If you were to pick the apex for Chan Gailey's tenure in Buffalo..what would it be?
You'd probably pick the Pats win last year, wouldn't you? God, that seems so long ago. A dream…that we thought would springboard us into contention. Alas, it was nothing more than a trick. However, I think of that game being Fitz's best moment, so, I'll save it for when I write my obituary for him in March.
Gailey's Gatorade dousing moment came at last year's Redskins game. I wrote how it was just ironic how the Bills were sitting pretty at 4-2 and were facing the coach who pretty much used them to get a better offer from the Redskins. Washington was a disaster entering the game. They had John Beck as the QB and were only a year removed from the McNabb disaster.
It just felt like poetic justice.
Kind of like the nerd going to his high school reunion with a model chick and a high paying job and then seeing the hot girl -who dissed him all throughout high school- where now she was fat and married to some loser. We all know the Bills thrashed the Redskins 23-0 and their record went to 5-2. Everyone felt we had the right guy for a change and it was the ultimate "Goto hell" moment towards Shanahan for saying we weren't good enough.
14 months later, the popular turned fat chick from High School had RGIII walk into her life to help her lose weight and the model chick left the nerd after he lost tons of money endorsing the Romney campaign.
Gailey is finished. So much for all that continuity talk from 3 weeks ago. His record here was 16-32. 14 of those losses came by 14 points or more. Since 2010, the Bills have the 2nd worst record in the NFL behind Cleveland. He was 1-19 against teams that finished with a winning record. Um, yeah. He was dead as fried chicken.
During Gailey's 90 second farewell speech today, he talked about how this may be the first place he's been fired from in which he'll root for them going forward. Now, I don't mean to be cynical, but it all came to me as to why he'll root for us. You see, I had it completely wrong during the Redskins game, when I wrote poetically how Gailey saw something in us that Shanahan never did. I was caught in the moment of a 4-2 run. Sue me. Gailey took a job no one wanted because no one wanted Chan. That's probably why he'll always root for us. We gave him another chance when he didn't deserve it.
To me, this is probably one of the main reasons he failed. Sure, his philosophy of passing on every down, field goal distances, win/loss, and not knowing shit about the defense had something to do with it, but I think it boils down to a coach not asking for the world because he was thrilled to be an NFL head coach.
No coach would take Trent Edwards in 2010 as his opening day starter. No offensive minded play caller would say "Yeah, we can have an offense that doesn't have a 1st or 2nd round pick devoted to the QB, WRs and TEs." The biggest problem that has been facing the Bills for years is that no one wants to rock the boat or Titanic in this case.
Everyone is happy to be there because they have a job. How many jobs has the likes of Modrak, George Edwards, Turk Schonert, John Guy, Tom Donahoe and countless others received since they were ousted in Buffalo? None. Why? Because they were aloofs and the Bills love employing glad handing yes, men.
No one wants to tell Ralph Wilson to stay out of football matters or that he has an incompetent front office. Bottom line: Gailey was happy to just be there. Maybe that's why every media member said he was always classy. Shit, he'd be coaching in the CFL or running backs in the XFL if it wasn't for Buffalo. I'd be classy, too.
We can play the ultimate "What if?" game with him. Maybe if he had a decent QB? How about AJ Green instead of Marcell Dareus? Andy Dalton? All this stuff about getting offensive players in here and not leftovers from the last regime may haunt him. But honestly, he should have demanded it.
Ego, being too close to the players, or just being happy to be here are probably reasons for why he didn't ask for it.
Whoever the next coach is, the guy has to be defiant. He needs to rule with an iron fist because the fools who rule above him have no idea what they are doing. They can't be like Jauron and Gailey, who were both happy to get their foot back into the head coaching door. Of course, telling your owner that he is a buffoon will probably alienate you and likely end your tenure quickly.
And there you have it..
That is why we have to hire retreads who are just happy to be here while other established coaches tell us to go fuck ourselves when we call them. As for Chan, he once yelled at fans for dogging Trent Edwards: You dog one of us, you dog all of us.
He's right in a way…as always with this team, it was a group failure.
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