While there were a few undercurrents prior to it, the news of Sean McDermott being fired was nearly universally seen as a surprise. Even among fans who had been calling it, the arrival was a bit of a shock.
There are lot of opinions on the move out there, but in true Skarekrow fashion I aim to give you the weirdest one yet. I see the move as being a lot like the story of me and my first dishwasher.
WTF are you talking about — a dishwasher?
Yes, a dishwasher. I was lucky enough to grow up around “handy” people. My dad loves the DIY life, I had gearhead friends, and a rural school with more tech and ag options than many colleges (I had a midterm once that involved a chainsaw). I consider myself a somewhat “handy” guy as a result of all this. I do however have some reluctance when it comes to major repairs on things I could be more familiar with.
When we bought our house it came with a dishwasher. The first I’ve ever owned. It worked well and I appreciated not having to do things by hand so much. Then the control panel started wearing out. You’d have to press the buttons hard, or find the sweet spot in certain cases. Aside from that it worked well. By objective metrics it was a great dishwasher. Maybe it fell short of similar models with the glitch from time to time, but it washed the heck out of those dishes.
As you might assume, the control panel didn’t pull a “Christine” and repair itself. It wasn’t going to improve on its own and slowly I could tell it was getting worse. While reluctant to try and repair it myself, there’s always a tipping point for me. Some moment of clarity that I need to do something before it all goes to hell and I’m left with a disaster.
Sometimes the tipping point is easy. When my Xbox 360 had the red ring of death that was an easy decision. Sure, I had never needed to use thermal paste in my life before but it was cheap and it’s not like I could make it worse than it was already.
Sometimes there’s a cost-to-benefit ratio involved in the decision. When my car stereo broke I didn’t want to pull the trigger on buying a new one even though this was a repair I felt comfortable with. When it became evident it was creating an electrical draw that was creating issues for my battery, it forced my hand. One problem had started to bleed into another. Even still I lived with it for a bit until time put a cheaper stereo head in my hands to make the pain of change a little easier.
I’ve been one of the most ardent defenders of Sean McDermott the last few years. I’ve pointed out how the “McDermott defense” has some philosophical stability but has been intensely variable over the years. I’ve pointed out how much he’s changed in his use of analytics and making good calls based on them. A far cry from the coach I was seething over when he called a punt in snowvertime. Sean McDermott the person seems like a good dude, and the response from his players seems to back that up as does the now common use of the word “love” when players and coaches are talking about each other in press conferences.
So what do I think of Sean McDermott being fired? I’ll start with something I know. Like me, Terry Pegula saw something that was a lot like my old dishwasher. The Buffalo Bills don’t have the red ring of death. They’re not listening to music over a cell phone speaker while the Harman Kardon system with amp and subwoofer stand by idly. Everything was working, but we know that things could be a little better.
Now where is the problem? Is it the little flexy strip of glued-on buttons that I could peel off and try to readjust? Was it the strip of wires? The connection to the circuit board on the inside? The board itself?
What’s the problem with Buffalo? Is it Sean McDermott? Brandon Beane? A curse from being built over a Native American burial ground? Something else?
I popped off the buttons. I cleaned them. Readjusted them. I tried the strip of wires. I looked at the connectors. I looked at the board. I started with one thing and kept working to get that dishwasher working the way we all wanted it to work. In the end it was corrosion in a few areas that simply couldn’t be fixed. The corrosion got worse. What ended up working was starting over with a new machine entirely.
I got my Xbox working just fine. For awhile. Then the same thing happened. So I cleaned it up, redid the thermal paste again and got my Xbox back. Then it got the red ring of death again. Thermal paste. Red ring. Thermal paste. Red ring. I got so good at it, I could do the job in under 15 minutes.
I got the car stereo in and there’s been zero issues with it since. There’s been no battery drain and on clear nights you can likely hear those Harman Kardons blasting a mile before you see me.
When a thing isn’t working the way it should sometimes you reach the point where you have to try and fix it. As much as I love the Bills and where they’ve been for nearly a decade, I can see where Terry Pegula has reached the fix-it point with the team. He made his choice on where to start with the fixes and that was with Sean McDermott.
What type of fix will this end up being? I love McDermott, but the best case is this is instant success like the stereo swap. I hope it’s not a red-ring-of-death situation where we go back and forth over and over again with the same result repeating. I’m crossing my fingers Pegula won’t need to move to the next thing, then the next after that, only to realize a complete replacement was necessary like the dishwasher.
All I can do in this moment is say “thank you” to Sean McDermott for helping to turn around the franchise I was born to ride or die with.
