The set-up: It was the 2000 season and the Bills had just gone 8-8. In a nutshell: The team was in transition. It was the year after Bruce Smith, Cornelius Bennett, Thurman Thomas, Thomas Smith and Kurt Schulz were let go by the team. However, to say that the special teams unit was in transition, would be a understatement. The 1999 season ended when the Titans pulled a miracle out of their asses.
The Music City had occurred (Hmm, I think that what if? will make this countdown?). Of course, somebody had to take the fall and that would be Bruce DeHaven. It wasn’t Bruce’s fault, as many players/coaches had mentioned that he reminded the players to stay in their lanes and watch for the lateral. They obviously didn’t listen and were already thinking about partying later at Utopia. Anyways, DeHaven was canned by Phillips. Enter: Ronnie Jones. Yes, the man who decided to sport a damn mullet.
Rumor has it, Jones was hired by Wade because he was going to help Wade’s son get a football scholarship at some college. The crazy thing was that Ronnie had absolutely no special teams coaching experience. None. Zip. His previous job was at the University of Texas El Paso, as a defensive coordinator. If you want to know about his NFL experience, well, he was the defensive coordinator for the Cardinals in 1995. The defense finished last in the NFL. Yup, I don’t know too many coaches who have finished last in special teams and defense. Too bad no one gave this guy a shot at running a offense. He could of had the hat trick for being terrible at 3 different job titles.
What happened: During the 2000 season, the Bills special teams were dreadful. They couldn’t cover kicks, they couldn’t return kicks, they couldn’t punt, they couldn’t do diddly pooh (Jim Mora quote). They were so bad that Steve Tasker was rolling over in his grave. The soecial teams were so bad that the Special Olympics thought about changing the first part of their name. They was just terrible and were ranked last in the NFL. So, after the season, Ralph Wilson demanded for Phillips to fire Jones. Wade declined and so Ralph had no choice, but to fire him or as Wilson put it: Wade had quit. This was during a time in which Wilson had just fired John Butler. Afterwards, Wilson and Phillips would goto court, because Wilson refused to pay Phillips the rest of his salary. Wilson claimed that he had to fire Wade because of just cause. It’s pretty much the same defense that Lane Kiffin and Al Davis went through. Wade ended up winning the case. I’m sure Mr. Wilson must have thought that Wade had made a promise to the judge’s son, that he would play college football in Texas or wherever Ronnie Jones ended up.
What if Wade Phillips had fired Ronnie Jones? I’ll be honest, I’m starting to think that I shouldn’t have put this on the list. At the time of the firing, the Bills didn’t have a GM. Tom Donahoe was being talked about as Butler’s replacement, but nothing was finalized. Even if Donahoe came on while Phillips was on board, something tells me that the power crazed president would have fired Wade. However, maybe Wilson would have intervened. Remember, in Wilson’s three years as the Bills coach, he had a record of 29-19. He was also a really nice guy behind the scenes and rumor has it, he did succumb to Wilson’s request to bench Doug Flutie before the AFC Wildcard game against Tennessee (What If? Alert). It’s crazy that he would bench Flutie, but wouldn’t take a bullet for a crappy special teams coach.
So, maybe Wilson would have wanted to keep him around because of his yes, sir approach. Now, lets just say they did. Would he have been a upgrade over Gregg Williams? I would have to say yes. Williams was a drill sergeant. He decided to gut the personnel and philosophy on the defense. It took 2 years for the defense to finally come around. So, Wade may have decided to just stick with his 3-4 defense. Plus, Williams never came close to eclipsing Phillips’ win/loss record. He also might have convinced the management team that Flutie should have stayed over Rob Johnson. I mean, if you remember the season finale against the Seahawks, a game in which Flutie exploded for over 300 yards passing, Wade was totally gushing about him.
Maybe Phillips would have survived the management restructuring. We will never know. However, we do know that he was fired because he stuck up for a special teams coach that was so in over his head, that he had to grew a mullet so he could grab onto any part of his head when he went over it.
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