American Jessica Pegula lost her quarterfinal match on Wednesday at the U.S. Open to world No. 1 Iga Swiatek 6-3, 7-6 (4). It was an excellent year for Pegula in the Grand Slams, she advanced to the quarterfinals in three of the four (Australian and Wimbledon). Disappointed she was unable to advance to the semifinals, Pegula was seen at her post-match presser drinking a Heineken. Perhaps she was starting the pregame for the Buffalo Bills season opener? Her parents, Terry and Kim Pegula, are the team owners.
“I’m trying to pee for doping,” Pegula said when asked about the Heineken. “Although it does help ease the loss.”
.@JLPegula is all of us after a hard day's work 😂🍺 pic.twitter.com/VhnC5hQTLT
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 8, 2022
Tennis players are subject to random drug tests at any time. It can be during a tournament, or at their home at five o’clock in the morning. At a moment’s notice they must produce urine or blood, often both.
Luckily for Pegula, the athlete lounge at the U.S. Open has tons of beverages to aid should you need.
The prominent display of the Heineken beer can definitely earned the beer company excellent free advertising. Though they are one of the tournament sponsors, so it wasn’t exactly free.
If you didn’t know about the drug test and just saw Pegula swigging a beer in her presser you could’ve assumed she was starting her pregame a little early for the upcoming Bills season.
The Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres are properties of the Pegula Sports & Entertainment company, owned and operated by her mother Kim and father Terry. The Bills are the favorites to win the Super Bowl, according to Las Vegas, at +600.
The defending AFC East champs open the season on Thursday night in Los Angeles against the defending Super Bowl champion Rams. The “Bills Mafia,” the team’s extremely rowdy and often unruly fanbase, has already descended upon L.A. and are making their presence known.
People will get body slammed through tables, and there will be excessive drinking and high jinks. If the Bills win the game it might get even crazier in the postgame celebrations.
The Bills were the No. 2 team in the NFL last year in Football Outsiders Total Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA) stat. They were 10th in offense DVOA and first in defense DVOA.
Quarterback Josh Allen has improved tremendously since his rookie season and finished with the sixth best QBR among quarterbacks. He’s top-10 or just outside the top-10 in the relevant advanced stats like Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement (DYAR) and DVOA.
Allen will be without the only offensive coordinator he’s known in his career. Brian Daboll is now the head coach of the New York Giants. Play-calling and Allen’s development within the offense will now be under the guidance of Ken Dorsey.
The Bills ranked third in scoring last year, tops among all AFC clubs. They were fifth in yards and fifth in percentage of drives that ended in points.
Allen and some of his teammates on offense have said good things about Dorsey’s wrinkles and signature on the team’s offense.
“It’s kind of been a slow progression of the offense, just expanding and getting a little more complex every year,” Bills tight end Dawson Knox said. “But now that he’s putting his own signature on it, there’s some really cool stuff we got going in. There’s a lot of versatility that we’ll see. Very similar offense, but there’s a lot of pretty awesome wrinkles.”
The Pegula’s will no doubt be cheering on their team on “Thursday Night Football.” No word on whether Jessica is making the flight to L.A. to support the team.
