were in the hall of fame or if you spent $100,000 in the big tree I have not spent $100,000 in the big tree and I’ll never make the Hall of Fame so neither of those are true but uh love the big tree as well and then back in the day like I was never worried about like like if if a spot had good wings I just said they had good Wings it wasn’t okay what’s my number one what’s my number two so I have been to Elmos I’ve been to 911 Tavern but it’s probably been 13 14 years I got to get back to those places and there’s a few other ones that I gotta I got to get to because I want to you know I’m getting you know a different bills player coach or media person on the podcast every week and I want to be able to give them some advice you know whether it’s live on the podcast or at least afterwards be like hey why don’t you all go check out these spots as well uh recently went to Wing nuts and really like that as well their wings I probably wouldn’t put their you know buffalo wings on par with you know the others that I mentioned but as an as an overall restaurant I mean it’s owned by Three Chefs their food just in general there is incredible I haven’t been right I definitely have to try it though yeah yeah I was I was kind of worried about Wing nuts because I felt like barcol kind of blew them up and they weren’t a traditional spot and then I got I’m I’m a sucker too like I met the owners and they were so nice and you know I heard their story and they were telling me about their pizza and how long it took to create this crust well then when you tried someone told you it took six months to create a crust then you it well then you’re like wow this is really good and and you appreciate the intentionality there and I don’t know it’s I kind of have a similar deal in Louisville but not other cities besides Louisville and buffalo and I find myself going to the same restaurants over and over but the people that own them that come out and talk it’s like they’re so great I almost feel guilty not going back to a place like that and then you know if you’re if you’re a chef owned restaurant if you’re the owner and you’re there every day you probably have a pretty good product too so you know Buffalo’s you unique to where you know I go to malberry you go to ilos you go to hutches you go to wherever it is and it’s just it’s a special experience no doubt about it Matt you got anything else before we wrap up with Eric and let him go I was just gonna I was just gonna say like what do you think you’re gonna shoot on Thursday what do you think your group is what is your goal what do we have to aim for what do we got to do to be winners I don’t know what I don’t know who I’m playing with yet I actually requested to be with you guys and I think I’m playing either with someone from BNL or again with someone that came through you know through oai or whatever it is because I did request to play with you guys w we you could join us make make it five people but I think that’s okay you’re the celebrity you can go around and play with anybody you want buddy that’s true that’s right it was true for some I wasn’t playing as like an add-on celebrity that’s that’s true okay um I would say in a scramble you know with three other decent golfers we shouldn’t be anything higher than minus 14 or 15 just Terry Hills isn’t that long like I can get us near a bunch of the greens out there because it’s not a super long course Terry Hills is can be sneaky tough though especially because this could be hot so the course will be hard it’s sometimes hard to stick those greens out there when it’s real hard because the greens aren’t massive and so you almost have to like run some of those shots on let me ask you one more golf one more golf question sorry S I keep cutting you off I’m sorry I feel like a joke I’m not trying to cut you off my Wi-Fi it’s we rarely have a guest like Eric wood where we can basically just kind of shoot questions at him to and like this so go ahead let me ask you what is your most underrated golf course in Western New York because I think if I asked you what the best golf course in Western New York are most people you know if they love golf probably say Craig bur or they maybe say CCB I’m not counting Rochester for the sake of conversation but is there a course that you feel like is really underappreciated specifically in kind of like our half of Western New York I really liked wanka and I was a member there very briefly I actually paid an assessment for the course renovation and then my career ended with a neck injury and I dropped my membership so I I’ve played out there a couple times since and the renovation looks great um to me like especially during the spring when we would get to play a majority of our golf up there like it’s not a course that’s going to beat you up but it’s beautiful the greens are nice it’s it’s always just to me it’s a really fun course to play like if you don’t have your aame that day you can still go out there and enjoy yourself to where like Craig burn or ccbs like it’s gonna beat you down and yeah you know if you go out there and you’re you know expected to walk with a caddy or whatever it’s hard to rebound for that next day of practice at wanica there’s not even car pass we’re driving up right near the greens and it’s it we all I always really enjoyed my time out there and then we would actually eat there fairly often on like Friday nights when we’d have people in town because it was be real quiet in that back dining room we could kind of it almost felt like you could kind of get away from the house but have a you know quieter dinner and so we really enjoyed our time there there was the public course Heritage Hill Harvest Hill har har right around the right by the stadium and I always felt like I always felt like that place if it was a country club and there was a ton of money put into it like that’s a beautiful piece of property right there now as a public horse it’s going to get a ton of play people aren’t necessarily going to treat it right all the times and it probably doesn’t have the money to like truly make it great but I always felt like that property was absolutely beautiful I agree did you did you did you have one you wanted to add in there Matt is that why like you were thinking of one maybe no no no but I will say we played Lockport last week and I love this course I haven’t played that in a while I’m I’m at Niger Frontier up in Youngtown which is an absolute hike but also think that that’s like a very exceptionally underrated golf course in the area yep I played Niger Frontier really enjoy that place I believe I’m an honorary member there uh mat Clark Matt Clark brought me out one day yes Matt Clark is very connected to Niger Frontier yes yes and then uh someone recently said I’ve got to check out lockb they sent me a few pictures of of course and it looked awesome yeah speaking of that that’s where the 514 Legacy Foundation golf tournament is going to be had next week and that’s Bruce Smith’s uh he his name is attached to that so I’ll be a part of the gal of the night before unfortunately can’t really play in the golf tournament but uh Matt and I just played at Lockport a couple weeks ago uh for the Chris Maloney Foundation as well so it’s very cool Hickory Stick is another really good one I like and I I I play Brookfield sometimes with our buddy Bill whipper who’s the photographer for the bills and the Sabers played with Lindy Ruff and Marty Bon out there at different times so that’s a really great course as well uh Eric thank you so much for joining us once again Thursday in Heron Terry Hills we’re doing the B&L wholesale uh golf tournament but it’s for the Evan wood fund and then Resurgence November 4th that’s where you’re having your big fundraiser every year and of course tell everybody about the podcast yes Center on Buffalo podcast we’re going to repurpose this one as well Style’s been a guest uh multiple times recently Matt I’ll have to get you on as well just recorded one with Bobby babit that’ll be a fun one put out next week um I believe we have Joe Brady coming up for recording Josh Allen but we’ve had being in mcdermon recently and whatnot it’s you know it’s not your necessarily you know at least this time of year kind of your you know weekly beat podcast but we have some fun interviewing some guys had a really fun you know we mentioned Conor McGovern earlier had a fun conversation with him talking offensive line play he’s into cooking we sent him some Dan seasoning and whatnot so it it’s been fun for me to kind of stay connected uh with Bill’s football throughout the off uh offseason with that podcast Matt knows all about con McGovern cooking for sure did a segment with him cooking as well and you can check that out yeah you can check that out WKBW is where you’ll find Matt wgr as well you’ll find me and of course it’s always game day in Buffalo you can find wherever you pod it doesn’t matter that’s the audio and then on video at sou Sports YouTube the South Sports YouTube channel thanks a lot to Mike robier our producer and thanks a lot to Eric wood Eric we be catching up with you again thanks my man yep let’s do it thanks Eric

Former Bills center and current radio analyst Eric Wood joins us to talk about everything from Connor McGovern’s transition to center and the offensive line, to the ending of the US Open, to best wing spots in Buffalo.