Dr. K

My opinions: The Bills should never have hired Rex. There is no apostrophe in a simple plural noun like Pegulas. THIS IS NOT A MATTER OF OPINION.

I don't remember the last time I was so disengaged from the Bills. Probably in the mid 1980s, the Kay Stephenson team. I've been a devoted, very attentive fan for basically thirty years, and before the slump of the mid-1980s was a big fan going back to 1965. In other words, we're talking about a guy here (me) who has identified with this team his whole life, through thick and a lot of thin. And I can hardly bring myself to care. If I did care, I would be pissed off. I have not hated a Bills coach to the degree that I hate Ryan with the possible exception of Gregg Williams, and for many of the same reasons. I don't know if they will do well this season--it's possible--but I don't expect it, and even if they do win, I do not see this clown ever winning a Super Bowl unless there's a bigger clown coaching the other team. He has drained away all my regard for this team the way George Steinbrenner destroyed my regard for the Yankees way back in the 1970s. Just venting. I don't expect any particular reaction from any of you.

I have not been paying as much attention to discussions here since the season ended, but what i get from some of the comments is that now we believe that the failures of the defense last year were all the fault of Mario Williams and had nothing to do with Rex. Got it. It's always nice to have a scapegoat. Who's it going to be this season? I predict Doug Whaley.

Not that it matters, but I respectfully disagree. The sports media and NFL fans everywhere--not just the owners--have a huge interest in this truth not being spoken by anybody in a position of authority in the NFL. The owners don't need to volunteer a word in public about this since the media are doing their job for them. Plus, if anybody were to ask any of them about it, do you think any NFL owner is going to admit that Whaley is right?

This is what is known in politics as a "Kinsley Gaff" (after the political writer Mike Kinsley). A Kinsley Gaff occurs when a prominent politician (or other spokesperson) accidently, in a moment of carelessness, says aloud a truth that everybody knows but that nobody wants to admit because they have powerful interests in living a lie. A Kinsely Gaff usually sparks outrage and ridicule from hordes of people who know it is the truth but who do not, cannot, acknowledge it. The speaker of the truth must be humiliated and made to recant so that the state of public ignorance can be maintained. A recent Kinsley Gaff in politics was when a member of the Benghazi committee said that the investigation was achieving its goal of undermining Hillary Clinton's reputation. Another was when a political operative for the Republican Party expressed satisfaction that the new draconian voter ID laws in his state were going to work to suppress Democratic turnout. I expect Whaley to be beaten about the head and shoulders by every person involved professionally with football, and many fans, until he has to crawl on his hands and knees and beg forgiveness for saying THE THING THAT MUST NOT BE SAID.

The Pegulas should have known when they hired Rex that, no matter what he said, he would want to change the defense and that Schwartz was instantly a lame duck. Hell, that was the very first thing I thought when I heard they were thinking of hiring Rex. If the Pegulas truly thought they could hire Rex and have continuity on defense, they are incredibly naive.

I remember endless complaints here about the fact that Wade did not wear headphones on the sidelines during the games, so he must be a terrible coach. That "meaningless" game at the end of the 1999 season the Bills beat the crap out of the Colts (31-6 was the score), who were 13-2 at that point and fighting for home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Bills offense had been strugging for weeks under Flutie and looked better in that game than it had all season. That was why, "inexplicably" they started Rob Johnson in the playoff game against Tennessee, the top rated team in the AFC that year.

Rex will have been fired three years earlier.

You said it all. Thanks.

I second this. Dunne is by far the most credible sports writer they have at the News. It's a relief to read his work rather than the high school gossip columns of JS.

JMJ pray for us.

It will be impossible to get me excited about next season unless Rex chooses to resign in the next three days. Otherwise, not until they are 12-4 and have a bye into the second round of the playoffs.

Oh, so the 21 consecutive points he led them to, a couple of drives over over 80 yards for TD, the 53 yard pass to Easley don't count. Got it. And his terrible play on defense on that last Jags drive—he was the cornerback on the touchdown pass that won the game, wasn't he?

I'm okay with EJ. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who watched the second half of the Jags game when (after putting them in a hole in the first half) EJ brought them back to go ahead late in the fourth quarter.

Rex is a mediocre coach at best and will never win a Super Bowl. Too blockheaded, too undisciplined, too emotional.

This would be my course of action, too. No more Matt Cassels

I agree that he had a five-minute meltdown in the first half of the Jags game to put the Bills in a big hole. I'm not defending his play during that period. But nobody seems to want to acknowledge that he borught the team back in the second half and got them the lead by late in the fourth quarter, and it was the defense (with some help from the refs on a missed call) that lost the game, making Blake Bortles look like a Hall of Famer.

I agree.

Management: okay--except for whoever thought hiring Ryan was a good idea. Head Coaching: abominable

Carolina is a good choice. Yes. And I see no reason to believe Rex has learned anything from this season.

I was never bitter about the Bills releasing Fred. I loved him as a player for the team but it was time to move on. The thing that annoyed me was the Pegulas forcing Whaley to keep Fred after Whaley had cut him last spring.

I agree with this. I thought Gailey, given the incredibly mediocre receivers he had and the just servicible play he coaxed from Fitz, did a good job. His downfall was having two terrible defensive co-ordinators. Give him a couple of good receivers and a solid defense, as we see with the Jets, and he can win some games.

I have no faith in Rex, and it will make me sick to see him on the sidelines making bad challenge decisions and mis-managing the clock, while on the field the players are confused and committing penalties every fifth play. No faith whatsoever because he has given me zero reason to have faith.

I liked Chan and Fitz and wish them well. I've been a faithfull Bills fan since 1966. But I will be pleased to see the Jets dismantle the Bills this weekend for one reason and one reason only--in the hope that Rex will be fired. I do not consider this rooting against the Bills. I want them to win a title or two, something they will never do with that asshat as coach.

Please, if there is any justice in the universe, fire Rex. The team has lots of problems, and he makes them worse.