‘"If it was up to me, I would like to move on because I wasn’t given a fair opportunity here. I wasn’t given a fair shot, and that’s all I really asked for."’
BillsBeat - December 27, 2000
WILSON, PHILLIPS TO MEET JAN. 5
‘The meeting usually is held the week after the end of the season. But the timing of the meeting may allow the Bills time to get a general manager in place to take part in the review.’
BillsBeat - December 26, 2000
If Flutie returns, use him properly
‘A job you wouldn’t want: Director of season-ticket sales for the 2001 Buffalo Bills if quarterback Doug Flutie is traded or released and the current offensive line and special teams coaches are retained.’
FLUTIE SHOW IN SEATTLE MEANS LITTLE
‘While I don’t mind Flutie at all, his super loyalists give me indigestion. They’d all like to see Johnson disappear, leaving the field to Flutie alone, even though he will be 39 by mid-season next fall.’
BillsBeat - December 25, 2000
Butler's replacement faces critical decisions
‘"Somebody’s going to have to come in…and take hold pretty quickly."
Season recap
‘”It’s just frustrating that I get these little injuries,” Johnson said.’
Bills' offensive staff has got to go
‘Memo to Ralph Wilson: Just as you did to John Butler last week, it is time to send Joe Pendry, Max Bowman, Charlie Joiner, Turk Schonert, Carl Mauck, James Saxon and Ronnie Jones in search of other business opportunities.’
Quarterback controversy wore on Bills
‘”It wears on you when you guys just keep going over it and over it and over it,” defensive end Phil Hansen said Sunday, referring to constant media questions regarding Doug Flutie and Rob Johnson. “I guess, toward the end, you guys finally got what you wanted – a little controversy.”‘
BILLS' FUTURE POSES MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS
‘The Bills’ organization needs to find a new general manger, decide on the future of head coach Wade Phillips and his staff of assistants, settle a sticky quarterback situation, and make hard decisions that will allow them to get under the NFL salary cap in 2001.’
PLAYERS REFLECT ON SEASON OF TUMULT
‘”I think we stayed together for the most part, the best that we could,” running back Antowain Smith said. This year was kind of a rocky situation for the whole team. As soon as things started going wrong, they started blaming a lot of people instead of the team coming together. I think we still continued to fight, but we were still kind of falling apart a little bit.”‘
FLUTIE SHOWS HE'S BETTER SUITED TO BE BILLS' QB
‘Instead, Johnson regressed. He got battered, and he got worse. By the end of the year, he was a beaten man, both physically and emotionally, sidelined with a minor concussion that his coach termed a “headache” while Doug Flutie turned in the performance of his NFL career in the finale in Seattle.’
BillsBeat - December 24, 2000
Flutie Guides Bills
‘Playing against the league’s worst defense, the Buffalo Bills tallied up 579 total yards and punted only one time the entire game against the Seattle Seahawks.’
Even With Near Record-Setting Performance, Changes In Offing
‘Well, let’s just say that assistant coach Ronnie Jones won’t have to sign a new lease on an apartment in Western New York for next season.’
No defense for this finale
‘Flutie completed 20 of 25 passes for 366 yards and three touchdowns. Running back Antowain Smith entered the game with 84 carries for 207 yards – a 2.5-yard average that ranked last on the team – but he might as well have been O.J. Simpson on this night.’
Retooling should start on defense
‘Until Bills quarterback Doug Flutie ended the game with a couple of harmless genuflections for negative yardage, Buffalo had picked up 581 offensive yards – with 580 being the Seahawks record for defensive largess.’