His wikipedia page is hilarious.
No one knows what year he was born but they do know his impressive list of achievements.
Check out the punchout ending to his entry.
Since Wilson's retirement, Brandon has served as the team's representative in owner's meetings in lieu of Wilson, a position he continues even as his widow inherited the trust that will hold ownership of the team.[5]
He has presided over the longest current playoff drought in the NFL - the Bills have not made it to the post season since the 1999 season.
The Bills have a .382 winning percentage & have given up 531 more points since Brandon was promoted to a high level position in 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ_Brandon
WagonCircler (08-27-2014)
How do we know that Marrone and Whaley were arguing with each other? How do we know that Marrone wasn't just venting about Whaley not being able to perform a personnel move by Littman or Overdorf that Marrone had requested? It's been reported that Marrone and Whaley do not currently have the control they wanted over personnel. And how do we know that both Marrone and Whaley weren't complaining about this to their boss?
To say that the two were arguing with each other is purely speculative.
HHURRICANE (08-27-2014)
coastal (08-27-2014)
They should be arguing.... They made it seem like they were doing everything possible to make the playoffs yet they neglected the QB position.
All 3 QBs have a HUGE ? on them. Terrible management.
Just look at our division:
Patriots have Garopolo and Mallett
Jets have Vick
Dolphins have Matt Moore
Whaley is not the problem at this point....
The sooner a new owner is here and Brandon is fired the better.
Marrone has players fighting, players showing up out of shape, an OC that shouldn't be coaching in the NFL, etc., etc., etc.
Anytime I hear a coach say that they are going to have the most conditioned team in the league that is always the kiss of death.
BillsImpossible (08-27-2014),TacklingDummy (08-27-2014)
There's no reason to fire Brandon.
Keep him in the marketing department. He's probably one of the best in the league at it.
BillsImpossible (08-27-2014)
Ill speculate on this, why not--to me it all seems pretty obvious.
The fact that Whaley wanted to have a meeting about the Tampa game, and called in Hackett tells me one thing: Whaley is not pleased with how the offense looks/looked in that game. I'm sure he either wants to open up the playbook more, wants Marrone to call the plays, or just wants Hackett gone. I am also going to guess that Marrone's response was something along the lines of "I/we can't do much with EJ, he's terrible, get us another QB."
The fact that they were seen arguing the morning after bringing in Palmer leads me to believe that Marrone was not satisfied with that pickup. Marrone wants someone who can come in and actually push Manuel for the starting job. Marrone wants this because he knows for him, this year is make or break, and might be the last/only chance he ever gets to coach in the NFL. He's saddled with 3 qbs who have shown nothing to this point in time.
Where this differs from Whaley is thus: I'm assuming that in that "transition" period around New Years eve 2012, when Brandon stepped in as CEO, it was common knowledge at the top of the organization that Ralph's health was failing. I'm sure Brandon knew of the clauses in the will, and had a pretty good idea (if not outright conversations with) that Pegula would make a strong push to buy the team. He may have gotten some sort of verbal assurance that if/when Pegula buys the team, Brandon's job is safe for the time being, allowing him to hand select a GM (Whaley) and tell that person that their job is safe for a set amount of time, maybe 5 years in this case. When these guys went out to hire a head coach, they likely knew that their hands were tied with regards to who would come here. Maybe guys like Chip, Lovie, Billick, Cowher, etc. have said through their agents "don't even ask, we're not coming to be a lame duck coach." Whaley and Brandon hired Marrone, but really what Whaley and Brandon did was draft EJ Manuel.
And that leads us to this season, to these arguments, to this thread, and to my theory: For Whaley and Brandon, they want the incoming coach AND the incoming owner to have a nice, unbiased look at EJ Manuel. Whaley absolutely does not want to bring in ANY qb that could win the starting job over EJ. Thad looked good last year: release him. Bring in the worst backup available. EJ is going to start 16 games this season, and there is going to be NO doubt about who the starter is. Not so the Bills can win (that's a wash, likely) but so when the new owner gets here, management will have a very clear idea about what they have to work with at QB. And there are no excuses for EJ: he's got a good line (this draft) and great wideouts (this draft and last draft). They have built a team that a new owner could come in and either say:
"Were heading in the right direction, let's get Cowher in here and go win this thing."
or
"QB is all that's holding us back. Let's get Romo/Eli and Cowher in here and go win this thing."
Either way, I'm sure management knows that EJ is their PROJECT. If he fails, there won't be another project, because, quite frankly, this team doesn't need another rebuild. It needs a Bledsoe situation, where a vet comes in and guides the ship. Or, maybe EJ can be that guy, who knows.
Fitting into this logic is a guy like Schwartz coming here as DC... I'm sure he is "aware" of the situation to some degree, and that's why he got offered/accepted the job so quickly after being canned in Detroit. It also explains why his QB coach would come over with him.
It's why Marrone has been flying off the handle this preseason, running guys into the ground, trying to win preseason games, coaching like his life depends on it. I think he's the only person in this organization on the outside looking in for next year. He asks for a QB, he gets Palmer. I'd argue with Whaley too.
BillsImpossible (08-27-2014),DunkCityFan (08-27-2014),gebobs (08-27-2014),jamze132 (08-27-2014)
JohnnyGold & Fletch should get along great.
Can't wait to read a thread when those two get going.
BillsImpossible (08-27-2014)
Rumor has it that Whaley wanted La Nova pizza for lunch, but Marrone wanted Duff's wings and got really pissed off because La Nova's sauce gives him indigestion.
It's been a long preseason.
gebobs (08-27-2014)