How One Owner Broke America's Most Heartbreaking Football Team: The Buffalo Bills

Thanks for watching all the way through. Subscribe below https://www.youtube.com/@FadedStandin... Four days after the Buffalo Bills lost Super Bowl XXVII on 31 January 1993, general manager Bill Polian announced at a news conference on 4 February that he was being let go, and took no questions. Three days later owner Ralph Wilson told The Buffalo News, "I'm being very honest, there was some friction there." On 19 December 2000 Wilson dismissed general manager John Butler, whose contract was due to expire on 28 February 2001, and said, "I could never get anything definitive from him." On 7 January 2001 he fired head coach Wade Phillips after Phillips refused to fire special teams coach Ronnie Jones. According to ESPN's sources, Phillips told Wilson, "If he goes, I go," and Wilson answered, "Then you're gone." The Bills won four straight division titles from 1988 to 1991 and lost four straight Super Bowls. From 1993 to 1999 they made the playoffs five times in seven seasons. Their last playoff game of that era was the Music City Miracle loss in Tennessee on 8 January 2000. On 10 February 2000 the Bills released Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith and Andre Reed. The 2001 Bills went 3-13. The drought lasted 17 seasons, from 2000 through 2016, and ended on 31 December 2017. By then Tom Brady had beaten Buffalo in 27 of 30 regular-season games. The video tests Wilson's decisions against age and the salary cap, quarterbacks, drafts, coaching changes and Brady, and concludes that the drought was not one man's doing. Tom Donahoe, hired as general manager and president in January 2001, lasted five seasons and the Bills went 31-49 under him. Wilson fired him on 4 January 2006 and Marv Levy returned as general manager. Wilson died on 25 March 2014 at the age of 95. Terry and Kim Pegula agreed to buy the team in September 2014 for a record 1.4 billion dollars, and NFL owners approved the sale in October. In May 2012 Polian told a Buffalo radio show that his relationship with Wilson had always been great. Levy introduced Polian at the Pro Football Hall of Fame on 8 August 2015. Sources disagree on some points. Wikipedia lists Donahoe's record as 31-48; the season records add up to 31-49, and the video uses 31-49. One account says Phillips claimed Wilson ordered Rob Johnson to start the playoff game of January 2000; no contemporary source was found, so the video does not state it. The words "I want him gone" and the exchange between Phillips and Wilson come from ESPN's sources, not from an on-record statement, and the video attributes them that way. The Buffalo News reported in February 1993 that Levy called Wilson after Polian's firing; the video does not use it. Polian's story of Wilson thinking for fifteen seconds before signing Jim Kelly is Polian's own telling. Wilson's reasons for the 1993, 2000 and 2001 decisions are his own accounts as reported at the time. The video does not claim to know his motives beyond them. Built from newspaper and wire reporting of 1993 to 2015, league and club records and box scores. Sources The Seattle Times, on Bill Polian's announcement, 5 February 1993 The Buffalo News, Ralph Wilson's interview on the Polian decision, February 1993 The Buffalo News and Associated Press, on John Butler's contract and dismissal, December 2000 ESPN, on the firing of Wade Phillips and the hiring of Tom Donahoe, 7 to 9 January 2001: https://www.espn.com/nfl/news/2001/01... ESPN, Chris Mortensen, on the Phillips firing, 2001: https://www.espn.com.br/chrismortense... ABC News and CBS News, on the Phillips firing, January 2001: https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?i... and https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bills-fi... ESPN, 2001 NFL season preview, on Buffalo's offseason changes Football Outsiders, special teams ratings, 1993 onward The Buffalo News, on Ralph Wilson's call to Marv Levy, January 2006 Bills.com and Buffalo Rumblings, on Bill Polian's Bills Wall of Fame induction, May 2012 New York Daily News, on Marv Levy introducing Bill Polian in Canton, 8 August 2015 Indianapolis Business Journal, Bill Polian on the Cornelius Bennett trade Pro-Football-Reference, Buffalo Bills franchise encyclopedia, season records, drafts and box scores, seen 15 October 2026 Pro Football Hall of Fame, biographies of Bill Polian and Marv Levy