Bills again settle for mediocity

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive my father.

No, not for the manner in which he raised me. He was excellent in that regard, to the point where I could thank him every minute of every day for the rest of his life, and it wouldn’t do the man justice. No, where my father went wrong — horrifically, unforgivably wrong — was raising me as a Buffalo Bills fan.

And I guess it’s not entirely his fault. My father was born in Buffalo and spent over half his life making a living there. I was also born in Buffalo. Loving the Bills is just par for the course.

FAILED THERE

But in the past 15 years, par for the course has turned into one triple-bogey after another.

The latest such triple-bogey is the Bills’ hiring of Chan Gailey as their new head coach. This, more than Wade Philips, Gregg Williams, Mike Mularkey and Dick Jauron is a hiring that defies logic. In all former cases, the Bills hiring was due to exemplary performance by an offensive or defensive coordinator (Philips, Williams, Mularkey) or recent success by a head coach (Jauron in his 13-3 season with Chicago).

Gailey, on the other hand, has left a trail of ineptitude at almost every stop in the past 12 years. His lone saving grace was helping Miami’s offense push the team to consecutive 11-5 records in the early 2000’s. A look at his other positions paints a much bleaker picture.

In his two seasons as a head coach in Dallas, Gailey guided the team to the playoffs. In his two seasons as a head coach in Dallas, his Cowboys suffered lopsided losses, and after the second of those — a 27-10 beating at the hands of the Vikings — he was unceremoniously dismissed. His next coaching stop was the NCAA, where his Georgia Tech squads were a picture of mediocrity. Never did Gailey achieve better than a 9-5 record, and his 2-4 record in bowl games doesn’t speak well of his ability to coach players up for the seasons’s most important contests. Combine that with his NFL playoff record, and Gailey is a miserable 2-6.

Buffalo is hedging its bets on 2-6.

FAILED THERE TOO

If that wasn’t bad enough, Gailey’s last job was as offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs. In his two-year tenure, Kansas City achieved — and I mean “achieved” as derisively as possible — 2-14 and 4-12 records. Those tie for the two worst records in the history of the Chiefs franchise. And in case you were wondering what the Chiefs ranked offensively in those two years, hold on to your butts. Twenty-fourth in 2008, twenty-fifth in 2009.

Sure sounds like a great hire for a team that has finished in the bottom seven in total offense each of the past six seasons.

And that’s what this hire comes down to; a team that ignores its needs. A team that is content to put out a middling, uninspired product every year.

Fans all across New York are terrified at the prospect of this Bills team moving to Toronto or Los Angeles, and another three (or however many) years of non-winning football will not do anything to quell that fear. Small markets are becoming increasingly unviable as a financial entity, and with Ralph Wilson getting older every year, the pieces are unfortunately in place for the Bills to be the next team stripped from its fan base and sold to a city that won’t give a damn about it.

Winning football changes that. There’s a reason the Green Bay Packers are never talked about as a team that could move cross-country. There’s a reason the New Orleans Saints are never talked about as a team that would be uprooted and shipped to the City of Angels. That reason, in both cases, is winning football.

Without it — as the Bills surely will be until they get a quarterback and a proven coach — the reasons for the team to stay in Buffalo get lesser by the year.

YOU GUESSED IT, FAILED THERE TOO

I’m not sure that Bill Cowher, Mike Shanahan, Ron Rivera, Leslie Frazier or any of the other potential candidates could have turned this Bills team around. The fact is, Bills fans aren’t getting the chance to find out, and that’s what hurts the most. Again, Bills fans are given a coach that doesn’t fit the team and a coach without a winning pedigree and without a past full of successes to lean on.

Thanks for nothing, dad. Thanks for nothing.

- Jordan Rogowski

Rex Ryan: Master of discretion

Sports fans often talk about how they want more personality from their favorite players. From coaches. From owners and general managers. And while that sounds great in theory, in practice, personality can be a pretty ugly thing.

Just ask Rex Ryan.

Actually, don’t ask Rex Ryan. Ask one of the NFL players he’s publicly slandered this year. Ask Miami Dolphins defensive back Will Allen about Ryan. Back in October, Ryan was asked during a conference call with South Florida journalists what he felt about Allen being lost for the season due to injury, and this is how he replied:

“I don’t care about that,” Ryan said. “We lost a Pro Bowl nose tackle and a Pro Bowl running back. So boo hoo hoo.”

As if that wasn’t crass enough, the always-opinionated Ryan offered this:

“No disrespect to Will Allen, but I don’t think he’s going to make a Pro Bowl anytime soon. He’s a decent player, but whatever.”

If not disrespect, what exactly was Ryan going for? Ryan is a lot of things — crass, opinionated and tactless all come to mind — but stupid isn’t one of them. He knew just what he was saying, and he knew there was no respect offered in asserting that an opposing player isn’t good enough to make a Pro Bowl. That he thinks so is one thing, that he would think nothing of saying it to the national media is another entirely.

And Ryan wasn’t done there.

More recently, the outspoken coach appeared perturbed at a recent press conference after learning of Charles Woodson of the Green Bay Packers being selected as NFL Defensive Player of the Year. When asked what he thought of Woodson winning the award, Ryan was, as usual, not at a loss for words:

“A number that I think would be interesting is eight,” said Ryan. “And no that’s not the amount of touchdown passes Green Bay gave up against Arizona.”

Not content to speak ill of  just of individual players, Ryan decided to be more inclusive and take pot-shots at an entire team. The idea, seemingly, was to imply Woodson is less deserving because of the Packers’ defensive performance in last weekend’s Wild Card game. It was as much an implication that had Darrelle Revis donned the green-and-gold, such a performance would not have taken place.

“It is unfortunate that you can’t get a higher individual award than that award,” Ryan added.

If it was just Ryan lobbying for his player, that would be one thing. Admirable, even. There’s not a player in the NFL who wouldn’t love a coach going to bat for him. A coach that speaks at length about his players’ merits and achievements. But that’s not the case with Ryan, and it hasn’t been all season. Rather than engage the media positively, he has opted for cynicism, condescension and disrespect.

Ryan is supposed to be above that level of youthful braggadocio. He’s supposed to be the figurehead of an organization that lets its on-field play do all of the talking.

Instead, Ryan lets his mouth run. It outruns Thomas Jones and Shonn Greene. It outruns even the most basic level of prudence.

Ryan better hope he keeps winning, or it’s going to run him straight out of town.

- Jordan Rogowski

UFC 108: The weigh-ins

After a warm and inspired welcome from Joe Rogan, the crowd amassed at MGM Grand Garden Arena this afternoon was treated to introductions of the usuals: Dana, Lorenzo, Bruce Buffer, et al. Before the applause could even decay in the slightest, Rogan began a rapid-fire run of fighter weigh-ins and introductions, beginning with the undercard, moving onto the Spike broadcast fights, and then into the PPV card.

Everyone cut successfully, save for a naked Paul Daley, who came in at two pounds over and was immediately met with boos from the onlookers. Tough crowd.

Additionally, all fighters were overly cordial and respectful of their opponents, as bro-hugs outnumbered cold stare-downs at a ratio of 9:1. That one exception? Dan Lauzon and Cole Miller. Tension rose from the second D-Lau hit the stage and culminated in Dana White having to push both fighters apart after extended unpleasantries became physical. It was readily apparent that these combatants are looking to rip each others arm’s off in less than 24 hours.

GASB is very comfortable in supposing that D. Lauzon vs. Cole Miller will garner either “Fight of the Night” or “Submission of the Night.” Be sure to catch this one on Spike before the PPV hits air.

Following the Lauzon/Miller flare-up, Martin Kampmann and Jacob Volkmann took the stage. Volkmann looked like he didn’t need to cut much to make 170, yet Kampmann clearly had to cut quite a bit. Expect Kampmann to come into the cage the bigger fighter.

The biggest pops of the afternoon came for introductions of former Pride star Gilbert Yvel to the UFC (clearly a lot of well-versed fans in the crowd), his opponent Junior dos Santos (as Rogan put it “expect nothing short of fireworks from these two”), and Sam Stout (perhaps a lot of Canadians flew down for this?).

The boo-birds were out in force for Rashad. GASB is going to guesstimate a 50-50 love/hate ratio from Friday’s crowd. Meanwhile, hardly any in attendance seemed familiar with Dustin Hazelette or Duane Ludwig. Thiago Silva commanded respect from all in attendance, though GASB had hoped for a pantomimed throat slice to really seal the deal.

Following the rather quick formalities, GASB filed out into MGM Grand common areas, running into a good number of non-card fighters milling about. Of note: a very gaunt-looking Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira. Clearly the staph still had a hold on him and most fans were afraid to even approach for signatures and the usual fare. Those that did were asked politely by Big Nog’s handlers to give the legendary fighter space before eventually whisking him quickly out of sight.

GASB was delighted to encounter Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in good spirits. As many reading know, his last appearance resulted in a loss (choke) to Josh Koscheck. Rumble looked to be in great spirits and at peace around the UFC faithful. More importantly, it was visibly apparent that getting caught in the last fight inspired even more work in the gym for Johnson, as he appeared clearly ready for whatever Zuffa has in store for him next.

We are now less than 24 hours away from the live event. Stay tuned!

GASB at UFC 108

Undeterred by two lost bags and nerve-rattling connection delays, GASB landed safe and sound yesterday in Las Vegas for the equally cursed UFC 108.

In spite of over 330,000 other human beings wanting to be in town to ring in 2010, the crowds so far have completely manageable and the overall reception quite warm for this East-coaster.

The staff at the brand new Vdara resort saw fit to assign GASB to a corner suite 41 floors up, which provided the optimal vantage point for Aria’s midnight New Year’s fireworks display. It was completely fantastic and GASB highly recommends the Vdara for your next journey to the desert.

Weigh-ins start in about an hour. Stay tuned for coverage throughout the weekend.