zow2 Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 It's not even just Shanahan (or any big name) that is enticing. It's everything he brings with him....i.e. capable assistant coaches that will follow him here, maybe a bigtime GM and Free agents that will suddenly get pumped up about coming to an organization that is committed to winning. Do you think Jim Haslett or someone like that could muster that up? No way.
MRW Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 Did you live through '91-'94? Trust me, those happy-just-to-be competitive feelings fade pretty fast. You say you'd gladly accept SB loss #5 but it will hurt worse than the other 4 combined! Face it. If Shanny comes to Buffalo it will be the LAST move the Bills make. There will be no Plan B. PTR Like others who have replied, I too lived through '91-'94, so I feel like I have some basis for saying being a fan of the Bills is far far worse today than it was at any point during that stretch. Yeah, when I was 18-20 those Super Bowl losses hurt. But along with those losses came a lot of great memories of games the Bills won. What memories do I have to enjoy from the last 10 years of Bills football? A 31-0 beating of the Patriots after acquiring Lawyer Milloy, and...? Help me out here. Bottom line, I want to have enjoyable Bills football again. Even if it doesn't result in a championship.
bills in va Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 WRONG....You need a good coach and front office personnel to right the ship. I don't know what's wrong with you but I'd gladly take the playoffs (win or lose) than the pathetic crap sandwich I've been eating for ten years. You would rather us suck than not go for the big show...where's your nut sack? You can't win a superbowl unless you get in the playoffs, maybe several years of playoff losses before winning the big one. I would take that as many years they can deliver it to my living room. A perennial contender..yes I want that! I knew there would be people like you being negative even when Ralph is trying to change things. Do everything you can to get Shanahan, have him bring in good assistants and then improve our talent level. I am wishing for Shanahan..at least it is giving me some hope and belief in Ralph again.
jahbonas Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 Only one NFL championship-winning coach ever won a second one with a new team. That was Weeb Ewbanks with the '59 Colts and '69 Jets. You don't give $50M and a piece of the team just to lose Super Bowl #5. You may think it's better than going 7-9 but trust me, losing the big one hurts the worst of all. PTR Not making the playoffs for a decade and becoming virtually irrelevant in the NFL is far worse. Also not many coaches win the Superbowl period - recently Holmgren returned to a Superbowl with Seattle. A far better stat is that typically these coaches go to a new place and win again
Adam Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 I don't care who the coach is- the head coach has never been a problem over the last 15 years. Levy, Phillips, WIlliams, Mularkey and Jauron all know football. VP of operations and GM have been the problem- and their lack of ability to aquire talented players. Unless we fix that, we are spinning our wheels. Belicheck couldn't win with this Mickey Mouse operation
crazyDingo Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 I don't know if Shanny is the ticket to a Super Bowl, but the first step is to get past New England and Shanny is the Man vs. Belichik.
Hazed and Amuzed Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 Only one NFL championship-winning coach ever won a second one with a new team. That was Weeb Ewbanks with the '59 Colts and '69 Jets. You don't give $50M and a piece of the team just to lose Super Bowl #5. You may think it's better than going 7-9 but trust me, losing the big one hurts the worst of all. PTR It IS better, in fact anything is better then what we've been enduring for the last 10 years. I would rather lose the big one EVERY year then this mediocre crap we've been dealing with. At least we have a shot of extending the season by a few games. I really don't understand your point of view. It seems as though you are saying no hope is better then having hope that leads to disappointment. I would rather have a little bit of hope when it comes to the Bills whether that hope be through Shanahan or Marty or whomever. Ralph hasn't much time left and spending big money on a big name is the first thing that he has done or planned to do that makes any kind of sense. For the first time in many years it seems like RW gives a crap.
BillsFanNC Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 Any of these elite candidates could also continue this franchise toward another decade of irrelevance. Nobody knows. I think most fans are happy that the Bills appear to be performing their due dilligence this time around in identifying the candidate that gives this franchise the best opportunity to win a championship.
Omar Little Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 Shanny should lead the Bills to no fewer than 47 Super Bowl titles. He'd be a bust otherwise.
billsfan89 Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 Shanny has always had the Pats* number, he builds good offensive lines along with great ground games, even without Elway he still had success (with guy by the name of Jake Plummer they went to the AFC championship game) up until the last few seasons Denver had very good defenses with Shanny at the helm. The guy is an offensive mind who instills a lot of passion into his team and has a winning pedigree to command respect (The opposite of DJ). I don't see what is wrong with hiring this guy.
leh-nerd skin-erd Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 Only one NFL championship-winning coach ever won a second one with a new team. That was Weeb Ewbanks with the '59 Colts and '69 Jets. You don't give $50M and a piece of the team just to lose Super Bowl #5. You may think it's better than going 7-9 but trust me, losing the big one hurts the worst of all. PTR this is the confounding part. Let's get an established coach who won a championship with another team. As they say in the equities market, past performance is no guarantee of future success. I'd agree with you to an extent, but whiffing on this past decade without even being close to playing in january sucks worse than 0-4 in SB's. At the same time, I'm 47 now and realize that whether they win the SB or not, my life doesn't change dramatically. It'd be nice to celebrate the victory for sure, but before we contemplate that we probably have to make the playoffs. I'd love to see Marshawn and Freddy behind a good zone blocking scheme and a good line. Maybe we find out that the only holes Marshwan can consistently hit are the ones with an chubby Canadian chick on the other side, but I'd love to know what he and Freddy could do with some consistently good line play. I'd love to see ANY qb in a Bills uniform behind a consistently good line with time to throw. Wouldn't it be nice to judge that a qb didn't have "it" after a season where someone else couldn't argue that our line sucked something awful??? besides, Promo, we're Bills fans. part of the rythym fo the dance is to have somethign to complain about. How awesome would it be to complain about how Shanahan only got us through to the second round of the playoffs? we could really have some angst over that! Go Bills. Happy Thanksgiving.
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 Only one NFL championship-winning coach ever won a second one with a new team. That was Weeb Ewbanks with the '59 Colts and '69 Jets. You don't give $50M and a piece of the team just to lose Super Bowl #5. You may think it's better than going 7-9 but trust me, losing the big one hurts the worst of all. PTR Uh, right. Aren't you just a piece of sunshine?
BuffaloBill Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 Only one NFL championship-winning coach ever won a second one with a new team. That was Weeb Ewbanks with the '59 Colts and '69 Jets. You don't give $50M and a piece of the team just to lose Super Bowl #5. You may think it's better than going 7-9 but trust me, losing the big one hurts the worst of all. PTR I somewhat disagree ... a full decade of suck has been worse than losing four in a row. Don't get me wrong i want to see them win one. However, the last decade has been a gnawing pain that gets worse every year. Right now I don't even like watching the games as there is hardly anything positive to take away. I like Fewell's enery but you just have to know he is not the guy.
Las Vegas Calling... Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 I have read all of your comments with interest. My take on the subject is this: I have no problem with Shanahan taking over the Bills. Mike's name will give the organization credability. Back during the glory years, free agents would come to Buffalo to play with Kelly, Smith, ect. Polian knew who to contact in order to make things happen. My point is that Buffalo needs one person with credability to join the team, and others will follow. If we somehow make it to SB #5, I will worry about the emotional pain of losing it then. I remember the pain of all four losses. It still stings today if I let it. That pain is STILL better than the crap we have watched this past decade.
Thoner7 Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 Only one NFL championship-winning coach ever won a second one with a new team. That was Weeb Ewbanks with the '59 Colts and '69 Jets. You don't give $50M and a piece of the team just to lose Super Bowl #5. You may think it's better than going 7-9 but trust me, losing the big one hurts the worst of all. PTR Baby steps PTR, baby steps. Shanny will build this team right. He will get us a QB and an OL. He will learn his lesson and figure out the D side of the ball and get us near the top there too. In his 2nd year we make the playoffs. In his third we beat out the Pats for the Division. in his 4th we win our first playoff game and so on. After 5 years he may retire and leave a top OC/DC to take over the team and just keep rolling. The Steelers/Pats/Colts werent built overnight. I want this team not to win one SB and fall back to the bottom like Tampa, but have the chance to win one every year, and win multiple like those three teams. Big Pictures take baby steps.
Lofton80 Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 Along with the pain of the SB losses came the joy of the Houston comeback, the elation of the 51-3 drubbing of Oakland on the home turf, the annual waive off to Miami as we sent them home for the winter, I will take winning all day over the nonsense of Jauron. Bring in a winner like Shanahan any day. It's all good. If we somehow make it to SB #5, I will worry about the emotional pain of losing it then. I remember the pain of all four losses. It still stings today if I let it. That pain is STILL better than the crap we have watched this past decade.
Last Guy on the Bench Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 You know what is amazing: it seems that everyone JUST focuses on winning the Super Bowl. Look it is VERY VERY hard to even get to a Super Bowl, yet win it. But you know what I miss most of all? Going to see the Bills in person, going to a bar, watching the game at home, and have a GENUINE joy and intensity to watch the Bills, thinking to yourself that you actually BELIEVE they might have a chance to win it all. THAT is what I miss the most. And to me that is one of the best things about being a sports fan. Id rather take my chances and lose the Super Bowl over and over then finish 5-11, be irrelevant, and have ZERO juice for the Bills. Great, great post. Super Bowl obsession is simple-minded. ("You either win everything or you are a loser.") Honestly, I'd love for the Bills to win the big one, but it's way down on my list of Bills' goals. I like watching football. I love watching football when the Bills are interesting and competitive week in and week out. Sure the Super Bowl losses stung. But my life doesn't change based in one game. It does change, however, based on the overall experience of watching the team every week. When I think about the 90s Bills, I think about how MANY amazing, fun games there were. Every season there were tons of great moments: gritty victories, comebacks, upsets, playoff wins - all mixed in with the occasional crusher that kept life interesting. This has been a generally boring effing team for the last decade. Tell me the Bills will be interesting and exciting and win more than their share of games, and I say you can stuff your Super Bowl.
BillsfaninFl Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 You know what is amazing: it seems that everyone JUST focuses on winning the Super Bowl. Look it is VERY VERY hard to even get to a Super Bowl, yet win it. But you know what I miss most of all? Going to see the Bills in person, going to a bar, watching the game at home, and have a GENUINE joy and intensity to watch the Bills, thinking to yourself that you actually BELIEVE they might have a chance to win it all. THAT is what I miss the most. And to me that is one of the best things about being a sports fan. Id rather take my chances and lose the Super Bowl over and over then finish 5-11, be irrelevant, and have ZERO juice for the Bills. Ah, the voice of reason. Guys, all fans "wish" for a Super Bowl win for their team. IMO a Ralph Wilson owned team will never again approach that lofty goal. But forget the odds of it happening, being a happy fan is about rooting for a team that is capable of doing it. I desire a reasonable expectation (at the beginning of each season) that my team could win enough games each year to have a chance to win it all. Regarding the "pain" of losing the Super Bowl, I was there. But it wasn't as much pain as it is today, because each of those (early '90s) seasons, I knew the team had a chance to win it the following year. Ask a Patriots fan if going 17 - 0 only to lose the SB was too much to take and most of them will tell you that at least there is a chance they may win it all the next season... or the next.
12thman Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 Folks have been paying a lot of money to see mediocrity for how long now, and most of us are not millionaires. I for one would welcome this move.
Chalkie Gerzowski Posted November 25, 2009 Posted November 25, 2009 This franchise is light years from a championship. How about establishing a foundation of competence on the field and within the organization first? How about pulling a moribund franchise out of the mud, pi$$ing away a decade and giving it actual direction first before concerning yourself with a Super Bowl?
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