{"id":714046,"date":"2026-01-29T13:29:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/714046\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T13:29:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:29:21","slug":"was-that-messy-bills-press-conference-really-a-disaster-a-former-owner-and-gm-weigh-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/714046\/","title":{"rendered":"Was that messy Bills press conference really a \u2018disaster\u2019? A former owner and GM weigh in"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story is part of Peak,\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak\u2019s newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Buffalo Bills will hold a news conference to introduce their new head coach, Joe Brady, hoping for a smoother briefing than the one that unfolded last week.<\/p>\n

At that news conference, owner Terry Pegula and general manager Brandon Beane met with reporters to explain the decision to fire head coach Sean McDermott and outlined the team\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

About 15 minutes in, a reporter asked Beane about drafting wide receiver Keon Coleman with the No. 33 pick in 2024. The Bills had hoped Coleman would contribute immediately, but inconsistency and disciplinary issues have limited his impact.<\/p>\n

Before Beane could answer, however, Pegula jumped in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coaching staff pushed to draft Keon,\u201d Pegula said, adding that Coleman was not Beane\u2019s top choice and that the GM had taken heat for the pick without deflecting blame.<\/p>\n

Despite Beane later pushing back, saying Coleman was his pick and he stood by the selection, it was too late. Pegula\u2019s comments caused a full news cycle of consternation and backlash, with much of the focus on the owner indirectly throwing a player \u201cunder the bus.<\/a>\u201d The gambit was, depending on the source, \u201ca disaster\u201d<\/a>, \u201charmful<\/a>\u201d and \u201centirely uncalled for<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

From a leadership standpoint, it highlighted the balancing act of trying to protect those underneath you while not undercutting their authority. Pegula had stepped in publicly to defend Beane. Yet by explaining the internal process, Pegula risked putting more attention on both the player and the staff. Was it worth it?<\/p>\n

Using this moment as a leadership case study, we spoke with voices representing each side of the situation \u2014 a former owner, a former longtime general manager and a leadership expert \u2014 to explore how Pegula handled the situation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Terry Pegula, owner, CEO and president of the Buffalo Bills and Brandon Beane, general manager (Tina MacIntyre-Yee \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

An owner\u2019s take<\/p>\n

As the backlash to Pegula\u2019s comments grew, I reached out to Mark Cuban, former majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks. He had a different perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fine with it,\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n

Cuban bought the Mavericks in 2000 and owned them until December 2023. During his time as an owner, he was never afraid to make a point through the media and in public, even if that came with heavy fines from the NBA.<\/p>\n

Cuban\u2019s view was that Pegula knew Beane wouldn\u2019t say anything bad about the coaches, but he likely wanted it on record that Beane wasn\u2019t fully responsible for the pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see doing the same thing because I know that the media and fans would hold that pick over the GM\u2019s head,\u201d Cuban said. \u201cBy clarifying what happened, he reduced the stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuban said he had done something similar many times when there were issues that fans were upset about.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s smart,\u201d Cuban said of Pegula\u2019s decision to share the context behind the pick. \u201cI\u2019ll have a discussion with the media and let them know what is going on, or if it was continuous negative press about one of our players that I wanted to end, I would do something to get fined.\u201d<\/p>\n

His reasoning: An owner should communicate for \u201cthe benefit of fans.\u201d He believes that Pegula would face criticism either way, but if he can show that the decision was collective, it can ease the pressure on everyone involved.<\/p>\n

An expert\u2019s take<\/p>\n

I asked Amy Edmondson, a Harvard professor who studies leadership and management, to watch a link to the news conference for her thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a double-edged sword,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She explained that Pegula stepping in on Beane\u2019s behalf might help correct unfair blame, but it also risks undermining his authority, especially if done too often.<\/p>\n

Yet Edmondson viewed the situation as Pegula feeling that Beane was being unfairly blamed for something that was a collective decision, which is what she believes leaders should do: Listen to the opinions of those around them and compromise. Edmondson interpreted Pegula\u2019s answer as an attempt to show that Beane valued the opinions of those around him during a big decision. To Edmondson, Pegula probably knew that if Beane explained that, he could come off as defensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it something that you\u2019d want to see all the time \u2014 the most senior executive sort of leaning in?\u201d Edmondson said. \u201cNo, of course not. But I don\u2019t think we\u2019re seeing, at least from that clip, that he\u2019s constantly undermining the authority of Beane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edmondson said, in some ways, Pegula was modeling what she calls \u201cteaming\u201d \u2014 a dynamic that encourages innovation and problem-solving as a group. Open communication is critical to teaming.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not \u2018I\u2019m the owner, this guy\u2019s the general manager, everybody stays in their lane, everybody answers the questions addressed to them,\u2019\u201d Edmondson said. \u201cNo, we\u2019re a team, right? I think he was trying to illustrate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As someone who studies leadership behavior, Edmondson said Pegula was likely trying to come off as honest and caring, maybe even looking to give his general manager a \u201ctiny moment of praise in a bad situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

A general manager\u2019s take<\/p>\n

Finally, I called Bill Polian, the Hall of Fame general manager who held the GM title for three different franchises, including the Buffalo Bills from 1986 to 1992, when they appeared in four consecutive Super Bowls.<\/p>\n

He hadn\u2019t seen the news conference and had only read excerpts from this specific moment in a few articles, so he wanted to keep his thoughts general.<\/p>\n

He said it\u2019s very common in the NFL for general managers, coaches and sometimes owners to make it clear to everyone before the draft that while there might be debate and differing opinions about a player, once a decision is made, that player belongs to the team that drafted him and remains theirs until he leaves.<\/p>\n

Therefore, in Polian\u2019s opinion, there\u2019s no point in publicly talking about the process.<\/p>\n

He emphasized that he is in no way criticizing Pegula. \u201cHis heart\u2019s in the right place,\u201d Polian told me. \u201cI know him. I think highly of him. I think he\u2019s a very fine man. And as I say, I\u2019ve made a ton of mistakes myself in these kinds of situations. So I can speak from experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, in this specific situation, Pegula did decide to let everyone in on some of the process, and when I asked Polian how, as a leader, you know that it\u2019s the right time to ever do this, he didn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not being flippant when I give you the answer,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m serious. Unless you\u2019re under subpoena or oath, it\u2019s never the right time. There is never a right time to air that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polian cited two pieces of wisdom he received.<\/p>\n

The first piece he learned from Jim Finks, a former NFL player who went on to have a Hall of Fame career as a general manager: Players play, coaches coach, scouts scout, general managers manage and owners own.<\/p>\n

The second, he learned from Hall of Fame coach Paul Brown: When you win, say little. And when you lose, say less.<\/p>\n

He believed in the saying, but didn\u2019t truly feel it until his own experience proved it. Every mistake he made, he said, came from speaking before he gave himself the chance to step back, reflect and revisit the situation after a \u201ccouple of good nights\u2019 sleep\u201d and a fresh perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cImmediacy is not your friend in these situations,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s never wise, in any circumstance, to go into the details.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is part of Peak,\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,2086,7,6,4864,156],"class_list":["post-714046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-buffalo-bills","tag-bills","tag-buffalo","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-buffalobills","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-peak","tag-sports-business"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115978631811757209","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}