BuffaloRush

Much like FB, the TE position really have been devalued in the NFL. Outside of a player like Rob Gronkowski, and maybe Travis Kelce, there aren’t many TE’s putting up big numbers any more

Because past history is so irrelevant, right? I think you forgot that this is a message board

I don’t agree that they are terrible. In fact, there are many respected members from a national level including Vic Carucci, Tim Graham and yes even Jerry Sullivan to a lesser extent. Just because you don’t like the media personalities in Buffalo, doesn’t mean they aren’t good at their job.

I get that you might not line Sully. He’s an opinionated columnist designed to write articles that get people talking. Every city has writers like this. How on earth though is Sully the major reason why Buffalo sports media is in terrible shape? And how can you justify that the Buffalo media is in terrible shape?

This is spot on... Like many fans in their late 30’s I started watching right around the time the Bills really got back on track as a franchise (1988) and have been following them ever so. The period after Donahue was probably the darkest times I can remember and you can place all of that blame on Ralph. You can also blame Ralph for the very bad hires of Buddy Nix and ultimately Chan Gailey. That’s what makes Ralph such a polarizing figure as a Bills fan. One one hand you admire his generosity to the area, but on the other hand he’s probably the one most responsible for the humiliating 17 year long drought. That’s the main point of this thread You don’t think he has a valid point though? If you actually listened to the audio at the 35 minute mark, you’d see that Sully actually has a very good point. He wasn’t taking a cheap shot (no pun intended), he just referenced how financial implications could have dictated some of the poor decisions for the Bills

To say that death makes you “immune to everything” is a childish mindset. There is a difference between personal and professional criticism.

Now you're playing semantics. The argument was that the Bills would not be competitive until they spent money on a real coach and GM. That quote was from 2010 and the Bills didn't make the playoffs until 2017 - like I said, he wasn't wrong

That wasn't a Jerry Sullivan quote. It was a quote from a source is from the ProFootballTalk article. The Bills didn't finish last, but they did finish pretty close to last. The source was right

He didn't write the article. It was a comment he made on the Tim Graham Show, after hearing a clip of OJ Simpson talk about Ralph not wanting to give players raises for winning

Again, it’s a professional critique. It happens all the time in sports and many of you have done the same exact thing. He didn’t say that Ralph was a bad person. He questions his philosophy when it came to decision making

Sorry but just because someone has passed doesn’t make the immune to professional criticism.

In defense of Jerry - he was making a professional critique, not a personal one. He was saying Ralph was cheap as an owner - not as a philanthropist

Again - Sullivan is more referring to the many recent times when Ralph chose to cheap out on GM and coach when there were openings. Not situations like extending Levy.

Thats almost a certainty LOL are you serious? By complicated I meant that, as you wrote, Ralph was responsible for making some very bad decisions that hurt this franchise. Yet at the same time he was very generous and loyal to the local community.

They’d probably spend more money on people to help them make important decisions than Ralph did

LOL “demonstrated results?” Thats a joke. So basically the strategy was to hire all your decision makers on the cheap and if they are good....oh then you spend the money? Ironic how he never wanted to hire a coach that had “demonstrated experience” from another team. come on....does this list of hires sound like Ralph spares no expense? All of them (besides Marrone) were among the lowest paid coaches in the league GM - Marv Levy, Russ Brandon Buddy Nix Coach - Gregggg Williams, Mike Mularkey, Dick Jauron, Chan Gailey, Doug Marrone

Um no...when Marv was hired in 1986, he was not one of the highest paid coaches. The criticism isn’t that he didn’t pay to retain coaches, it’s that he never went out and spent on a new head coach or GM (outside of TD). The other examples you reference happened over 40 years ago. Over the past two decades especially Ralph was El Cheapo when it came to coaches and GM’s

Thanks for the comment! I usually catch a lot of flack for my opinion so it’s nice to find someone that enjoyed the post. Ralph is complicated. On one hand you had to admire his generosity to the community, but on the other hand he really wasn’t a very good owner from a football perspective and made lots of questionable decisions.

We don’t exactly know what happened or why it happened

So the fact that he put out an inferior product for 2 years is justifiable?

Fine, than he was referring to first team all pros. There are 3. Even if you include Kyle - 4 over the span of 3 decades is still not good

By the way, I once got an infraction on the Old Buffalo Bills Message Board for calling Ralph a "cheapskate." Probably from @T&C Good riddance BBMB

Well said pal. The only thing I might argue is point #1. Don't you think that money (and control) was a factor in the people he empowered to make those decisions. It certainly seems as thought it was that way with hiring Marv Levy, Russ Brandon and Buddy Nix as GM. Also in the retaining of Dick Jauron about 2 years longer than he should have and the underwhelming hire of Chan Gailey. I think money certainly was a factor. As Sully argued, I don't think you can cite player contracts during the salary cap era as proof that Ralph spent money. He spent money because he had to. He'd be wasting money if he didn't. Yep, in the end he wanted to team to stay in Buffalo.

Which means he failed

Ralph spent money on players.....when he had to because of the salary cap. You know, you can be appreciate of Ralph's generosity and question some of the decisions he made which ultimately resulted in failure. Read this thread...some members here are arguing that he was NOT cheap