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Even 9-7 record shouldn't be enough to keep Williams
12/14/2003
By JERRY SULLIVAN
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The problem with the NFL is there's only one game a week. It's three hours of commercials, interrupted by periodic bursts of football, then six days of endless talk and analysis. There's entirely too much time to think between games.
Given all this time to ruminate, a lot of people have concluded that Gregg Williams might be coaching for his job during the next three weeks. There's growing speculation - and in many cases, a rising horror - that Williams could be back next year if the Bills run the table, or even if they win two of their last three.
Haven't we already been through this? Last year at this point, the Bills were 6-7, with only a remote chance of reaching the playoffs. A year later, they're 6-7 again. A team that was expected to contend for a Super Bowl has been a colossal disappointment. They're on the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs. And we're supposed to believe that Williams is getting one last three-game trial to save his hide?
I'd like to think Tom Donahoe, the president and general manager, is smarter than that. His mind should be made up by now. What could Donahoe learn in the next three games that he didn't pick up in the previous 45? It's evident that Williams isn't cut out to be a head coach, and nothing that happens over the next three weeks is likely to change that.
So what if the team finishes strong? It gets awfully tiresome, hearing how the team never quits on him. They're supposed to play hard. They're not playing out of any love for the coach. They're playing for themselves. When the season was up for grabs, the players didn't respond to what Williams was selling. They lost seven of nine games, an unforgivable stretch of bad play for a perceived contender.
12/14/2003
By JERRY SULLIVAN
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The problem with the NFL is there's only one game a week. It's three hours of commercials, interrupted by periodic bursts of football, then six days of endless talk and analysis. There's entirely too much time to think between games.
Given all this time to ruminate, a lot of people have concluded that Gregg Williams might be coaching for his job during the next three weeks. There's growing speculation - and in many cases, a rising horror - that Williams could be back next year if the Bills run the table, or even if they win two of their last three.
Haven't we already been through this? Last year at this point, the Bills were 6-7, with only a remote chance of reaching the playoffs. A year later, they're 6-7 again. A team that was expected to contend for a Super Bowl has been a colossal disappointment. They're on the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs. And we're supposed to believe that Williams is getting one last three-game trial to save his hide?
I'd like to think Tom Donahoe, the president and general manager, is smarter than that. His mind should be made up by now. What could Donahoe learn in the next three games that he didn't pick up in the previous 45? It's evident that Williams isn't cut out to be a head coach, and nothing that happens over the next three weeks is likely to change that.
So what if the team finishes strong? It gets awfully tiresome, hearing how the team never quits on him. They're supposed to play hard. They're not playing out of any love for the coach. They're playing for themselves. When the season was up for grabs, the players didn't respond to what Williams was selling. They lost seven of nine games, an unforgivable stretch of bad play for a perceived contender.
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