Two Bills Drive

Harvey (Albany, N.Y): Mort, Has the NFL policy regarding interviews of minority candidates for vacant head coaching positions put an end to mid-season firings of head coaches?

Chris Mortensen: (12:43 PM ET) No! The NFL has never had a strong history of firing coaches at midseason because it generally doesn’t work. It usually means a coordinator assume the head coach role, and then that specific unit under the coordinator is thrown into chaos. The minority policy has no impact because it does not apply to a mid-season change.

‘“He’s dying to play,” said Henry’s agent, Greg Johnson. “And that’s the big dilemma. We’re afraid of having him go back out there and get hurt, but he’s insisting on playing.”’

Buffalo (4-6): Losers of six of their past eight, the Bills have gone belly up in particularly odorous style. The defense continues to play hard, but on offense it’s three games in a row now without a touchdown. All that’s really left is to see how Buffalo handles its looming decisions on the head coaching and quarterback fronts.

Playoff projection: Maybe 2004, Bills fans.

‘Offensive coordinator Kevin Gillbride may be part of the problem. The Bills have an excellent running back in Travis Henry (193 carries for 780 yards, 4.0 average), who broke a bone in his leg Sunday. But Gillbride loves to throw and throw deep, and he is trying to use Reed in the role vacated by Price, a role for which Reed seems ill-suited.’

‘The driver was wearing a seatbelt. That prevented him from being thrown out the windshield or being tossed around inside the cab of the truck.’

‘Henry rushed for a game-high 149 yards despite cracking a bone in his lower right leg during the second quarter.’

"I think it’s great," Tasker said. "I didn’t expect it. It’s certainly flattering, no question about it, and it never ceases to amaze me that people remember when I played the further it gets into the history books. I’m flattered even more that people still remember that I actually played and sometimes played pretty well."

‘”Unquestionably, he belongs in and I’ve talked to many of the board of selectors who wholeheartedly agree with me. Here’s a man that’s been there since the inception of the AFL. What a sense of loyalty to the game,” said Levy, a Hall of Fame member. “He’s been on almost every meaningful committee that there’s been. He’s been such an asset to the league. I was blessed because I couldn’t have had a better man to work for during my 12 years in Buffalo.”‘

‘We have got to make plays when we have our opportunities,” Bledsoe said. For 2003, the opportunity has passed.’

‘Even the people who buy tickets are laughing at this football team. If that’s not rock bottom, it’s close enough.’

The Bills certainly aren’t clicking when they get in the red zone and you have to do that in the NFL if you want to win. They even had an interception that brought them down into the red zone, but they came away with just three points when they could have had the go-ahead touchdown. Offensively, they have gone three consecutive games without an offensive touchdown.

‘”Am I game ready? Well, I practice every day,” McGahee said. “I should be doing a lot more than what I usually do but other than that, it’s really not my decision. I think I could play, but you have to be smart about it. If I go out there and I get hurt . . . You just gotta take it easy.”‘

‘It’ll be three-and-out for Williams, and time for the franchise to tread carefully. The Bills are only half broken. Bringing in a head coach from outside the organization likely would mean a overhaul of the staff, and overhauls are usually short-term counterproductive.’

‘ Van Miller, voice of the Buffalo Bills, will preside Wednesday morning over a free information and orientation session on Independent Health’s “SilverSneakers” fitness program.’

‘”It’s terrible. We should do better, but hey, we have to upgrade our personnel,” Wilson said. “We need a lot of things. Maybe we need a new owner, that could help, too. What’s the old saying, ‘It starts from the top?'”‘