TGAF: Why Stefon Diggs had to go

“Tim Graham And Friends” brought to you by CTBK delves into the Bills’ decision to trade star receiver Stefon Diggs, the latest on the Sabres and Nate Oats’ first trip to the Final Four.

[Music] [Music] ctbk is more than just a full service accounting firm they are one team with an Innovative approach to accounting and rise to each new challenge with collaborative problem solving skills ctbk goes above and beyond by lending Helping Hands in the Buffalo and Niagara Community through volun work and donations and has partnered up with Victory Sports for 2020 and 2021 to keep kids in the community active the professionals at ctbk are determined to help individuals and businesses succeed whether a large corporation a small business or somewhere in between call ctbk at 716 630 2400 again 716632 2400 and see what cbk’s one team approach can do for you welcome to Tim Graham and friends brought to you by ctbk CPAs and Business Consultants I’m Tim gram of the athletic here with Jonah bronstein of bronstein Sports Plus and it is the first edition of the podcast post Stefan Diggs uh in Buffalo the trade happening yesterday the bills send Stefan Diggs and I think this is significant a lot of people just forget the other two parts the bill send Stefan Diggs and a 2024 sixth round pick and a 2025 fifth round pick minor Assets in the grand scheme of things but they had to sweeten the pot to get a 2025 second round pick from the Houston Texans uh of course the big part of the trade for the bills is they are done with Stefan diggs’s contract the Texans take it on and then according to Adam schfer just an hour or so ago um the Texans are wiping out the final three years of diggs’s contract they’re going to move some money towards this year so essentially he is playing on a one-year deal he will be a free agent after the upcoming season in which he will make $22.5 million I’m not so sure that that deal would have helped the bills out much it still would have been a massive uh hit uh to the salary cap uh even if Diggs had given the bills the same courtesy on the contract or courtesy is a loaded word if they if they’d made the same Arrangement uh so I don’t really think that that helps the bills uh and the bills were concerned that Stefan dig simply is not a number one receiver anymore and it’s time to move on that they could find somebody with uh who can uh fill that vacuum uh at least for a season before they are free and clear and have all that cap space back in 2025 but uh what I think sher’s report obviously indicates is that Stef Diggs was aware of this trade and his agent daa bikari almost certainly working on it prior to the trade so it was all done with blessings um does it prove that Stefan Diggs asked for a trade not necessarily the bills could have gone to him and just said we’re going to allow you permission to seek a trade if something happens fine if not we we’ll stick with you there’s all kinds of things that we that we don’t know there although I do think that Brandon Bean not answering the question was somewhat uh telling yesterday because if Stefan Diggs did not ask for a trade I think it’s pretty easy for Brandon mean at that moment to say no uh he did not of course so we have to speculate a little bit there maybe some educated speculation on my on my part um but it certainly seems that Stefan Diggs was happy to leave and um so Jonah I get I mean that’s the big setup so that way we have all the information up front uh for our listeners uh the latest on the Stefan dig situation um Jonah your your Takeaway on on the trade and whether it was a smart move by the bills did it have to happen the floor is yours well I think I think back to something Stefan dig said early on in his time with Buffalo and more in relation to the end of his time in Minnesota and the trade that landed him with the bills where and the circumstances were different but in many ways thematically the same the Stefan Diggs experience in Buffalo ended the similar way as it did in Minnesota and Stephan Digs at the time said there’s truth in every rumor and there’s been a lot of rumors a lot of reports a lot of speculation about Stefan Diggs and his relationship with the bills with Josh Allen with Sean McDermot with the offensive coordinators with his and some of it haven’t been rumored some of been things his own brother has tweeted or things that have been reported through reporters in different ways and some things that were maybe even obvious by reading body language or reading between the lines of things Stefan digs actually said but a lot of what we were hearing and wondering about and and believing or not believing to be true a year ago about Stefan Diggs and his desire to not be with the Buffalo Bills and maybe the Bills running out of patience with Stefan Diggs and his personality came to fruition a year later and I think a lot of the there’s nothing to see here and and why do we keep asking Stefan digs if he wants to be on the bill and why does this keep popping up as a story all throughout the season show that there was something that was probably bubbling underneath the surface longer than we knew about and maybe even more so than we knew about that um you know there were fissures in that relationship and it probably was difficult for all of the parties to get through last season and I think that all the parties maybe realized that they couldn’t go into another another season on the same circumstances especially as you laid out with maybe Stefan digs not being quite as productive of a player as he was a year ago at this time and they didn’t even really want to go into another off season I I was struck as much by the timing as everything because there are some salary cap reasons and and different reasons why maybe it would have been better for the bills to make this trade after June 1 or later on in the offseason into the preseason and they decided to make this trade before OTAs and the offseason workouts begin in two weeks and it seems to me like this was made deliberately to make sure he’s not part of the offseason program and not part of the team going forward when they reconvene in a couple weeks in Orchard Park well he did not attend the voluntary workout portions of the bills program so he wouldn’t even be there uh but people would be asking about it uh as they do every year and sha McDermot would be asked about it um it’s every player’s right excuse me it’s every play right to not attend and I think once you get to a certain stage in your career I’m actually a proponent of not attending because I’m a I generally side uh on uh with Labor uh when it comes to uh work conditions what is expected of you what is demanded of you uh the things that aren’t in your contract that teams expect you to do um so when you get to a certain point you’ve proven yourself you know you’re on the team you know the offense there’s stability at the head coach position and the co coordinators and all that stuff uh are are voluntary workouts imperative no they’re not and if guys have things that they want to do in the off season whether it’s jetting around for fashion week or playing golf you should be able to do it if you want to and I don’t think it it reflects necessarily on leadership um but sha McDermot would certainly be asked about it again just as he was asked about it at the combine just as he was asked about it at the NFL owners meetings uh same thing with Brandon Bean Josh Allen would now be uh getting asked about it you know what do you what’s your relationship like you know maybe they just got tired of lying you know they got tired of saying all the things that you need to say to keep the peace uh and I’m not faulting them I’m not you know Stefan Diggs uh when he would be asked repeatedly and it would get incessant uh sometimes about are you happy here do you want to stay here and he would turn the tables and make the person asking the question look foolish uh and but you say Jonah as you pointed out there was something there there was a there there um but of course he’s not going to say it or he he wouldn’t he would be smart not to anyway um but that all leads me to a point that I guess I wish I would have made in my column yesterday um and I hadn’t thought of it until you phrased it this way no I feel bad for um and I my son has assigned Stefan Diggs Bill’s mini helmet uh in his bedroom I got him for Christmas a few years ago uh there might even be a jersey somewhere here in this house um I’ve said on this podcast a number of times I think he of his greatness uh one of my favorite players to watch all time I’m not just as you know I’m not even going to put in the caveat of covering the bills or recently I put him up there with fun players to that I’ve ever seen play football in the same sentence for me personally is Walter pton Stefan Diggs at his best was mesmerizing to watch for me um but I think that as time went on and people dug in with their takes on who Stefan Diggs is and what he wants and he clearly wants to be here everybody would always say why are we arguing about this he absolutely he loves it here all you have to do is see him on the sidelines uh cheering for his guy giving him pep talks playing catch with fans before the games keeping in mind that you know the cameras are on him at all times he knows the cameras are on him when he’s doing this just something to keep in mind um but I and I’ll I’ll wrap it up I know I’m rambling here a little bit but my my point is Jonah I bet today and yesterday there are an awful lot of people who feel like suckers because they defended Stefan Diggs and his loyalty and his leadership and the thing you know he cross he crosses a line when he starts to maybe take a swipe at the quarterback that people are always going to choose over Stefan Diggs we now see that he probably wanted out even though he was saying all these things and you know the the passive aggressiveness and the cryptic tweets and and the brother who’s constantly chirping the bills and the and buffalo and Josh Allen in which Stefan Diggs never pushed back and in fact if you asked him about it he got offended that you would even bother I think it puts the MADD glab situation in a different context uh of the past 48 Hours compared to what people may have thought 72 hours ago there are so many people who defended him or viewed all of the things that made them smile and now it’s totally changed I think that there are a lot of people dealing with you know what maybe Stefan Diggs wasn’t that guy I thought he was um he didn’t want to be anymore and for whatever reason whether it be Josh or whether it be the team maybe he felt you know just change of scenery I’m getting tired of only reaching the second round of the playoffs and that falls on Terry Pula and Brandon bean and there’s all kinds of people you can point your finger to at that um but anyway I think there are probably a lot of people today who feel like suckers for for defending Stefan digs to the end uh for his love of Buffalo and all he wants to do is bring it a championship to Buffalo and he’s just like he just wants it so bad he’s just so competitive that’s why he comes off this way that’s why he storms out of the locker room before Shawn McDermot gives his pregame speech um he just wants it so bad that’s why he is in Shawn mcdermit ear uh against the Cleveland Browns a couple of years ago because he’s not getting the ball enough um that’s why he um is you know wildly flailing his arms at Joe Brady and Josh Allen on the side sideline of the Cincinnati Bengals playoff game uh and and they obviously seemed totally exhausted by him uh in that moment yeah um maybe it’s not just because he just wants to win maybe you know it’s and the bills were tired of it and that was my column yesterday all the things but anyways again again to reiterate you brought up that idea that I bet you there are probably a lot of people today that are like yeah that’s that’s not the guy I thought I was cheering for or the guy the guy that I thought I was you know picking fights with or picking fights for or taking up against caping on social media for yeah and we saw that Dynamic play out just in his relationship with Josh alen when he first got here it was believed and even said that you know Stefan Diggs wanted to play for the bills because he wanted to play with a quarterback like Josh Allen and then a passing attack that he wasn’t able to do in Minnesota and then there was like you know the Allen Diggs campaign lawn signs and the Sports Illustrated for Kids cover and this idea that they were just best friends out on the football field and you know a very a tandem of superstars at quarterback and receiver and that relationship changed over time and even the public displays of affection between the two where they seem to be just co-workers instead of you know best friends out on the field over the past year and not that any of them are really responsible for perpetuating a myth but it did seem to be a myth a bit of how much they loved playing with each other and loved being each other’s teammates and the idea that Stefan Diggs really wanted to win in Buffalo and there was his number one concern and every thing that he was ever upset about was because they weren’t winning in Buffalo that was probably a little bit of a mythical creation as well now does he maybe have a better opportunity to win in Houston that that’s to be debated but I don’t think that’s clear I don’t think he’s he’s it as far as standings he’s going from a better team to a worse team Houston might be a team on the rise but this isn’t like he’s joining leaving a bad team to join a Super Bowl Contender he’s leaving a Super Bowl Contender to join a rising team that isn’t at that level yet and could still win more games with his new team than he did with his last team but doesn’t seem to be going into a higher win probability situation so yeah and as you’ve laid out you know there’s reasons why some of us in the media some people in the organization might have tired of dealing with Stefan Diggs and might not want him and all the distractions that potentially could be created around anymore but he’s going to be missed in that sense from a entertainment and a Content wise and even even from the national perspective of talking about the bills there’s just going to be a lot less there there without Stefan Diggs even if the bills are able to find new receivers that replace the production and the offense as a whole is just as good it’s going to be hard to I think replace his star power and personality and maybe it’s better for some people that have to deal with that in the building on a day-to-day basis but from the media entertainment storytelling aspect of the bills there’s there’s a loss to him not being part of the franchise anymore yeah you think of conversations that we would have with Mike rodak back when he was covering the bills for ESPN and of course he was covering them during the drought and his frustration of pitching stories to editors who kept giving him the the Heisman stiff arm pretty much by like no we’re not interested in that no we’re not interested in that Stefan Diggs is always interesting uh any any content any story about Stefan Diggs an editor wants it uh and um because he moves the needle and a lot of it has to do with fantasy you know he’s a wide receiver one um a superstar there’s all kinds of things like that uh but then you take the off field stuff and uh things that carried over from Minnesota a lot of the Stefan digs narrative from Minnesota evaporated you know people we saw it quite a bit over four years about people saying man how Minnesota had it wrong and for three and a half years they did apparently because he seemed happy and uh well mostly happy um it um it it but like you say it is now a similar ending to what happened in Minnesota and it it reinforces now again you know maybe we were wrong about him we saw we saw a version that we wanted to see we saw the guy who was getting the bills from laughing stock to Super Bowl Contender the guy standing with his hips looking at with his hands a Kimbo um watching the the red and and yellow confetti fall in Arrow head stadium and everybody looked at it and said that is my Stefan Diggs that’s our captain that’s my wide receiver one thank God we have Stefan Diggs um but again we have a totally different feeling now um I’m I’m sometimes hesitant to mention things that I saw but I didn’t put in a story because then it seems like well why didn’t you include it in your story and I just went back while you were talking there Jonah and looked at my story from uh the the week one loss to the New York Jets in the mands that’s the game that Aaron Rogers Killy injury happened Josh Allen threw bad interceptions and uh all the all the excitement about the season starting everybody was wondering who the hell is this Josh Allen the guy who clearly has a lane to run but is choosing to force a ball into triple coverage um and how forlorn Josh Allen was after that game and I include it late in my story because I was getting around to how it was how it it impacted him this loss how hard he was taking it and uh in the locker room after the game when the media is allowed to be in there everything’s pretty much fair game unless it’s a medical conversation or something happening in the trainers room but anything happening at a locker stall is within our rights to report and Josh Allen was sitting there in full uniform with Kyle Allen trying to console him and a stream of players coming up patting him out the back dapping him up uh saying hey you know we’ll get him next time man and I quoted Deon Dawkins in the story and he said 17 for life I mean that you know they were trying to pick the guy up he had a towel draped over his head and he just sat there one thing I didn’t include in the story was Stefan Diggs coming up to him after the game and I didn’t include it I think because I as I recall I didn’t include it because I didn’t know what Stefan dig said to him but joshh Allen snapped at it and he said it’s one [ __ ] game and kind of je mention motioned like I’m not talking to you here and Diggs walked away and John and Josh was sat there and in retrospect I mean keeping in mind this was week one when for all we know everybody’s hunky dory but looking back on it now I wish would have included that in my story or made some sort of reference to it um maybe Stefan Diggs was saying something nice to him and he was just but he didn’t snap at anybody else a a a stream of players were coming over you know popping him on the shoulder pads I think or back patting him on the back or you know whatever like I said dapping him up hey man we’ll get him next week and whatever Stefan digs said to him Josh Allen wasn’t having it and uh I wish I would have put that my story at the time but I think that we look back and I you know Stefan Diggs clearly in that moment and it happened so quickly uh would lead maybe one to believe on a on the regular was getting under Josh Allen’s skin and that was when Stefan Diggs was a superstar still this wasn’t the Stefan Diggs where and I guess this is the part in the podcast where you have to mention it excuse me let me hit this mute sorry about that frog in my throat um first nine games of the Season 70 receptions 834 yards seven touchdowns that’s the first nine games last 10 including playoffs 47 catches 422 one touchdown so in less than half the season or I should say more than half the season being the last 10 his numbers dipped from 70 to 4 7 834 to 422 and 7 to1 so whatever’s going on there the dynamic wasn’t working the bills were winning by the way while Stefan diggs’s production plummeted Devon mccordi had told me for that story heading into the regular season finale against the Dolphins Devon mccordi who won three Super Bowls with the Patriots and now is working for NBC Sports um an analyst for that game had been breaking down the film as as a a good analyst would a good broadcaster would but this is a guy who also spent time defending or game planning to stop Stefan digs personally in a bill bellich defense they played each other twice a year for a while and this is this is a guy who has studied Stefan Diggs and his comment to me which a lot of people blew off or said was stupid uh was it looks to me as though the bills are trying to prove that they don’t need him and uh by definition finishing out the season six and one they didn’t and when they did throw him the ball infamously he dropped it so I think that all of that is you know puts it in Brandon Bean’s lap to make what he thinks is a calculated risk here of addition by subtraction yes as Bean said at his news conference yesterday we are not a better team right now here on April 3rd um but the season doesn’t start for five more months and we’re going to get better so this is the calculated risk of eating this cap hit apparently the bills were that desperate to move on from this guy and again sweeten the pot to get a second round pick for next year which is diluted because it doesn’t produce a player for whether the bills use it or for the next team that they maybe want to trade it to it doesn’t produce a player for 13 months in terms of arrival or being on your payroll and it doesn’t produce a player that you can put in front of your fans in a game for 18 months so anyways the bills obviously wanted to move on from Stefan Diggs and there there’s no shortage of reasons why but I do understand the they’re they’re they need to they need to figure out how to replace them well and there’s it doesn’t create any cap room it doesn’t there might be a way where the bills can make a future trade for another veteran wide receiver perhaps even another star number one receiver to replace theond digs but this trade doesn’t facilitate that in the short term so on paper for the 2024 season this trade doesn’t net a player return or an asset return that makes the bills any better and in some ways it makes them slightly worse there are as you explained tangible reasons why addition by subtraction perhaps the bills offense as a whole could emerge better off in this season without this coming version of ston D because I think a lot of us don’t believe at his age or the way he performed in the second half of last season that the bills would get the allp proo version of Stefan Diggs back this coming season or that they even wanted that that maybe they wanted a more Diversified offense anyways or an offense that features the tight ends and different type of players and different ways so I think there’s a calculus you can look at to where with the Curtis Samuel signing with the potential of drafting wide receiver um another you know Dalton concade no longer being a rookie that the offense could be just as good if not maybe better without Stefan Diggs but I do Wonder in the totality you know you can do that with each of the moves with cutting travius white with allowing with cutting Jordan pyer with getting rid of Mitch Morris and every different move and different player that the bills didn’t resign this past off season Gabe Davis maybe wasn’t worth the money but the totality of losing so much talent and so much entrenched leadership and skill and even star power on the scene Mar from the marketing perspective and I I think the bills are going to have somewhere around like 25% of their salary cap taken up with dead cap money this season and they’re still going to have a good roster and you can go position by position and figure out how they’re replacing all of these players but on the whole replacing all of them and and really only spending 75% of your salary cap on players that are on this current roster does seem like it could catch up with the bills this season and potentially lower their their ceiling lower their depth they’re not going to have the same ability to sign different free agents late in the game that they did and you know it just might I I think the bills are going to be pretty good in the long term especially getting out of the Stefan digs contract a year from now it’s going to clean up their cap sheet but in the short term it’s going to be a lesser roster they going into the next season and they’re going to be more reliant on Josh Allen and his ability to make up for losing key players and key leaders all over the roster in other spots the bills one with not only Stefan diggs’s production being down there were some weeks in which he played fewer snaps than Trent sherfield and Khalil Shakir now you look back on it now and say well of course khil Shakir was emerging he deserved the the time but the three receivers that the bills would put on the field uh in December and November a lot of times were Trent sherfield khil Shakir and Gabriel Davis and Stefan Diggs would be on the sidelines and of course we’d ask Joe Brady that every Monday and well that’s the those are the packages McDermot would say the same thing and then Josh Norman at the end of the season told the Associated Press that uh in our John warro I should say not just the Associated Press he told John waro that um Diggs was taking himself off the field so again do you want to deal with that from the start of the Season you know he’s whatever disconnect he’s feeling whether you know he’s just whatever it is you know there there are things festering that I think that the bills are happy to be out of the ston digs business because of the toxicity of it the things that bleed into other parts of the game do you want your young players learning from this Behavior Uh or adopting it you know there’s all kinds of things that you could uh bring into it I mean he’s again the team his teammates voted him Captain they like the guy uh they revered the guy but you don’t necessarily always give the guy or vote a guy for Captain because he’s you know maybe the best person for the job sometimes it is a little bit of a popularity contest just as it would be for the Pro Bowl or whatever um not that I’m saying that the bill his Bill’s teammates had it wrong maybe that there’s a segment of the roster that a large enough segment of the roster obviously to to elect him Captain who just they also elected Gabriel Davis a captain here’s a guy who you know would pout after tough losses uh he would say the right things but you’d have to pry it out of him you know guy who you know not sometimes you give a guy the C to keep him happy some times I don’t know I mean now I’m rambling and I’m speculating but obviously everything uh here in the last couple of months recasts Stefan Diggs for a lot of people and now all the things that perhaps everybody chooses to ignore uh you’re reminded now so here’s a thing I think this is an interesting um you know uh Dynamic when the season ended especially with the drop you know stff digs let’s say the bills lose that game but Diggs makes that catch things are probably different but anytime Stefan Diggs wants to send out one of his cryptic tweets uh or anybody wants to post uh audio of him you’ll hear a lot of you used to hear a lot of push back now it’s pictures of him dropping the ball from Bill’s fans like hey get your [ __ ] together stop you know making the rounds on the media and and talking about how you’re you’re a Pros Pro uh as he told K Adams uh and uh you know we’re the fans were getting tired of it so it used to be anytime anyone would say something even remotely critical of Stefan Diggs you had Bill’s fans storm in the gates F you get bent uh whatever um leave our guy alone he’s the best you he’s misunderstood you’re constantly putting words in his mouth you don’t get it you know all these types of things and then and I’ll even say as a quick aside I thought it was fascinating and we talked about it with the Maddy glab hot mic incident in which yes she used a profanity but she essentially said he’s difficult to work with and she got suspended for it um but when she apologized after that hot mic incident fans were quick to defend her you don’t have anything to worry about it was a mistake no big deal you know don’t beat yourself up over it and then just when you thought Stefan Diggs was gonna take the high road or not throw fuel on the fire he puts out a series of tweets uh about how his feelings are hurt and immediately everybody was fire MADD glab she’s got to go CAG b word you know you name it it was it was disgusting and it was all because Stefan digs who had to know I mean he knows what so the power of social media he didn’t have to say it he knew the fans were going to say it say all these things and he just lit the match and walked away [Music] um that was my aside uh so back to it after the season after he drops the ball he’s doing some rounds he calls himself a Pros Pro he’s got a tweet here his brothers may be tweeting he still hasn’t defended the bills or Josh Allen or anything else against his brother uh or to his what ever and um the dis I I tweet so he I said I tweeted out we’re getting something along the lines of we’re getting towards addition by subtraction territory here with Stefan dicks and I knew when I sent that tweet I’m like all right here we go I know people are going to be coming at me they didn’t the the tener had changed it was maybe 50/50 or maybe even 6040 uh or the 40% saying Tim you don’t know what you’re talking about but there was just a lot of either I’m sick of it too or but we can’t his contract is too onerous or his I mean obviously people on Twitter aren’t using the word onerous but they were pretty much saying but they can’t they’re stuck with them and this was back in February this was when he was doing the rounds I think at the Super Bowl or Super Bowl related content maybe it was even early March no it was before the Super Bowl it was before the Super Bowl fans were already like those fans who were armed to the teeth to protect Stefan Diggs there weren’t nearly as many of them anymore uh and it was either because they were he was wearing them out too or the they were just like yeah we’re stuck with them anyway I just thought that was fascinating so my column yesterday um there was nothing in that column that hadn’t been reported or that people didn’t know nothing and I had so many people send me notes DM me on Twitter respond in the comments send me I had a uh somebody send me an email today they found my personal email which is cool and uh sent me an email and said you know I didn’t realize it until I read it all here like you put it in such succinct terms as to why this move had to happen thank you there’s nothing in there that hadn’t that was no inside information in there other than he wore the bills out and I just said here are all the things these are all the things that in real time we all knew about I didn’t even I didn’t mention the the Josh Allen snapping at him because I didn’t report it everything in that column I wrote yesterday was known but people chose to rationalize it justify it ah he just wants to win or leave him alone he’s misunderstood he’s the most misunderstood transparent person I’ve ever been around he’s transparent yes yet he’s misunderstood um ask him anything until he’s offended um or he stops being making himself a ask him anything but we can’t find him um anyways I I just the dynamic of the fans and how they have come to accept this has been interesting to me yeah well I and I think this plays into it but it’s probably more within the Bill’s walls but I I like the way you term it in your column you know you know death by a thousand microaggressions that none of these in were that extreme or or you know some of them might some of them might have been blown out of proportion or not even have been instances but each step along the way where the bills and Stefan Diggs are getting on each other’s nerves or Stefan Diggs and the fans and the media are getting on each other’s nerves when they happen can be explained away and Stefan digs you know Bills fans can come to his defense but as they go over time you know with in personal relationships when you’re getting on each other’s nerves it’s not a big deal at first and so after a while it’s the biggest deal and the smallest things can be you know cause couples to get divorc or friends to never talk to each other again and not that this was like that but it did it does have that air of a divorce of where these things built up over time and these microaggressions and these minor resentments to where it just wasn’t tenable anymore now it’s very convenient for that all to happen at the same time where the bills might have some Financial motivations in Josh alen’s contract to where they don’t want to pay any wide receiver the type of money Stefan Diggs was making and they’re even though they’re taking the big cap hit for that now they move into a new era where the wide receivers will not be paid probably as well as Stefan Diggs was and that’s a function of having one of the highest paid quarterbacks in Kansas City did the same thing and I think Kansas City winning the Super Bowl after rearranging their wide receiver room is probably something the bills looked at and said yeah we got to do that eventually too I think there could have been a scenario where Stefan digs was still a popular player or you know he still is a popular player but where all of this onfield off field drama never happened but the bill still decided to make this move for purely football reasons that that could have happened this time this off season just the same but it didn’t play out that way and it’s pretty obvious that uh some of the non-football factors played into this decision and the belief by many that you know the bills at least from an emotional standpoint might be better off without Stan digs and maybe the Bills fans are better off even if the bills don’t have the same player replacing him and I already hear and see fans kind of wishing for the next star receiver to come in and replace him but you know not having all this drama and wondering and worrying and reading body language and thinking about how Stefan Diggs feels and how ja Josh alen feels about Stefan Diggs might be just a healthier situation all around for the fan base and the team and the media even though it might be a little bit boring for us to cover it might be you know more normal and more emotionally stable to deal with uh whoever comes in is the new number one wide receiver for the bill yeah stability is important and uh I think that you know whether you agree that culture is a real thing uh or that it’s important I know that there are a lot of people who believe that you know especially who are analytic minded and I’m not cast I’m not using that as a pejorative I’m an analytics guy but there are some people who go so hard on the analytics to say that culture and momentum and all these things that you can’t put a a number or a figure on doesn’t exist the regard so whether it does or doesn’t the bills certainly believe in culture and they believe in their culture they believe their culture works and is huge in their success and they’ve to maintain this culture they’ve hit all the right buttons so far um we could well I don’t want to say all the right buttons we can obviously argue you know Von Miller situation uh how they handled the mat Risa situation I don’t want to get into all that but you know how th those things don’t necessarily measure up um they do in general I’ve had people tell me this they have a no [ __ ] policy um sometimes you’re willing to put up with it a little bit more for some and than others but they generally there’s they have a no [ __ ] policy um so yeah I think that this is sharpening or trying to put their their team dynamic in a little tighter Focus uh people who aren’t you know playing out coloring Outside the Lines uh and that’s good for some teams uh in fact were we talking about a story I I don’t want I I hesitate also to bring up stories that I have in mind uh I’ll tell you off the air remind me to tell you off the air uh regarding um the no [ __ ] policy uh and I’ll tell you a story I have a I I was I was about to go down a path that would have been interesting for the podcast but I don’t want to give away a potential story idea [Music] um but anyways I yeah I agree with you Jonah I think it’s a a recalibration of attitude of expect and all that type of stuff I think maybe they felt things were getting a little wobbly and Stefan Diggs had to had to go for that reason too um anything more you want to talk about with Stefan Diggs real quick I just wanted your take where do you think this trade not without a definitive ranking but kind of measures up to Major trades the Jack eel trade Dominic hatchik all the way back to OJ I I mean I think in some levels you could say it is one of the biggest trades in Buffalo sports history but I don’t know if it was you know that’s a that’s a good question I I think when you’re talking about draft pick assets it’s it’s hard to say I think you almost need to see what Brandon Bean’s going to do with this 2025 second round pick um and it’s hard at least for me to absorb or compute the significance of a trade when only one human being is involved you know there’s one person need’s leaving you’re not getting anything back so uh a person back uh so that’s why hockey trades are so much fun I think is because they so often involve players a package of players multiple teams um basketball and baseball too I don’t want to just say hockey but I’m saying hockey because you know most of our fans are are Buffalo sports fans um I mean you can look all right so there’s meat on the bone with taking a look at the Stefan Diggs trade from Minnesota to Buffalo because you know that it produced Justin Jefferson um and then you can go back and and review that trade in fact I did for a story uh two seasons ago in which I interviewed everybody involved uh with the exception of Justin Jefferson where we looked back on that trade and how it was great for both teams because it was what the bills needed and the Vikings got what they needed which was a receiver who wasn’t Stefan dicks um I interviewed Rick Spielman the general manager of the Vikings at the time I interviewed uh the Vikings wide receivers coach at the time um Brandon Bean uh Adisa barari diggs’s agent we went through the whole how it all happened how it all went down perhaps it’s educational for me to repost that as to maybe how Adisa bukari and Stefan Diggs handled this situation or to provide some sort of in possible Insight anyway as to what uh what worked for them in the past to get them out of Minnesota and what they may have done uh to get out of Buffalo um yeah that’s a great question though Jonah how does it rank among the trades you know OJ it was a huge it was a landmark trade but that was a convoluted deal because it begat I think Tom Keno or the pick for Tom and then then begat you know then Tom Keno somehow kind of begat Jim Kelly really Tom Keno uh begat Tony Hunter a lot of people like to say that the C that trade came eventually got they were going to draft Kelly with their own draft pick they eventually drafted Jim Kelly with the second draft pick because they knew they could they were going to get a quarterback they want because they drafted 12 and 14 I believe so they drafted the best non-quarterback on their board knowing that they were in two more picks going to have their choice of Jim Kelly or Dan Marino and so whoever in between chose to draft neither and then now you know that the bills valued Jim Kelly over Dan Marino on their board uh but anyways that’s that’s an aside that I think that’s a misnomer that that story gets repeated a lot that OJ eventually brought Jim Kelly but that’s not true OJ eventually brought uh Tony Hunter um but it reminds me a little bit now this is something that happened before I was even born but I did recently read you know there’s their Twitter account that shares the day in Buffalo sports history and the Buffalo News front page from a lot of those events and I read the stories that were written the day or the day after OJ Simpson got traded and one of them was interesting a Jim Kelly piece where he went into a bar and just interviewed the bartender and the bar patrons and you saw the same sentiments that I think you got from a lot of people about Stefan Diggs yesterday that he was a great player had a great run during his time with the bills but that his time had come and that with OJ his contract had gotten too expensive and there was talk about how he wanted to be in Hollywood and he didn’t want to be a Buffalo Bill anymore and the most of the fans seemed ready for him to go and I think they’ve gotten to that point for different reasons now with Stefan Diggs um and just to the question I asked I don’t really think because of the where he is in his career agewise that this is as big of a deal as say trading Jack eikel or any other franchise altering trades that the bills have made or whatever You’ say the biggest trades that Buffalo sports teams have made but it it felt like that a little bit from a story perspective because of the surprise element even if someone like yourself could have seen this coming at some point this off season I don’t think anybody really heard the Rumblings or expected it to break yesterday the way it did and you could just tell by how many bills beat reporters and sports directors and people like that are on vacation because they anticipated this being a no news week for the bills in the NFL and it dropped yesterday at 11 o’clock and really seemed like a huge deal and was a huge deal but seemed like an even bigger deal because of the surprise element yesterday morning yeah I I I agree with that um I will say that I began writing my column um mon when did the today is Thursday trade one the Tuesday night I started writing my column so You’ be like wow how did Tim Graham get this out so fast he was just traded 45 minutes ago Tim Graham must be really fast um I might have information or insights that uh I was prepared to for the possibility and then I saw the Tweet the you sure tweet one more microaggression on his way out the door Stefan Diggs and as soon as I saw that tweet I had heard some things and as soon as I saw that tweet I’m like gidy up I started writing uh yeah Tuesday night uh and then of course I waited and you know I didn’t finish it until after the trade I wasn’t sure I wasn’t but I was reading the tea leaves and um yeah it was uh yeah yeah I and I again if you’re paying attention and unless you just want and you know he didn’t anytime J Josh Allen’s expert at it they were talking about it on wgr yesterday I think it was uh Bulldog Chris Parker uh talking about um all these guys they say all the right things do they really mean him uh you know I love buffalo whether it’s you know the blue talking up the virtues of blue cheese over ranch or all the there’s all the different uh uh threads you can pull to excite uh a Buffalo sports fan Stefan Diggs did him um a bit of a you know but was he manipulating them I don’t know did he really mean it I know but right now it doesn’t seem like he loved Buffalo as much as Buffalo loved him and again that goes back to my point about some people probably feeling a little foolish about seeing all these things or or failing to to see all these other things because they were blinded by this Superstar who loves us who gets us who wants to be here and now all that’s been yanked out of didn’t really didn’t really want to be here that bad or as badly as or or forever anyway Ian it’s not to say that you know it wasn’t great at one point but um fasc fascinating fascinating how it all how it all evolved I will say Stefan digs had some nice words about Buffalo and the city and the the fan basee on a goodbye post on Instagram and I’ll take him as at his word for that because it isn’t something that he does a lot kind of put those thoughts to paper I think the last time I saw him write that many words was about M glab and that incident so I I do think that you know he appreciated Buffalo and the city and the culture and the fan base while he was here uh and but also maybe wanted his way off at the team or had reached a point where he needed a new football situation but you know it does seem to me I think that um he was somewhat sincere in in the things he said about the city in the fan base and the Bills fan culture yeah I don’t think he was yeah he’s that’s what you’re supposed to say but some sometimes those things are very connected I think in Bills fans minds but aren’t the same thing a player can and we see I think we’ve seen it with some retired players that loved being in Buffalo loved playing in Buffalo love coming back to Buffalo didn’t NE love everything about being on the bills while they were players yeah it’s the inferiority complex of being in a market that is small like Buffalo we have only two teams not four like some of the big boys and haven’t had significant success um you have your blips you have you know I think the bills have maybe a lifetime 500 record or something and that includes a lot of greatness uh so that means that there’s been some real [ __ ] Seasons mixed in there and obviously the drought now the Sabers have the NHL’s longest drought and um yeah S Buffalo sports fans get kicked in the balls on a regular basis but even someone like Bruce Smith who had you know a long career here in Buffalo and loves playing here but you know he had some contentious negotiations with Bill poon and at one point signed an offer sheet with the Denver Broncos and other players in their contracts it wasn’t always for everybody that loved being a part of the bill Jim Kelly Jim Kelly hated the idea of coming to Buffalo he shat talked Buffalo what’s the past T he [ __ ] talked Buffalo as often as he could when he was leaving Miami and uh the Miami Hurricanes that is and going to play in the usfl he would always take shots at Buffalo now he lives here but yeah it’s h there’s a lot of people who’ve just chosen not you know vonte Davis rest in peace vonte Davis just decided I don’t want I don’t want to do this anymore left at halftime um Dre Archer never showed up nobody’s ever heard from him again the bills picked him up off waivers or traded for him or whatever and I was like nah I’m out um there’s the Ser the there’s been a lot of players who um who have just refused or talked their way out of it Tom Keno the aforementioned Tom Keno um in fact that was a string of transactions of guys who didn’t want to be here right OJ didn’t want to be here for Tom k who rather play in the CFL because he didn’t want to be here uh and then the conversation of course for uh for Jim Kelly uh who didn’t want to be here until he did um Joe cribs a lot of guys all those guys who left for the usfl whenever they had an opportunity to do so um anyways the list is long Ryan O’Reilly etc etc um Dominic hasik wanting out forcing his way out um KY looka Kyo that’s right leaders guys with the ca um let’s talk about the Sabres uh you were out there today how’s uh what’s the what’s the temperature in the room with Don Granado well I mean they are coming off a a big win six2 the other night against Washington Capitals which right now are you know the eighth playoff team in the Eastern Conference and the Sabres are Five Points back so not not mathematically eliminated even though it’s going to be very very difficult for the Savers to make up that ground and and pass the five different teams they need to get into the playoffs can I can I say this so Linda Con on ESPN who huge hockey fan like she knows her hockey that’s what she’s known for right um not just a fan but when the Sabers I recall the Sabers Rangers playoff series she was covering it she was in the uh in the postgame news conferences and stuff she loves hockey talks about about it a lot knows her [ __ ] uh after the game uh the Capitals win she says after the Highlight package don’t look now but the sabes are just five points out of the playoff hunt and I was like what the [ __ ] who they’ve been closer and Five Points Linda as you should know is a lot don’t look now like what was she say like here they come like come on I just thought I just got a good chuckle out of that and the Sabres have played more games than most of the teams they’re chasing including Washington so it is a bit of a mirage how close the Sabers are I think they’re more if you look at based on points percentage they’re more chasing the team they play tomorrow night the Philadelphia Flyers and they’re six points back of that and they probably won’t make up all these points I mean I don’t making up six points in six games is probably too difficult but it’s not on paper impossible and every game that the Savers continue to win especially here on this home home stand pushes that elimination date that expiration date further out into the season and makes it seem like the Sabers are still in the Hunts and playing meaningful games now in April which not that long ago was you know a major goal of this franchise to not be out of it and so desolate and even if they don’t make the playoffs be a team that’s contending for a playoff spot but you know it’s it’s inevitable it seems that the Sabers are going to miss the playoffs and miss the playoffs for now a 13th straight year so this playoff drought old enough to have it Bar Mitzvah at this point but be even without all that the even with all that the vibe seem pretty good with this team they’re winning a bit more often than they’re losing lately uh the top line now with JJ petka playing with Thompson and Tuck he’s JJ PKA is the hottest goal scorer in the NHL over the past few weeks Thompson and tuck are both playing well Thompson scoring more frequently at this point in the season they did at any point in the season prior to this the Sabers are getting good minutes from rasman Dalene and Owen power playing together that’s looking like something that you know could be a future defensive pair or an option for the Savers to go to situationally and and get uh you know really good offense out of those two number one picks playing together uko peka Lucan in had some bad starts last week but it’s still uh finishing up a really good season and one of the best goal tending Seasons by a saber in a really long time and even though the Savers are going to miss the playoffs um it’s still Fe it’s there’s still a feel-good aspect to the way they’re finishing up this season Jeff Skinner’s thousandth game was an interesting event the other night because you know if you read some of the fan chatter on Twitter and you listen to certain podcasts or national media members there’s there’s some criticism about Jeff Skinner and his style of play and whether the Sabers could ever win with him being in a you know Top Line role and you know his defensive inadequacies are maybe a uh flash point of why the Sabres aren’t a playoff team at this point and Jeff Skinner becoming I believe the the first player to play a thousand games without going to the Stanley Cup playoffs in his career I was having a conversation with former Sabers president Larry Quinn recently and he made the comment that uh if Jeff Skinner played for Lindy Ruff Jeff Skinner wouldn’t come off the bench for a month sure and that and that was what Ralph Krueger basically did with Jeff Skinner and what Rob bremore decided when he took over in Carolina that he had to get rid of Jeff Skinner um in order for that team to to reach its potential and get better but you didn’t you don’t get any of that sense I think from the Sab organization from the teammates from the coaches and how much his not just his play but his personality and Jeff Skinner the person was celebrated for his thousandth game the other night uh seemed a little bit disconnected from some of that chatter from outside the Sabers about how he is you know the number one problem that’s wrong with this team and I realize his contract is probably too big for what the Sabers get out of him at this point but him now playing on the third line and and being maybe more of a power play Specialist or in a different role if the Sabres have productive top two lines without Jeff Skinner I think he becomes a real asset in kind of a secondary role and if he’s okay with that because he didn’t seem quite okay with that when Ralph Krueger put him in that role but uh you know just from The Vibes perspective I I think things are still going pretty well in that department and that could carry over into the offseason and it’s the next season for the saers I hate to be old man shaking fist at Cloud but um I think that the although it was a fun event I mean there seemed to be like a lot of cool stuff but back when I was covering hockey thousandth games weren’t handled like this I recall interviewing James Patrick at the at the stick uh stand you know in the in the uh the stick at the stick rack you know about his thousandth game you know it’s just like we didn’t do anything special but if you’re going to do it for Kyle poso it would be noticeable if you didn’t do it for Jeff Skinner right but I wonder what the opposing teams think when they’re like they’re doing all this for Jeff Skinner’s thousandth game kind of weird but it’s a thing now and they’re going to have to do it for everybody which I guess it’s cool because it seemed like an event and it gave people something to talk about the sabes I mean it’s like having a bobblehead night at the Bison game you know you’d say that’s something different it’s not just a game against the rail Riders well exactly it was something to sell some tickets and excite the fans and get people to uh get excited about something when the saers probably aren’t making the playoffs and you know shouldn’t Alex oetkin be enough though to sell some tickets yeah the Washington Capitals fans maybe I mean maybe but it it didn’t seem to be the case it seemed like you know celebrating Jeff Skinner and getting a free Red Hat through the crowd the other night and I guess I’m repeating what I just said but it did seem like it was important for the Sabers to honor Jeff Skinner for his personality and for how well-liked he is throughout the organization and to gather all of those tribute videos they even got his dog on there and you know it just seemed to be like a now maybe you know in a lot of jobs you do that when somebody’s on the way out for kind of a retirement party it did have a little bit of that Vibe with all of the tributes but I I think it was important for the Sabers at various levels of the organization and the team to show how much they like Jeff Skinner and value him being part of the team when maybe there’s some outside perspective that uh his presence is not Valu can Nate oats I’m thinking I don’t know you may know maybe you don’t would Nate oats be the first football or basketball coach to win a National Championship after being the head coach at University of Buffalo at UB yes I thought you were going to ask me about any of the uh local colleges and I don’t know if I can name another one um but I might be wrong if I said no did beine win a National Championship no I got Michigan to the title game but they didn’t win okay the answer is probably that nobody has done that but I don’t want to say that and find out that I’m wrong about that there there’s some we had that problem when talking about Mike McDonald a few episodes ago and uh does he hold the Western New York record for or how close is he we forgot somebody yeah also it’s going to be tough for Alabama to win the national championship they got to beat a Yukon team that looks unbeatable here in the semifinal and then get to the next game and win that one Monday night and you know you see this a lot in college basketball where a team breaks through this is Alabama’s first final four it’s obviously Nate oats his first final four and it’s a great story but usually you break through to the final four first and then there’s another period of before you break through the national champ ion Roy Williams and different coaches there’s a long list of coaches that got to the final four a few times before they were able to win at all so while I I think it could happen I mean they’re a good team they’ve been a top 25 Team all year long I’d be quite surprised If Alabama wins these next two games and wins it all I had a follow-up question I was going to ask and it uh is eluded it is uh it has evaporated regarding oh you mentioned Yukon uh you don’t have any children that I know of Jonah but if you had a child uh it’s kind of tough how I’m gonna phrase this question because it’s I’m crossing over uh you have twins one boy one girl and let me write this down they’re both fabulous at basketball and they’re being recruited but they’ve decided they’re going to go play for Yukon and LSU respectively are you more excited about your daughter who’s going to play for Kim muli or your son who’s going to play for Dan Hurley uh Dan Hurley I like Dan Hurley I like the Hurley family the story with you know Bob Hurley senior then Adrian wowski wrote so well his I think the the combination being is that they both enjoy being dicks yeah I think Dan Hurley is kind of a crazy sideline presence that Bobby Hurley is as well and you know they look like nut jobs on TV but I don’t know if that’s problematic for the players I haven’t heard too much you don’t always hear these things when they are true but I haven’t heard too much of players that don’t like playing for Danny Hurley I think the officials don’t like officiating either of the Hurley but it does seem like you know the screaming and shouting at the Players is either well-received or not quite what you would think it would be from watching their sideline personalities like that and you know I I’ve all I don’t want to say this because or I want to be careful how I say this I don’t really think Kim Maly is a sympathetic figure but it’s trending towards that because it sure is isn’t it like in in a hurry like within the last three weeks I mean people went from I cannot wait to read this Washington Post story to oh come on yeah and there’s some things about it you know that that you know her parents getting divorced and family Strife that’s been dragged into it with where like I don’t I don’t think she is a sympathetic figure and I don’t want her to be but I think maybe we need to ease up on criticizing her so that she doesn’t become a sympathetic figure then there’s this weird controversy about them not being out there for the anthem and you know they’re they’re getting you know attack it’s getting to be a little too much I’m starting to agree with her which is strange but I’m like yeah she’s right and there was an unfortunate column written about the LSU team in general and I think some of the criticism of the players Angel right where I think that um you know I don’t love everything that Kim Moy has done and stood for in her career even going back to some of her time at failor and some of her lack of support of Britney Griner and her personality and Things She Said in the media over the years but I don’t know if the whole LSU program and everything she stands for now with LSU deserve that kind of villain treatment but it comes with women’s basketball becoming so popular and and such in the mainstream entertainment that there are going to be heroes and villains and in some perspectives LSU is the hero and Caitlyn Clark and and Iowa is the villain there there’s a bit of a dichotomy for who was rooting for who in that matchup and it’s just part of you know Gino ARA was the villain of women’s college basketball for a long time and I don’t know if that’s the case any longer but there’s always going to be uh some coach and some program that’s put that way and that that’s was always the case in men’s college basketball as well and it’s kind of a dad Brown had a really good tweet I I I don’t know if I can get all the language right but he was talking about all the different elements going on in the women’s Tournament of star players and controversies and drama and things like that and Rebecca Lobo insulting Albany on The Telecast which it got a lot of play and then in the men’s tournament it’s just Yukon walking to the title where everything’s come for Full Circle and flipped around because that was what women’s college basketball was so many years while all the fun stories were going on in the men’s tournament now the women’s tournament has gotten more fun and there’s some fun stories I think with the men’s tournament but to the mainstream fan less so you know there’s less interest and less uh things to talk about with the men’s final four relatively than there used to be whereas there’s a lot more with the women’s final four Jonah anything else going on in Buffalo sports we need to talk about or you know I wanted to mention with college basketball real quick not Buffalo sports but kind of Buffalo people Illinois won the women’s basketball Invitational Tournament which for all intents and purposes is the new women’s nit uh the number two tournament for women’s basketball that team’s coached by Shauna green who played at kishes and a freshman guard on the team Gretchen Dolan is Western New York’s thirdd all-time leading scorer and was Western New York player of the year last year it was kind of neat to see that team finish their season that way and a bit of a local connection with that anything uh I don’t know the answer to this so do do we know anything about the kichus men’s basketball uh opening well we do I I tweeted out last night what I was able to learn that three finalist candidates have been on campus this week I think you know we’re we’re recording this Thursday night I think as soon as tomorrow uh we could hear of a decision or or see you know something leak out as to who kesas has decided on because I think they’re close to that point the three candidates that were on campus this week one of them being Steve Curran a former bana assistant who this past year was the associated coach at George Mason I feel like he’s the front runner he’s been a name that’s been mentioned even going back to past years when it was just speculated about whether the kinisha job had been open you know the recruiting is there a tie there now the only I think the tie is bana and and being you know a western New York local for a number of years and you know what he did recruiting wise to help uh Mark Schmidt in that bana program be as good as they were the past few years the other two candidates Jim Christian he he has head coaching experience at Kent State TCU Ohio and most recently Boston College uh that would be interesting if he gets that job the games against St Bonaventure because you know he got that Boston College job over Mark Schmidt six years ago however long ago that was and the third name Billy donlin he also has head coaching experience at uh Kansas City wght state but he’s been a power five assistant at Michigan Northwestern and most recently Clemson those are the three names like I think I would pick Steve Curran out of those three to be the most likely to get the job but the other two have you know longer resumés and head coaching experience that maybe make them I don’t want to say better suited but differently suited for the job and kesas is also looking for a women’s basketball coach they you know their coach SAR nah went to Eastern Michigan and they’re going to have you know two new coaches and a lot of new players in that basketball program next season all right Jonah well thanks for the rundown and uh we’ll come back at it again next week maybe we’ll have another major trade to talk about probably not what do we talk we’ll talk about uh whatever’s happening in the World of Sports Alabama winning the national championship there you go things that happened at the final four and Buffalo Bandits making their playoff push I think that’s something I’ll have in my eye on going into next week friend of the show NS by the way do you think we could get him on the podcast as easily now as we used to I think if they win the national championship and we’re a little bit patient I think we can get them to join us and I think if they lose this weekend it might be hard to get a hold of natos for a few weeks right and he’s been with us since he’s been the Alabama coach it’s not even the UB version of nats uh the Alabama NATO has been on Tim Graham and friends that’s right well and then another Buffalo connection there is that you know the director of operations or he has a different title director of analytics might be what he does now but Adam Bowman who’s the head coach of the Blue keru Buffalo basketball team all right in the TBT is is still on NATO staff and if they were to win or just get into the final four kind of an accomplishment for him and the Buffalo tie there they have less Buffalo Ties on this team than they had a year ago last year they had Ryan Hodson also being an assisted and Dom Welch on the team and um James roas a player from Jamestown so they were more Western New York connected a year ago when they were a number one seed and considered a final four favorite and now this team is Nate oats and and a few uh support staffers that were with him in Buffalo on the team now all right Jonah have a good weekend and uh we’ll reconvene or we’ll touch base uh and we’ll figure out what the hell we’re going to talk about on the next episode Sabres I suppose it’s it’s a big WrestleMania weekend we get much into that can recap when we get back maybe we can get old friend Lex Luger on it’s been a while all right he’s probably at Russ right they go there’s a big convention and right you know appearances and all kinds of stuff very well be in uh Philadelphia signed autographs while we’re recording this right now yeah dig it I’ll reach out to him all right Jonah thanks and thanks to everybody out there for checking out Tim Graham and friends brought to you by ctbk CPAs and Business Consultants the financial needs of a business go beyond tax and ATT test Services that’s why ctbk goes beyond accounting services and offers outsourced Solutions through their affiliation with CFO Solutions Plus these additional Services allow clients to focus on their operational and long-term strategic goals trust cbk’s outsourc solutions to provide cost-effective value added Financial Services tailored to your company’s needs call ctbk at 71 6 630 2400 again 716 630 2400 or go to CTB k.com to learn more about cbk’s outsourced [Music] [Music] Solutions