Wednesday\u2019s memorable (and not for good reasons) joint press conference by Bills owner Terry Pegula and G.M. Brandon Beane had plenty of noteworthy moments. We\u2019ve been focusing on as many of them as we can, one at a time.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s one that represents a fairly sticky subject for Beane, even if it\u2019s one of the biggest questions emerging from Monday\u2019s announcement that Pegula, in one fell swoop, had fired coach Sean McDermott and promoted Beane.<\/p>\n
Beane was specifically asked about the perception among fans that \u201cthis was some kind of power play.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Terry said, there\u2019s disagreements all throughout \u2014 way before this year,\u201d Beane said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like we were a hundred percent always in agreement on every decision that he made or I made. That just comes with the territory, and I wouldn\u2019t expect that [to be any different] with the next head coach. There\u2019s certain things that fall in his area, whether it\u2019s managing a game, how we schemed a game \u2014 whatever it is that are his \u2014 and then there\u2019s certain decisions that are personnel related, somebody\u2019s got to make the final call.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pegula then interrupted.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan I help you about the \u2018power play\u2019 part of that?\u201d Pegula said. \u201cI\u2019m the kind of guy, if I sense you\u2019re on a power play, you\u2019re out. I don\u2019t like \u2018power play\u2019 people. We have an organization that\u2019s we work together, but any sense at all that he was on a power play, he would have been gone. Because that\u2019s not my kind of person.\u201d <\/p>\n
Beane then became indignant about the mere suggestion of a power play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s hurtful to even hear that or say that, like, I worked 19 seasons, starting as an intern in Carolina, and worked my way up,\u201d Beane said. \u201cI came here, and I\u2019ve never tried to do that. I would love for anyone who\u2019s making that accusation to walk in these doors and ask any person \u2014 player, coach, trainer, anyone \u2014 like, people can disagree with draft picks that I make or people I sign, or I screwed up the wide receivers, whatever it is, like, those are harmful, harmful things that, you know, I walk in the door, and my wife\u2019s got tears coming down her face for stuff like that. And I\u2019m gonna damn try hard to win a Super Bowl here. I am. But for somebody to question my character like that is BS. And I\u2019ve never done that. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ll remember, in 2023, there was an article written on Sean, accusing things. Who stood up in front of every one of you guys and defended him and his family, and everything he\u2019s done here? And then we went to Kansas City, and we won that game. And I went down [and] said, \u2018Give me a game ball. I\u2019m gonna show everyone that this team has his back.\u2019 I\u2019ve done nothing but have everyone\u2019s back. And so for someone to question my character, my integrity, that\u2019s where I draw the line.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not really a question of character or integrity. It\u2019s inherent to any situation in which, when things don\u2019t work out, ownership may have to choose between coach or G.M. By creating an environment in which half measures are possible, the coach and the G.M. will naturally try to position themselves so that they\u2019re in the half that isn\u2019t sent packing.<\/p>\n
In this regard, the G.M. has a much better chance of saving his job. The G.M., not the coach, is with the owner during games. It\u2019s easy, and arguably natural, to make stray comments about the coach\u2019s in-game decisions that could make the owner more likely to align with the G.M. over the coach, if the owner opts not to clean house.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not really a power play, per se. It\u2019s the direct product of a structure that entails a boss who eventually will decide where the pink slips should go. There\u2019s a certain amount of self-preservation that comes into play, especially since the head coach is far more likely to get a second chance than the G.M. For most NFL General Managers, there\u2019s often only one shot. <\/p>\n
So if the owner is trying to decide who isn\u2019t doing their job well enough, is the coach or the G.M. going to stand up and say, \u201cIt\u2019s me\u201d? Too much is riding on those jobs. And if the owner creates an environment where it\u2019s possible for one to go and one to stay (and get promoted), who\u2019s not going to shoot his shot when the shit hits the fan?<\/p>\n
Whatever label is used, the outcome in Buffalo happened because Pegula was willing to entertain a half measure in lieu of firing both G.M. and coach and starting over. When the time came to make that decision, there\u2019s no way McDermott or Beane (or anyone in that situation) is going to take the fall in order to save the other guy\u2019s job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wednesday\u2019s memorable (and not for good reasons) joint press conference by Bills owner Terry Pegula and G.M. Brandon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-427433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}