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Remembering Ralph Wilson


LB48

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Just now, Phil The Thrill said:


How much of that success can be derived from Bill Polian... you know?  The guy Ralph fired over a petty squabble.

 

Im not trolling - I said he did some good things off the field.  But as an NFL owner, he was bad and the Drought years were miserable largely because of him.  I remember the good Ralph did but also the bad

Polian was technically only here for 4 -10 . 5 if you credit him for 93

 

Still leaves 5 titles and 2 AFL championships

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Ralph Wilson helped advance medical care funding research which was first used on the field in a game on Kevin Everett on an injury to spine which was first characterized as potentially life-threatening,.  This is only one of the major ways he affected Buffalo.  I worked in Health Sciences Library at University of Buffalo and I was told by my boss to help on project for new section of library.  Boxes of new medical texts were in and section of library was going to be reorganized.  I noticed on labels they all came from Ralph Wilson, one of his charity organizations.  Not once was he publicly credited for this impressive donation.  This is how he was throughout most of time in Buffalo.

 

Ralph Wilson made Buffalo a better place which is something I think most detractors can say.

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6 minutes ago, Phil The Thrill said:


How much of that success can be derived from Bill Polian... you know?  The guy Ralph fired over a petty squabble.

 

 

I am sure that if you had a company and an employee called your daughter a ***** and other things you would give the person a raise.  She was not  just his daughter but someone who had contributed to scouting department.

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5 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

Ralph Wilson helped advance medical care funding research which was first used on the field in a game on Kevin Everett on an injury to spine which was first characterized as potentially life-threatening,.  This is only one of the major ways he affected Buffalo.  I worked in Health Sciences Library at University of Buffalo and I was told by my boss to help on project for new section of library.  Boxes of new medical texts were in and section of library was going to be reorganized.  I noticed on labels they all came from Ralph Wilson, one of his charity organizations.  Not once was he publicly credited for this impressive donation.  This is how he was throughout most of time in Buffalo.

 

Ralph Wilson made Buffalo a better place which is something I think most detractors can say.


I would agree with this.  I always said that his philanthropy and dedication to the WNY area should be admired.  He also generated money to several colleges in the area as well.  
 

My critique has been the football product that he put out during the final two decades of his ownership.  The product was very very poor

3 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

 

I am sure that if you had a company and an employee called your daughter a ***** and other things you would give the person a raise.  She was not  just his daughter but someone who had contributed to scouting department.


We don’t know the whole story....what we do know is that Ralph fired Buffalo’s most successful GM AND Buffalo’s second most successful GM John Butler for personal reasons.  
 

He replaced them Tom Donahoe, Marv Levy and Russ Brandon, and Buddy Nix.  Quite a group there.  Hope you enjoyed the drought 

Edited by Phil The Thrill
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5 minutes ago, Phil The Thrill said:


The drought was terrible

So what. It was piss poor management all around not just Ralph. He has advisors and they were telling him wrong also

 

He spent his money on the wrong players and his coaches never turned out. That's sports

 

QB IS the toughest thing to find in ALL of sports and we couldn't find 1. We were 7-9 perennially

 

You act like we were perennial top 3 pickers like the browns or something

Edited by Buffalo716
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I was back for a game years ago and was having dinner at the Creekview in Williamsville. I literally bumped into him coming out of the men’s room. He was there with one other guy, and I wanted to anonymously pay for their meal. They got out before I could pull it off. It may seem stupid to try to buy a billionaire dinner, but it wasn’t the money, it was the show of appreciation for keeping our team in WNY when he could have easily moved and possibly doubled the value of the team. 

 

The next day at the game I come around a corner and almost get run over by the guy driving his little Pope-mobile around the concourse! Ralph and I, we were tight! 

 

I may have been the person who first suggested he donate most of the proceeds from the sale of the team to charities. You’ll never know.....

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59 minutes ago, Buffalo716 said:

So what. It was piss poor management all around not just Ralph. He has advisors and they were telling him wrong also

 

He spent his money on the wrong players and his coaches never turned out. That's sports

 

QB IS the toughest thing to find in ALL of sports and we couldn't find 1. We were 7-9 perennially

 

You act like we were perennial top 3 pickers like the browns or something


They had the LONGEST.... I repeat the LONGEST active playoff drought that lasted nearly 20 years.  The Browns made the playoffs during that time.  The Bills did not.

 

2 DECADES of no playoffs - that’s not sports!  That’s incompetence.  The mathematical chances of that happened were minuscule, yet Ralph found a way to do it.  

 

Stop giving Ralph and the team a pass, they were failures.  

 

Also yes the incompetence starts with Ralph.  You said coaches and GM’s didn’t work out - who empowered them!?!?  Ralph! Do you want me to list all of the great moves he made during the drought?  There are quite a few

37 minutes ago, Augie said:

I was back for a game years ago and was having dinner at the Creekview in Williamsville. I literally bumped into him coming out of the men’s room. He was there with one other guy, and I wanted to anonymously pay for their meal. They got out before I could pull it off. It may seem stupid to try to buy a billionaire dinner, but it wasn’t the money, it was the show of appreciation for keeping our team in WNY when he could have easily moved and possibly doubled the value of the team. 

 

The next day at the game I come around a corner and almost get run over by the guy driving his little Pope-mobile around the concourse! Ralph and I, we were tight! 

 

I may have been the person who first suggested he donate most of the proceeds from the sale of the team to charities. You’ll never know.....


Good memory.... Sounds like Ralph was a good person.  

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8 minutes ago, Phil The Thrill said:


They had the LONGEST.... I repeat the LONGEST active playoff drought that lasted nearly 20 years.  The Browns made the playoffs during that time.  The Bills did not.

 

2 DECADES of no playoffs - that’s not sports!  That’s incompetence.  The mathematical chances of that happened were minuscule, yet Ralph found a way to do it.  

 

Stop giving Ralph and the team a pass, they were failures.  

 

Also yes the incompetence starts with Ralph.  You said coaches and GM’s didn’t work out - who empowered them!?!?  Ralph! Do you want me to list all of the great moves he made during the drought?  There are quite a few


Good memory.... Sounds like Ralph was a good person.  

All you keep talking about it " drought drought drought"

 

Who cares anymore

 

He had plenty of accomplishments . Again you must've just started watching in like 99 lol

 

And I don't want to hear I've been watching since the Rockpile lol any old timer wouldn't treat Ralph like you are

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5 minutes ago, Buffalo716 said:

All you keep talking about it " drought drought drought"

 

Who cares anymore

 

He had plenty of accomplishments . Again you must've just started watching in like 99 lol

 

And I don't want to hear I've been watching since the Rockpile lol any old timer wouldn't treat Ralph like you are


Nope watching since 88.... the franchises’ best years with the team built by a HOF GM who was fired for petty reasons.

 

After that time was up.... we had the lowest period in team history.  The drought which was flat out embarrassing.  Bills fans were humiliated and “the brand was tarnished” as Russ Brandon would say.  Who tarnished the brand?

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Bigger picture, Ralph (along with the rest of the original owners) founded the AFL and helped merge with the old NFL to become what is now the current NFL.  He gave Al Davis a loan so the Raiders could survive, so without Ralph it could be argued that the current NFL may not have come into existence.  I'm not a big fan of many of the current owners as too many are rich, greedy odd balls; the founding owners had a vision and built something great, that the current owners are destroying.  So thank you Ralph for founding a team in a blue collar western NY town, keeping it there, and being instrumental to starting (arguably) the most successful professional sports league that has ever existed.

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16 minutes ago, Happy Gilmore said:

Bigger picture, Ralph (along with the rest of the original owners) founded the AFL and helped merge with the old NFL to become what is now the current NFL.  He gave Al Davis a loan so the Raiders could survive, so without Ralph it could be argued that the current NFL may not have come into existence.  I'm not a big fan of many of the current owners as too many are rich, greedy odd balls; the founding owners had a vision and built something great, that the current owners are destroying.  So thank you Ralph for founding a team in a blue collar western NY town, keeping it there, and being instrumental to starting (arguably) the most successful professional sports league that has ever existed.


I would agree 100%..... but if your evaluating him and praising him as an owner you also have to take account the subpar product he put on the field for 2 decades.  

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8 minutes ago, Phil The Thrill said:


I would agree 100%..... but if your evaluating him and praising him as an owner you also have to take account the subpar product he put on the field for 2 decades.  

 

Everyone else pointed that part out; Ralph was not a good owner from the point of firing Bill Polian on.  I wanted to point out that what he helped start wouldn't have happened without Ralph; a bigger picture post, if you will.

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8 minutes ago, Happy Gilmore said:

 

Everyone else pointed that part out; Ralph was not a good owner from the point of firing Bill Polian on.  I wanted to point out that what he helped start wouldn't have happened without Ralph; a bigger picture post, if you will.

 

If you want to assign a grade, Ralph was FAR better as an owner than some of our posters. Ralph mattered. 

 

 

.

Edited by Augie
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9 hours ago, Happy Gilmore said:

 

Everyone else pointed that part out; Ralph was not a good owner from the point of firing Bill Polian on.  I wanted to point out that what he helped start wouldn't have happened without Ralph; a bigger picture post, if you will.

From Bill Polian on? Wilson was a bad owner from the 60’s forward. 

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9 hours ago, Augie said:

 

If you want to assign a grade, Ralph was FAR better as an owner than some of our posters. Ralph mattered. 

 

 

.


Grading a poster?  Come on.

9 hours ago, Happy Gilmore said:

 

Everyone else pointed that part out; Ralph was not a good owner from the point of firing Bill Polian on.  I wanted to point out that what he helped start wouldn't have happened without Ralph; a bigger picture post, if you will.


Ok so like I said originally, his legacy is definitely mixed and fans such as myself are conflicted 

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Ralph Wilson is arguably one of the most important individuals in the history of the WNY region, and his impact on the NFL is underrated.   He made the city a major league sports team, and what he has done for the health care community and countless other organizations through his charitable works that live on even after his death are remarkable.  He helped save the Raiders and the AFL, he was the point person early on in negotiating television contracts for the league that helped lead the league towards the incredible revenue streams they enjoy to this day, stood up for smaller franchises to ensure that they survived and thrived.  His impact on the league in general was incalculable, and led to his HOF recognition.

 

Did the team do as well as it could have?  No.  Ralph had his faults as an owner to be sure, and towards the end of his life it was that he let Litman have too much influence.  But stomping on a man's grave on his birthday, a man who contributed so much to WNY, doesn't seem necessary.

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