Will Wolford: 1986 Bills Tanked in Week 9 To Get Hank Bullough Fired

[BillyWhiteShows]

I've never heard former Bills RT Will Wolford give an interview before, but man he was pretty good.  You can hear him in this podcast below (Moranalytics Podcast) and he shares a story that I've never heard of.   So Kay Stephenson was "Hue Jackson bad" in his final two years (2-18 in his last 20 games) as head coach, it prompted Ralph to fire him in Week 5 of the 1985 season.   Ralph replaced Kay with Hank Bullough the team's Defensive Coordinator.... who was also a bad head coach (4-17 record).

 

According to Wolford, the culture of the Bills under Bullough was very "North Dallas 40-like" in 1986.  He claims players were smoking cigarettes at halftime and drinking cases of beer in the locker room.  People wouldn't believe how negative the atmosphere was in Buffalo and that everyone was out for themselves. 

 

Wolford claims in his rookie season of 1986, that there were a lot lot of veterans who did not like Hank Bullough as head coach.  When the Bills played Tampa Bay in Week 9, they heard a rumor that if the Bills lost to Tampa Bullough would get fired.  He said that the veterans threatened players if they played well and that the team went out and "lost on purpose."  Sure enough the next week coach Bullough was fired and Marv was brought in.

 

Will does say that Marv changed the culture around and that the addition of Jim Kelly helped as well.

 

So I wasn't following the Bills in 1985 or 1986.  Can anyone say whether this seems plausible?  I've never heard this rumor before but it sounds crazy!

 

Hear for yourself....the Bullough talk starts at the 20 minute mark.  This is a real good interview

 

http://moranalytics.com/ep-105-will-wolford-former-buffalo-bills-great/

[Albany,n.y.]

Years ago I heard an interview with Fred Smerlas (who hates Bullough and calls him "brain cell" because according to Fred, he only has one brain cell) and he said the same thing about players telling the other ones they'd kill them if they made a tackle.  If I recall correctly, Freddie attributed the threats to Bruce Smith.  

[bilzfancy]

The Bills were so bad in those days, I had seasons and sometimes there would be 20,000 fans at the stadium, and Bullough was the reason why, maybe the worst HC the Bills ever had, so I can definitely believe this. 

[vincec]

Bullough was incredibly unpopular with the players but I didn't notice tanking. Of course it would hard to tell given how bad those teams were...

[Helpmenow]

Matt’s beer ball in the lockeroom.

Edited March 30, 2019 by Helpmenow

[BillyWhiteShows]

3 minutes ago, Albany,n.y. said:

Years ago I heard an interview with Fred Smerlas (who hates Bullough and calls him "brain cell" because according to Fred, he only has one brain cell) and he said the same thing about players telling the other ones they'd kill them if they made a tackle.  If I recall correctly, Freddie attributed the threats to Bruce Smith.  

 

I don't know about Bruce, because at the time Bruce would have been a 2nd year player.  In the interview Wolford says "some of the veteran players."  Not sure you'd put Bruce in that category after 1 season. 

 

When I hear "veteran players" I think of Fred or Eugene marve....but who knows?

4 minutes ago, bilzfancy said:

The Bills were so bad in those days, I had seasons and sometimes there would be 20,000 fans at the stadium, and Bullough was the reason why, maybe the worst HC the Bills ever had, so I can definitely believe this. 

Worse that Stephenson?  He won about two more games that Kay in about the same amount of time.  Though Stephenson did win 8 games his first year

[Dopey]

5 minutes ago, vincec said:

Bullough was incredibly unpopular with the players but I didn't notice tanking. Of course it would hard to tell given how bad those teams were...

I was thinking the same thing. There was no guarantee we would have beat the Bucs if we tried. 

[BuffaloRebound]

Sounds like Smerlas and Haslett.  Those 2 were clowns.  Their radio show was comedy gold and I don’t think they even it meant it to be.  They were just buffoons.  I know Haslett broke his leg in the preseason but he was still around the team.  

[BillyWhiteShows]

10 minutes ago, BuffaloRebound said:

Sounds like Smerlas and Haslett.  Those 2 were clowns.  Their radio show was comedy gold and I don’t think they even it meant it to be.  They were just buffoons.  I know Haslett broke his leg in the preseason but he was still around the team.  

Makes perfect sense

[K-9]

Yep. The players took the sails right out of Bullough’s wind. It’s old news though. Years ago Smerlas recounted stories of how he and other vets threatened younger players if they made a good play.

[FLFan]

29 minutes ago, bilzfancy said:

The Bills were so bad in those days, I had seasons and sometimes there would be 20,000 fans at the stadium, and Bullough was the reason why, maybe the worst HC the Bills ever had, so I can definitely believe this. 

Absolutely.  People that do not remember those days have no idea what a bad team really looks like.  I had seasons as well.  It was light years worse than the worst teams of the drought era.  

[Matt_In_NH]

I think that was the game Bruce smith told the defenders if they tackled anyone the would kick their ass. 

 

 

Edited March 30, 2019 by mattynh

[BillyWhiteShows]

2 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Yep. The players took the sails right out of Bullough’s wind. It’s old news though. Years ago Smerlas recounted stories of how he and other vets threatened younger players if they made a good play.

I believe that I also read a story about how Fred and some other players tried making life miserable for replacement players during the 1987.  Not so sure why he was thought of as this loveable teddy bear on the Bob Matthews Show in Rochester.  He seemed like not such a good dude

[JohnC]

The Bills have made a lot of bad hires. They hired John Rauch from Oakland and then he proceeded to use OJ as a decoy. He lasted one year. 

[vincec]

7 minutes ago, FLFan said:

Absolutely.  People that do not remember those days have no idea what a bad team really looks like.  I had seasons as well.  It was light years worse than the worst teams of the drought era.  

But it only lasted a few years. The drought on the other hand...

[K-9]

3 minutes ago, BillyWhiteShows said:

I believe that I also read a story about how Fred and some other players tried making life miserable for replacement players during the 1987.  Not so sure why he was thought of as this loveable teddy bear on the Bob Matthews Show in Rochester.  He seemed like not such a good dude

Freddy was a great guy to have a beer with back in the day. Fun loving, especially in his earlier years. When he got into the media world, he became a bit more critical, almost cynical. As if he had to be that way to lend credibilty to his insights. 

[BillyWhiteShows]

1 minute ago, vincec said:

But it only lasted a few years. The drought on the other hand...

That was ONLY a few decades long

Just now, K-9 said:

Freddy was a great guy to have a beer with back in the day. Fun loving, especially in his earlier years. When he got into the media world, he became a bit more critical, almost cynical. As if he had to be that way to lend credibilty to his insights. 

I guess....but it sounded like he did some pretty shady things to his teammates.

[K-9]

8 minutes ago, BillyWhiteShows said:

That was ONLY a few decades long

I guess....but it sounded like he did some pretty shady things to his teammates.

Nah, he was a practical joker in the room, but a genuinely good teammate. There was some friction between the old guard and Kelly and Co. for sure though, at least initially. Kelly came in and immediately asserted his leadership, but Smersls wasn’t one of the guys upset by that. It was the older offensive players like Devlin and Jones who resented him early on. But they worked it out. 

[Boatdrinks]

57 minutes ago, Albany,n.y. said:

Years ago I heard an interview with Fred Smerlas (who hates Bullough and calls him "brain cell" because according to Fred, he only has one brain cell) and he said the same thing about players telling the other ones they'd kill them if they made a tackle.  If I recall correctly, Freddie attributed the threats to Bruce Smith.  

Yes, Smerlas did specifically mention Smith in his book “ By a nose “ with Vic Carucci. 

[Jerry Jabber]

Bruce Smith said Fred Smerlas told the Bills defense before Bullough’s last game “if anyone makes a tackle, I’ll kill you!”