Best of the Week on The Dan Patrick Show

00:00:00
Speaker 1: You are listening to The Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.

00:00:04
Speaker 2: We have another coaching vacancy in the NFL. Buffalo Bills have fired Sean McDermott. Stat of the Day brought to you by Pennini America, the official trading cards of The Dan Patrick Show. You know, we talk about coaches sometimes coaching for their jobs, and it felt like that, it felt like that last year was Sean McDermott and this is where it's nine years and you go, is that the guy? Like how many guys can get you over the top? Andy Reid for a long time in Philadelphia, Hey, he can get you there. He can't get you over the top until he got to Kansas City and then he could put you over the top. But there are certain coaches that I think we give far more credit to, like Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh. Could be Hall of Fame coaches, could be Can they get you over the top? Are they just really really good regular season head coaches? Because it's a different DNA when you get to the postseason, Like what do you got, who are you? What are you going to do? Clock management, how you get your team ready?

00:01:09
Speaker 3: Like just so many.

00:01:10
Speaker 2: Things that stuff that maybe is not tangible where you think, but you have, you know, a team that goes out there and wins when maybe they're not supposed to win, or holds on comes up with a play when they need to and Buffalo never did that. And when you think about this, the New York Jets have been in more AFC title games than the Buffalo Bills have in the last thirty years. Brought to you by Panadian America, the Official Trading Cards of the Dan Patrick Show. I always think about this, like John Harball, if you make the kick and you go into the postseason, does he still get fired? And I think if they didn't get to the title game, he was going to get fired. Now I don't have any information on that. That was just a gut feeling that I had. Did the Bills make their mind up about Sean McDermott now or last week? Did it matter what was going to happen? What if they won the game then you go to the AFC Title game? What if you go to the Super Bowl? So you're coaching for your job and Sean McDermott paid the price nine years. We'll talk to Steve Tasker, the Buffalo Bills announcer, he'll join us coming up in an hour from now, Albert Breer the Monday Morning quarterback. Following all the movers and shakers, And I did get information on this from somebody who said there is probably at least one coach who is coaching for his job in the postseason. Then we were talking about all the vacancies there, and I wondered, you know, if Matt Lafleur is not re signed extended in Green Bay, would John Harbaught have taken that job? If Matt Lafleur doesn't stay in Green Bay, does he go to Pittsburgh? Is Mike McCarthy in the mix in Pittsburgh a Pittsburgh guy? What if Buffalo opens up because you got Josh Allen there? When you think about Lamar Jackson, two time MVP, Josh Allen, the reigning MVP, and they will have new head coaches next year. Robert Salah is gonna maybe get a run in Baltimore here, the defensive coordinator for the forty nine ers, might be coming back to be a head coach. And once again, there's a lot of talk, there's so many openings, Who's going where? And then it feels like there's a domino effect happening. You know when Baltimore and now Buffalo is open. You know, Stefanski's going to Atlanta hardball with the Giants. So there's a lot going on. And this is the NFL. But did anybody know think that Buffalo was going to come open?

00:03:59
Speaker 4: Now?

00:03:59
Speaker 2: I know what people we're going to say, what about Mike Tomlin? I can only tell you what I was told last week that Mike there is no guarantee he comes back to coaching, and there's no guarantee he does TV. But there's a two year window here he doesn't. If he goes someplace, then you have to give a compensation to the Steelers. And you know he knows that, so does the team that would sign him, and so did the Steelers. But I don't see Mike Tomlin coaching again anytime soon unless the person who told me this h is off on it.

00:04:37
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00:04:46
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00:04:55
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00:04:59
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00:05:00
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00:05:03
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00:05:11
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00:05:16
Speaker 2: Indiana does it. They complete the season a miracle season. And there was a website that said the odds for Indiana to win the national title. At the start of the year they were plus ten thousand, Fernando Mendoza to win the Heisman plus five thousand. Their win total over under eight and a half. And here they are with a magical season and give credit to a lot of people. Here, Kurt Signetti, you gotta start with him. Imagine you're at Alabama and you're working with Nick Saban and you say to Nick Saban, coach, I want to leave, I want to be a head coach. And you go, okay, where are you going? And he says, I'm going to Iu Pui And Nick Saban says, why do you want to do that? He wanted to be a head coach. He proved to be successful there. Elon James Madison, I mean, this isn't the normal route to become a national champion, but there's something about him and he doesn't go after five star recruits or four star recruits because he couldn't because five stars and four stars aren't going to Indiana. If you're getting three stars, it's like WHOA, all right, I like this. He's the kind of guy that goes after two stars and by the time he's done coaching them up, they're four and five stars. So that's a huge credit to him. Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner, did what you want a Heisman Trophy winner to do, come up big when he needed to, and he did that. As for Miami, it's going to overlooked because I think we looked at Miami like historically great program, while Indiana historically a bad program. But Miami and Mario Christobal did a great job this year to make the U relevant again, and they had their opportunities. I just didn't understand the coaching philosophy of the first half, the offensive philosophy. They had sixty nine yards of total offense in the first half and they were in the game. They just kept running the ball. I got Malachai Tony, I want the ball in his hands twenty times. I just got to whatever it is, there's a chance that he could break. Every time he got the ball. You go, oh, you got to hold your breath if you're Indiana. But I didn't understand unless they were saying, we don't want Carson Beck to try to win this game. You're trying to control the clock a little bit, maybe, but they just kept running it up, running it up the middle, and then you end up with sixty nine yards of total offense. Second half half they opened it up a little bit and Carson Beck had a couple of plays there in the end, ended up with an interception. But give credit to Indiana. We've talked about this for the last six weeks, just how big this story is, and growing up in the Midwest and growing up in Ohio. If you were going to schedule a school for homecoming where you knew you were going to win, or parents weekend, Indiana would be tops on your list. And I couldn't help but think of one person last night when this game ended, and I thought Elite Corso, because coach Corso was there at Indiana and did a really good job. You're going against Ohio State in Michigan, and here he is in failing health but a big contributor to college football college game Day, and here he gets to witness Indiana winning the national championship in football. So the big play here is the interception by Indiana to seal the national championship. Here's the statback Beck looks throws it down the field and it is in intercepted by Indiana.

00:09:14
Speaker 6: WHOA what a play.

00:09:16
Speaker 7: Then it is Jamari Shark who comes up with the beg Jamari Sharp put what a play.

00:09:22
Speaker 1: For Indiana and Indiana has gonna.

00:09:25
Speaker 2: Win this thing. And sharp is from Miami comes up with the interception. Fernando Mendoza from Miami, and here is his touchdown. Run, gotta get to the eighth.

00:09:38
Speaker 7: He's got takeoff on run. Mendoza, please his wife first and go diving todyan zone. Touchdowns where you want my husband trophy.

00:09:51
Speaker 2: Chris Baller with the call because you're watching and you go, okay, he got the first down and then he just kept going and then got the touchdown. But Miami was resilient they kept coming back, and Indiana knew that they weren't blowing this team out. Home game for Miami, but it was probably felt like a home game for Indiana. There were a lot of Hoosiers there. But congratulations, Indiana football has won a national championship.

00:10:18
Speaker 8: Dude, you've been doing this a long time. You just uttered that on national radio.

00:10:22
Speaker 2: Yes, I never ever thought in my lifetime I would say something like that, Indiana football has won a national championship. By the way, DraftKings just sent me the title odds for next year, Indiana and Ohio State have the same odds plus seven hundred. Then it's Texas and Notre Dame plus seven fifty, Oregon, Georgia, LSU, Texas tech A and m Alabama and Miami. All right, eight seven seven to three DP show email address Dpatdanpatrick dot com, Twitter handle it DP show Tyler sitting by to take your phone calls. All right, Seaton poll question for hour one is going to be wide.

00:11:09
Speaker 9: The Indiana Indiana football national title story is most similar to is Paul laid out these options?

00:11:17
Speaker 2: Okay? Miracle on Ice.

00:11:20
Speaker 9: Twenty sixteen Chicago Cubs, the twenty sixteen Leicester City team that won the Premier League or nineteen eighty three NC State.

00:11:32
Speaker 2: Okay, so we're putting a team on there, not Buster Douglas beating Mike Tyson. Uh yeah, okay, because you can, you could. I mean the twenty sixteen Cubs worthy of being put in here with this group.

00:11:46
Speaker 8: I think futility for one hundred and eight years is kind of similar to the futility of Indiana football. But I would say Leicester City, well, yeah, would be the comp because they were a couple tiers down right Seaton for years and years and years.

00:12:00
Speaker 9: They had only been promoted a year or two before winning the Premier League. It is a pretty big turnaround, similar to Indiana.

00:12:09
Speaker 10: Yeah.

00:12:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, but somebody did predict that Leicester City did. Hello, Hello Leicester. I called him Leicester City to Rebecca Lo. Dan, I know Lester, I know. We were at the NBC studios and I remember, you know, they were talking Premier League and the great host of the Premier League, Rebecca Lo and I go, she goes.

00:12:31
Speaker 1: Dan, who do you like?

00:12:33
Speaker 3: Can I go?

00:12:34
Speaker 2: I like Leicester City. It's it's Leicester City. I said they're gonna win it this year. Yes, Dodd, I don't want to be that.

00:12:43
Speaker 10: Guy, but I've kind of been that guy at times with the show, So I'm just going to say it. Can we overstate how big Indiana's accomplished? It is in the history of sports?

00:12:50
Speaker 2: Wait, are you saying that we're overstating Indiana.

00:12:54
Speaker 10: I'm saying we're not there yet, but we are on the road to saying something like that. This in the history of anything that's happened on a field or a court.

00:13:02
Speaker 3: Or ice, this is the one.

00:13:04
Speaker 2: Pauli's head's gonna explode here. Yeah, yes, Marvin, I got to disagree, Fritzy. This is probably the greatest turnaround in the history of American sports. Like the Cubs, the Cubs were up and ready to go to the World Series in two thousand and three. Indiana wasn't like, Man, we were really close to winning the Big Ten in football. Never they've always a bottom fier. Besides that one year with Antoine Randall l they've never been anything to watch yes time.

00:13:27
Speaker 10: We also have to distinguish opposite between turnaround and upset. There's all kinds of words and phrases that could get garbled with one another. This obviously is a huge turnaround in two years as opposed to Tyson Douglas where it's an upset. This wasn't something in the making over a period of fights or something.

00:13:40
Speaker 2: Like you're right about the turnaround, like when you think about turning around in two years. That's the remarkable part. Go back over two years ago and look at a home game at Indiana Football prior to Kurt signetting like they're playing Akron. Didn't they go three times against like Kent State or something.

00:14:02
Speaker 8: I think it was four against your zips.

00:14:03
Speaker 2: Okay, go back and just get a picture of what the attendance was like before Kurt Signetty got there. And look, I said it. I'm sure many people did. Coming into this year, I wondered who was going to be Indiana and it turned out to be Indiana. It's a great story. Once again, Indiana football has won the national championship.

00:14:29
Speaker 3: Wow, April fol oh, no, what's today?

00:14:33
Speaker 2: Why are you a BUZZKILTA?

00:14:34
Speaker 10: That's terribly I'm usually a pretty positive you don't happy? Go Look, no, until I got like snarky and wise, PAULI rubbed off, I'm getting sparky in my old age, I'm getting very snarky.

00:14:45
Speaker 3: It was never like that back in the day.

00:14:47
Speaker 2: You are a negative guy.

00:14:49
Speaker 10: The Indiana call of that touchdown?

00:14:53
Speaker 3: What are you doing this?

00:14:55
Speaker 2: Didn't love that.

00:14:55
Speaker 10: It was unfortunate. It's unfortunate. This guy's a legend, he is a great worcus. Unfortunately he got tricked.

00:14:59
Speaker 2: Into he called. He called like, oh, he's throwing it and he's running it.

00:15:03
Speaker 1: He's running it.

00:15:03
Speaker 8: It's a touchdown.

00:15:05
Speaker 2: Why why are you doing this?

00:15:08
Speaker 10: I was bummed for him because if I was aboard thist, they're gonna.

00:15:10
Speaker 1: Be playing that.

00:15:10
Speaker 2: Really sounds like you're bummed for him.

00:15:12
Speaker 10: We're gonna be talking about Indiana forever. We're gonna be talking about that call forever too. That way they go together.

00:15:18
Speaker 8: Yes, but if if you watch that play, when Mendoza goes back, it's the last thing anyone expected Herbstreet even broke it down. The safeties are so far back they like jumped forward and couldn't believe he was even going.

00:15:29
Speaker 2: It was a great play, but the second effort to get into the end zone, and uh, you know, I'm curious. We got Chase Daniel on and he looks at more film than anybody. A former quarterback. Watching Mendoza, I saw, I'm gonna go back and say what I said a couple of weeks ago, only because a scout told me this. He doesn't do anything great, but he doesn't do anything that you bring into question like it it just he's clean, but it you know, is he a little more athletic then you think? Is his arm a little more, you know, a little stronger than you think. Is he a little more accurate like he's got a lot of those. He's a little more than he's a little more than. All I know is what a great representative that he would be for any football team. Now that doesn't mean he's a franchise quarterback, but he's going to be the number one overall pick. He came up when he needed to. He had some big plays when he needed to. But we'll talk to Chase Daniel about what he sees because okay, they won the national title. This is about a bigger picture of what happens next year, you know, when he gets to the NFL. Ross Tucker, CBS Sports will join us coming up as well. We'll get to your phone calls. Miami, they have a head coach. They took the Packers defensive coordinator Halfley and the Titans higher Robert Sala. I think it's a good situation for Robert Sala in Titan and the Titans. His personality didn't do well in New York and going to the Titans, I like the job, you know, But once again, you have a franchise quarterback. I believe you got a lot of cap space more than anybody. Now, do you have the right people who will make these draft picks and bring in these free agents? That's the key. You can have the template here. You got to make sure that you're able to fill out that roster in the way that allows you to maybe turn this around like Carolina did or New England did, some of these teams that have three or four wins and then you know, next thing you know, you're banging on the door of the playoffs. But so we got a few more coaching vacancies here, certainly with Buffalo, the Steelers, Baltimore. Baltimore is going to take its time. Somebody told me yesterday, they're never in a hurry. They'll treat this the way they do the draft, where they're usually at the end of the first round and they just they're patient waiting for the right person to be their next head coach. So I don't know if it's one of those. I don't know, if it's somebody who's still coaching, I don't know if it's a coordinator for you know, one of the final four teams might be From what I'm told, I thought Robert Sola was getting that job. I thought that he would be the number one candidate there. As for the Steelers, I think Mike McCarthy is truly in the mix. And you know he's a Pittsburgh guy. So multiple reports about Mike McCarthy maybe getting back into the mix as well. The Buffalo situation. I know, I get a franchise quarterback, but I got I have to go to the AFC title game. Like the instant pressure. Now, they're not going to get rid of you after the first year, but you know, going in, Okay, he got this far. Now. Would I have fired Sean McDermott. I would not have because I have to know, Okay, who's the next guy coming in and how do I know he's going to take us to the next level? You know, Mike Tomlin stepped down. Would I have fired John Harbaugh? I would have because I don't I think there's a disconnect between Harball and Lamar Jackson ownership, the front all. It feels like there's something in play there, Todd Mounkin and the offensive coordinator. It just felt like it was clumsy. The Steelers, I get it. I think Tomlin was burnt. I think that he is not going to coach, not anytime soon. I don't know if he'll do TV. I think he might just chill. All right, we'll take a break. We'll settle on our poll question. Phone calls are always welcome. Once again, Indiana has won the national championship in football. I just double checked.

00:19:35
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to listen live.

00:19:46
Speaker 2: Seaton, you got a poll question to start out this Thursday morning.

00:19:51
Speaker 9: Well, I'm trying to craft one based off of the Buffalo press conference. All right, I mean, do we keep it as simple as should owners speak yes or no?

00:20:01
Speaker 2: I loved it. Once again, I'm not a Buffalo Bill's fan. I certainly empathize with them of what happened. They lose again in heartbreaking fashion, and the owner gets there with the GM and all of a sudden back and forth and it became good content, is what it did. But owners should not get in front of the media, at least I wouldn't recommend it. But if you're not really a football guy, you know, you're a billionaire and you made your money elsewhere, you get in front of the media. And normally billionaires don't get in front of the media. They are probably wisely told not to do that because reporters can be pretty sharp hearing something, seeing something, saying something, and then all of a sudden, you're going to And it felt like we had a little bit of that yesterday. I'm still surprised that the owner, Terry Pegoula, said that it was his decision to bring in a new coach based on the results of the game in Denver. It just feels like that's where you need to take a couple of days, maybe even a week. Let's just let it die down. Yes heartbreaking. You saw Josh Allen crying in the locker room, and the owner said, hey, I'm kind of basing this off that too. I'm reading the room. You know, did we hit the wall? Okay, but it just felt strange with that owner and his reasoning. Here is the Buffalo Bill's owner.

00:21:35
Speaker 4: I did not fire coach based on a bad officiating decision. If I can take you into that locker room, I felt like we hit the proverbial playoff wall, year after year, thirteen seconds, missfield goals, the catch. I just sensed in that locker room, like, where do we go from here?

00:21:57
Speaker 2: Okay, but what is Sean mcder have to do with that missed field goals? The catch? I just felt like he got all the blame. Josh Allen deserves the blame at least in this game. Josh Allen plays like Josh Allen. We're not having this discussion. The owner did say he was asked about what if you won that game, and he said, well, I don't deal in hypotheticals, which is interesting, But you know, Josh Allen didn't play. Well, that's why they lost, not a catch, an interception. It was more than that. But am I gonna put that at the feet of Sean McDermott. That's where I think it's unfair if you don't think that he's a big time coach and he can't get you to the next level. Okay, but don't base it off one game that feels like you're reacting and you're not really letting this is set in a little bit. Let's just gather here. Did Sean mcdermam get a chance to fight for his job after that game? Did he get an audience with the owner to say, hey, we're really close. Who put the roster together? They had a lot of injuries. Everybody has injuries. I mean, it just felt like it was a blame game and they weren't really blaming the right people here. And then you got into this silly Keon Coleman's conversation there. I mean, here is the question. It's not even about Keon Coleman, the wide receiver out of Florida State. Uh, here's the question and the answer by Brandon being the GM.

00:23:42
Speaker 6: How do you answer the fact that you're not given Josh I've good enough wide receiver?

00:23:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I interrupt, I'll address the Keon situation. The coaching staff pushed to draft Kon. I'm not saying Brandon wouldn't have drafted him, but he wasn't his next choice. That was Brandon being a team player and taking advice of his coaching staff who.

00:24:12
Speaker 2: Felt strongly about the player.

00:24:15
Speaker 4: And he's taken for some reason heat over it and not saying a word about it. But I'm here to tell you the true story.

00:24:25
Speaker 2: Okay, what are you doing?

00:24:28
Speaker 4: What are you doing?

00:24:30
Speaker 2: It's not like the guy's an next player. Cam Coleman's still on the roster and he was a team player. You're the GM. Do you want him or don't you? And if you don't want him, you don't go. I'm going to be a team player. This should be on you. And yes, Keon Coleman, what was his second round pick? Everybody loved Keon Coleman. Remember the interview that he had, and like, oh, they're falling in love with this guy and per Now all of a sudden, are we going to name the coaches who wanted Keon Coleman because Brandon Bean didn't? I get just a weird And then the owner says, can I interrupt? Uh no, you can't. I mean, come on, yeah, see yeah.

00:25:17
Speaker 9: The problem one of the problems with this, of the many is that in modern day teams all have media departments, and media departments for the teams basically make many documentaries out of every single draft pick that the team makes. And it took the internet about two point five seconds to pull up Brandon Bean's mini documentary on drafting Keon Coleman, including all of his you know day I'll being like, hey, look, if our guy is there tomorrow, we're getting Keon Coleman. Okay, what are we doing with the draft pick? Unless somebody offers us something crazy, We're getting Keon Coleman.

00:25:47
Speaker 2: That's who we want. And it's Brandon Bean saying that, Well, he was just being a team player, like and all of a sudden, this isn't a desirable job, just like that would scare me. Now, if you haven't been a head coach, you get the opportunity to coach in that great city and with that quarterback. Okay, but if you said I could have Baltimore or Buffalo, I'm taking Baltimore. I trust Baltimore's front office ownership. But man, all of a sudden, you're like, wait a minute, here, I want to walk into that where the former GM who just got promoted but he's still going to be the GM, has the ear of the owner. If I'm the coach, and you saw this with John Harball, they already have their GM in place, Joe Shane John Harball. Let you know, John Harball is going to talk to the owner, because if you have that GM, chances are the GM is spending a whole lot more time with the owner then you will be and he'll have his ear. Yeah, PAULI going back.

00:26:52
Speaker 8: To that cut from the owner of the Bills. I saw that printed out yesterday when the Bills media is tweeting it out. It's way worse when you hear the audio. He's not is quoted, he's not loose. He directly says we really didn't want this guy, and the coaches push for it. Now, Keon Coleman has to wear that going forward OTAs if he doesn't start next year, Josh Allen has to answer.

00:27:13
Speaker 2: For it, Okay, And what happens when Josh Allen surfaces? What's your first question? Did you want Sean McDermott fire? Did ownership ask you about Sean mcdermotts? What do you think of Keon Coleman?

00:27:33
Speaker 3: Oh?

00:27:34
Speaker 2: Good, I mean, thank you, thank you? Terry? Can I interrupt for a second, yeah, oh cra oh craf. How silly is that? Also when he says, let me take you into the locker room, okay, like, oh now, when you say that, that's a trick, you know, sometimes that you'll get coaches say, or GM's or owner and let me take you in the locker room, and all of a sudden you're like, oh, let me sit up in my chair. Here, you're going to take us in the locker room. I want to know what happened in the locker Like you're reading the locker room Josh Allen's crying. Okay, I'm gonna guess he probably cried in the other playoff losses in his career. I'm guessing. So would you see guys who were emotional. I'm guessing that happens every year when Buffalo bounds out. It was just really strange and reactionary in the moment we lost, We're firing him.

00:28:34
Speaker 1: Now.

00:28:34
Speaker 2: Look for the last six weeks I've said it felt like there was something there. That's why you know, I asked prior to the game, is he coaching for his job? I didn't have any information other than a sense that there was something going on, and turns out there was.

00:28:52
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:28:52
Speaker 9: Ston I mean, if you go back, though, I'm surprised that people are as surprised as they are at Sean McDermott getting fired. But there are plenty of lists going into the season, even starting at the end of last season. Coaches that are on the hot seat, if it's a top five, top seven, whatever, Sean McDermott is is on a good portion of those.

00:29:11
Speaker 2: If they had lost that game at home, then I could see that you would consider firing Sean McDermott, or if they lost by two touchdowns. I mean it was a coin toss.

00:29:23
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:29:23
Speaker 9: I feel like you know, you had said before, did he have the ability to defend himself or try to get his job back?

00:29:30
Speaker 2: I feel like this season was that this was his chance to defend himself. First Hour A brought to you by the great folks at Dude Wipes switched to life changing extra large flushable Dude Wipes. Dude Wipes available at Amazon and major retailers nationwide. Dude Wipes best clean pants down. All right, So the poll question, are you going to be just straightforward with this?

00:29:56
Speaker 9: I am as a matter of fact, Dan, Let me ask you the poll question. Good owners speak at sports press conferences. Your options are no, hell no, absolutely not or sure I love it now. I don't want my owner speaking, and most owners don't speak. When do you think about it? I mean, Jerry Jones doesn't help his team when he speaks. He doesn't help his coach when he speaks. He helps Jerry Jones when Jerry Jones speaks. Mark Cuban, I thought help the Mavericks. I thought that he became a great cheerleader. But how many other owners do you hear in all of sports? I think about it.

00:30:36
Speaker 2: How many owners get in front of a microphone because they're probably told not to. You know, Robert Kraft, you know, fancies himself as you know, the spokesperson for the NFL, Arthur Blank, has done a little bit of that. But you know, for the most part, I don't want my owners speaking.

00:30:57
Speaker 1: Now.

00:30:58
Speaker 3: Did I like it?

00:30:59
Speaker 4: Yeah?

00:31:00
Speaker 2: I'm in the content business. I hope they have a press conference today.

00:31:07
Speaker 8: Yeah, Paully, I'll go on the other side of this a little bit. I think owners should be required to do one press conference a year, and the local reporters get to ask them fifteen minutes, twenty minutes.

00:31:17
Speaker 2: But you're saying required, Yeah, Terry Pagoula was not required to be there exactly.

00:31:22
Speaker 8: And I can imagine the PR staff of the Bills wanting to manage him before it and not getting a chance to.

00:31:29
Speaker 2: This is no. No, this is a guy who has all the answers. He's a billionaire.

00:31:34
Speaker 3: Who are you?

00:31:35
Speaker 2: This is my team? You know once he been there thirteen years, owns the Sabers. I get it, I get it. But you know, there's a lot of people who tell you what you want to hear in the building, but this is different. These are the reporters who want to know we just fired Sean McDermott, who's probably one of the top five coaches, how about top ten coaches in the NFL before he got fired, probably generally probably generally considered top ten.

00:32:09
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'm seeing a headline here from a Buffalo Bill's like blog Buffalo Rumblings. Terry Baola is first time taking questions in more than five years. Reinforces why he doesn't do that much. Yes, yes, and Buffalo has such a great PR department. I can only imagine they're gonna go, oh god, whoa, where are you going.

00:32:33
Speaker 8: Mister bla. I'm going up to the podium.

00:32:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sitting on this one.

00:32:36
Speaker 2: You want to stay in your press box, you want to I'm the owner. Let me get out in front of this, let me take this one. I got the answers.

00:32:43
Speaker 3: I got it.

00:32:45
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, oh dear, yeah, I didn't think we would be talking about that, you know today. I thought it would be just one of those exit Now, granted that there was serious nature about attention attached to it. But when the owner shows up, and I thought, okay, Randon Bean's going to be able to swat away these questions. But when the owner gets there and he wants to tell you how smart he is, and he wants to promote his general manager, and this is all Sean McDermott, and I read the locker room, and I okay, So that next coach who comes in, are you going to let him ease in? What if you bow out in the first round of the playoffs, What if you don't make the playoffs? Does this turn off any coaching candidates? Because man, you're only as good as the people above you. Success starts from above all of these places. I want to know who's your owner, who's your GM? How involved are they? How smart? Hard all day? What's their resume? And yesterday didn't give me a healthy dose of confidence if I'm moving forward with this, because now I know that GM who got promoted has the owner's ear and if you're a coach going in there, it's two against one and all of a sudden, Hey, my GM didn't draft that wide receiver who is still on the roster, and it was he was a team player.

00:34:33
Speaker 8: Yeah, PAULI, the GM, Brandon Bean is conditioned to this. He actually looked it up. He went to college for communications. Terry Pagula went to college for a degree in petroleum and natural gas engineering. Not a lot of public speaking.

00:34:45
Speaker 10: There no no yes, tudd And if you don't refer to things like play calling or clock management or something specific to the coach, it feels like that's a situation where if you're putting it on the coach, you've bet to cite something or you got to give us something and just not say the locker room look like they just hit a wall.

00:35:01
Speaker 2: Well he did. He said I didn't fire him based on a bad officiating decision, but he said that we hit the playoff wall year after year, thirteen seconds, missed field goal, the catch. So I sensed that the locker room like where do we go from here?

00:35:20
Speaker 3: And what do we have?

00:35:22
Speaker 2: And that was the basis for my decision. I don't know if anybody asked him. Did you have conversation with Josh Allen? I mean, that would be one of those questions in the moment, I'd like to know, did you talk to Josh Allen. I'm going to keep that between us. Yeah, I'm gonna care guys. Look, I'm not going to take you inside the locker room and share all that.

00:35:48
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to listen live.

00:36:00
Speaker 2: Jay Skursky covers the Buffalo Bills for the Buffalo News Beat writer for the Bills, Jay, when did you get word that the owner was going to show up at the press conference?

00:36:11
Speaker 11: That would have been the night before, so that would have been Tuesday evening, and the release was very generic, so we did not know whether Terry Paula is going to take questions. That's something he has not done since twenty nineteen. So in in many ways, this was kind of a monumental press conference in the sense of Terry Pagoula answering questions from the media.

00:36:32
Speaker 2: Okay, but when did you realize that this might go sideways?

00:36:38
Speaker 11: Well, if you know the history with Terry Pagoula and press conferences, you know that, you know that the possibility is there. He public speaking is not his strong suit. I think there are a few different reasons that he does it very rarely. It was obviously the interrupting the question about Keyon Coleman that it seemed to kind of get away from from Terry Pagoula. I think that was definitely the moment where he kind of stepped in it during the press conference. I'm sure if he could do it again, he would have taken that moment back. But yeah, that was That was certainly the moment where it was like, Okay, this is getting a little hairy here.

00:37:15
Speaker 2: But he wasn't even asked about Keon Coleman.

00:37:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, he was not.

00:37:20
Speaker 11: Now the question was directed to Brandon Bean and it was about the wide receiver room in general and support for Josh Allen.

00:37:25
Speaker 3: It was a very fair question.

00:37:27
Speaker 11: It was a topic really throughout the season here in Buffalo, and for the owner to interject himself in that way, I think really created a mess for his general manager to try and clean up.

00:37:36
Speaker 2: But I'm trying to understand. He said that this was based on that game the outcome in Denver. I don't know. Did he address Josh Allen's role in that game and how poor he performed.

00:37:50
Speaker 3: He did not know.

00:37:51
Speaker 11: I mean he the only mention of Josh Allen that he made was just how devastated he was in the locker room after the game. And if you you know Josh Allen's postgame press conference, you could see it.

00:38:03
Speaker 3: I agree with Pegoula.

00:38:04
Speaker 11: It was easily the most emotional, most devastated that I have seen the quarterback during his time in Buffalo. And listen, they've had some heartbreaking playoff failures here with Josh Allen. But the difference in this one, I think in many ways, and Josh Allen alluded to it, is that the quarterback feels like he cost his team the game because he did turn the ball over as much as he did. Were accustomed to Josh Allen playing terrific football in the playoffs, even if it doesn't result in a Bill's win. Unfortunately, in this game for the Bills against the Broncos, Josh Allen did not do that.

00:38:37
Speaker 2: I wondered, and I said this leading up to the game, if he was coaching for his job. Turns out that he was coaching for his job. Could he have kept his job without anything other than a Super Bowl appearance?

00:38:51
Speaker 11: I am skeptical of that. I asked Terry Pagoula that question, that very question yesterday. Had they won and lost in the AFC Championship Game or lost in the Super Bowl, would we'll be sitting here today talking about Sean Sean McDermott being fired. Pagoula said he didn't want to speculate it speculate on that, but a non answer in that situation, to me almost reads affirmative. I do think that he was coaching for his job and anything short of a Super Bowl this year was going to lead to a change.

00:39:19
Speaker 2: Anybody talked to coach McDermott, I have.

00:39:23
Speaker 3: Just through text.

00:39:25
Speaker 11: He was incredibly gracious, as you would imagine. I thought the statement that he put out was just pure class, which is kind of if you've been around Seawan and know Sean, the way that I do was to be expected, you know. I think that what's really interesting here, Dan is that I think a lot of people, over the past few years and the playoff failures, have sort of thought that, hey, maybe this is the route that the Bills need to go. That they need to change, you know, make a change that Sean McDermott has taken them as far as that he can. But when that changed was actually made, the reaction amongst many of the fans has been overwhelming sadness and sort of you know, feeling for a guy who wanted nothing more than to bring a Super Bowl to Buffalo.

00:40:11
Speaker 2: I think the fans probably would may have been a I'm not gonna say joyous, joyous, but if you had John Harball available, Mike Tomlin's not going to coach, But who's coming in and who is that person who takes you to the next level? Because if you're walking in, I'm expecting that that owner is expecting you to be the difference here, there is.

00:40:36
Speaker 11: An immense amount of pressure on whoever takes this job. The expectation is win a super Bowl, and win it in your first year. I did some research on that. There have been seven coaches in league history of who have reached the Super Bowl in their first season.

00:40:50
Speaker 3: Four of them have won it.

00:40:52
Speaker 11: Falling anything short of that is going to be deemed a failure and is going to be the question is going to be asked, well, why'd you move on from Sean mcderman in the first place. If this new guy can't even get us, you know, to the Super Bowl. So while the job obviously has its advantages, right coaching Josh Allen, one of the best players on the planet makes it makes it an attractive job. It's got a rabid fan base, It's moving into a new stadium next year. There are a lot of positives to this job, but the pressure that it comes with, I think is unlike any job really in the NFL.

00:41:24
Speaker 3: The only maybe fair comparison is the Ravens opening.

00:41:27
Speaker 2: Do you think the Bills are going to regret this?

00:41:32
Speaker 11: It's a hard question to answer if I had to answer today, just because of that pressure, and you know what failure looks like for a new head coach.

00:41:41
Speaker 3: I think they very well could.

00:41:44
Speaker 11: I do want to point out that it can work out, right, We've seen changes like this have have been made in the past, and you know, maybe the best example is with Peyton Manning and the Broncos when John Elway replaced John Fox with Gary Kubiak the first season, they go on and they win it all. So it can work, but a lot of things have to go right. You have to nail the head coaching higher and Brandon Bean has to do a better job building a roster around Josh Allen. I think that was when we talk about the fallout of McDermott being fired. A lot of people looking at this saying they fired the wrong guy because they don't think there was a championship caliber roster built around Josh Allen and that falls to Brandon Bean.

00:42:23
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:42:23
Speaker 2: I thought they overachieved this year. And yes, I know the window of opportunity was there with the other quarterbacks, marquee quarterbacks who didn't make it this far. I'm guess I don't know. Does Josh Allen do an exit interview? Is he going to be available for the media?

00:42:40
Speaker 11: Yeah, that was the first sign that maybe something was a little bit off. We did not hear from him on Sunday, the day after the season ended for locker clean out we always have in the past. We were told at that time Josh Allen wanted a couple of days to sort of process the season. Knowing the emotion that he had Saturday night, I think we all respected that and understood it. With someone very close to Josh Allen last night, he expressed confidence in Terry Pegoula and Brandon Bean moving forward. I do not expect that we will hear from Josh Allen in a press conference setting or in a public setting until the Bills hire a new head coach.

00:43:16
Speaker 2: What is your question for Josh Allen?

00:43:19
Speaker 3: What was your reaction to Sean McDermott being fired?

00:43:22
Speaker 11: Is the first question, because without hearing from Josh Allen, and with the way that Terry Pegoula answered the question about was your starting quarterback on board with this decision basically sidestepping the question, I think it does invite some cloudiness, some mystery in terms of how Alan really felt about it. I think the relationship with McDermott and Allen had really strengthened in recent years. And it Listen, it's the only head coach he's ever known in the NFL, And so how is he taking this?

00:43:55
Speaker 3: Like I said, I.

00:43:55
Speaker 11: Spoke with someone very close to him who did tell me that he's not ready to speak publicly, but he is confident in Pagoula and being moving forward. But I think we need to fully kind of explore that idea and that topic with him.

00:44:11
Speaker 2: You bring up a tell though, when he doesn't do what he's done before. Yes, it's emotional. I'm guessing he's been really emotional with all of these playoff losses. But it's almost as if I'm not going to speak to you because I know what's coming. I know that my coach is going to get fired. I don't want to be talking to you on Sunday knowing he's getting fired Monday.

00:44:34
Speaker 3: I mean, you're not wrong in feeling that.

00:44:36
Speaker 11: I think there's certainly that sentiment is out there, and the evidence would suggest. I would say, though, Dan, that the reality was that this loss did hit harder. Just seeing how devastated he was in that locker room was unlike anything we've seen. And listen, we've lived through thirteen seconds, We've lived through miss field goals. We've lived through you know, fourth and one being stopped in the AFC Championship game in Camp the city where it looked like you should have had a first down. I mean, he has been through it in the postseason. But there may be a part of Josh Allen, whether he knew Sean McDermott was getting fired or not, there may be a part of him that had that realization that we have gone as far as we can go together as a quarterback and head coach.

00:45:17
Speaker 3: And it's not far enough.

00:45:19
Speaker 2: Jay, great stuff. Thanks for joining us.

00:45:21
Speaker 3: Appreciate you having me, Dan, Thank you.

00:45:23
Speaker 2: Jay Skersky. He covers the Buffalo bills for the Buffalo News.