Another Failure of Management

Let me take you back to some very insightful and provocative comments made last June by Brian Galliford:

"Character."  It's the overriding quality of hard work and "team player" that former Buffalo Bills GM Marv Levy and his regime worked hard to build a new team around in his two-year run from 2006 to 2007.  Those two character-based teams finished 7-9 in consecutive years under the leadership of Dick Jauron, and with the team moving in the correct direction talent-wise, Levy saw fit to retire for a second time from the Bills organization, which handed the reigns to a trio of Levy's understudies...

Five Offensive Players With Issues
Clearly, the affair du jours is RB Marshawn Lynch's apparent hit-and-run incident from this past weekend.  If it's found that Lynch was the driver and fled the scene of the accident, he'll be charged with a high-level misdemeanor and face up to a year of jail time; we haven't even discussed league punishment yet…. 

What is "Character"?
Maybe Bills fans - including yours truly - have been working under a different assumption of what the word "character" means than the Bills organization itself has.  Often misrepresented as "choir boys" or other assorted metaphors, I've personally always viewed character players as guys who work hard, buy into the team attitude, and do their job the right way.  Naturally, given this viewpoint (which I'm positive isn't shared by everyone here), I've been disappointed with some of the issues that have arisen this off-season, specifically in the case of Lynch, Hardy and Parrish….

But there's also an important part of character that is going to play a big factor in the future of the three guys I just mentioned - learning from your mistakes.  Will Lynch learn from his mistake, follow through on the legal process, accept his punishment and keep his nose clean?...”

Today

Here we are, 8 months later, having gone 7-9 again; the team built with “character” has failed on that level also.  Lynch learned nothing from his “mistake” (How hard is it not to carry a gun?)  Clearly, the Bills’ management made a serious mistake when they drafted Lynch based on some standard that he had at least enough “character” to stay out of jail (a pretty low standard.)  Not only are they horrible at judging talent, they can’t judge character either.  Is the party line that we draft people of “character” just an excuse for fielding a less than mediocre team?  Let’s face it:  as long as Ralph (HoF) Wilson owns this team, we will not compete.  He does not have a clue when it comes to putting together an organization of competent, responsible professionals.