Yeah and then Pegula put Brandon in charge of the Sabres. WTF are you even talking about? Nothing you said is right.Originally Posted by GreedoII
Yeah and then Pegula put Brandon in charge of the Sabres. WTF are you even talking about? Nothing you said is right.
Reich won't make a lateral move. In fact, he's got a great job and doing a great job making Wentz succeed. He's not going anywhere except as head coach. And I still don't think he's ready for that. But the Eagles really put together a good coaching staff, didn't they? 2-0 after you all claimed they were tanking by trading Bradford. Two weeks later they look like geniuses. Ron Brooks, Leodis McKelvin all took steps up by following Schwartz. Maybe they'll even see the play-offs. Something that none of you are going to see for the next five-plus years in Buffalo.
Mace I sent you a PM.
Mace (09-20-2016)
Football guru, not.
He was a stop-gap who filled in for a very short bit in football capacity out of necessity because Ralph Wilson was in no shape to do anything. Now people make all these baseless assumptions about what Brandon actually does today.
Presidents aren't generally "football guys" all the time. They certainly don't set the culture of the actual team you see on the field.
Again, Brandon is the President of THREE teams (in two differs sports) as well as Pegula Sports and Entertainment. His plate is full as a business executive. Who in their right mind would ever go to him for the inside slant on players or other football personnel? As if he even has time to do the necessary research to be well-informed in these matters, or even the background...He's in the loop because he's the President, but he's not making the decisions at all.
I hate to break it to you people, but the Pegulas aren't going to fire Brandon any time soon. They basically hired him as President of ALL their ****...and they have a lot of ****. IMO, things wouldn't change if Brandon were fired anyway. The Sabres and Bills wouldn't magically start to win with a different business executive at the helm.
BTW, I don't particularly care for Brandon either. But I don't blame him for things that aren't his fault.
YardRat (09-21-2016)
I agree with this, but the point I tried to make earlier (apparently unsuccessfully) is that if he is in the loop on major football decisions he needs to be taken out of it, and if the truth is he isn't then those that are need to stop doing stupid **** that gives the appearance that he is.
Maybe Brandon had absolutely nothing to do with hiring Wrecks in reality, but the move certainly appears to have his stink all over it.
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there was an article in the Rochester democrat and chronicle at the time of Rex's hiring saying that Brandon was integral in the hiring of rex and that whaley pegulas and Brandon were in the room and all were blown away.
http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-2/CEO-Russ-Brandon-to-assume-organizational-control-of-Buffalo-Bills/2ad8aaac-9277-4d2f-88a6-7b73eda1887d
And there was this article on buffalo bils.com stating that he assumed "full authority over the entire football operations"
but the apologists can keep giving Brandon breaks and the rest of us will be stuck with this poorly run organization
Mace (09-21-2016)
An article from BuffaloBills.com:
************
The Pegulas, along with President Russ Brandon and GM Doug Whaley, didn’t sit down with Rex Ryan until they were a full week into candidate interviews. . . .
With the assistance of Brandon and Whaley, who had just gone through a whirlwind coaching search two years prior, [the Pegulas] promptly scheduled interviews with coaching candidates on bye weeks before their playoff games.
************
The above is very strong evidence that Brandon was involved in the decision to hire Rex Ryan. If he had a hand in that decision, who knows how many other football-related decisions he may have influenced over the years?
Supposedly, Brandon is no longer involved in the football side of things. That's a nice story. But is it true? Because there is a report that someone in the organization leaned heavily on Ryan to make a big firing. Maybe Brandon "staying out" of the football side means that he actually stays out most of the time. Usually. But if or when the football side starts interfering with his marketing plans, he may be willing to jump right back in; in order to get the marketing side back on track.
Any marketing people who have been meddling in the football side of the house need to go. Period. At the moment, the best football people in the league don't want to come here, because they assume (correctly) that their efforts will be interfered with by others. Only by ruthlessly cleansing this organization of those interfering others can we make it attractive to the best football minds in the NFL.
Last edited by Arm of Harm; 09-21-2016 at 10:57 AM.
trapezeus (09-21-2016)
perhaps we need a gofundme.com drive where we ask season ticket holders to donate vs renewing next year unless Brandon is gone. if a sizable chunk of money is raised, it sends a message that you can't just can a coach and a gm. the whole thing needs to change.
That article is from 2013.
argument was that he only is marketing. hes been gm, handed full control, sold team and got promoted to oversea both teams. he's involved day to day. the only reason they don't spell it out verbatim is because that's his out when the **** hits the fan every 3 years. "I am not responsible."
Ok, he was an integral football voice in Pegulas ear for the Ryan hire. Which made him an influential football factor. Is he now ?
You suppose a lot. You suppose he didn't slide in to an already functional Sabres organization where Murray has a handle on everything. You suppose he's heavily involved in Pegula Sports & Entertainment.
Even if so, he came from the football org. So if Pegula needs what he considers a reliable football voice for another coaching search, he's not going to turn to a guy who's been heavily involved in 2 of them who he trusts ? Who replaced him as integral football voice ? The invisible Whaley ? Contracts & Cap Overdorf ?20 years of working my way up the ladder in IT didn't prevent people from coming and asking me about the entry level things I started on, because I was trusted to have a knowledge. I'm sure not the only one that's happened to.
Blaming Brandon for what he's been involved with football wise, like Ryan is perfectly appropriate, he shares responsibility.
Presuming he may still share responsibility is also perfectly appropriate based on precedent and the lack of change. Thinking he won't be involved in the next coaching search ? If you don't think so at this point where the organization hasn't changed any, I don't know what to tell you.
They simply don't have any other football voices, and if Pegulas hired LaFontaine to come up with Murray, and know hockey well, they're certainly not going to go into a coaching search in football based on their own knowledge. So where do they get it from ?
Gee, I can't imagine.
Slick (09-21-2016)
Fielding teams, and excluselvely hiring coaching staffs is not at all what he does.
But, in the last 16 years, he absolutely has had a say and influence into the hires of coaches, and GM's. He's been involved with FA signings, been on the interview committee for GM's and Coaches.
He is no way qualified to make such recommendations. I remember an article a few years ago when Russ was in attendance at the Combine in Indy. There were numerous NFL personnel humored by the fact that Russ thought himself to be a GM.
"You can't be a real country unless you have beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need beer."
~ Frank Zappa
Hire the Wolf as President of Football Operations and give him complete authority.
Russ Brandon is THE best minor league baseball marketing coordinator in the NFL.
Fire Russ.
Hire Coastal.
coastal (09-22-2016)
Amen!!!
The worst was when the Senior Bowl game in Mobile was being played in January 2013, when Manuel was MVP of the game. The camera pans the stands and catches Nix, Marrone & Brandon. Brandon sees the camera focusing in on him and puts on this used car salesman fake smile straight at the camera for a good 30 seconds. I just laughed and shook my head. The Bills drafted Manuel and that's when I had my doubts this guy should be around the team.
If he's been banished to adm. and marketing as President of both the Bills and Sabres, so be it. But when I see him speaking to the media a bit too much, it comes across that he's more involved in the football/hockey side of things than he should be. He has as much football acumen as Ralph did, which is zero.
I know he has zero say in anything over on the hockey side. Murray completely controls that. But with the Bills, I'm not so sure.
Arm of Harm (09-23-2016),trapezeus (09-22-2016)
So the general consensus is that Russ Brandon is in complete control of the business side of both a professional Hockey and Football team, and still finds enough time in his day to make/ruin the crucial decisions for the football side of the Buffalo Bills. Man, this guy needs a raise. That is an incredible amount to ask of one person.
youbarent getting the concept...
who is tesponsbile for structuring the business for success?
Terry Pegula
That baby can only drill baby drill.
You're a ****ing idiot.
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