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Steinbrenner and Wilson


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What couldn't of been will be his legacy. Steinbrenner hired the best help to make his team a legacy as he got older, Ralph hired people that couldn't get it done. Call it a different sport, I call it a decade long failure but I'm sorry to say but the twilight is passing and it might be for the better.

Ralph did not just hire people who could not get it done, he hired people who took advantage of him...

 

Steinbrenner was ALWAYS in charge. He NEVER left ANYBODY do things other than his way.

 

 

 

Steinbrenner KNEW his sport and how to build a winner...Ralph Wilson does not. :thumbsup:

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I have made my unpopular views of Steinbrenner well known at this point. I respect Ralph and know that he did what he could to keep a team in a small market, despite the greedy option to leave for LA or Toronto being available to him. To the genius that compared Art Modell to Ralph, you need a slapping. Modell screwed over the city of Cleveland and its fans so badly that he is for all intents and purposes no longer welcome there. Ralph keeps getting stuff in the area named after him like the care center for Hospice in Cheektowaga.

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I have made my unpopular views of Steinbrenner well known at this point. I respect Ralph and know that he did what he could to keep a team in a small market, despite the greedy option to leave for LA or Toronto being available to him. To the genius that compared Art Modell to Ralph, you need a slapping. Modell screwed over the city of Cleveland and its fans so badly that he is for all intents and purposes no longer welcome there. Ralph keeps getting stuff in the area named after him like the care center for Hospice in Cheektowaga.

It still amazes me that people believe this.

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Ralph's legacy in my mind will be that he fired Bill Polian and that his poor estate planning has resulted in our team being under constant threat of being moved.

 

The way Ralph has structured his estate is the way he wants it handled. In his view the issue isn't good or poor estate planning, the issue is how does he want it handled.

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But the fact is that they have only 19 winning seasons in their history and have been a very below average team under Ralph Wilson.

 

One appealing aspect of sports in a world of complexity and subjectivity is its simplicity. You are judged on your record: wons/losses. As you simply and clearly stated: "But the fact is that they have only 19 winning seasons in their history and have been a very below average team under Ralph Wilson."

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Ralph will be remembered as a loyal owner of a small market franchise, and one of the founders of the AFL. In addition, they will mention he was a big player in the original merging of the AFL into the NFL, creating the AFC and NFC. They also might mention he loaned some of his fellow struggling owners of the AFL money to stay afloat in the early days of the AFL.

 

Unfortunately for him and us, it looks pretty hopeless that he will ever be remembered as a SB winning loyal owner of a small market franchise.

 

You gotta keep the hope alive, man.

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There will be no comparison.

 

The biggest story of the day when Ralph passes won't be his legacy, it'll be "Who will buy the Bills/Where will they move". If it's LA, then Ralph's death will be totally overshadowed by the media feeding frenzy for a "new" NFL team.

 

Sure, Ralph will get his mandatory 2 minute segment on ESPN and the major news outlets. A quick montage of highlights from the AFL and the Super Bowl run. But since he's 90+, not a very charismatic man (as far as the media goes) and the Bills have not sniffed the playoffs in over a decade -- it will be pretty irrelevant for everyone who lives outside the area or who isn't a Bills fan.

 

But what will be relevant is WHERE the Bills go -- if anywhere at all. That will be the lead story.

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Ralph's legacy in my mind will be that he fired Bill Polian and that his poor estate planning has resulted in our team being under constant threat of being moved.

 

 

you are wrong. He's had a plan in place for over 20 years. I know because i work with the guy who did it. Cool story though

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you cannot tell me that those aren't possible options, because if things did sour here. It wouldn't be too hard for a team to move 90 minutes away.

Well....I can tell you that LA isn't and hasn't been an option in many years (STILL no stadium). Toronto is not an option because they have no NFL stadium, nor are they interested in Bills football.

 

But then, you could have read these things just about anywhere.

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name='Wilson from Gamehendge' date='Jul 14 2010, 12:39 AM' post='1902986'

Ralph did not just hire people who could not get it done, he hired people who took advantage of him...

 

In regards to your comment that there were people who took advantage of him, who are you referring to? Ralph Wilson was in on every consequential hiring. If he hired someone who was inept, who is ultimately to blame? Ralph's problem was not only that he hired inept people but he also fired very qualified people who have gone on to be stunningly successful elsewhere, while Ralph's franchise continues to languish.

 

Steinbrenner KNEW his sport and how to build a winner...Ralph Wilson does not. :unsure:

 

You are stating the obvious.

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There will be no comparison.

 

The biggest story of the day when Ralph passes won't be his legacy, it'll be "Who will buy the Bills/Where will they move". If it's LA, then Ralph's death will be totally overshadowed by the media feeding frenzy for a "new" NFL team.

 

Sure, Ralph will get his mandatory 2 minute segment on ESPN and the major news outlets. A quick montage of highlights from the AFL and the Super Bowl run. But since he's 90+, not a very charismatic man (as far as the media goes) and the Bills have not sniffed the playoffs in over a decade -- it will be pretty irrelevant for everyone who lives outside the area or who isn't a Bills fan.

 

But what will be relevant is WHERE the Bills go -- if anywhere at all. That will be the lead story.

 

 

It appears the new LA owner will be Ari Gold.

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AS far as I am concerned, his legacy is firing Polian and driving Butler out of town; the only two guys in the history of the franchise who had a clue what they were doing. All because he thought he was smarter than them and meddled.

I guess he did have that in common with Steinbrenner.

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I have made my unpopular views of Steinbrenner well known at this point. I respect Ralph and know that he did what he could to keep a team in a small market, despite the greedy option to leave for LA or Toronto being available to him. To the genius that compared Art Modell to Ralph, you need a slapping. Modell screwed over the city of Cleveland and its fans so badly that he is for all intents and purposes no longer welcome there. Ralph keeps getting stuff in the area named after him like the care center for Hospice in Cheektowaga.

 

Well said.

 

Pro sports is a money-making enterprise - with a different kind of customer base than most. Emotions come into play, and that emotion is often - coldly - capitalized on by owner and players alike.

 

In the constellation of ownerships across the pro sports through the years, Wilson is far from being one of the countless crumbs. I believe him to be a decent man who did his best according to his own lights.

 

I can't say I could have done better - ego and sports go hand-in-hand.

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