May Day 10

From my view, the humiliating 2 month span between the Pittsburgh game that it was leaked that rex would be gone, through the trainwreck press conferences on Anthony Lynn and Doug whaley sealed berchtoldt's fate.

thats what happens when a franchise is on moth balls for 20 years and someone comes in, throws the curtains aside and opens a window to the outside world. lack of "continuity", bad luck, Patriots, etc did not cause the drought. Buffalo Bills "management" did.

Because he had no real boss other than a 90 year old man who thought of him as a son. The Pegulas, seem impressed when they see someone who knows their way around the building. They held onto bad management with the Sabres for too long, and did it again with the Bills.

The Bills were kind of emerging at that point with a very formidable defense. Marrone wanted to Pegula to wipe out the Brandon/Whaley aside, modernize the organization a bit, and bring in Polian in the Coughlin role. He said either them or me, and the Pegulas chose to go with 2 years or Rex, the Whaley embarassment, and 3 more years with the serial adulterer who was way past his 9 lives here. He wasn't wrong. Im not sure how I feel about giving Marrone 'McDermott' power over the team (McDermott just seems so well put together), but Jax looks good and Marrone has a pretty decent track record as HC so far.

I'm sure the Bills had a pretty strong reputation for how they did things on the football side. That's why we get Jauron and Gailey and GMs like Nix and Whaley (and Marv and Russ). I feel like Rex thought his bravado could mouth his way to success with any team and liked the $ offered. But we also had Mularkey and Marrone put their careers on the line and walk out. And up-and-comer isn't going to put his legacy and career in the shared hands with Russ Brandon. Any strong coaching candidate they coveted would probably demand that sort of autonomy.

The buyout of the NRA made it unattractive to outside bidders. They would not only need to outbid pegula, but would need to add $400 million buyout (or 4 ugly l same duck seasons). Plus a relocation fee. Plus money for new facilities. The timing of Wilson's death, before the paint was dry on the renovations played a huge part. If he passes away in 2018, vultures would be out big time. Ultimately though, its pegula's willingness to bid a very competitive price

its not him buying flowers for the secretary and asking her on a date. He is married with kids. The 'subject' of this investigation is married. There have been multiple/numerous targets of Russ Brandon's indiscretions.

They cant talk about it. This is their boss. Some very sensitive subject matter. Possibly some legal things hanging over their company's head.

The 1998 thing was scary, but I remember the business community rallying together to try to find others to pledge to fill the boxes. Maybe Brandon was behind that, but he was still a hungry marketing exec trying to carve a name and career for himself. 20 years later is a much different animal. You also had Flutie-mania pop up at the time. Most people then credited that for the uptick in sales.

Suggesting that he steered the bidding process toward the Pegulas blows all credibility of anything else said. $1.4 Billion dollars cash steered the bidding process toward the Pegulas.

Russ Brandon brings out the worst in people. He is like the slime in Ghostbusters 2

He is a guy who has been successful because of a supreme level of focus and dedication (and cheating). I cant help but think that these thoughts being made public are a pretty strong sign that the concentration and dedication is now being eroded. Maybe he flips a switch when training camp opens and is in it 100%. If things dont go great for the Pats this season, I could really see him hang them up.

People really take to the "fire and brimstone" policy

Why not just get rid of him then, like they did with Ted Black, LaFontaine, etc? Why the need to search for warts in the organization? It seems they needed to investigate, found stuff, found other stuff (which was alluded to in the AP report), he lied to their faces, and it was enough to pressure him into resigning.

I always felt that the Toronto thing was basically a deal between Wilson and Rogers, initiated by Ted Rogers who had plans to purchase and move the Bills once Mr Wilson passed away. Wilson got a bag of money, and the NFL was pleased, as it increased the international market and also brought in money. The way Brandon would justify it and defend it came off very poorly to me.

Dont discount Brandon's role in the rift between him/whaley/marrone. Marrone wanted to modernize the organization, and pulled a power play to get things done his way. Whaley/Brandon wanted to keep their power/status quo. We would have had Polian as a consultant to build some of the front office including GM, with Marrone as a HC working with him. Instead we got a few years of a Whaley/Rex circus.

Im sure if it was two people courting one another and he bought someone flowers, it would have probably been permissible. Being married with kids, and also a repeat-offender shows that this likely wasnt the case. He also lied to the owners of the team.

If it moves anywhere, it will be to their home facilities when/if the new thing gets built.

Nope... not worth it. I can say that this has been going on to some degree since the early 00's and when he was Director of Marketing. Having gone unchecked, I could see it getting pretty bad while he ascended all the way to proxy-owner. When new bosses were in the building, he still couldn't help himself. We arent sure what was exactly done, but the Pegulas' trust seems to have been violated. It has to go a lot deeper than that judging by the 'tone' of the Pegulas' statement as well as the sudden 'voluntary' dismissal of the most senior exec. They should have knew better and cleaned house when they bought the team.

Every time he opened his mouth and spewed his "smart sounding" marketing 101 terms in his fake deep voice

Im sure the Bills' business side is going to plummet into smoldering ruins now

I have said it before, but got yelled down. Amongst other things, the guy is a sleeze (close second hand knowledge)

Any US team, save the Rangers would see the same ticketing trend with this much ineptitude. Most places it would be worse. with that said, the Sabres' market in 2003 was much different. They had trouble at the turnstiles even during the 90s with some real exciting teams. They sold out a bunch of games for the 98-2001 run, but their pants were pulled down when it was brought to light that Rigas would comp the heck out of tickets. "Crowds" during the bankrupcy seasons(s) were sparse. It wasnt Bettman being nice or doing us a favor though. As I explained, there were various tactical/strategic reasons and other motivations that caused that. I'm not a Bettman hater, really either, although I think the NHL desperately needs some new eyes at the steering wheel.

I could see the rock-head Giants thinking that Gronk would guarantee super bowls and gift them #2 for Gronk plus 1 or 2 1sts.

I dont think they would have done better. Picking 6th and adding 3 2nds, 2 of which in a very strong round was a huge win for them