Up my Flagpole: Brains over Braun

by Frank Stephen

As we get over the latest in what appears to be a series of little learning steps I present something a little different this week.

Somebody once told me that guilt was a useless human emotion. If that is true, then frustration is the most misguided. After watching the Buffalo Bills give a valiant effort for three quarters on Sunday I can say I felt no guilt for attending the game even after the New England Patriots showed their championship form and overcame the Bills effort and defeated the hometown boys 31-17. But frustration? Sure.

Right now, I am sure that that Mike Mularkey and the coaching staff have as much frustration as trying to explain something to a child for the tenth time. As a parent, you see the problem, are able to explain the solution and can demonstrate how to overcome the obstacle. Then, just as you think you make a breakthrough, the child looks at you and the expression on its face shows you that even your best efforts can’t overcome their inexperience. What is worse is the child takes the test on the subject matter and looks off to a good start only to stumble and bring home a C. The lesson: either 1) you weren’t as good of a teacher as you thought you were, 2) your child has a problem digesting and learning the material or, worse, 3) you child doesn’t care. Being only a quarter into the first year of a new coaching staff the opinion here is the Bills coaches and front office are staring #2 right in the face.

After three weeks into the Mularkey-era and three years of the Gregg Williams-era the fans are starting to learn that the Buffalo Bills employ some not so smart football players. There are only 32 head coaching positions in the NFL. Only about six are available in any one calendar year. Candidates do not get to that position by winning a lottery or simply showing up for work each morning and doing their job. Although many will be unsuccessful, except for Hank Bullough, they are not stupid individuals. They may outthink themselves at times but they know the game of football. Even the best teachers cannot make the weakest of students into a Rhodes’ Scholar. As my mother used to tell me, “not everybody is as smart as you.” (By the way parents that is great for making your kids feel good but terrible for inflating their ego).

Which brings us to the problem facing Mularkey. The Bills have some rather “dull blades in the drawer”. London Fletcher, the defensive captain, takes a penalty for unnecessary roughness on the first play of the game (and subsequently got lucky and was not called for kicking the football) and later received another flag for a hit on Tom Brady (shaky as it may have been)? Eric Moulds, the highest paid member of the team, drops a critical catch and then later is called for 15 yards for mouthing off to an official from the sideline? Rashad Baker lines up offsides on a field goal attempt giving new life to a strong Patriots offense? On a critical 4th and 3, Travis Henry goes the wrong way, the offensive line gets blown apart on their assignments and Drew Bledsoe fumbles the ball? This is just not smart football.

Being 0-3 and looking like a team in disarray leads the dedicated fans of the Buffalo Bills to scream their frustration on message boards, water coolers and radio call-in shows. Although completely understandable, some of the things that get said are hysterical and others even asinine. Frustrated fans, as expected, are calling for changes. Even the coaching staff admits it is looking into personal to see if changes are needed. However, look at who is making the mistakes. Fletcher, Moulds, Henry and Bledsoe? These are the team leaders, the guys who are hired to make the plays that win games.

Many short-term remedies are available. I’ve heard calls from fans that the coaches should “send a message” by sitting the offending players. These are grown men who have been playing the game for almost 25 years. Do fans really think taking those players out of the lineup would send a long-term message? True, players can be sat down for a play, a series or a quarter and play better for the rest of the game but that is not going to solve the current problems for the long-term.

Frustration even makes people say completely nonsensical things. I heard one caller say that London Fletcher should be made to follow Mike Mularkey around for an entire game and watch the game with him. Like that is the way to treat a grown man? Think about how you would feel if your boss or supervisor did that to you. Sure, some people would respond and work better but many more would be embarrassed enough to look for employment someplace else.

When conjuring up ideas of how to motivate the Bills players to play better football the fans need to think about how they want to be treated by their employers. With pride, many Bills fans are hard-working, blue-collar, everyday people, who if treated by their own employer in the manner they suggest the Bills front office treat their players, would shout to the shop steward that they were being belittled, embarrassed and treated unprofessionally. Frustration, in the form of over-reactive, unrealistic hand ringing is as useless a human emotion as guilt.

The Buffalo Bills have a major problem; they have a group of football players that are not, right now, very smart. Can Mularkey and his staff overcome this and turn around the team, get them back to respectability and someday have the Bills among the NFL elite? Nobody has a crystal ball that can predict that. However, one thing can be said, the students need to get back to the classroom, and quickly. NFL players are great physical specimens but the old adage in still true “the brain is still stronger than any muscle”.