Toronto/Buffalo Bills New Head Coach

[Jetman_67]

Chan Gailey!!!???? WTF!!!! another retread who failed with another team. Looks like the Bills prefer to be in the Cellar of the division. Why would they make this choice, or is it that no good coach wanted to go there?

[Mike Dee]

18-14 in two years in Dallas, consecutive loses in the playoffs.

Failure?

[CTM]

18-14 in two years in Dallas, consecutive loses in the playoffs.

Failure?

Failure

[The Troll]

18-14 in two years in Dallas, consecutive loses in the playoffs.

Failure?

I'd say so, being as he didn't get another NFL head coaching job for 10 years.

[Bruce Banner]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/peter_king/01/19/mailbag/index.html

News item: Chan Gailey will be introduced as Buffalo's new coach today, and the Bills are laying low beforehand, knowing they're going to get rapped heavily for it and figuring they should put on a united front when they make their case. Four observations:

1. Easy to knock the hire. The Bills brought a batting-practice pitcher to the mound and put A-Rod and Pujols up to bat, so I'll knock it first, then give it the prayer of the chance it has.

Where was the Mike Zimmer interview? It was a big mistake not to interview the Cincinnati defensive coordinator who has turned his unit into a tough day at the office for any NFL offense. Zimmer, I can assure you, would have walked to Buffalo for the job. But he didn't get a sniff. And the list of guys who turned down the chance to even talk about the job ... it's so long that the only conclusion you can logically draw is the Bills are turning into the Raiders. No coach wants the job. So the team has to find a guy who wouldn't be a candidate elsewhere -- and Gailey, after clashing with Todd Haley in Kansas City last year, had nowhere to go.

2. A couple of coaches who didn't want to become a candidate for the job made no bones about the obstacles: They worry about the hire of a 70-year-old GM everyone thought was on the back nine of his career, Buddy Nix. They worry about owner Ralph Wilson's meddling. They worry about where the franchise might be in two years. They worry about luring free-agents to Buffalo. In short, it's a tough sell to attractive candidates. If Jim Harbaugh's going to have one good shot at an NFL job, why would he leave a place he loves, Stanford, for such an iffy venture in western New York? Ditto Brian Schottenheimer, Leslie Frazier and certainly Bill Cowher.

3. The Cowboy incumbents hate Gailey's more conservative offense that he installed post-Switzer in 1998. If it was too conservative then, what is it with the widespread spread offenses 12 years later?

4. Now for something positive. Gailey deserved better than getting fired after inheriting a 6-10 team and leading an aging, set-in their-ways, rich cast of players (including some me-first guys like Emmitt Smith and Deion Sanders) to two straight playoff appearances and an 18-16 record.

Early this season, when the vultures were circling around Wade Phillips in Dallas, owner Jerry Jones said what he regretted most in his first two decades as owner was not giving Gailey more than two years. "I believe more than ever that continuity is important,'' Jones said in October, "and I'm not going to make that mistake again.''

Gailey went 10-6 in his first year, including a club-record 8-0 mark against the then-five-team NFC East, before losing in the wild-card game to Arizona. Dallas went 8-8 and made the wild-card game again the next year, losing to Minnesota. Now, Troy Aikman thought Gailey was prehistoric and should have compromised to leave some of the Ernie Zampese/Norv Turner offense in place, but Gailey's offensive broom swept clean. So before you say he failed in Dallas, I'd caution you use another word. He didn't fail. He took a team in decline and staved it off for as long as he could.

Last point: I can guarantee you one of the things that the Bills loved was Gailey's attitude about how you can win without stars in the NFL. In fact, that's the kind of team he prefers. More than once in his career, he's told coaches he worked with: "You can win the World Series without Babe Ruth.'' In Buffalo, he's going to get that chance.