If you’ve been following the Buffalo Bills Twitter handle, you know between myself and Rich Fann, we aren’t exactly enamored with Bill Polian. As a GM, he may be the best there is, was, and ever will be. But as a talking head? His excellence in execution is lacking. Specifically, he’s a hypocrite.
In case you didn’t see, Polian says he wants nothing to do with T.O. or Randy Moss in the Hall of Fame. Character, character, character, blah, blah blah. Now, Bill isn’t the first talking head to take this sort of POV, but he may be the first to completely forget how he was attached to players with character issues.
Case in point, our Buffalo Bills. We can start with the 1989 season which basically had a bunch of young players who had petty jealously against each other. You had Jim Kelly calling out his right tackle (Howard Ballard) in public. You had two coaches get into a fist fight in a meeting. You had Greg Bell accuse his old teammates for being racists. You had Bruce Smith coming off a 4-game drug suspension in 1988. You had Thurman Thomas and Jim Kelly feuding with each other. This was the heyday of drama in Buffalo and I assure you if the media coverage was as overblown as it is today, the ’89 Bills antics would have been front page news across all media platforms.
Of course, things simmered down and the Bills went on a hell of a run. However, you can make a case that the Bills partied too much during their SB run, especially since they talked about it on their “30 for 30” for SB25. What didn’t make the cut in the “30 for 30” was how during the SB 26 week, Thurman Thomas blew a gasket because he was pissed Ted Marchibroda called Jim Kelly the Michael Jordan of the offense and felt he was being disrespected by him and the media. Yes, he actually said this during the week and then decided to no-show a SB media press conference that went over like a fart in church with the media and was made a way bigger distraction than Chuck Dickerson’s hog comments. Oh, and let’s talk about every single Jim Kelly rumor our older siblings and parents have about his escapades during the 90s. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if the 90s Bills were around this day and age in the media and public eye, they would have been broken up by 1991 by the outrage police….and that’s not hyperbole.
The hypocrisy doesn’t stop there as another of Polian’s issues is the attitude of T.O. and Moss towards the media. Um, you want to know who was probably the biggest front office dickhead to the press in Buffalo history? It was Bill Polian. He may be the moral compass for BN nowadays with doing a radio show with Vic, but he was belligerent with the press and told them to get the hell out of town during the 90s here. He was at war with them and the media in this town killed him then for his attitude.
What about Bill Polian’s first draft pick in Carolina? Kerry Collins, the #5 selection in the draft, fricken quit on the Panthers in 1998. Yes, he walked into a room and basically told the coach he didn’t want to play there anymore and lost the passion for it. Sure, Polian was a year removed from Carolina, but he ended up forgiving him for that by signing him with the Colts a decade later. Wait? How dare Bill give someone another chance after QUITTING on their team and not being nearly as good of a player as T.O. and Randy Moss. How about the shit that went down with Marvin Harrison? Let’s check out the Colts arrest bulletins during the 2000s when they had a few arrests involving domestic abusers. That’s without even mentioning what did or didn’t happen with Peyton Manning and the athletic trainer at Tennessee!
Bill also thinks thinks Chad Kelly is the best QB in the draft. So, he’s the best QB in the draft, but where does Polian stand when it comes to talent vs. problems like he was with T.O./Moss? Has Polian gone on record to say he wouldn’t draft him because the guy was kicked off his football team and was a giant meathead at a HS game and a bar? I haven’t seen that because he probably doesn’t want to shit all over Jim Kelly’s nephew.
Bottom line: Bill Polian would totally take on a player with baggage or had issues with their teammates as long as that player performed. William, you got your job in the media because of your resume. I’d suggest maybe looking over it again to see what sort of players made that resume HOF worthy because they weren’t choir boys.
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