Excerpt from Polian's book: Insight about Bills management style?

[Rivermont Mike]

This excerpt from Polian's book, published in the Buffalo News, brought to mind the innumerable threads on TBD asking why the Bills have ended up with retread head coaches and coordinators, or just how much influence Wilson had over personnel decisions.

 

To be clear, my intent is not to bash Mr. Wilson, the former head coaches and coordinators, or the Bills. I just think that if there was this much tip-toeing around about a pro personnel director, what kind of machinations ensued when it came time to hire a head coach?

 

Interested in your thoughts about this.

Edited November 19, 2014 by Rivermont Mike

[mannc]

It was a good read. Thanks. St. Ralph has been canonized (and rightly so) around these parts for keeping the team in WNY through thick and thin, but as this excerpt shows, he was a meddler of the very worst sort and, back then at least, he was very definitely cheap. It is fitting that Polian, the man who was almost single-handedly responsible for the only glory years the team experienced in the modern era, was hired against Ralph's wishes.

[birdog1960]

nice excerpt from Polian's book describing what happened: http://www.buffalone...dvance-20141120. basically, wilson chose littman over polian the before the last superbowl season. wilson allowed polian to stay on for that season but not without an appeal from polian. no mention of wilson's daughter.

 

i went back to an Oct 2010 thread here about this. Some folks were right on. some not so much. at any rate, the book looks like essential reading for any long time bills fan.

[HOUSE]

Bill Polian is NOT an easy guy to get along with. Ralph was not an easy owner either.

 

The personalities were bound to clash.....IMO

 

He once told me to "GET OUT OF TOWN" and I did

 

 

 

..

Edited November 21, 2014 by HOUSE

[Canadian Bills Fan]

“You know, you’d better get some gas before you drop me off,” I said.

Mr. Wilson then dug around in his pocket and he couldn’t find his wallet.

“You have 10 bucks on you?” he asked. “Yeah, sure,” I said, and I handed him a $10 bill.

 

 

Ralph IS cheap!!!!

 

haha

 

 

CBF

[birdog1960]

Bill Polian is NOT an easy guy to get along with. Ralph was not an easy owner either.

 

The personalities were bound to clash.....IMO

 

He once told me to "GET OUT OF TOWN" and I did

 

 

 

..

that's likely. very successful people generally are strong willed. but the main point i take away was that winning was not a high priority for wilson, a point often contested here. if it were, he would never fire a gm that had been and was continuing to produce an awesome on field product. this article should put that notion to rest. Edited November 21, 2014 by birdog1960

[PromoTheRobot]

I think Ralph cared about winning but his bottom line was the bottom line. He didn't throw money around like Terry Warbucks.

[White Linen]

It is fitting that Polian, the man who was almost single-handedly responsible for the only glory years the team experienced in the modern era, was hired against Ralph's wishes.

 

Most owners of any business have experienced this scenario. In fact most people have. Where you initially don't think it's the right thing to do but ends up being one of the greatest decisions you've made. The fact remains Ralph hired him.

[birdog1960]

i've got to wonder how polian managed to keep quiet for so long. i think i'd be enraged if i had done a great job only to be fired. can you imagine being one of the best in your field and at the height of your talent and being canned in favor of a legal bean counter? polian doesn't seem to have much respect for littman, even now.

[BillsVet]

Ordered the book already. I don't expect massive shots to be taken at Wilson, Littmann, or others, but it should be an illuminating read.

[birdog1960]

Ordered the book already. I don't expect massive shots to be taken at Wilson, Littmann, or others, but it should be an illuminating read.

i'm not sure the excerpt contains any massive shots but i don't think the $10 story's inclusion was accidental, nor was this:

 

Jeff didn’t have Dave’s ability to deal with creative kind of people. Dave had been a high-level collegiate athlete as a basketball player at Utah State; he understood athletics as well as the business side of the game. Jeff understood the law and finances. We simply didn’t get along, and that caused Ralph to be upset with me.

 

​he says quite a lot there while saying a little.

Edited November 22, 2014 by birdog1960

[JohnC]

i've got to wonder how polian managed to keep quiet for so long. i think i'd be enraged if i had done a great job only to be fired. can you imagine being one of the best in your field and at the height of your talent and being canned in favor of a legal bean counter? polian doesn't seem to have much respect for littman, even now.

 

Bill Polian is smart enough to understand that if you publicly criticize the boss (owner) you are sabotaging your efforts to secure your next job. What owner in the club is going to hire a GM who calls out his boss?

 

In his stint with Carolina he did a terrific job in making that expansion team not only respectable, but also a playoff team. However, although the owner wanted Polian to get that franchise off the ground he didn't want his franchise run by a GM strongman. So he did what he had to do to establish the franchise and then moved on at the request of the owner.

 

The NFL has certain "rules" of the game. Hiring and firing is an unavoidable aspect of that environment. Knowing how to leave a job regardless of the fairness of the pink slip is required to keep yourself in the game with another franchise.

 

Bill Polian knew very well that franchises going through cycles. It would have been really interesting to watch him be involved in a rebuilding process after such a good run with his Kelly era team.

[machine gun kelly]

i've got to wonder how polian managed to keep quiet for so long. i think i'd be enraged if i had done a great job only to be fired. can you imagine being one of the best in your field and at the height of your talent and being canned in favor of a legal bean counter? polian doesn't seem to have much respect for littman, even now.

 

It's a good point and one could speculate Polian had such respect for Mr. Wilson, he waited for his passing to tell his story. The Bills was his big break. In addition, now that there is a contributor role to the HOF, he was a first ballot nominee. There is nothing wrong with telling your story this year. It provides insight to the voters as to the decisions he made in his life and how he built his teams. Don't misunderstand my points. i'm not in any way disparaging Mr. Polian or Mr. Wilson. They helped make this league a better product.

 

Wilson made his mistakes and this was one of his biggest ones. I'm looking forward to reading the book, but the excerpts so far were very positive about the relationship between the two.

 

Thanks for starting the thread, and I'm sure we'll have more to talk about once most of us have read the book.

[JohnC]

It's a good point and one could speculate Polian had such respect for Mr. Wilson, he waited for his passing to tell his story. The Bills was his big break. In addition, now that there is a contributor role to the HOF, he was a first ballot nominee. There is nothing wrong with telling your story this year. It provides insight to the voters as to the decisions he made in his life and how he built his teams. Don't misunderstand my points. i'm not in any way disparaging Mr. Polian or Mr. Wilson. They helped make this league a better product.

 

Wilson made his mistakes and this was one of his biggest ones. I'm looking forward to reading the book, but the excerpts so far were very positive about the relationship between the two.

 

Thanks for starting the thread, and I'm sure we'll have more to talk about once most of us have read the book.

 

The story of the conflict between Polian and Littman is well known. The situation between Polian and Littman was untenable. As much as Polian found it difficult to tolerate Littman, Littman found it intolerable to tolerate Polian. Littman made it clear to the owner that either he or Polian had to go. The owner chose his trusted business advisor over the football man.

 

What I find very fascinating is Littman. He rarely if ever took a public role with the franchise. He was a behind the scenes operator. He had to be a very tough person with very strong convictions to stand up to the volatile Polian. Their conflicts were continuous because he wasn't going to back down and acccept being treated other than in a professional manner.

 

It's apparent that Littman wasn't much interested in the competitive football side of the business. He had a business model that worked well for the owner. He dutifully kept the franchise functioning within the confines of that business model. He wasn't very much interested in the wins and losses. But when it came down to the cash flow and costs he was a ferocious fighter who enforced the rules. In the end no one should be surprised that when it came down to Littman or Polian the owner selected Littman.

[Playoff Bound]

This book will shed some light on the internal workings of the Buffalo Bills organization, even though it is from Polian's perspective. I have never understood the love and adoration of Ralph Wilson though. If you stand back and look at the Bills from their inception onward they have consistently been a crappy team. There were a few bright spots but by and large they have stunk. That bad smell continues today. I think it is because they rarely have been run by a "football minded" group. I hope things change. Only time will tell. Look how some teams are always in the Super Bowl picture, year in and year out. Then look at the Bills. Wilson should have been embarrased by the product he delivered to the fans of the Bills. Clearly the early 90's were the glory years for the Bills. No one except Polian produced such a solid team. Then when Polian went to the Colts he was part of another long run of success. That success could have been in Buffalo except for Wilson's decision to go with the wrong guy.

[Beerball]

i've got to wonder how polian managed to keep quiet for so long. i think i'd be enraged if i had done a great job only to be fired. can you imagine being one of the best in your field and at the height of your talent and being canned in favor of a legal bean counter? polian doesn't seem to have much respect for littman, even now.

I'm sure that he was confident that he'd land on his feet. You don't do what he did in Buffalo and not find your next job.

 

This book will shed some light on the internal workings of the Buffalo Bills organization, even though it is from Polian's perspective. I have never understood the love and adoration of Ralph Wilson though. If you stand back and look at the Bills from their inception onward they have consistently been a crappy team. There were a few bright spots but by and large they have stunk. That bad smell continues today. I think it is because they rarely have been run by a "football minded" group. I hope things change. Only time will tell. Look how some teams are always in the Super Bowl picture, year in and year out. Then look at the Bills. Wilson should have been embarrased by the product he delivered to the fans of the Bills. Clearly the early 90's were the glory years for the Bills. No one except Polian produced such a solid team. Then when Polian went to the Colts he was part of another long run of success. That success could have been in Buffalo except for Wilson's decision to go with the wrong guy.

No one debates this. Ralph is lauded here because there is still a Buffalo Bills NFL franchise. He's not lauded for his won/loss record.

[hondo in seattle]

This book will shed some light on the internal workings of the Buffalo Bills organization, even though it is from Polian's perspective. I have never understood the love and adoration of Ralph Wilson though. If you stand back and look at the Bills from their inception onward they have consistently been a crappy team. There were a few bright spots but by and large they have stunk. That bad smell continues today. I think it is because they rarely have been run by a "football minded" group. I hope things change. Only time will tell. Look how some teams are always in the Super Bowl picture, year in and year out. Then look at the Bills. Wilson should have been embarrased by the product he delivered to the fans of the Bills. Clearly the early 90's were the glory years for the Bills. No one except Polian produced such a solid team. Then when Polian went to the Colts he was part of another long run of success. That success could have been in Buffalo except for Wilson's decision to go with the wrong guy.

 

 

Wilson's Pros

 

* Put an NFL team in Buffalo

* Kept it in Buffalo when he had opportunities to move it to a bigger, more lucrative market

* Gave millions to charity

* Made sure the team stayed in Buffalo after his passing

* Was a good and honest man

 

Wilson's Cons

 

* His management style and, perhaps, his lack of football acumen, resulted in a team that lost more games than it won. (We won 46% of our regular season games under Ralph; 48% of our playoff games).

 

 

On balance, I don't 'love' or 'adore' Ralph Wilson but I do have a healthy sense of appreciation for him and what he's done.

 

Btw, I read large parts of Polian's book and his love of Buffalo and respect & affection for Mr. Wilson are obvious. Given that he was sent packing, I think this is interesting.

Edited November 22, 2014 by hondo in seattle

[BillsVet]

The story of the conflict between Polian and Littman is well known. The situation between Polian and Littman was untenable. As much as Polian found it difficult to tolerate Littman, Littman found it intolerable to tolerate Polian. Littman made it clear to the owner that either he or Polian had to go. The owner chose his trusted business advisor over the football man.

 

Littmann must have been quite a hot-shot financial guy in the late 80s/early 90s to warrant being kept over a GM who got this team to the playoffs from 1988-1991 when RW made the decision to fire Polian (in the summer of '92). I recognize both were strong personalities and this is in the past, but I find it indicative of a problem RW always had. The Bills over the years seemingly always shaded too much to the financial side of the house than to football, to the point that financial people were given supervision over football people. Polian was good enough in personnel to overcome that, but when he left Butler only somewhat maintained the football side of the house. Successive GMs however were not good enough as the NFL became more competitive and we have what's looking like 15 years of no playoffs. To me, that says something was catastrophically wrong with senior management. And Littmann was the tallest hog in the trough there.

 

I don't think anyone's arguing the Bills should have been losing money to ensure on-field success. But the Bills were operating behind the times and Littmann was part of that, though successful at squeezing more money (with Brandon's help) in these final years of RW's ownership. And no one was going to tell RW they needed more money to win, least of all someone like Brandon who won promotions making this franchise more profitable as the team stunk on field.

 

Polian's departure was the moment this franchise started a long slow-ride into irrelevance. We didn't know it at the time, but the Bills haven't recovered from his firing. Fact is, if Littmann had been sent packing we wouldn't even know it on-field. And I find it noteworthy that Littmann was only in his mid to late 30s when he got the team treasurer job. At that time, Polian was a proven NFL GM with more than 5 years of playoff teams behind him. There may not be a lot of top financial types out there, but there are fewer outstanding NFL GM's (even in 92-93). Hopefully the Bills can find one and get this team on track more than 20 years after "Trader Bill" was unceremoniously let go.

Edited November 22, 2014 by BillsVet

[birdog1960]

Wilson's Pros

 

* Put an NFL team in Buffalo

* Kept it in Buffalo when he had opportunities to move it to a bigger, more lucrative market

* Gave millions to charity

* Made sure the team stayed in Buffalo after his passing

* Was a good and honest man

 

Wilson's Cons

 

* His management style and, perhaps, his lack of football acumen, resulted in a team that lost more games than it won. (We won 46% of our regular season games under Ralph; 48% of our playoff games).

 

 

On balance, I don't 'love' or 'adore' Ralph Wilson but I do have a healthy sense of appreciation for him and what he's done.

 

Btw, I read large parts of Polian's book and his love of Buffalo and respect & affection for Mr. Wilson are obvious. Given that he was sent packing, I think this is interesting.

you might consider amending your ledger with figures like this:

" For Veterans Day last year, the NFL announced that it would donate cash to military groups for each point scored in designated games. During NFL telecasts that weekend, the league was praised for its grand generosity. The total donation came to about $440,000. Annualized, NFL stadium subsidies and tax favors add up to perhaps $1 billion. So the NFL took $1 billion from the public, then sought praise for giving back $440,000—less than a tenth of 1 percent." from the atlantic article "how the nfl fleeces taxpayers".

 

$1 billion/32 is a great deal of money to balance out on a yearly basis from charitable contributions. a few more winning seasons might well mitigate some resentment for the cost.

Edited November 22, 2014 by birdog1960

[Utah John]

For years I thought I was the only one who remembered the names of the villians, I've been blasting Jeff Littman and Walt Coleman here for years. Or maybe no one else dared type their names. Whatever the cause it's good to see more people aware of the damage that Littman did to the organization.

 

We all think, as does Polian (and Pegula), that the purpose of a professional sports franchise is to win championships. Littman thought it was to make money for his boss. How many times were the Bills a player or two from being a contender, and instead we got somebody cheap. More importantly, and this is vastly underappreciated, the Bills have NOT shelled out like other teams for coaches. Not just HCs but all through the staff. There is no salary cap on the coaching staff, and most teams try to get the best staff they can. Sometimes the Bills have good coordinators and assistants, but usually there's one good coordinator and one guy willing to work for cheap to get started on his career. Not that present day circumstances should be any guide.

 

From my perspective, there are a lot of good bean counters out there, and darned few football geniuses. The Bills' product was football, and in a truly professional organization that should have been the priority. If Littman and Polian clashed, find another bean counter.

 

So Wilson died and left a fortune and very generous estate, giving back to the city a lot of the money fans paid for tickets over the years. Wonderful. A little less back now and a Lombardi trophy or two at OBD would be a good deal in the eyes of most of us.

Edited November 22, 2014 by Utah John