Peter King and his coffee addiction landed in Western New York last Friday to attend the Bills-Falcons preseason game. King followed around Atlanta’s owner Arthur Blank, pursuing the Michael Vick Rape Stand angle. (The “Blank wishes that phrase never entered the sports lexicon” angle.)

King reported the following encounter inside the restroom of the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport (Never has God created a more adequate and serviceable airport than it):

Men’s room, Buffalo airport, Saturday morning:

Loud guy: “Hey, what do you think of the Stillers this year?”

Me (knowing Loud Guy meant the “Steelers” in his South Side-ish accent): “Pretty good. I like [Coach Mike] Tomlin. I think he’ll do a good job.”

Loud Guy: “How ’bout Big Ben? He gonna come back and be good?”

Me: “I think so. Got a lot to prove, but he’s got too good an arm and too good a head to play as inconsistently as he did last year.”

By now, we’re at the sink, and he’s not letting me go. A few people are looking on.

Loud Guy: “You like Hines?”

Me: “Love him. How can you like football and not like Hines Ward?”

Loud Guy: “Can we do it again? Win it all?”

Me: “Well, you might be a year away. You got a shot, but that’s a tough conference this year, about as tough as I’ve seen in a while.

Loud Guy: “They’re no year away. This is their year. I don’t know why you guys in the media don’t like the Stillers.”

With that, he was gone. No goodbye, no have a nice day, not nothing. I wasn’t picking the Stillers, so that was all he needed to know about me.

I think I actually spoke to King’s bathroom interrogator once.

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