Yahoo Ranks Bills Owner Wilson No. 26 In NFL

I wish him another 10 years of living, and surely the jokes can’t be taken all that seriously — the man is in Canton… age and senility is easy to pick on, especially in our youth loving culture. The real joke is that he refuses to work out any sort of plan that truly appreciates and respects the wishes of people in WNY to maintain a competitive football team in the area both now and in the future. I hope that changes as well, and then maybe we’ll see him move up that list.

I will admit I was a bit offended for Ralph. I love the media types that conveniently forget that without Ralph Wilson (and Lamar Hunt) the NFL would not exist as it does today and might be playing second fiddle to Major League Baseball or some other sport. Also, in spite of all of the shortcomings of the market in which he chose to place his football team, Ralph is one of (if not the biggest) supporter of keeping teams in the cities that have housed them for so long. Let’s face it, in the late 70"s/early 80"s, Ralph could have easily packed this team up and moved to greener pastures, he didn’t. For all of the crap people like to heap on Ralph, he has and always will have a strong loyalty to a town that most people consider a joke of a city. What would Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft or Tom Benson do if their city was under the economic disaster that Buffalo continually finds itself in…. they would scatter like cockroaches when the lights go on. Thanks for being a decent guy Ralph….some of us appreciate it.

I rank Yahoo #26 in relevant search engines.

I’d rank Ralph fourth-last after Al Davis, Mike Brown and the Glazers. Al is just a crazy specimen with no idea of what to do with all the money and responsibility that an owner has. Mike Brown is one of the cheapest men you’ll ever find in professional sports – low-balls everybody and has never been popular with the fans and with good reason. The Glazers used to be solid owners of a solid franchise but the last few years – as the article correctly states – they’ve simply stopped the cash flow to the Bucs which has made it virtually impossible for the Bucs to compete with other teams because they’re always 20-30 million under the cap (last year they were 22,3 million dollars under the cap according to askthecommish.com).
In terms of Ralph, his issue has to me been that he for the last ten years has had no clue what to do with this football team; he has hired the “proven guy” in Donahoe, who was butt-awful at being the GM of this franchise. Then he made a gigantic mistake turning to 80-year-old Marv Levy, whom he apparently thought could just create a playoff team though the guy had never made any personal decisions during his tenure here (Polian did that). The thing that drives me nuts about Ralph is 1) his stubborness which has never helped him much and 2) his propensity to meddle with the decisions (like drafting Marshawn) when he has proven that he has really as much of a clue in terms of running a successful franchise as the local pizza guy.

I recall Silver had Wilson ranked 31st last year. I’m not sure what causes the fluctuation or the need to write this column annually.

I’m no fan of Wilson’s, but I agree that the constant snickering at his age is in poor taste. I wish Wilson well in terms of serious matters like health, but I have so many issues with how he has run his franchise in recent years (I won’t re-hash the list of complaints) that I agree with calling him out for ineptitude when possible.

Can someone explain what happens with the ownership of the Bills when Mr. Wilson passes? Does the team go up for sale? Stay in the family? What?

I’ll not pretend to know the guy. But from his accomplishments he deserves respect. He’s been around so long he’s bound to make mistakes, but overall he’s been a decent owner.