Is there a problem? YES!

[jamze132]

My opinion...

I love the Buffalo Bills and will cheer for them each and every game they play no matter who the QB is or whoever they send out there on the field. What I have a problem with is One Bills Drive (OBD). I seriously have no idea what Ralph Wilson is thinking on a day to day basis and I am not going to sit here and bash him for hiring Marv Levy. I thought it was a great idea at the time.

I am not even going to bash Levy for his drafting ability because he is drafting as good now as he did 15 years ago. What I am upset about is the guy he chose to coach this team and how loyal he seems to be towards Dick Jauron. I don't know if Marv hired Dick because they were friends or if he truly thought he was the best man for the job or if he simply bought the best HC he could afford given his financial perrameters. These are things that we can speculate about all day and never know the correct answer.

What we do know is that Dick Jauron is not the right coach to get this team winning ballgames on a regular basis. He's just not NFL HC material. He makes questionable decisions every game and he hired a coaching staff that seems to make mistakes each and every week that cost us ballgames. They just don't learn from one mistake so they make others, as well as the same mistakes over and over again. Now he is the 3rd HC to have a QB controversy on his hands since Levy left as HC.

We as loyal fans are screwed right now cheering for this team that seems to have one foot out of Western New York. The only way to send a clear message to this mis-managed organization is to stop supporting them but that would instantly kill the Bills in Buffalo. But I don't have it in me to stop supporting and cheering for the Bills that take the field each week. I will say though that I cannot stand our front office in its current configuration and we need, yet again, another change, which will ultimately set us further back from ever making the playoffs.

So I have to cheer for a team that I believe will never be good enough as long as Ralph Wilson owns the Bills. It sucks that I am such a loyal fan fo the Bills.

[LtFinFan66]

Re: Is there a problem? YES!

Such as I am a loyal fan to the Fins no matter what

[churchinski]

Re: Is there a problem? YES!

So I have to cheer for a team that I believe will never be good enough as long as Ralph Wilson owns the Bills. It sucks that I am such a loyal fan fo the Bills.

if you truely feel stressed out about all of this it's your own fault

not anyone else's

there is no law that I'm aware of that mandates that you have to cheer endlessly regardless of the circumstances

if you feel is part of your civic duty then that's your bag, and the only person to blame for all this lamenting you are doing is yourself

[Wraith]

Re: Is there a problem? YES!

if you truely feel stressed out about all of this it's your own fault

not anyone else's

there is no law that I'm aware of that mandates that you have to cheer endlessly regardless of the circumstances

if you feel is part of your civic duty then that's your bag, and the only person to blame for all this lamenting you are doing is yourself

You truly are a wonderful human being.

[Jan Reimers]

Re: Is there a problem? YES!

Great post, jamze. It is almost exactly the way I feel about the Bills.

I know some of us take it too seriously, but I have never been able to be just a casual fan. It is very hard for me not to be emotionally invested in the Bills.

[mybills]

Re: Is there a problem? YES!

You truly are a wonderful human being.

[JJamezz]

Re: Is there a problem? YES!

I agree man.

I also think that what happened with Marv hiring Dick was this.. From what I understand and what Marv has said, they had met but certainly were not 'friends' in the sense that they knew each other very well. I think Marv saw sort of a younger version of himself in Jauron, a cerebral, thoughtful, 'players' coach who regardless of his past performance as far as wins and losses, was WELL respected around the league particularly by guys who had played for him in the past.

But I think he overlooked some important points when selecting Jauron - while their coaching style's have similarities, Marv was never a wishy washy guy (which personally I think is THE biggest flaw in Jauron), and could 'fire up the troops' when needed.

Both coaches (Marv and Dick) are the type who delegate and let their assistants do their jobs without sticking their noses in too much. That's a great quality when you have an eye for picking assistants - Marv did, and the word is still out on Jauron, though it hasn't looked promising.

I don't know, like I said, I feel the same way you do.. I'll never be a fan of another NFL team, so my only hope is to ride it out and try not to get too personally invested in this team, as I have done for a long, long time.

[churchinski]

Re: Is there a problem? YES!

You truly are a wonderful human being.

thanks , I try to help when I can

[Wys Guy]

Re: Is there a problem? YES!

My opinion...

I love the Buffalo Bills and will cheer for them each and every game they play no matter who the QB is or whoever they send out there on the field. What I have a problem with is One Bills Drive (OBD). I seriously have no idea what Ralph Wilson is thinking on a day to day basis and I am not going to sit here and bash him for hiring Marv Levy. I thought it was a great idea at the time.

I am not even going to bash Levy for his drafting ability because he is drafting as good now as he did 15 years ago.

Is Wilson thinking? Most seriously. Or is he simply making knee-jerk decisions without thinking?

While "bashing" may not be the correct word, I will certainly criticize Wilson for hiring Levy. He made a "media decision" and a marketing one, not a football decision, that much should be painfully clear by now.

Donadope predictably left this place a mess and was again, predictably, a bad hire. No one within the organization, or without it for that matter, wanted to listen to what those that knew the Steelers a little bit better and that Donadope was the problem there too, not Cowher, obviously in hindsight. Again, if I could do the due diligence there, then had the Bills been responsible, with the entire resources of an entire NFL organization/team, they should have been able to make the same determination. In advance!

Ergo, the Dope left this franchise at the bottom of a carnival slide ride with momentum towards the bottom.

Enter Levy: a nice feel-good marketing pick reminiscent of the "glory days" when the Bills actually fielded an NFL caliber football team, not a CFL caliber one. Wilson abused everyone's sense of nostalgia for the "good old days" in attempting to reel what he accurately viewed as a fleeing fan base. His answer: Repeating the exercise.

Side note: Jim Kelly is also not the answer at coaching either for the same reasons.

You give too much credit for Levy's drafting. 80% of the team that took him, yes, took him, not visa versa, to four Super Bowls, was already in place by the time he had been hired and some of his decisions, admittedly by him, wouldn't have brought key talent to this team back then.

Is it any coincidence that this team fell apart the season after Polian left, not Levy and that Levy's teams in the four seasons immediately following Polian's complete influence were 6-10 once, 7-9 once, and only 10-6 twice?

I suppose to many here it very well might be.

Outside of Levy riding Polian's coattails, his coaching record is a very Jauron-like 73-86.

Credit for drafting while Levy was coach goes to Polian whose extended record of team building is superlative while Levy's record of coaching trended right back down to losing the second that Polian left. Again, coincidence?

Levy never had only one winning season (9-7) prior to coming to Polian's Bills. His record was a very Jauron-like 31-42 prior to coming here. Think about it. After Polian left, he resumed his accolades by producing a very mediocre team with above average talent still on it. Then he wisely quit.

So it should come as absolutely no surprise that Wilson, who fired Polian, and Levy, who was also a loser prior to teaming with Polian, continue to lose on their own.

I will cheer the Bills, but I'm not going to cheer negligence, incompetence, absolute sophistry and buffoonery, and flat out stupidity at times. This creates an issue for me as a fan. Alas, the control over the entire situation rests well outside of my control as much as I had previously hoped to have some influence even to the point of predicting, perhaps rather warning, yet in fact deep down not even believing that my predictions and warnings would, could, even come true, the demise of this franchise pretty much to a T beginning half a decade ago.

Ergo, I cheer when it's convenient and when I feel like it. Otherwise I spend my time doing more enjoyable things and viewing more enjoyable things such as other NFL teams.

I will post an article shortly, but Bills fans are now being set up to see their team move to Toronto. And don't think that Wilson's passing will be the trigger either. If there's a good enough reason, Wilson, who's already demonstrated that the fans come all but last on his priority list, expect Wilson to come up with some "reason" as to why he "has to" move the team. It could very well be something as simple as some incentive that benefits his family. And good for him as his family should come first. I just don't care for the charade that the fans come first and the associated complete, sheer, and utter negligence in doing less with whatever precious resources we do have due to complete buffoonery and wooden-headed decision making at OBD.

Regardless, Wilson's announced that he won't sell the team prior to passing. First of all that all but cements a WNY interest buying the team over others elsewhere in a bidding war.

Secondly, that all but terminally increases the odds against the team remaining in Buffalo for financial reasons only and primarily which is the first thing on investors' minds.

Thirdly, now we catch wind of a preseason and regular season (death knell) game in Toronto, the future home of the Bills or whatever they will be called.

Next will be talk about "expansion into Canada" with intentions and designs of the NFL "going international."

Then the talk will be about "sharing" the team or some rot in transparent efforts of the NFL to retain as much of the Buffalo/WNY fan base as possible prior to the team heading to Toronto. After all, will the region's fans become Browns or Steeler fans? Giants? Jets?

Then perhaps there'll be two regular season games there. Naturally the rationale will be to help sellouts since this team can't sell out more than four or five of eight home games in any season. And if they couldn't sell them out this season, with four home games among their first six against good teams, five home games among the first eight, and with their only second half games against primary rival (at least as Bills fans see it and Wilson acknowledges and wants) Miami, intrastate rivals Giants, and the Patriots, then they simply never will sell out an entire season.

Frankly, I believe that this season was a test for this team. I believe that deep down the league went out of its way and bent over backwards to put together a schedule that they thought had the best chances of selling out and that this season was a test of sorts in that way. At present, while the Patriots game may end up selling out, it's unlikely that either the Miami or Giants games will either.

I also believe that even the league did not think that this team could possibly be so horrid either.

But I digress.

Meanwhile, Wilson's "on the clock" so to speak meaning that if he passes prior to that at any point, the season/year in which he passes will be the last that the Bills play in Buffalo, one more beyond that tops.

Then the team will go up for bid/auction. Buffalo will be the last place in any areas under consideration that will have much to offer an NFL team under new management/ownership as other cities including Toronto, will offer to build a new stadium for the owner. Naturally the citizens in that region will pick up the finance charges (interest) on the loan as they always do, rendering such a stadium interest-free for the new owner. The WNY region cannot support that.

Then it will move. Again, likely to Toronto.

There's my next piece after a satirical one shortly.

[Yasgur's Farm]

Re: Is there a problem? YES!

I've been a fan for over 40 years... I will continue I'm sure.

Over the past 10 years I have never been more knowledgable about things concerning the Bills... I have also noticed that the losses don't affect me the way they used too. I thought perhaps that it was just me... getting older, more responsible about real life. But this season has me thinking that it might just be a defense mechanism for the product Ralph Wilson consistantly puts on the field and on the sidelines.

It's starting to look like he stumbled on the right ingredients in the 90's... I'm not expecting that to happen again

Good post jamzel 32!

[jamze132]

Re: Is there a problem? YES!

if you truely feel stressed out about all of this it's your own fault

not anyone else's

there is no law that I'm aware of that mandates that you have to cheer endlessly regardless of the circumstances

if you feel is part of your civic duty then that's your bag, and the only person to blame for all this lamenting you are doing is yourself

Your right, it is my fault I am a Bills fan and everyone else who is a diehard for their team anywhere in the country. Go elsewhere bandwagoneer.

[jamze132]

Re: Is there a problem? YES!

Great post, jamze. It is almost exactly the way I feel about the Bills.

I know some of us take it too seriously, but I have never been able to be just a casual fan. It is very hard for me not to be emotionally invested in the Bills.

It's all part of being a diehard. Thanks for supporting!

[jamze132]

Re: Is there a problem? YES!

I agree man.

I also think that what happened with Marv hiring Dick was this.. From what I understand and what Marv has said, they had met but certainly were not 'friends' in the sense that they knew each other very well. I think Marv saw sort of a younger version of himself in Jauron, a cerebral, thoughtful, 'players' coach who regardless of his past performance as far as wins and losses, was WELL respected around the league particularly by guys who had played for him in the past.

But I think he overlooked some important points when selecting Jauron - while their coaching style's have similarities, Marv was never a wishy washy guy (which personally I think is THE biggest flaw in Jauron), and could 'fire up the troops' when needed.

Both coaches (Marv and Dick) are the type who delegate and let their assistants do their jobs without sticking their noses in too much. That's a great quality when you have an eye for picking assistants - Marv did, and the word is still out on Jauron, though it hasn't looked promising.

I don't know, like I said, I feel the same way you do.. I'll never be a fan of another NFL team, so my only hope is to ride it out and try not to get too personally invested in this team, as I have done for a long, long time.

Interesting thought that does hold merrit. All we can do is ride the lightning!

[Ickybaluky]

Re: Is there a problem? YES!

It's starting to look like he stumbled on the right ingredients in the 90's... I'm not expecting that to happen again

If you look at it, Bill Polian was the key ingredient. Polian built the team into a star-laden team that was among the best in the NFL for the entire period he was there. After he left, they continued to be competitive until those star players started to leave or retire.

Meanwhile, Polian has gone on to build winning teams elsewhere. In Indy, he has mirrored his success with the Bills by building a star-laden team that is among the best in the NFL for his entire tenure. Go figure.

I know it was a personality clash that led to Wilson getting rid of Polian. Polian's reputation is that he is an arrogant SOB who is hard to get along with sometimes, but Wilson should have known what he had. No matter what Polian is, his track record in building teams speaks for itself. The guy has few peers when it comes to being an NFL GM.

If Wilson wants to get back to the 90's, he needs to find someone capable like Polian to build his team for him. It is too early to say whether Marv can do that or not, so I don't want to make it sound like I'm putting him down, but it is clear that Bill Polian leaving was the key change in the direction of the team.

[G. Host]

Re: Is there a problem? YES!

What I am upset about is the guy he chose to coach this team and how loyal he seems to be towards Dick Jauron. I don't know if Marv hired Dick because they were friends or if he truly thought he was the best man for the job or if he simply bought the best HC he could afford given his financial perrameters.

Marv said he knew Jauron from when he did broadcasting in Chicago but did not know him very well.

These are things that we can speculate about all day and never know the correct answer.

You can speculate Dick Jauron because he was Marv's friend only if you think Marv is a liar.