Who Were The Leaks at One Bills Drive during 2013-2016?

[GregPersons]

I heard it was the cabbie. 

[YoloinOhio]

Leroi

[Mr. WEO]

1 hour ago, Jay_Fixit said:

I always thought Whaley went bleu instead of rouge but I could be wrong.

 

 

I see what you did  there...
 

[FluffHead]

Russ Brandon would blab to the co-eds who in turn blabbed on 

 

also Lauren Hall 

Edited May 21, 2020 by FluffHead

[Bob in STL]

This is your culprit. 
 

 

[May Day 10]

I feel like it was Brandon.  They seemed to increase in frequency after the pegulas came on the scene.  Brandon was losing his grip as defacto owner, president, and gm, so he was pulling shots to try to improve his standing and image.  They never painted him in a bad light, and I even recall the ridiculous one that the raiders were beating on his door to make him their president.  

 

It seemed that la canfora was the source of most of that nonsense and russ was feeding him la canfora was doing favors

 

 

And lol https://www.syracuse.com/buffalo-bills/2014/12/oakland_raiders_reportedly_interested_in_buffalo_bills_president_russ_brandon.html

Edited May 21, 2020 by May Day 10

[CommonCents]

13 minutes ago, May Day 10 said:

I feel like it was Brandon.  They seemed to increase in frequency after the pegulas came on the scene.  Brandon was losing his grip as defacto owner, president, and gm, so he was pulling shots to try to improve his standing and image.  They never painted him in a bad light, and I even recall the ridiculous one that the raiders were beating on his door to make him their president.  

 

It seemed that la canfora was the source of most of that nonsense and russ was feeding him la canfora was doing favors

 

 

And lol https://www.syracuse.com/buffalo-bills/2014/12/oakland_raiders_reportedly_interested_in_buffalo_bills_president_russ_brandon.html

I wouldn’t dismiss the Raiders rumors so quickly.

 

Brandon looked to be in decent shape, if his 40 time was quicker than his peers the Raiders most likely DID have some interest. 

[Phil The Thrill]

51 minutes ago, Bob in STL said:

This is your culprit. 
 

 

I don’t get it 

1 hour ago, LB48 said:

In late February, the Bills announced that Berchtold would be stepping down as VP of Communications — a spot he has held for nearly 30 years. It was also announced that Derek Boyko, who has spent the past 17 years with the Philadelphia Eagles, will take his place.

 

Boyko joins the Buffalo Bills at a perfect time. Reports early this off season suggested that there was dysfunction in the organization, which was quickly dismissed by owner Terry Pegula as an “insult.” Whether there is — or was — dysfunction, the team has been taking hit after hit in their PR department for quite some time.

Of course, but this says nothing about leaks.  To me it’s referring more to the end of Eason fiasco, where they put ALynn in a terrible position to answer questions without preparing.  Ditto for Doug Whaley’s end of the year presser which was terrible.  

[Thurman#1]

Yeah. I don't know, but I doubt it could've been Berchthold, just because I doubt the media relations guy got access to the more interesting, divisive stuff, the secrets.

 

I suspected some of them were Whaley and Marrone going back and forth at each other.

[GunnerBill]

9 hours ago, May Day 10 said:

I feel like it was Brandon.  They seemed to increase in frequency after the pegulas came on the scene.  Brandon was losing his grip as defacto owner, president, and gm, so he was pulling shots to try to improve his standing and image.  They never painted him in a bad light, and I even recall the ridiculous one that the raiders were beating on his door to make him their president.  

 

It seemed that la canfora was the source of most of that nonsense and russ was feeding him la canfora was doing favors

 

 

And lol https://www.syracuse.com/buffalo-bills/2014/12/oakland_raiders_reportedly_interested_in_buffalo_bills_president_russ_brandon.html

 

Brandon wasn't losing his grip. He was increasing it. The Pegulas promoted him to President of the Sabres too. Was Brandon a PR man at heart? Yep. Did he have friends in the media? Yep. Did he have any incentive to make the organisation look dysfunctional? Not really.

 

I would put money on the main source being Berchtold.

6 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

Yeah. I don't know, but I doubt it could've been Berchthold, just because I doubt the media relations guy got access to the more interesting, divisive stuff, the secrets.

 

I suspected some of them were Whaley and Marrone going back and forth at each other.

 

Oh believe me.... the media relations man normally knows everything. It is part of your job to know where all the bodies are buried.

[Thurman#1]

4 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I would put money on the main source being Berchtold.

 

Oh believe me.... the media relations man normally knows everything. It is part of your job to know where all the bodies are buried.

 

 

 

Yeah? Well, you'd know better than I, but how would the media relations guy know if there was something he didn't know?

 

It's that guy's job to control info that might come out, yeah, and how it comes out if it does, right? But if some guy has a grudge, which seemed to be the case between Whaley and Marrone while they had a brief power struggle, that's the guy who would seem to gain by putting something out there that reflects negatively on the other guy. Well, it sounds like you know a lot about this kind of thing. But what would Berchtold get out of this? And if true (I get that it could be), how come it wasn't a consistent thing through his 30 years there? There were some eras where there were leaks and others where there didn't seem to be.

[GunnerBill]

14 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Yeah? Well, you'd know better than I, but how would the media relations guy know if there was something he didn't know?

 

It's that guy's job to control info that might come out, yeah, and how it comes out if it does, right? But if some guy has a grudge, which seemed to be the case between Whaley and Marrone while they had a brief power struggle, that's the guy who would seem to gain by putting something out there that reflects negatively on the other guy. Well, it sounds like you know a lot about this kind of thing. But what would Berchtold get out of this? And if true (I get that it could be), how come it wasn't a consistent thing through his 30 years there? There were some eras where there were leaks and others where there didn't seem to be.

 

Hmm. So I have been following the Bills since 2002 and they have basically always been leaky until McDermott arrived and as Kirby said this year around the draft a fair bit got out.  

 

The way it works is if I am the media relations guy I make it my job to know things. If I sense there is tension between Whaley and Marrone for example, I play both sides. There is a story out there from one of the old BN guys that when Marrone was having a spat with the media Berchtold played both sides of that too. Told the media Marrone was a jerk, told Marrone the media were #######s. That is the job. You have to be capable of being duplicitous. I did it for about 2 years in Government before I moved into policy and I know some ***** on people that was in the "to be deployed only if..." file. Media relations guys (if they are doing their job well) do a lot more than organise press conferences and make the tea. There shouldn't be a single story a reporter can uncover that you are not already totally aware of. 

[Not at the table Karlos]

12 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

Wasn't one of McDermott's first actions to have Scott Bercthold replaced? 

 

Yea. That is where my search would start. 

I’ve gotten him going for an hour at one of our events. I mentioned something about re-signing a player and he talked for 5 mins about the contract and how the player wants x but team only wants to give y. Went to check on grandkids or something and came back and talked my ear off. He was let go not long after I think. 

[May Day 10]

48 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Brandon wasn't losing his grip. He was increasing it. The Pegulas promoted him to President of the Sabres too. Was Brandon a PR man at heart? Yep. Did he have friends in the media? Yep. Did he have any incentive to make the organisation look dysfunctional? Not really.

 

I would put money on the main source being Berchtold.

 

Oh believe me.... the media relations man normally knows everything. It is part of your job to know where all the bodies are buried.

 

Russ Brandon really wanted to be a GM.  A pro sports (particularly baseball) General Manager was his dream and why he got into the business.  As defacto owner, he was able to do that and was involved in most decisions, hoping that he would set himself up for notoriety to get a position post-Bills.  This is why they swung for the fences with Watkins, doubling down on their EJ selection (I remember some of the leaks while Tyrod was playing fine were 'pro Manuel').  Most of the leaks reeked of Brandon posturing.

 

I can guarantee he didnt really enjoy his 'promotion' to the head of the Sabres and the Bills.  It moved him further away from what he wanted to be doing.  McDermott essentially (finally) walled Brandon off from the football department and it was the best thing that could have happened.

[Kirby Jackson]

10 minutes ago, May Day 10 said:

 

Russ Brandon really wanted to be a GM.  A pro sports (particularly baseball) General Manager was his dream and why he got into the business.  As defacto owner, he was able to do that and was involved in most decisions, hoping that he would set himself up for notoriety to get a position post-Bills.  This is why they swung for the fences with Watkins, doubling down on their EJ selection (I remember some of the leaks while Tyrod was playing fine were 'pro Manuel').  Most of the leaks reeked of Brandon posturing.

 

I can guarantee he didnt really enjoy his 'promotion' to the head of the Sabres and the Bills.  It moved him further away from what he wanted to be doing.  McDermott essentially (finally) walled Brandon off from the football department and it was the best thing that could have happened.

I know people never want to hear or believe this but Russ Brandon didn’t make football decisions at any point. Modrak, Guy, Nix and Whaley made the football decisions throughout his tenure. He was acting as the de facto owner. He was absolutely aware of what was going on and in some cases probably had to sign off but more from a budgetary situation. He wasn’t saying “don’t sign this guy sign that guy.” The football people made all of the football decisions and he authorized the spend. He played the role of owner. 
 

The point being if people had an issue with the way that the organization was, that’s where he takes the blame. It’s similar to the mass-dysfunction going on with the Sabres right now. When there is a lot wrong the owner takes the blame. However, if you did not like the player’s on the team, it is the fault of whoever was responsible for them. Russ held a title, as did Marv Levy, and NEITHER of them made football decisions. It was a leadership title. The 4 men mentioned above built the rosters between Donahoe and the current regime.

 

With all of that being said there were a lot of talkers in that era. That falls to the man in charge - RB. 

Edited May 21, 2020 by Kirby Jackson

[thebandit27]

12 hours ago, Kirby Jackson said:

There were multiple. It appeared that most of the leaks had closed but this draft there were as many leaks as back then. Don’t really know if it was the virtual setting that had people more open or just a comfort level. At any rate, every team has leaks and it’s different people at different times.

 

One of the things that people don’t necessarily grasp is that it isn’t JUST Beane that knows the plan. There are a lot of people involved in building the board and the decision making process. Buffalo is a small town and things spread but the truth is New Orleans is no different. 

FA was even more “leaky” than the draft this year FWIW.

 

Addison, Diggs, and the E. Sanders pursuits were out there really early. 
 

 

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

11 hours ago, YoloinOhio said:

Leroi

 

Dunkirk Don via Leroi

Edited May 21, 2020 by SlimShady'sSpaceForce

[Kirby Jackson]

Just now, thebandit27 said:

FA was even more “leaky” than the draft this year FWIW.

 

Addison, Diggs, and the E. Sanders pursuits were out there really early. 
 

 

It really was a little uncharacteristic. That makes it harder to blame on the work environment too. At least with the draft you can default to “with people all over the place it’s tough to keep everything silent.” That wasn’t the case during FA.

[thebandit27]

Just now, Kirby Jackson said:

It really was a little uncharacteristic. That makes it harder to blame on the work environment too. At least with the draft you can default to “with people all over the place it’s tough to keep everything silent.” That wasn’t the case during FA.

Admittedly I’m reading the tea leaves here, but the sense that I got was that there’s an air of “we’re not the same old Bills. Players want to come here now. More than they want to go elsewhere. We don’t have to play coy to get our guys anymore.”

[Sherlock Holmes]

12 hours ago, Kirby Jackson said:

That’s a pretty cool story!!
 

Teams certainly use the media to spread their narratives. I think that it’s almost happened so much at this point that it works the other way. If I see someone on NFL Network talking about a team’s interest in something in particular that’s because the team or agent wanted it out there. The stuff that you hear less is often closer to the truth at this point (is the Bills were taking Dugger if he was available). 

 

So much of it is just about how easy it is to communicate now. Someone says something to one of their buddies and he tells his 5 closest friends, who tell their 5 closest friends and so on. The key and most important thing in the chain is how close to the original source your information is. There are certain things that I can say that I've heard with a great deal of certainty. As an example, it is 100% fact that the Bills were trying to trade up for Mark Barron and got “stuck” with Stephon Gilmore. 

Should have been trying to trade up for Kuechly