Archives for January 13, 2006

‘Reached by telephone Friday, Haslett said he’s interested but has not yet been contacted. "Obviously, I have great interest in the job, there’s a lot of good things about it," Haslett said. "I know the organization, I know Mr. Wilson. And it’s a great place to live."’

‘"I’ve talked with some [coaches] already and several are going to be retained," said Levy. "I think we’ll wait until we get the whole situation resolved and we will do that very quickly in terms of the current coaches already here, rather than piece mailing it. There are several that we do definitely want to retain and I think we will. They’ve expressed the desire to me that they would like to be retained."’

‘"I really, sort of, don’t even want to comment," Levy said Friday at a news conference. "I can’t answer it because I want to talk the whole situation over. But we’re going to address it swiftly." Levy added that he didn’t plan on being the coach when he accepted the GM’s job, but said the situation has changed with Mularkey’s unexpected departure.’

‘The outgoing coach did not attend the news conference.’

‘Wilson says Mularkey requested a one-on-one closed-door meeting earlier in the week with the 87-year-old owner and says now that the Bills are in search of a new leader, all that matters is finding the best replacement.’

‘Ralph Wilson says the Bills look like a vaudeville act after Friday’s announcement.’

‘"It’s mind boggling," Bills linebacker Takeo Spikes said Thursday on ESPN Radio. "I don’t really understand what’s goin’ on but I thought he did some things well and there were a lot of things a lot of the guys didn’t agree with. I don’t think that he was a bad coach. When you come into the city of Buffalo people expect you to win not later, not two or three years from now, people want you to win now. So it’s a lot of pressure. … As a man I will always respect him because of his position and how he treated us as a whole."’

‘"Mr. Wilson told me this job would be exciting, but we didn’t expect this," Levy said. "This is like getting an all-out blitz on the first play of the game and now we have to adjust to it. But I wish Mike would have stayed. I looked forward to working with him."’

‘"Mike said ‘I want to see you in your office’ and he said ‘I’m going to resign as head coach of the Bills," Wilson noted. "Of course, I was completely surprised at his statement. He seemed very firm about (it)…he said he wants to move on."’

‘Buffalo finished with a disappointing 5-11 record this past season and missed the playoffs for a sixth straight year to match its longest drought since the NFL merger.’

‘I did not reach this decision lightly, but after much thought I have concluded that for my own personal reasons and in the best interests of my family, on balance, outweigh any future benefits that may accrue to me by continuing in this position.’

‘Wilson said Mularkey was bothered by media and public criticism. The owner said Mularkey is a good football coach but he wants to move on.’

‘Levy deflected many efforts to get him to say he might return to the sidelines. He said not being the coach is part of the premise under which he took the general manager post.’

‘"Maybe he felt like he might not have been able to have – I don’t know if control is the word – maybe not make the decisions he wanted to as a coach."’

‘In his opening remarks, he stated that "I can’t control the media or fans that come to the stadium. With so much media today, Internet, call in shows, press television satellite, there is goign to be so many different opinions on everything. You can’t control them. We are doing the best we can. So now, we are going to go forward and look for a new head coach. We’re going to conduct an extensive search – and we haven’t even started yet."’