Buffalo Rumblings
Apparently, Buffalo Bills co-owner Terry Pegula saw no path forward with head coach Sean McDermott. Immediately after watching his team lose a heart-breaking Divisional Round playoff game to the Denver Broncos, Pegula made a massive decision to fire McDermott. Bills Mafia didn’t know it at the time, but Pegula’s mind was made up purely off a gut feeling while taking in the scene in Denver’s visiting locker room. He fired McDermott “based on the results” of Buffalo’s game at Mile High.
As majority owner, Pegula’s decision rises above all, despite the teamwork-focused culture he and others in the front office preach. Pegula had apparently seen enough, likely worried that the best had come and gone out of a McDermott-led football team. In fairness, McDermott did have nine seasons to take teams led by quarterback Josh Allen to the Super Bowl. Success isn’t linear and it isn’t always the same, but McDermott didn’t do the one thing Pegula needed from his head coach. That said, there’s room to question how and when Pegula came to his decision.
Entering the press conference, Pegula began with a prepared statement that sought to inform listeners how and why he came to the decision to show McDermott the door. Pegula shared that:
“My decision to bring in a new coach was based on the results of our game in Denver. I want to take you in the locker room after that game: I looked around, first thing I noticed was our quarterback with his head down, crying. I looked at all the other players. I looked at their faces and our coaches. I walked over to Josh — he didn’t even acknowledge I was there. First thing I said to him, I said ‘that was a catch.’ We all know what I’m talking about. He didn’t acknowledge me. He just sat there sobbing. He was listless. He had given everything he had to try and win that game. And looking around, so did all the other players on the team. I saw the pain in Josh’s face at his presser, and I felt his pain. I know we can do better, and I know we will get better.”
One might surmise that Pegula believed the players were let down. But by whom? And yes, everyone knows what he’s talking about regarding “a catch.” But to decide in that moment that McDermott had to go?
Once questions were opened up to the media, Tim Graham of The Athletic immediately asked Pegula, “Terry you mentioned that you thought it was a catch and you told Josh it was a catch. Why would you fire a coach based on a bad officiating decision?”
To which Pegula stated: “I did not fire a coach based on a bad officiating decision. If I can take you into that locker room, I felt like we hit the proverbial playoff wall, uh… year after year. 13 seconds. Missed field goals, uh, the catch. So, I, I just sensed in that locker...
