The Buffalo Bills have worked in earnest to build bridges with their neighbors to the north. The team's starting center wishes they wouldn't.
Eric Wood labeled Buffalo's annual one-game voyage to Toronto "a joke" after the team's 50-17 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. If he were in control, the opponent would have been forced to play the Bills in the wind and chill of Ralph Wilson Stadium instead of the inviting, indoor climate of the Rogers Centre.
"Yeah, I did call it a joke," Wood told WGRF-FM on Wednesday, via The Associated Press. "It stunk that we were up there. And I was heated when I said it was a joke. And I'm not going to sit here and retract all my statements because that's what I meant and what I felt."
Here's the kicker: Wood, recovering from a sprained right knee, didn't even make the trip, but as one of the team's best lineman, he doesn't support the annual voyage to Canada. Wood emphasized his words weren't a critique of Toronto, but of what this "home game" means for the Bills.
The team is 1-4 in regular season games in Toronto since the series began in 2008.
Defensive tackle Kyle Williams appears to agree.
"It's very similar to a road game, but also I understand the business side of things," Williams told The AP. "I don't think you'd find a guy in here that wouldn't agree that they would much rather be in Ralph Wilson Stadium."
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.
