Leak source - It must be Brandon

[PolishDave]

Certainly possible

 

Usually how it worked is that the president would discuss what was going on at the Sr. staff meeting (which was about 8 departments). Those people would be told to consult with their direct reports, an average of about 4 per Sr. Staff member (that's where I would have been). That was supposed to be the end of the line as we had to plan for whatever this particular move would mean to our departments. That's around 30 people there on the business side alone. I would venture to say that the people in basketball operations had a much better sense from being around it every day. If you include the players there you are up to 60 or so. The leaks could be coming from a lot of different places.

 

Not every organization is as collaborative as the Bills or where I was. There are places that I can think of that probably less than 20 people know maybe even 10. In the Bills case though, I'm not surprised to see the number of leaks with the number of people in the know.

Thank you for your insight!

 

Must have been a wicked cool job for a while. Well at least the insider part.

 

I assume you are no longer in sports marketing in any capacity.

Edited December 29, 2016 by PolishDave

[Kirby Jackson]

or maybe the collaborative structure is constantly destined for failure, dysfunction, and drama.

The flip side is that they've been able to be more creative and run a better business operation because of it. It's a necessity in smaller markets because you have to do things unconventionally. As an example the Milwaukee Bucks just released a ticket plan that expires after they win 10 more home games. You could have tickets to 10 games, 12, 15, etc... I promise that was an idea that came up as they were tossing around thoughts on how to maximize revenue.

 

There are pros and cons for sure

Thank you for your insight!

 

Must have been a wicked cool job for a while. Well at least the insider part.

 

I assume you are no longer in sports marketing in any capacity.

No, I bailed during an ownership transfer. I wasn't interested in working for the incoming regime. We just didn't see things through the same lense and it was time to move on for me.

 

To answer your question though it was a lot of fun when the good happened. It wasn't so fun when you were going through turmoil and people yelled at you on the phone for 9 hours a day. When things aren't going well the beers are warmer and the hot dogs colder.

Edited December 29, 2016 by Kirby Jackson

[Hapless Bills Fan]

The leak of Rex getting fired weeks ago is just the final example of a long history of leaks from the Bills FO. My take is Brandon is the source. First, the leaks have been going on longer than any current Bills staffer. The leaks are of a very high nature. Not locker room talk or about spats between players where a source could be an equipment guy or some low level assistant. The leaks also never put Brandon in a bad light. They always seem to pit one GM vs another FO guy or a coach. All the while Brandon goes unscathed year after year.

The leaks come straight from the top.

The only other suspect could be Overdorf, but I question if even he has access to all high level decision.

 

I don't think this makes logical sense.

 

First of all, look at the facts. What gets leaked is not completely accurate - Rex being fired several games ago for one, "the ultimatum" for another. It's someone who is high enough to be privy to high level information but not 100% plugged in, so they get it a bit wrong. For example, someone who might know that a heated meeting took place after the Washington game last year with Pegula and Ryan and Whaley and who *heard* there was an ultimatum as a water cooler rumor. The heated meeting was right but the content of the meeting was in high probability, a bit different, nothing about "playoffs or fired", more likely "we expect success, we expect to see a well-prepared well-coached team that fights hard every week and if we don't see that from you, we'll see it from your successor" or something like that. It's not an ultimatum, it's a statement of expectations, but it gets heard that way by someone not in the room, see the difference?

 

Second, look at the tone, It's someone who really has it in for Whaley. The going rogue thing, the reddit thing, Rumor had it Marrone and Whaley were very sarcastic about and wanted to see change in the "lifer" culture of the front office. It's someone whose ox was at risk of being gored by Whaley. Brandon has never come close to being gored by Whaley. Brandon is held in higher regard by Pegula, given new roles and responsibilities (that's the joke, right, Whaley can see Brandon's feet?). Why would Brandon risk goring his own golden ox with a leak?

 

I'd be guessing it's a "lifer" who got used to the "way things were" for a long time in the Bills office and who is a bit disempowered, someone comfortable who doesn't particularly want culture change or winning, someone who has been here a long time and who feels disempowered now.

 

If we assume it's the same sieve, my guess would be someone in marketing. That would explain the strong indignation about the impact of cutting FredEx on the M&T marketing campaign. Under Brandon as de-facto GM (2007-2009) and even after under Nix, marketing had a strong influence on player selection with stuff like signing TO and keeping Shawne Merriman when it was clear he couldn't play, maybe bringing in Vince Young.

 

Most likely Berchtold, Littman or someone high in their orgs.

[scribo]

Berchtold

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Obviously the leak is someone close to Whaley. Always puts him in a good light while whoever the coach is is to blame. But it has backfired on him because the fans don't buy it - they know both are to blame.

 

I don't think you've been paying attention. "Going rogue", "throwing Rex under the Bus" etc

[JohnC]

Whether there were leaks or not does anyone doubt that there wouldn't be a wave of speculation over the tenuous nature of Rex's job status after the lackluster performance of his team even if this organization was tightly lipped? How can there not be speculation that he was going to be fired after the defensive meltdowns in the second half of the Raider game, the Steelers spanking our defense like it was a bratty child and the Dolphins repeatedly gashing our defense. The defensive minded coach couldn't even get his defensive unit lined up with the appropriate number of players at a critical juncture in overtime. Absolutely ridiculous!

 

There was plenty of speculation before the season started by outside sources that Rex needed to turn the situation around, especially when a draft, free agent acquisitions and additional coaching staff were dedicated to bolster the defense. What was the result? A spiraling descent into more chaos and miscommunication on the defensive side of the ball. The same side of the ball that the self-anointed defensive guru boisterously declared that it was his domain. He stated with confidence that he was going to right the ship, the same ship that was already sinking while he was at the helm.

 

No one sabotaged this blubbering fool other than he did himself by his own chaotic and inept performance. Were there whispers about Rex coming from the organization? How could there not be from every cubicle in the building?

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Whether there were leaks or not does anyone doubt that there wouldn't be a wave of speculation over the tenuous nature of Rex's job status after the lackluster performance of his team even if this organization was tightly lipped? How can there not be speculation that he was going to be fired after the defensive meltdowns in the second half of the Raider game, the Steelers spanking our defense like it was a bratty child and the Dolphins repeatedly gashing our defense. The defensive minded coach couldn't even get his defensive unit lined up with the appropriate number of players at a critical juncture in overtime. Absolutely ridiculous!

 

There was plenty of speculation before the season started by outside sources that Rex needed to turn the situation around, especially when a draft, free agent acquisitions and additional coaching staff were dedicated to bolster the defense. What was the result? A spiraling descent into more chaos and miscommunication on the defensive side of the ball. The same side of the ball that the self-anointed defensive guru boisterously declared that it was his domain. He stated with confidence that he was going to right the ship, the same ship that was already sinking while he was at the helm.

 

No one sabotaged this blubbering fool other than he did himself by his own chaotic and inept performance. Were there whispers about Rex coming from the organization? How could there not be from every cubicle in the building?

 

Good points, especially the last - no one sabotaged Rex, he sabotaged himself.

 

As far as leaks though, people in the press believe they have heard definite information from Bills organizational sources, not simply speculation. Some of the information is "right" and some of it is "wrong".

[RussellDopeland]

The sinister machinations of our very own Bills "deepthroat".

[Hapless Bills Fan]

From '07-'12 (so six seasons). I knew everything that happened in the HC interviews, including a guy that was an NBA coach that had the worst interview that the guys had ever conducted. It lasted 17 minutes!!! That guy currently holds a pretty high profile college job. They felt bad for him.

 

I knew the draft plans, heard about trades in he works (only about 1 in 5 gets done) and just the general direction of the team. I would hear about spats between the GM and coaches (which is actually still going on), between players, etc... This was all happening when I was multiple steps removed from anything on the court. Someone would tell someone, who told someone, who told someone and so on... 98% of the things that I was told either came true or they tried to make happen.

 

Kirby this makes a lot of sense, especially with the GM and coach reporting up through Brandon.

 

It also makes sense that with the transition to the Pegulas and the reporting structure of GM and coach in parallel to Brandon, Brandon's people might not be quite so plugged in to planned personnel changes such as cutting FredEx and would explode "going Rogue!" except, that's the new structure, dude, you aren't considered to "need to know" that. I wonder if Whaley got taken to the woodshed there for not keeping the marketing folks in the loop on personnel decisions and if everyone in marketing etc still knows all the draft plans.

[xsoldier54]

The leak of Rex getting fired weeks ago is just the final example of a long history of leaks from the Bills FO. My take is Brandon is the source. First, the leaks have been going on longer than any current Bills staffer. The leaks are of a very high nature. Not locker room talk or about spats between players where a source could be an equipment guy or some low level assistant. The leaks also never put Brandon in a bad light. They always seem to pit one GM vs another FO guy or a coach. All the while Brandon goes unscathed year after year.

The leaks come straight from the top.

The only other suspect could be Overdorf, but I question if even he has access to all high level decision.

Yes and we never really landed on the moon. It was all done in a studio.

[Helpmenow]

Berchtold

He has been there for years and has seen most of it.

[GunnerBill]

Kirby's insight is very interesting and kind of chimes with my own in a very different context. Organisations with leak issues rarely have 1 person consistently leaking it is normally multiple leaks from multiple sources. Sometimes from people pushing agendas and sometimes inadvertently.

He has been there for years and has seen most of it.

And based on yesterdays cluster!@#$ adds absolutely no value.

[JohnC]

 

Good points, especially the last - no one sabotaged Rex, he sabotaged himself.

 

As far as leaks though, people in the press believe they have heard definite information from Bills organizational sources, not simply speculation. Some of the information is "right" and some of it is "wrong".

Whenever there is a lot of losing or failure in any organization in any field of endeavor the rumors are going to be swirling. Finger pointing and blame shifting in such a scenario is part of the organizational landscape. It's unavoidable and it is simply human nature.

[mob16151]

To me occams razor suggests it's Russ

 

He has access,he seems to have motive,and hes been there for a long time.

 

Whaley has motive and access,hasn't been there that long.

 

Overdorf has access,and has been there a long time,but seems to have no motive.

 

To me 75 percent chance Russ is the source of most of the leaks.

[C.Biscuit97]

1) if there are so many leaks, how come the Buffalo media never breaks a Bills' story? Perhaps they love witch hunts so much because they are pissed they are completely out of the loop.

 

2) would it be better if they just came out and said Rex talked a big game but ultimately sucked? Should they say we have him the pieces to a #4 defense, let him take away the strengths of players like MARIO, Dareus, Preston Brown, etc? That we drafted and signed players he wanted & he led a defense that gave up 200 twice to Jay Ajayi?

 

But it definitely would have been more professional to say Rex sucked and is a fraud of a coach and probably could have been fired last year.

[Malazan]

It's time I come clean...I was the Mystery Mastubator outside your window.

[Steve Billieve]

Why does there even have to be a leak. For the amount of time the media gets it wrong, could they not just be guessing? It's not like getting fired isn't a possibility when you constantly make dubious in game decisions.

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

1) if there are so many leaks, how come the Buffalo media never breaks a Bills' story? Perhaps they love witch hunts so much because they are pissed they are completely out of the loop.

 

2) would it be better if they just came out and said Rex talked a big game but ultimately sucked? Should they say we have him the pieces to a #4 defense, let him take away the strengths of players like MARIO, Dareus, Preston Brown, etc? That we drafted and signed players he wanted & he led a defense that gave up 200 twice to Jay Ajayi?

 

But it definitely would have been more professional to say Rex sucked and is a fraud of a coach and probably could have been fired last year.

 

yeah - everyone's so sensitive now... THANKS OBAMA. Perfect Pegula press conference:

 

"Rex sucked - so I fired him. His brother was the Assistant head coach... so i had to fire him too. Questions?"

 

Why are we benching Tyrod? Cuz he's not that good, and we don't know if we want to keep him. And we definitely wouldn't want him signed for that contract with a bum knee or something.

 

Who's leading the coaching search? Whaley - we're giving him a chance to pick his guy. If it doesn't work, I'll can his ass too.

 

On why were keeping Whaley - I thought Rex was a good coach. I was wrong. Next question.

[GunnerBill]

 

yeah - everyone's so sensitive now... THANKS OBAMA. Perfect Pegula press conference:

 

"Rex sucked - so I fired him. His brother was the Assistant head coach... so i had to fire him too. Questions?"

 

Why are we benching Tyrod? Cuz he's not that good, and we don't know if we want to keep him. And we definitely wouldn't want him signed for that contract with a bum knee or something.

 

Who's leading the coaching search? Whaley - we're giving him a chance to pick his guy. If it doesn't work, I'll can his ass too.

 

On why were keeping Whaley - I thought Rex was a good coach. I was wrong. Next question.

People can laugh but that was basically the press conference the owner gave in Philly last year - I thought Chip was the right man to lead this organisation I gave him every support and it turns out I got it wrong.

[Coach Tuesday]

People can laugh but that was basically the press conference the owner gave in Philly last year - I thought Chip was the right man to lead this organisation I gave him every support and it turns out I got it wrong.

 

Yup.