Bills owner made call to fire coach in locker room after loss

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula said he made the decision to fire coach Sean McDermott in the locker room after the divisional round loss to the Denver Broncos, as he felt the team had hit “the proverbial playoff wall.”

“My decision to bring in a new coach was based on the results of our game in Denver,” Pegula, 74, said during a 54-minute interview session Wednesday that included general manager Brandon Beane, who was also made president of football operations this week.

The owner, however, did not base the decision just off the result of the game, but instead, from the collection of events that had taken place over years in the postseason.

Pegula, who took questions for the first time in at least six years, said the sadness of the locker room, quarterback Josh Allen’s tears and other players’ despair impacted him. He said he also told Allen that he believed the controversial overtime catch-turned-interception should have been ruled a catch for Brandin Cooks.

“I did not fire Coach [McDermott] based on a bad officiating decision. If I can take you into that locker room, I felt like we hit the proverbial playoff wall year after year — 13 seconds, missed field goal, the catch. So, I just sensed in that locker room, like, where do we go from here with what we have? And that was the basis for my decision.”

Pegula defended his decision-making and the work that Beane has done over the years, often cutting off reporters’ questions and Beane’s attempts to answer.

The owner said he made the decision to fire McDermott on his own, and it hadn’t crossed his mind to do so until he was in the locker room after the game. Pegula said Allen did not have input, but he said that he did have a later conversation with the quarterback that he wants to keep private.

Pegula said the quarterback will be involved in the team’s search for a new coach.

“It had nothing to do with disconnect or discord, anything like that,” Beane said of Pegula’s decision. “He felt that this team needed a different voice after what he witnessed and was a part of in the locker room after the Denver game.”

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Pegula also doubled down on his belief that the overtime play was a catch, cutting off Beane’s answer when asked about what led the group to falling short after the general manager had said they had a championship-level roster at the trade deadline.

“A bad call,” Pegula said.

When it comes to the decision to promote Beane while firing McDermott, Pegula noted the team’s success this year and stability over time.

“You see teams in the league — I’m not going to mention team names — but they have a great year, good year, and the next year the success doesn’t continue,” Pegula said. “You don’t get in the playoffs seven straight years in this National Football League, where there are very few blowouts and dozens and dozens of close games every year. You don’t get there without having talent and a great organization, and Brandon and his staff have brought in, regularly, players.

“I mean, look at the injuries we had this year. We’re down, guys on the practice squad contributing in big games. You don’t do that without talent in the front office.”

Beane said that he is not planning to hire someone else as general manager and instead will keep both roles. The new coach will report to Beane.

Pegula defended Beane several times, including saying Allen wouldn’t be with the organization if not for the general manager. Beane said the idea that he tried to sway the owner to keep his job and earn more responsibilities over McDermott is one that is hurtful, while Pegula said that he doesn’t like “power-play people” and that the general manager would have been gone if he sensed that.

“I worked 19 seasons, starting as an intern in Carolina, and worked my way up. I came here, and I’ve never tried to do that,” Beane said. “I would love for anyone who’s making that accusation to walk in these doors and ask any person, player, coach, trainer, anyone. People can disagree with draft picks that I make, or people I sign, or I screwed up the wide receivers, whatever it is, [but] those are harmful, harmful things that — I walk in the door and my wife’s got tears coming down her face for stuff like that.

“I’m going to damn try hard to win a Super Bowl here. I am. But for somebody to question my character like that is B.S., and I’ve never done that.”

Beane did, however, take responsibility for his role in the team falling short in the playoffs, saying there are things he could have done better, and that no one puts more pressure on him than himself.

“I bear guilt, blame, responsibility,” Beane said.

Pegula on multiple times noted the seeding the Bills had in the playoffs under McDermott and that it was “great roster, good coaching, no Super Bowl appearance,” and that he was left wondering how to overcome the playoff failures. However, when asked just how much responsibility goes on the roster construction compared to coaching when expectations fall short, Pegula didn’t have an answer.

“That’s a hard question to answer,” Pegula said. “I don’t know the answer to that really.”

The other question that the owner did not want to delve into is if McDermott would still be the coach if the Bills had won in Denver.

“I don’t speculate on that,” Pegula said. “It is what it is.”