YoloinOhio Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 (edited) I was too young to remember the details about this but I’m astounded to see that Polian was fired at the beginning of the 1992 season and ... it wasn’t announced until February 1993? After they went to their 3rd straight SB? And he announced his own firing? I have so many questions. imagine if we had the media coverage we have now Edited February 5, 2020 by YoloinOhio 1
YoloinOhio Posted February 5, 2020 Author Posted February 5, 2020 Just now, BUFFALOBART said: I was totally shocked. Polian spoke of the players at the presser: He said: "Remember these men". "You will not see the likes of them ever again" Calling Ralph's daughter 'the 'c' word' just might get you fired, in spite of the accomplishments of the team.. Without the twitters and podcasts and blogs that we have now, how did anyone find out what he called her? Sports radio must have been a circus. I remember listening to art wander after school but that’s it.
machine gun kelly Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 So for the younger guys, you can ask Carruci on Saturday on Press Coverage. He’ll tell you there was in fighting between Littman, the $ guy, and Polian who had a very strong attitude, but well deserving. Wilson went with Littman as one of the many stupid things he did, but did so many great things too. Polian was sick of the fight and resigned. Im sure many of the older guys know more than me, but that was my understanding of the situation. Too bad as he took a brand new Carolina team to the playoffs in their second year in the league (even with a lot of picks was unheard of in history), the. Everyone knows how he turned around Indy. He has a big attitude, but one hell of a GM and absolutely deserves to be in the HOF. 1 3
Gordio Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 13 hours ago, YoloinOhio said: Without the twitters and podcasts and blogs that we have now, how did anyone find out what he called her? Sports radio must have been a circus. I remember listening to art wander after school but that’s it. Haha, good question. Buffalo is a small town & anybody that was inside the organization at the time knew about. Word was that he said that right in front of everybody at a team meeting. He wasn't going to win that fight. Not when it was Wilson's daughter.
Buffalo_Stampede Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 Imagine twitter if this happened today. 1
Houston's #1 Bills Fan Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 4 hours ago, Gordio said: Haha, good question. Buffalo is a small town & anybody that was inside the organization at the time knew about. Word was that he said that right in front of everybody at a team meeting. He wasn't going to win that fight. Not when it was Wilson's daughter. Well, only if Ralph agreed with Bill's assessment of his daughter!
billsfan89 Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 I wonder what changed after the TD era in 2004 that the Bills really stopped being competitive in terms of spending to the cap? I know “cash to cap” was a formula that the bean counters high up used during the drought era but was that formula developed in 2005 or late? Why was Butler and then TD seemingly allowed to go above and beyond the cash to ca During the John Butler years the Bills remained super competitive even as they retooled and became a team driven by their defense in the late 90’s. And despite the lack of general success in the TD era from 2001-2005 the Bills were still a team that attracted a lot of free agents (Spikes, Sam Adams, Fletcher, and Miloy among others) and did have 8 and 9 win seasons in that time frame. They were also a team that was cap strapped at times showing that they were spending up to the cap. Then after the TD era ended in 2005 they entered into an insanely frustrating era from 2006 to 2014 when the team always had a ton of cap space even in years where they spent some money. The cap only became an issue after the 2015 spending spree. When and why was this team never spending to the cap for nearly a decade?
NoHuddleKelly12 Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 20 hours ago, YoloinOhio said: I was too young to remember the details about this but I’m astounded to see that Polian was fired at the beginning of the 1992 season and ... it wasn’t announced until February 1993? After they went to their 3rd straight SB? And he announced his own firing? I have so many questions. imagine if we had the media coverage we have now Whoever the author/editor of the article was, they must’ve searched high and low through the cutting room floor scrap heap to ensure that they picked the least-flattering picture possible of poor Polian to accompany the article with! 3
colin Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 why did he beef w RWs daughter? i honestly think if he was handed the keys to the team and stayed we would have had a couple chips.
Ed_Formerly_of_Roch Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 22 hours ago, YoloinOhio said: I was too young to remember the details about this but I’m astounded to see that Polian was fired at the beginning of the 1992 season and ... it wasn’t announced until February 1993? After they went to their 3rd straight SB? And he announced his own firing? I have so many questions. imagine if we had the media coverage we have now On a somewhat similar thing, for those who recall when Marv had prostate cancer a few writers came to him before it was announced and asked as they were hearing rumors about it. He asked them to sit on the story until after the coming weeks game. He then announced it the following week and was gone for about three to four weeks and Elijah Pitts took over as temp coach. But no one in the media who did know about it spoke a word until he gave the all clear. On the Polian story, I thought RW fired him in November not the beginning of the season. And really didn't fire him, but just told him the team was letting him go at the end of the year. I do think there are more of these situations that still do occur than we ever realize, but go unreported.
YoloinOhio Posted February 5, 2020 Author Posted February 5, 2020 (edited) 2 minutes ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said: On a somewhat similar thing, for those who recall when Marv had prostate cancer a few writers came to him before it was announced and asked as they were hearing rumors about it. He asked them to sit on the story until after the coming weeks game. He then announced it the following week and was gone for about three to four weeks and Elijah Pitts took over as temp coach. But no one in the media who did know about it spoke a word until he gave the all clear. On the Polian story, I thought RW fired him in November not the beginning of the season. And really didn't fire him, but just told him the team was letting him go at the end of the year. I do think there are more of these situations that still do occur than we ever realize, but go unreported. I’m pretty sure Whaley was told he was out months before he was actually fired. Not sure if that was ever confirmed but it seemed that way with everything that went down. But, it was still after the season. If this reporting is correct, can’t imagine Bill going a whole season and taking a team to a SB knowing the whole time that he was done. Edited February 5, 2020 by YoloinOhio
Ed_Formerly_of_Roch Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 54 minutes ago, colin said: why did he beef w RWs daughter? i honestly think if he was handed the keys to the team and stayed we would have had a couple chips. From what I recall he used the word that rhymes with truck and strung some adverbs and adjectives (I still don't know the difference) along with it that when put together tends to come across as unflattering.
YoloinOhio Posted February 5, 2020 Author Posted February 5, 2020 Just now, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said: From what I recall he used the word that rhymes with truck and strung some adverbs and adjectives (I still don't know the difference) along with it that when put together tends to come across as unflattering. A devout catholic, Polian is - yikes. But with an Irish temper.
Ed_Formerly_of_Roch Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 1 minute ago, YoloinOhio said: I’m pretty sure Whaley was told he was out months before he was actually fired. Not sure if that was ever confirmed but it seemed that way with everything that went down Yes definitely agree on that one too. On the other hand John Butler tended to try and string RW along when he had no intention of returning. Finally RW tired of it and fired him, think it was in early December or so.
njbuff Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 At the time I always thought it was Polian just taking the fall for the most disastrous SB in history.
bills_fan Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 (edited) RW made his daughter an official scout for the team. That meant Polian had to deal with her as much as any other scout. Now, while I love Polian, he was very much a "my way or the highway" kinda guy. And he didnt want the owner's daughter forced upon him as a scout. You can see how that dynamic was set up to fail in epic fashion. Add to that the fact that Jeff Littman (Ralph's penny pincher from Detriot) and Polian did not get along at all. If I recall correctly, Polian wanted to pay Will Wolford and got into a big fight with Littman about it. Linda Bogdan (Ralph's daughter) chimed in that she would find another good LT and that set Polian off like a rocket. He called he plenty of colorful names in front of the whole front office staff. That didnt go well with Ralph. While I do not think Polian was fired by Ralph per se, they both agreed to not continue their employment relationship after the season. If anyone recalls more (or corrects my mistaken memories) feel free to join in. Edited February 5, 2020 by bills_fan 3
bills_fan Posted February 5, 2020 Posted February 5, 2020 Just did a search here...lots of old-timers posting in that thread and it gives more color to what has been hearsay over the years. 1
Gordio Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 I still love the quote Polian said one time. I think he was referring to Art Wander who was very critical of the Bills at the time(89 or so) but the way he said it and the manner he said it in sounded like he was talking to the whole community when he said "Jim Kelly is our Quarterback, Marv Levy is our head coach & if you don't like it you could get out of town." Classic quote. You would never hear a GM say something like that nowadays.
YoloinOhio Posted February 6, 2020 Author Posted February 6, 2020 6 minutes ago, Gordio said: I still love the quote Polian said one time. I think he was referring to Art Wander who was very critical of the Bills at the time(89 or so) but the way he said it and the manner he said it in sounded like he was talking to the whole community when he said "Jim Kelly is our Quarterback, Marv Levy is our head coach & if you don't like it you could get out of town." Classic quote. You would never hear a GM say something like that nowadays. Art wander always wanted to replace Levy with hank stram
Ned Flanders Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 16 hours ago, bills_fan said: Add to that the fact that Jeff Littman (Ralph's penny pincher from Detriot) and Polian did not get along at all. If I recall correctly, Polian wanted to pay Will Wolford and got into a big fight with Littman about it. Linda Bogdan (Ralph's daughter) chimed in that she would find another good LT and that set Polian off like a rocket. He called he plenty of colorful names in front of the whole front office staff. That didnt go well with Ralph. While I do not think Polian was fired by Ralph per se, they both agreed to not continue their employment relationship after the season. If anyone recalls more (or corrects my mistaken memories) feel free to join in. Ralph is cheap.
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