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i love how sully compares this gailey guy to a offensive dick jauron. looks like that billboard will be back up soon lol.
Sullivan: Gailey won't stifle any yawns
by Jerry Sullivan
So, unless something goes terribly awry at the last minute — and you never can tell when Ralph Wilson is gearing up for another public pronouncement — it looks as if Chan Gailey is poised to become the next head coach of the Buffalo Bills.
Really? Chan Gailey. It's an uninspiring pick, and if my math is correct, about their eighth choice. But after seeing the Bills snubbed by football coaches from sea to shining sea, it's a relief to know the search might finally come to an end, before the organization can embarrass itself further.
Gailey does fit their presumed criteria. He has been a head coach, albeit with modest success, with the Dallas Cowboys and Georgia Tech. He has been an offensive coordinator with the Steelers, Dolphins, Chiefs and Cowboys, where he had the dual role of head coach/coordinator in his two seasons.
No doubt, that will allow the Bills to claim that Gailey was their guy all along, the ideal man for the job. Never mind that they were rebuffed by no less than three NFL coordinators who have never been head coaches at any level.
People in Dallas told me Gailey is a good coach, and that he had an impossible task in his two years with the Cowboys. But the general feeling is that while Gailey was a solid offensive mind, he wasn't very skilled at the countless nuances required of a head coach.
Gailey, who is 58, spent five years as Georgia Tech's head coach after leaving the Cowboys. It did not go well. Gailey wasn't even the best coach in the state. He never beat Georgia. The demanding Tech fans dismissed him as a mediocrity. By the end, he was regarded as a coach who played not to lose.
Wilson, who talks a lot about luck, is looking to recapture the good fortune that came his way when he hired Marv Levy. Levy was also 58 when he came to the Bills (at least, he claimed to be 58). So maybe Wilson hits the jackpot again with a coach who was considered over the hill.
But Gailey sounds like the offensive version of Dick Jauron, who was given one last shot at an NFL head job despite a proven record of mediocrity. Levy hired Jauron because he felt comfortable with him. Evidently, the revised inner circle is comfortable with Gailey, who has history with General Manager Buddy Nix and Tom Modrak, vice president of college scouting.
Gailey deserves the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he'll shock us. But the Bills don't get such slack anymore. Wilson promised us a full evaluation of the operation. But really, nothing substantial has changed. There has been no housecleaning. They hired Nix without a real search, and they're about to hire Gailey in what appears to be a desperate gesture.
Meanwhile, it's status quo in the football department. Apparently, they did a harsh evaluation and decided things are just fine.
John Guy is still running pro personnel. It'll look bad if they fire Guy after giving him one of the two GM "interviews." If they fire him from a lesser position, it makes a mockery of the Rooney rule and paints Guy as a scapegoat.
And why would Gailey make noise, when he's being given a last kick at the can, a full decade after his last NFL head coaching job? What's his motivation for getting in Wilson's face and telling him what's wrong with his personnel guys?
Once again, it looks as if the owner is retrenching and surrounding himself with people who have been promoted beyond their talents and won't tell him what he doesn't want to hear. Let's hope they find some dynamic players in the draft or free agency. They won't sell many tickets on Gailey's personality.
"Oh, no, no. Lord, no," said Randy Galloway, the top radio sports host in Dallas. "He's about as dry as it gets. He's not going to stir anybody up."
Boy, I can hardly wait.
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"Tis The Season, Fa la la la la LaFontaine" - Rick Jeanneret
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