Archives for January 2006

‘The Bills are expected to speak to no more than a handful of candidates, with former Green Bay Packers coach Mike Sherman expected in Buffalo today.’

‘Buffalo also was said to be interested in former Saints coach Jim Haslett, who spent the bulk of his NFL career as a Bills linebacker. But Haslett apparently is close to being hired as the Lions’ head coach.’

‘The important thing — the most important thing for anybody hoping to become a head coach in the NFL in 2006 — is to be an FOB, a Friend of Bill. Or CUB, as in Coached Under Bill. That’s the key to success these days. Especially in the former AFC East — soon to be the Belichick Division.’

‘Bills fans simply don’t want to hear about the upside and potential of another brilliant young coordinator. Been there.’

‘Jauron got his coaching start in Buffalo as an assistant in 1985. He was the head coach in Chicago for five years and was the interim head coach in Detroit the last five games of this season after Steve Mariucci was fired by the Lions.

‘It is expected that former Packer’s head coach MIke Sherman will be in town on Wednesday.’

‘There was a web site set up specifically for Joe by good friend Bob Loretelli, a high school principal in Modesto, Calif. The Bills also picked up on the project and have continued to maintain a steady contact base for any fans wishing to express their wishes and thoughts. “Within a week and a half after it was set up,” Ferguson recalled, “we got over a thousand e-mails wishing us the best, many from all over the world.” Some were from U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Fans in Japan e-mailed and so did countless number of Bills’ fans. And there were phone calls from former teammates in Buffalo, from Joe DeLamielleure and Reggie McKenzie and from O.J. Simpson to J.D. Hill.’

‘Team spokesman Scott Berchtold announced the interview but did not provide any details.’

‘Jauron, 55, has two decades worth of NFL coaching experience, including one season (1985) as the defensive backs coach.’

‘”Football became so small,” Ferguson said in reflecting on the months of treatments. “Everything became small. You’re talking here about life. Nothing in football or what I had ever faced in athletics comes close in comparing to this. No challenge has ever been greater than this one.”‘

‘However, the 2005 season – the final season of Wilson’s handpicked president/GM, Tom Donahoe, who failed in his five years at the helm to bring the Bills back to the NFL’s postseason tournament – was a contentious one and may have irreparably damaged the team’s standing in the community. As an organization, the Bills exuded an arrogance in recent seasons that was unfounded. There was also a paranoia, as when security personnel were ordered to remove handmade signs from fans at the final home game of the season that called for the firing of Donahoe and/or head coach Mike Mularkey.’

‘"He’s up in heaven now. Hunter fought every day of his life and that kid never gave up. He lived the longest of anyone who had Krabbe leukodystrophy," Kelly said. "I think about him every day. I wanted to see these kids. I know what their parents are going through and how important it is to raise money for causes like this."’

‘In this situation, the best thing for Levy to do is put his Chicago bias aside and look at the big picture. The Bills have been awful for five straight years and it’s time to bring a coach into the organization that is respected, successful, and has proven himself as a coordinator or head coach. Certainly, Jauron hasn’t been successful enough. If the Bills do hire an assistant as their head coach, it would be best to hire a youthful coach like Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks coach Sean Payton, or Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera.’

‘After hanging up his football helmet in 1969, Ferguson went into management training at Harrison Radiator in Lockport. He rose to manufacturing supervisor for the successor company, Delphi Corp., before retiring in 2002. In the King tradition, Ferguson has kept a commitment to community service during his years in Western New York. He is a director of Meals on Wheels and the St. Augustine Center and is active in the Bills Alumni Foundation, which distributed $75,000 to charities in 2005.’

‘The Hunter James Kelly Institute, with $7 million in initial state seed money, in the next couple of years will be home to 12 scientists with separate research teams at the University at Buffalo’s Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences studying diseases such as those that took the life of 8-year-old Hunter last August, aides to the governor said Monday.’