Ralph Wilson's Role In The Buffalo Bills Playoff Drought

[BuffaloRush]

In the light of the new WNED documentary Ralph premiering soon, it got me thinking quite a bit about Ralph C. Wilson.

 

Not sure how other fans feel about him, but personally I am torn.  On one hand the Bills fans have to love Ralph’s dedication to keeping the franchise in Buffalo.  If he was greedy, he had multiple chances to relocate or could have sold the franchise  years earlier.  Instead, he appeared to be dedicated to keeping the team in Buffalo.  I always got the impression that his wife, Russ Brandon, and Littman would never sell the team to someone with intentions of relocating.  If it wasn’t for RCW, we wouldn’t have a team in Western, NY.  For that we should all be grateful to him.  

 

On the other hand however, I think Ralph is the biggest reason for the Buffalo Bills near 20 year drought.  Folks, from a football perspective Ralph made some TERRIBLE TERRIBLE decisions that crippled the franchise.  At least in the 30 years that I’ve been following the team.  IMO he made many poor decisions each of which are rooted in the losing culture of this franchise.  

 

There’s many examples of where Ralph’s rash decisions, greatly hurt the football organization:

 

• Firing Bill Polian
• Demanding Rob Johnson start over Doug Flutie
• Firing Wade Phillips for not firing Ronnie Jones
• Firing John Butler (though I think Butler was hell-bent on leaving)

 

These moves were all killers and in most cases, they could have been avoided.  But I think that Ralph’s worst work came after he hired Tom Donahoe as GM and president.  The hiring itself wasn’t a bad choice.  On paper, we had reason to be excited with Donahoe as GM.  But it turned out to be a disaster and it would mark the last time that Ralph would look outside the organization for anyone in a position of power.  He also was notoriously cheap.  Not on players - we all know what kind of deals he gave out to players in Free Agency.  But he appeared to be reluctant in paying for GM's, coaches, scouting departments etc.  

Ralph’s biggest mistake was empowering the wrong individuals to make football decisions within the franchise.

 

- Hiring Marv Levy as GM - Marv was a great coach but way too old to be an effective GM.  As a result Marv, Dick Jauron, and Tom Modrak ran all drafts and personnel decisions.  The results were disastrous

 

-  Empowering Russ Brandon as acting GM and not hiring a real GM - again a terrible decision that hurt the franchise for years to come

 

-  Naming Buddy Nix as GM - again Ralph was to scared to hire someone outside the organization, so he turned to Buddy who previously worked for the Bills.  His tenure as GM was largely unsuccessful and terrible.

 

- Promoting Doug Whaley as GM.  Yet another mistake

 

So while I am looking forward to the Ralph documentary, I’m hoping it’s a balanced look at his life.   Like I said, I'm grateful for his dedication to keeping the team in Buffalo, but I think his poor decisions in the past have ramifications that we still feel today.  Just my 2 cents

[dulles]

Polian...he's the first domino to fall.  Once he was gone, all the others would eventually tumble.

[Happy]

Good post and topic.  I'm thankful to Ralph C Wilson for founding the Buffalo Bills, ensuring they stayed in Buffalo after his death, and being one of the original owners who helped form today's NFL.  The Buffalo Bills are a part of who I am, and am grateful to Ralph.

 

I think Ralph loved the Bills, western NY, and was well intentioned.  I have no doubt he wanted a winner.  My opinion of where he went wrong was inserting himself in the football operations which ultimately lead to the firing of Bill Polian.  Granted, Polian had a strong personality from what I understand, but had they got along better, who knows how history would have changed.  It's possible that Ralph had a hard time adjusting to a model where the owner stayed hands off in the background and let a President/GM run the show.  When he realized this, Ralph eventually ended up making a bad hire in Tom Donahoe and things didn't start improving until years later.

 

It will be interesting to read everyones posts on this topic.    

[Gugny]

Other than keeping the Bills in western NY, which was an absolute positive for local residents, Ralph Wilson was an absolutely horrible owner.

 

I say this, depending on how one defines a good owner.

 

If a good owner is one who makes money, then he was fantastic.

 

If a good owner is one who makes money whilst putting a quality product on the field and is dedicated to winning, then he sucked.

 

He sucked.

[BadLandsMeanie]

I think giving 6 or 8 hundred million dollars to the Buffalo area makes up for a lot of lost football games.

 

And not selling out the city to get an enormous amount of extra money like The Chargers, Browns, Raiders, Rams, and I forget who all else did. makes up for a lot of lost football games.

 

And working the lease so it bound the team to us even after he was dead, makes up for a lot of lost football games.

 

Plus you can't reasonably blame Ralph Wilson for the games we have lost after he was dead. 

 

Those are my thoughts.

4 minutes ago, Gugny said:

Other than keeping the Bills in western NY, which was an absolute positive for local residents, Ralph Wilson was an absolutely horrible owner.

 

I say this, depending on how one defines a good owner.

 

If a good owner is one who makes money, then he was fantastic.

 

If a good owner is one who makes money whilst putting a quality product on the field and is dedicated to winning, then he sucked.

 

He sucked.

This is one of those post I have at long last, learned not to make!

 

Even though I wanna.

 

So, no comment.

[Augie]

Obviously there were mistakes. The enormous generosity proves it wasn’t because he was simply “cheap”. Beyond that, I prefer to look forward. 

[BuffaloRush]

10 minutes ago, Happy Gilmore said:

Good post and topic.  I'm thankful to Ralph C Wilson for founding the Buffalo Bills, ensuring they stayed in Buffalo after his death, and being one of the original owners who helped form today's NFL.  The Buffalo Bills are a part of who I am, and am grateful to Ralph.

 

I think Ralph loved the Bills, western NY, and was well intentioned.  I have no doubt he wanted a winner.  My opinion of where he went wrong was inserting himself in the football operations which ultimately lead to the firing of Bill Polian.  Granted, Polian had a strong personality from what I understand, but had they got along better, who knows how history would have changed.  It's possible that Ralph had a hard time adjusting to a model where the owner stayed hands off in the background and let a President/GM run the show.  When he realized this, Ralph eventually ended up making a bad hire in Tom Donahoe and things didn't start improving until years later.

 

It will be interesting to read everyones posts on this topic.    

I hear you - I think the loss of Polian was huge, but the staff that he assembled stayed in place after he left.  The very talented roster he put together and football operation guys like John Butler and AJ Smith helped keep the team strong for years.  

 

I do have to defend Ralph on the Donahoe hire.  At the time, it was being hailed as a great move by both fans, local media, and national media alike.  He was an instrumental part of the Steelers success.  We didn't know he'd be such a miserable control freak.  He rightfully cut the cord with Donahoe, but the experience was so scary for Ralph he was hesitant to ever give someone outside the organization any power or control that he didn't have a personal relationship with.

11 minutes ago, BadLandsMeanie said:

I think giving 6 or 8 hundred million dollars to the Buffalo area makes up for a lot of lost football games.

 

And not selling out the city to get an enormous amount of extra money like The Chargers, Browns, Raiders, Rams, and I forget who all else did. makes up for a lot of lost football games.

 

And working the lease so it bound the team to us even after he was dead, makes up for a lot of lost football games.

 

Plus you can't reasonably blame Ralph Wilson for the games we have lost after he was dead. 

 

Those are my thoughts.

This is one of those post I have at long last, learned not to make!

 

Even though I wanna.

 

So, no comment.

 

As I stated earlier, you can't deny that Ralph was not charitable or the fact the he never sold out the city.  From a football owner standpoint he made a ton of mistakes and was not a good owner.  This is why I'm conflicted. 

[Paul Costa]

I agree with everything posted above. We need to never forget that Ralph Wilson was responsible for the Buffalo Bills and also respect at the highest level his family selling the franchise to owners that would keep the Bills in Buffalo. And thank God for the Pugulas!! Better times are ahead!! ?? Let’s go Buffalo ???????

[BadLandsMeanie]

1 hour ago, BuffaloRush said:

 

 

As I stated earlier, you can't deny that Ralph was not charitable or the fact the he never sold out the city.  From a football owner standpoint he made a ton of mistakes and was not a good owner.  This is why I'm conflicted. 

But you are using the term football owner.

 

Those things are part of being the owner.  So is the relationship of the team to the city and the fans and the people. It is a very good one.

 

So it the detail about we wouldn't have a team here, if he didn't make one for us to begin with.

 

If you want to talk about his football decisions. On the whole, I would say, not so great.

 

But there is no conflict at all about how good an owner he was. 

 

We had the Kelly  Era Bills and the Kemp era Bills and we also had some very bad years. The bad years will look different of the new owners can ever get us out of the doldrums. But right now it seems to me like he was not above average if you look at the whole picture, on the win loss part of being an owner. That is how it seems to me. But as for "Owner" I say one of the greatest ever.

 

 

[yungmack]

5 hours ago, BuffaloRush said:

In the light of the new WNED documentary Ralph premiering soon, it got me thinking quite a bit about Ralph C. Wilson.

 

Not sure how other fans feel about him, but personally I am torn.  On one hand the Bills fans have to love Ralph’s dedication to keeping the franchise in Buffalo.  If he was greedy, he had multiple chances to relocate or could have sold the franchise  years earlier.  Instead, he appeared to be dedicated to keeping the team in Buffalo.  I always got the impression that his wife, Russ Brandon, and Littman would never sell the team to someone with intentions of relocating.  If it wasn’t for RCW, we wouldn’t have a team in Western, NY.  For that we should all be grateful to him.  

 

On the other hand however, I think Ralph is the biggest reason for the Buffalo Bills near 20 year drought.  Folks, from a football perspective Ralph made some TERRIBLE TERRIBLE decisions that crippled the franchise.  At least in the 30 years that I’ve been following the team.  IMO he made many poor decisions each of which are rooted in the losing culture of this franchise.  

 

There’s many examples of where Ralph’s rash decisions, greatly hurt the football organization:

 

• Firing Bill Polian
• Demanding Rob Johnson start over Doug Flutie
• Firing Wade Phillips for not firing Ronnie Jones
• Firing John Butler (though I think Butler was hell-bent on leaving)

 

These moves were all killers and in most cases, they could have been avoided.  But I think that Ralph’s worst work came after he hired Tom Donahoe as GM and president.  The hiring itself wasn’t a bad choice.  On paper, we had reason to be excited with Donahoe as GM.  But it turned out to be a disaster and it would mark the last time that Ralph would look outside the organization for anyone in a position of power.  He also was notoriously cheap.  Not on players - we all know what kind of deals he gave out to players in Free Agency.  But he appeared to be reluctant in paying for GM's, coaches, scouting departments etc.  

Ralph’s biggest mistake was empowering the wrong individuals to make football decisions within the franchise.

 

- Hiring Marv Levy as GM - Marv was a great coach but way too old to be an effective GM.  As a result Marv, Dick Jauron, and Tom Modrak ran all drafts and personnel decisions.  The results were disastrous

 

-  Empowering Russ Brandon as acting GM and not hiring a real GM - again a terrible decision that hurt the franchise for years to come

 

-  Naming Buddy Nix as GM - again Ralph was to scared to hire someone outside the organization, so he turned to Buddy who previously worked for the Bills.  His tenure as GM was largely unsuccessful and terrible.

 

- Promoting Doug Whaley as GM.  Yet another mistake

 

So while I am looking forward to the Ralph documentary, I’m hoping it’s a balanced look at his life.   Like I said, I'm grateful for his dedication to keeping the team in Buffalo, but I think his poor decisions in the past have ramifications that we still feel today.  Just my 2 cents

The Brandon/Nix/Whaley moves were not Ralph's. His wife took control after the Levy disaster. From then on Ralph was just preparing for landing.

[Chadwick Bay Chad]

He brought the Bills to Buffalo kept them here let the man rest in peace

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

8 hours ago, dulles said:

Polian...he's the first domino to fall.  Once he was gone, all the others would eventually tumble.

 

....exactly......and the 17 year patchwork FO & Administration post Polian was a major contributor.......people put in positions that they were not qualified for....people in positions despite being past their prime solely based on "trust"...going to the extreme to atone by hiring Donohole and caving to his "El Presidente" moniker to fuel his control freak ego............throw in the bevy of cheap coaches and/or retreads........= 17 years.............

[machine gun kelly]

The OP is right in many ways and you can add all of the bad front office and coaching hires in the 2000's, but as mentioned he founded this team, kept this team after multiple suitors tried to get it moved and his family made sure it was sold to a huge Buffalo Bills fan who had a ton of money to keep it here.

 

So there is balance in how I view Mr. Wilson.  He spent a ton of money prior to free agency and the cap for the Kelly years.  His knock is outside of Knox and maybe Saban (before my time), he was cheap in hiring coaches.

 

i too was frustrated for so many years with his decisions which led to bad play in Buffalo.  I know it's been an up and down year this year, but believe we finally found in my opinion the right coaches and GM. Next year will really tell after free agency and all of those picks in the draf whether we are on track.

[Livinginthepast]

12 hours ago, BuffaloRush said:

In the light of the new WNED documentary Ralph premiering soon, it got me thinking quite a bit about Ralph C. Wilson.

 

Not sure how other fans feel about him, but personally I am torn.  On one hand the Bills fans have to love Ralph’s dedication to keeping the franchise in Buffalo.  If he was greedy, he had multiple chances to relocate or could have sold the franchise  years earlier.  Instead, he appeared to be dedicated to keeping the team in Buffalo.  I always got the impression that his wife, Russ Brandon, and Littman would never sell the team to someone with intentions of relocating.  If it wasn’t for RCW, we wouldn’t have a team in Western, NY.  For that we should all be grateful to him.  

 

On the other hand however, I think Ralph is the biggest reason for the Buffalo Bills near 20 year drought.  Folks, from a football perspective Ralph made some TERRIBLE TERRIBLE decisions that crippled the franchise.  At least in the 30 years that I’ve been following the team.  IMO he made many poor decisions each of which are rooted in the losing culture of this franchise.  

 

There’s many examples of where Ralph’s rash decisions, greatly hurt the football organization:

 

• Firing Bill Polian
• Demanding Rob Johnson start over Doug Flutie
• Firing Wade Phillips for not firing Ronnie Jones
• Firing John Butler (though I think Butler was hell-bent on leaving)

 

These moves were all killers and in most cases, they could have been avoided.  But I think that Ralph’s worst work came after he hired Tom Donahoe as GM and president.  The hiring itself wasn’t a bad choice.  On paper, we had reason to be excited with Donahoe as GM.  But it turned out to be a disaster and it would mark the last time that Ralph would look outside the organization for anyone in a position of power.  He also was notoriously cheap.  Not on players - we all know what kind of deals he gave out to players in Free Agency.  But he appeared to be reluctant in paying for GM's, coaches, scouting departments etc.  

Ralph’s biggest mistake was empowering the wrong individuals to make football decisions within the franchise.

 

- Hiring Marv Levy as GM - Marv was a great coach but way too old to be an effective GM.  As a result Marv, Dick Jauron, and Tom Modrak ran all drafts and personnel decisions.  The results were disastrous

 

-  Empowering Russ Brandon as acting GM and not hiring a real GM - again a terrible decision that hurt the franchise for years to come

 

-  Naming Buddy Nix as GM - again Ralph was to scared to hire someone outside the organization, so he turned to Buddy who previously worked for the Bills.  His tenure as GM was largely unsuccessful and terrible.

 

- Promoting Doug Whaley as GM.  Yet another mistake

 

So while I am looking forward to the Ralph documentary, I’m hoping it’s a balanced look at his life.   Like I said, I'm grateful for his dedication to keeping the team in Buffalo, but I think his poor decisions in the past have ramifications that we still feel today.  Just my 2 cents

I agree with all of this the post was spot on. The only thing I would add about Ralph was that while I appreciated him doing a lot to keep the Bills in Buffalo, the Bills in Toronto series was the final straw of his ownership. I have never been more infuriated than having to watch those terrible games so Ralph and Ted Rogers could make some $ in Toronto. It was a really big insult to Bills fans. Perhaps it wasn't Ralph's fault as he was getting doddery and eccentric (The "Wilson said" speech for ex)  at that point. Maybe Ralph was advised to do it by underlings. Who knows. I would add that the SB losses crushed Ralph (as it did all of us fans) and he was never the same man after. Always felt bad that Ralph never won a SB to go along with the AFL championship, he deserved it.

[DaBillsFanSince1973]

10 hours ago, Gugny said:

Other than keeping the Bills in western NY, which was an absolute positive for local residents, Ralph Wilson was an absolutely horrible owner.

 

I say this, depending on how one defines a good owner.

 

If a good owner is one who makes money, then he was fantastic.

 

If a good owner is one who makes money whilst putting a quality product on the field and is dedicated to winning, then he sucked.

 

He sucked.

 

 

of course all that money was left to charity but yeah, he sucked.

[Gugny]

33 minutes ago, DaBillsFanSince1973 said:

 

 

of course all that money was left to charity but yeah, he sucked.

 

Again ... if his goal was to make a lot of money, he succeeded.  If his overall goal was philanthropy, then God bless him and he certainly contributed a lot,

 

Judging from a lot of comments I've seen on this site over the years, how much money JDRF gets in donations from One Bills Drive doesn't seem to be the fans' objective.

[T-Bomb]

Wilson was a terrible NFL owner, unfortunately it looks like we have another terrible owner.

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

13 minutes ago, T-Bomb said:

Wilson was a terrible NFL owner, unfortunately it looks like we have another terrible owner.

 

....um, ok thanks........valuable contribution...........

 

Edited December 9, 2017 by OldTimeAFLGuy

[Happy]

1 hour ago, T-Bomb said:

Wilson was a terrible NFL owner, unfortunately it looks like we have another terrible owner.

I think it's too early to take a position on that.  They made a mistake in the Rex hire, realized it, and quickly made the correction.  Since hiring McDermott and Beane, they have been hands off.

[transient]

14 hours ago, BuffaloRush said:

In the light of the new WNED documentary Ralph premiering soon, it got me thinking quite a bit about Ralph C. Wilson.

 

Not sure how other fans feel about him, but personally I am torn.  On one hand the Bills fans have to love Ralph’s dedication to keeping the franchise in Buffalo.  If he was greedy, he had multiple chances to relocate or could have sold the franchise  years earlier.  Instead, he appeared to be dedicated to keeping the team in Buffalo.  I always got the impression that his wife, Russ Brandon, and Littman would never sell the team to someone with intentions of relocating.  If it wasn’t for RCW, we wouldn’t have a team in Western, NY.  For that we should all be grateful to him.  

 

On the other hand however, I think Ralph is the biggest reason for the Buffalo Bills near 20 year drought.  Folks, from a football perspective Ralph made some TERRIBLE TERRIBLE decisions that crippled the franchise.  At least in the 30 years that I’ve been following the team.  IMO he made many poor decisions each of which are rooted in the losing culture of this franchise.  

 

There’s many examples of where Ralph’s rash decisions, greatly hurt the football organization:

 

• Firing Bill Polian
• Demanding Rob Johnson start over Doug Flutie
• Firing Wade Phillips for not firing Ronnie Jones
• Firing John Butler (though I think Butler was hell-bent on leaving)

 

These moves were all killers and in most cases, they could have been avoided.  But I think that Ralph’s worst work came after he hired Tom Donahoe as GM and president.  The hiring itself wasn’t a bad choice.  On paper, we had reason to be excited with Donahoe as GM.  But it turned out to be a disaster and it would mark the last time that Ralph would look outside the organization for anyone in a position of power.  He also was notoriously cheap.  Not on players - we all know what kind of deals he gave out to players in Free Agency.  But he appeared to be reluctant in paying for GM's, coaches, scouting departments etc.  

Ralph’s biggest mistake was empowering the wrong individuals to make football decisions within the franchise.

 

- Hiring Marv Levy as GM - Marv was a great coach but way too old to be an effective GM.  As a result Marv, Dick Jauron, and Tom Modrak ran all drafts and personnel decisions.  The results were disastrous

 

-  Empowering Russ Brandon as acting GM and not hiring a real GM - again a terrible decision that hurt the franchise for years to come

 

-  Naming Buddy Nix as GM - again Ralph was to scared to hire someone outside the organization, so he turned to Buddy who previously worked for the Bills.  His tenure as GM was largely unsuccessful and terrible.

 

- Promoting Doug Whaley as GM.  Yet another mistake

 

So while I am looking forward to the Ralph documentary, I’m hoping it’s a balanced look at his life.   Like I said, I'm grateful for his dedication to keeping the team in Buffalo, but I think his poor decisions in the past have ramifications that we still feel today.  Just my 2 cents

 

Nice post. I agree for the most part.

 

However, John Butler spent this team into cap hell and his ensuing move to San Diego was widely speculated for months before Ralph fired him, therefore he wasn’t left with much of a choice. Butler’s terrible cap management, the inevitable ensuing roster tear down, and Donahoe’s unexpected thin-skinned implosion are what directly led to the first 5+ years of this mess, IMO.

 

Regarding Wade, if your boss tells you to fire someone, you fire them. Falling on the sword for someone as inept as Ronnie Jones appeared to be Wade’s choice. Trying to avoid paying him after was a bad look, though, but potentially justified IMO if Wade was given an ultimatum and chose to leave. 

 

Marv Levy as GM up to the recent housecleaning was about as rudderless as it gets, and stems directly from bad general management which falls on the ownership, or whomever is acting in ownership’s stead. 

 

To me, Ralph as a person was redefined by his amazing posthumous generosity in addition to his wiley lease negotiations that all but guaranteed the Bills would stay in Buffalo upon his death.