Have Wednesday's hot mic comments damaged the Bills' relationship with Stefon Diggs?
Before Wednesday, the Bills had seemingly crafted a tenuous truce with receiver Stefon Diggs. After Wednesday, all bets could be off.
The pointed criticism of Diggs by a reporter on the team payroll wounded Diggs, as evidenced by his Thursday tweets on the subject. He was and is hurt. He possibly feels betrayed.
The deeper question becomes this: Was it a situation in which one employee of the Bills went rogue, or were the hot-mic comments from Maddy Glab a reflection of how others in the organization truly feel about him?
"Hey, there’s no control over Stefon Diggs," Glab said. "He’s gonna do what he wants to do. He’ll look in my face [and] say ‘eff you.’ It’s how he treats everybody.”
It's how he treats everybody.
She would know this in one of two ways. First, she has personally witnessed him treat everybody that way. Second, she has heard about it from others with the team.
Common sense suggests it's the latter. Which suggests that Bills employees have been talking about Diggs behind his back, criticizing him for mistreating employees of the team.
It's hard to come back from that, if you're Diggs. When he's in the building, he'll wonder as to everyone he sees whether that person who smiles and says hello to his face is one of the ones who has been gossiping about him when he walks away.
Consider this tweet from Stefon's brother, Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs: "They turn on you so quick. Gotta get bro somewhere safe."
If that's what Stefon is hearing from family members who heard the comments, how could he not be thinking about his options? He wasn't bashful about asking out of a bad situation in Minnesota. If he decides that a bridge has been burned in Buffalo, he won't think twice about saying to the team, "I can't do this anymore."
The fact that Diggs directly addressed the comments in a very clear and meaningful way shows that it's bothering him. Time will tell whether it bothers him to the point that he can no longer give his all to an organization consisting of people who possibly regard him in a way consistent with Glab's comments.
