Last edited by feldspar; 07-27-2015 at 04:52 PM.
^Nothing with personnel. But this board thrives on a mob mentality. Facts are unnecessary.
When he was General Manager, he had input on ALL personnel decisions. That's no different than taking feedback from the woman who cleans the offices at OBD. He has, to this day, ZERO qualifications on anything to do with football, but he felt entitled to oversee the draft.
This ******* was in ticket sales for a BASEBALL team that won a world series and still couldn't sell tickets. Then he came here. He is no more qualified than you or me or even Mace or Meathead to make decisions on football.
He's always credited with "regionalization" of ticket sales. This is what passes for genius? That's Marketing 101. That's not genius.
I just heard John Murphy on the radio. He said "I'm a Russ fan. The most important thing I learned about Russ in the past three years is that he really wants to win."
Seriously? Who the **** DOESN'T want to win? That doesn't mean he has a sliver of a clue how to win or build a winning team. Or a clue about hiring people to build winning teams.
This is Terry Pegula saying "OK. I'm bored. I did my part to keep the teams here. Now I'm putting them on auto-pilot. If you need anything, I'll be on my yacht."
Mace (07-28-2015)
Awwwww....Terry's honeymoon sure was short. I guess just any ol' dude with a boat load of money might not be the panacea everybody was hoping for, hmmm?
YardRat Wall of Fame
#56 DARRYL TALLEY #29 DERRICK BURROUGHS#22 FRED JACKSON #95 KYLE WILLIAMS
I guess he's a marketing genius if he got people to buy the ****ty product he was putting on the field.
Whaley & Rex will run the football operation on the Bills.
Tim Murray will run the hockey operation for the Sabres.
Brandon will handle the business side for both teams.
Does anyone think Brandon will be worse than Ted Black?
no stone left unturned... he wrote that in a letter after yet another coach left in 3 years. that approach took less than 3 interviews (one for quota purposes). And he got the guy from down the street. a guy who was incompentent and paranoid. two of the worst traits combined.
He takes credit at the times of hires and then points the finger at someone else when it's a failure.
he is a suckup. you can see that in how he carries himself. and what the owners know is that these two sports sell themselves. there is no reason to have a more expensive guy in the role.
WagonCircler (07-28-2015)
WagonCircler (07-28-2015)
Look, Russ Brandon is a great snake oil salesman but for the love of God keep him far the **** away from personnel & sports decisions.
And hey, here's what I think of marketing & advertising people.
Disclaimer: The sentiment expressed in this post is strictly for entertainment purposes only.
WagonCircler (07-28-2015)
I have no problem with the operations side of Russ. It was Ralph that put him on the football side. This set the Bills back because he is not a football guy he is a marketing/operations guy. It's not his fault Ralph did that. What are people criticisms of him from a marketing/operations standpoint? I feel he was following Ralph's orders to do the Toronto series. Hasn't everyone done things they have not wanted to do on their job because a higher authority told him to do it? He generated a lot of revenue for that deal. He followed orders and ended the series when Pegulas took over.
We don't see how he runs the operations side. However, Pegulas are astute business people so if they put their trust in Russ I have no problem with that.
better days (07-28-2015),justasportsfan (07-28-2015)
Russ has been great at regionalizing the bills franchise. He will do the same with the sabres. He already said yesterday he won't be in charge of hockey operations. This should end the argument.
Mace (07-29-2015)
To me, Russ is Ralph. He represents the old way of doing things, where coaches and FO personnel are consistently underpaid compared to league averages, the org settles for second or third tier coaches and FA's, guys with big salaries are allowed to walk but the money is stuffed into a mattress instead of re-invested in the team and we start the season a gazillion dollars below the salary cap, etc. And it's all because budget decisions override football ones when Russ is in charge.
better days (07-28-2015)
The Sabres (read Pegulas) move from one yes man to a bigger yes man.
Who suffers? Buffalo sports fans.
WagonCircler (07-28-2015)
Russ has never worked with an owner with as deep pockets as the Pegulas have. He's also not in charge of hockey/football operations so I don't know what everyone is so up in arms about. I'm willing to at least give the guy a chance before I set my pitchfork on fire.
I don't follow the Sabres enough to comment on them, but I know that 1 bad hire does not mean the next hire is going to be just as bad.
Besides, Russ is President of the Sabres not the GM. They are different roles. Just as he's no longer making football decisions for the Bills.
Meathead (07-29-2015)