Any athlete who has played competitive sports at the professional, college, or even high school level knows the age old truth that not all spectators will have nice things to say about you. In the cutthroat league that is the NFL where fans are rabid and the pressure to produce from coaches and players alike is immense, players may find that sometimes the people that are “ripping” them are members of their own fan base.

Most of the time fans enjoy the green light to scream whatever they want to any coach or player of their choosing and not have to endure any resistance or backtalk regarding their comments. Recently though, a couple teenage hecklers at a Buffalo Bills practice learned the hard way that sometimes fans are held accountable for their words.

The Buffalo Bills practiced earlier today in Pittsford, New York in front of a crowd of over 1,000 fans on what is Buffalo’s last day of training camp. Some fans took this time to get some things off their chest about Bills quarterback Trent Edwards. Edwards had a lackluster season last year throwing only six touchdown passes compared to seven interceptions after being the subject of a lot of hype prior to the 2009 campaign after Buffalo acquired Terrell Owens.

A group of teenagers in particular spent the majority of the two hour workout heckling Edwards. Amongst the things said was the Edwards should be prepared to lose his job and shots were taken at Edwards over the fact that he was born in California.

Trent paid the teens no attention and went through the practice acting as if he didn’t hear the comments being made “from the cheap seats” so to speak. Unfortunately for the teens though Bills Head Coach Chan Gailey did hear their remarks toward his quarterback and he wasn’t about to let the group walk away without him getting the chance to say what he thought of them.

After Gailey addressed his team at the end of practice he took care of one final matter of business. He marched directly over to the group of hecklers and screamed at them in a voice that reportedly could be heard twenty yards away.

"If you dog one of us, you dog all of us," Gailey said.

The hecklers who had so much to say to Edwards earlier didn’t say anything back to Gailey.

Gailey also told the fans that he told his players not to bother signing any autographs and to just hit the locker room.

When asked by the media afterwards about the confrontation with the group of Bills fans that occurred earlier Gailey just echoed what he previously said.

"They said some things during practice that were derogatory to a couple of our players," Gailey said later. "And if you say something derogatory to one of us, you're saying it to all of us."

This is not the first time that a coach or player has returned fire when they felt that fans of the same team or opposition have crossed the line. I don’t know whether it is more the result of the alcohol or the adrenaline but sometimes spectators seem to forget that players and coaches have ears and aren’t always oblivious to what is being said. Gailey is definitely not out of line for standing his ground when his probable starting quarterback is being heckled by members of his own fan base during training camp. I’m sure Edwards and all the other players appreciate the support from their head coach as well as his feisty attitude. In a division such as the AFC East where the Bills are going to have to make it through Bill Belichick and the Patriots and Rex Ryan and the Jets, Buffalo will need that feisty attitude and leadership if they hope to leapfrog those organizations.

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