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R. I. P. Bruce DeHaven


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Bruce DeHaven, a pioneer for special teams

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Bruce DeHaven's successes on special teams in his NFL career forced opponents to respect that phase of the game in a way they never had before.

 

Steve Tasker on Bruce DeHaven, One of the Best Coaches You Never Knew

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The seven-time All-Pro pays tribute to his late coach, a special-teams genius who changed the game and changed lives

 

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Bruce DeHaven coached the Bills twice. He was the fall guy after the loss to Tennessee. Obviously firing him was a horrible mistake but probably understandable. The entire organization was losing its mind, Ralph leading the way. Flutie vs RJ, an aging core group, salary cap issues, but front office idiocy that has never settled down. Ralph firing Polian for putting one of his employees in her place. OK, so what if she was Ralph's daughter. Then Butler and Smith basically firing the Bills rather than stick around, and who could blame them. But there's more what-ifs here than in the SB loss to the Giants. If the Bills coverage guys had stayed in their frikkin lanes, the play wouldn't have worked, or at least not scored. And once the blood started running through the streets, the carnage was on its way.

 

My question is, why did DeHaven leave the Bills the second time? After his odyssey in SF, Dallas, and Seattle, he came back to the Bills from 2010-12. Why did he leave in 2012? Was he fired? I know Chan Gailey was fired as HC after the 2012 season and Doug Marrone came in. Did Marrone want his own ST coach?

Edited by Utah John
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I'd assume the second time was due to change in HC, cleaned out the staff.

 

I think it was more than that one play that caused his firing. I seem to recall that entire last year and even the year prior the Bill's special teams plays had dropped off as likely due to guys like Tasker and Pike were gone to name a few.

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