You know…for the last month or so, there’s been a lot of off the field escapades with the Bills/Sabres. Aaron Kromer is a meathead and shouldn’t have punched a teenager. Ronald Darby needs to articulate his POVs on domestic violence a hell of a lot better. Ryan O’Reilly needs to have Turtle drive his car in Canada when he’s drunk and wants donuts. LeSean McCoy is planning an orgy. All of these brought out a tweet or two from me. Disappointed by Kromer and Darby? Yes. But not outraged. However, when it comes to making me want to write out 2,000 words on any situation and for it to be legit anger, no one can do it like Russel “Snake Oil and Monorail Salesmen” Brandon. All I needed to see on Twitter was people defending this clown and it made me want to grab my computer and start typing belligerently without any sort of filter.
Russ and I have a very long history and it is not a pretty sight.
I think there are a few more in the batch, but these four will do for now. Aside from Ralph Wilson, I think Russ is the current owner for the most vitriolic takes from me on this site.
He sucks because every single thing he’s said in public was complete and utter bullshit. Now, some might say his job is to be the organization’s mouthpiece and he has to make chicken shit into chicken salad in the public eye. Fine…But when the hell has Russ spun anything that eventually became chicken salad? The answer is nothing. I’ve heard Russ say that Ralph Wilson stadium was the Fenway Park of the NFL. I’ve heard him tell me that Buddy Nix was going to be the GM for years to come…only to then quit a week later. I’ve heard him say the Toronto series was awesome and was helping us out. He told us we were going to have a robust analytic team and Doug Marrone was awesome. Sorry that I can’t just take the red pill and forget all of this because this is the honeymoon period for Pegula/Rex.
I’ve heard so much bullshit that has come out of Brandon’s mouth that its impossible for me to say this is a good move. He’s lied…Constantly. I was really hoping the Pegulas would use his head to open the exit door out when they’d decide to clean house. Instead, he’s in charge of cleaning both team houses ? Where the hell does this happen?
Maybe I am being unfair to blame him because other people are involved, but when you eliminate Ralph Wilson, he is the one constant who has been around the Bills for the last 15 years. 15 shitty years, mind you.
Russ has mastered the blame game when it comes to his tenure. It always seemed that when you try and criticize Russ, you can easily just point to his previous boss who happens to be buried in a cemetery somewhere. The phrase “Inner circle” has been used numerous times by Russ over the last decade or so. I am pretty sure Russ coined the phrase because its impossible to figure out who the biggest jackoff from this circle is or who was the one making the wrong decisions. So, we will never know if Ralph Wilson banged on Brandon’s office door to demand the Toronto series or Dick Jauron deserves a contract extension because he’s dead. In other words, the “Inner circle” will always be a bigger sports alibi in Buffalo than the LA Cops hating OJ Simpson.
Russ Brandon is not a marketing whiz
If I have to hear one more person tell me that Brandon is like the Vince McMahon of promoting football in WNY like Vince was in rassling, I am going to vomit all over this computer screen. It is not hard to sell the NFL in America. Its especially not hard to sell it to a northeastern city that has had football around for almost 60 years.
This is Brandon’s marketing plan:
1) One of the cheapest tickets in the NFL.
2) Tailgating for 5 hours.
3) Only two professional sports teams from Buffalo to Albany.
4) The fans are desperate
Where else are you going to do to get your sports fix? This isn’t NYC/Chicago where they have to compete with like 7 other professional teams. The fact that some are making it out that he’s a marketing whiz because the season ticket intake has been around 50K prior to Pegula buying the team is ridiculous. This is the same marketing whiz who had to PLEAD with the Italian sausage king of Buffalo (Russ Salvatore) to buy December tickets for years. Keep in mind that the Bills have been one of the few NFL teams to not sell out their games prior to Pegula coming into power (OAK/SD/MIA/Jags). Also, the Bills were 19th in attendance last year and 29th in 2011…But I’m supposed to act like Russ discovered fire? WTF have you been smoking? Google what other teams do. Stop living in the Buffalo bubble where nothing outside of it is actually better.
So he decided to have training camp in Rochester because it used to be in a town with 200 fucking people? HOW INNOVATIVE! You know how many other teams go the regional route? ALL OF THEM! The Giants had their training camp in Albany and the Jets had it in Cortland. I’m going to act like what Russ is doing is cutting edge? To me, he’s the wrong guy who happens to be at the right place at the right time. The NFL is a big time sports entity where teams split a 6 billion dollar revenue cake. Selling out tickets isn’t even that big of deal because there are so many ways to make money before you even count the gate.
Stop acting like Russ could sell ice cubes to an Eskimo in the North Pole. Anyone could market a fucking NFL team. Maybe if Russ marketed a Bills restaurant or a HOF or a Bills carnival of some sorts, I could say he’s a marketing whiz because he started it from scratch. Instead, he just attached himself to a brand that you’d have to be a fucking idiot to mess up. If Russ was so good at marketing, then get rid of all the binge drinking that happens at tailgates. Sell football and not the party before it. How about doing PSLs like all the other NFL teams do it? Yeah..see how much they sell out and how big of a marketing whiz Russ is then.
Oh, and don’t even point to the 60K season ticket mark they just hit as a reason to tout Brandon’s greatness of selling hope. That had zero to do with Russ. It had to do with Pegula buying the team, Rex and free agents. If Pegula didn’t buy this team, that number would be sitting at the same 47-50K mark like its been. I am sure that if the Sabres season ticket “Inventory” goes up next year, it will be because of Russ and not because of Jack Eichel #sarcasm.
I haven’t even talked about how the Bills refused to even have a contingency plan for post-Ralph until the Pegulas saved the day. Russ lead an effort for the Bills to make as much money as humanly possible by NOT eliminating the threat of moving so the Bills could get money from the government to refurbish the stadium. But hey, he was just following Ralph’s orders, right? SO PROMOTE HIM!? DON’T EVEN BOTHER LOOKING OUTSIDE OF WNY TO FIND THE SABRES PRESIDENT! FUCK A HOCKEY BACKGROUND! HE’S DOWN THE HALLWAY! YOU HAVE MONEY! WHY CAN’T WE JUST HAVE TWO PRESIDENTS! ANYONE THINK THIS IS TOO MUCH WORK? [Slams keyboard and punches my office mate]
But seriously? Why on earth do you bring him to the Sabres? They seem to be a dysfunctional mess when you just look at the hierarchy since Pegula took over in 2011 (3 different presidents and 4 head coaches). That’s a lot of turnover and your answer is to bring in the guy who just oversaw the dysfunction between the Dougs? Um….can when find someone from a proven organization? It just feels a bit lazy and that the Pegulas don’t feel like adjusting to a new body when maybe that’s what the Sabres need on the business end.
Russ Brandon ONLY runs the marketing department… is a crock of shit.
I think we all can say that Russ Brandon shouldn’t have any say in football matters. I mean, you’d have to be a complete fucking jackoff to say he should be picking our coaches or players. Well, guess what? He kind of has, but he does it in a mob front kind of way. In one of my archive pieces, I compared Russ/Ralph to what Tony and Junior Soprano were in season 1. Pretty much Russ/Tony would act like he wasn’t running things in public and he’d just let Ralph/Junior get all the blame by acting like it was all them. Yet, he was really just being a puppeteer behind the scenes and playing everyone like a fool. In other words, when lightning strike, it wouldn’t be on Russ.
Here are the facts: Russ Brandon was the GM from 2008-2009. The Bills sucked. He was instrumental in bringing T.O. in and was the “Go to guy” when it came to player trades and selections. He was the fricken GM by name who extended Dick F’N Jauron. On that ruling alone he should have been made to cross Lake Erie in the winter like Bane made that asshole cross a lake in Dark Knight Rises.
Then, Ralph gave the keys to Nix and Russ went hiding, I guess. He then appeared after his whole “Ralph passing him the torch” presser and brought us in the Doug and Doug partnership which turned out to be an epic disaster. Great chemistry there, Russ. It took just two seasons for your GM and coach to hate each other’s guts.
He’s the guy who is in every single draft war room. Look it up!! Whether its 2009 or 2015, you’ll find Russ at the main table! You think he’s just sitting there and rubbing his chin and going “Darby the dinosaur would be a hell of a marketing ploy for our 2nd round pick.” Stop. If you don’t think Russ Brandon was whispering in Doug Whaley’s ear about trading for Sammy Watkins in order to market the team, I don’t know what to tell you. Everything that Russ has been connected to football wise should have gotten him fired 20 different times.
“But Russ isn’t the GM, so shut up”
I am in an incredulous state of mind at how many people on my Twitter feed can forget how big of a clown Brandon was during the last 15 years. However, I get it. Some fans don’t want honest assholes like me to mess up your happy place with the Bills. Its been a fun off season and just because I hate Russ Brandon, doesn’t take away from that. However, that shouldn’t mean I should be a shill and be thrilled with everything the Bills do. Its great that we are captivated by Rex Ryan and the money Pegula is spending on the team, but it doesn’t mean Russ Brandon getting promoted is a swell idea. I think that if the Bills brought out Donald Trump as team president, some of you’d probably think it was a cutting edge decision. You want to believe the Bills are on there way to greener pastures and Russ Brandon won’t have anything to do with the stuff on the field.
Maybe this is cynical, but when you get power it is very hard for someone to give it up. Russ has had that taste with the Bills. Now, he’s done it on the down low at times and at other times he’s done it in public. Who is to say he wouldn’t be the type to whisper something in Terry’s ears about this or that person in the football and hockey operations. I mean, what the hell did Ted Black do wrong? Aside from Turd burgers, the Sabres didn’t lose money and they sold out most of their games which is the same rhetoric I’m being yelled at about why Russ is salesmen of the year. Obviously there was probably some politicking going on with Black losing his job. Maybe the Bills are run better than the Sabres, but that to me could be like saying the pizza at Papa John’s is better than the pizza at 7-11.
When you factor all the times Russ has lied to us about how great the Toronto series was or how the Dougs were on the same page, it leaves enough wiggle room to say he’s a bit of a schemer. There have been rumors about how the Sabres have croonies from Penn State who have a say in the team’s day to day operations. In other words, there’s some smoke here where people who have no business running a team end up running the fucking team.
Final words
Fuck you. Just kidding. Sure, I know in the long term it probably won’t mean anything on the field, but its pretty revolting that someone like this is running both teams. As someone wrote on twitter, Brandon’s best attribute was how he knew how to butter up rich older guys. I couldn’t say it any better. I hope Russ doesn’t have a say in anything regarding both these teams on the field. However, I’ve been saying that for the last 7 years about Russ and there’s obviously a paper trail of him not staying out of the way.
I hope the Pegulas know what they are doing here and don’t get conned by the biggest con man in Buffalo sports because it will be on them since the warning signs have been there.
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