Terry Pegula tarnishing legacy as Bills owner after mishandling head coach firing

The Bills dismissed their longtime head coach on Monday, which will force the Bills to endure a transition in leadership for the first time in nearly a decade.

Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula in attendance as the Pittsburgh Steelers host the Bills at Acrisure Stadium. | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Terry Pegula has done plenty of good for the city of Buffalo.

His purchase of the community’s two major professional sports organizations, his charitable work — there is a lot to be thankful for.

But as time has passed, his ownership has grown toxic.

He has had the Bills’ success to hide behind these past many years, much of which has been thanks to others, not his own savviness. And while it may have been the right time to make a change, the franchise is now without one of the its cornerstones, former Head Coach Sean McDermott, who was fired on Monday in shameful fashion by the organization for which he poured his guts out.

And after dismissing McDermott in despicable fashion, Pegula is one bad hiring away from completely destroying his once-promising legacy as owner of Buffalo's sports conglomerate.

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Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott talks with team owner Terry Pegula during team drills. | Shawn Dowd/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK

Better get it right

McDermott saved the Bills’ organization from years of futility. And judging based on Pegula’s dealings with his other franchise, the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres — one of the worst teams in the league over the past decade and a half — his track record of hiring head coaches is an embarrassment. During the Sabres’ current 14-season playoff drought, the team has cycled through six head coaches before returning to the first head coach that served under Pegula, Lindy Ruff.

And while the Sabres seem to be on their way out of their lengthy rut, there isn’t a soul on earth that will give Pegula any credit if they are to do so. He doesn’t deserve any.

Now, the Sabres were not meant to be the subject of this article. All of this is to ask: without such a stable leader as McDermott over the past nine seasons, where would the Bills be? Would their playoff own playoff drought have extended far beyond the 17 seasons it lasted before McDermott entered as the organization's saviour?

God only knows.

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Bills owner Terry Pegula (L) visits with head coach Sean McDermott during training camp at St. John Fisher University. | Jamie Germano/Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK

Life before McDermott

Enough talk about the Sabres. On the Bills’ side of things, before McDermott’s ‘process' rescued the team, Pegula inexplicably hired Rex Ryan, which proved to be an utter disaster. Ryan went 15-16 in two years as head coach, during which he turned the Bills’ locker room into a country club.

After McDermott took over, the Bills finally found respectability for the first time since the late 1990s, with the former head coach posting a 106-58 record, including playoffs. His team went to the playoffs in seven consecutive seasons, won the AFC East title five straight times and advanced to two AFC Championship Games.

Now, all that is in the past, and the franchise is tasked with moving forward and finding a new man to take over at the helm and either maintain or extend further the successful program McDermott built over the years.

A tall task indeed. One that Pegula must conquer successfully if he hopes to swing his approval rating among the city’s passionate fan base, which currently sits at an all-time low.

The Bills' owner has to nail this upcoming coaching hire. If he fails, there will be a stain left on his tenure that won’t be so easy to wash away.

And the fan base will never forgive him.

Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula (left), head coach Sean McDermott, owner Kim Pegula and general manager Doug Whaley (with football) after a press conference at AdPro Sports Training Center. | Kevin Hoffman-Imagn Images

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