The Buffalo Bills made shockwaves through the NFL world on Monday when they announced that they fired head coach Sean McDermott, and the team is getting some blowback from their official statement on the dismissal.
McDermott led the team to a 12-5 record and a trip to the divisional round this season, but lost his job after a 33-30 overtime loss to the Denver Broncos. The Bills stuck with general manager Brandon Beane, who earned a promotion and will lead the search for the next head coach.
While the statement itself was shocking enough, the Bills are attracting further attention for the tone — and typos — in their statement about McDermott.
Bills Knocked for ‘Unprofessional’ Post
News broke early on Monday that McDermott had been fired, and it took the team more than an hour to release an official statement confirming his firing. The team took to social media to share a quote attributed to owner Terry Pegula, one that contained a typo in the first sentence.
The post commended McDermott for doing an “admiral” job — which the team later corrected to “admirable.”
“Missed among all this, if there was ever a clearer example of how piss poor Bills PR is, they had a typo in the first line â THE FIRST LINE â of their statement after firing the head coach,” noted reporter Alex Brasky on X.
Longtime Buffalo News columnist Jerry Sullivan, who clashed with the team during his tenure, insinuated that it was unprofessional for the team to put out the statement.
“This from a PR staff that called me unprofessional,” Sullivan wrote.
Even without the typo, many close to the team knocked the Bills for what they saw as a lack of respect toward McDermott.
“Amazing typo notwithstanding, I think this Bills statement is chilly toward McDermott,” noted WGR 550 host Mike Schopp in a post on X. “Admirable? That’s what you say when a coach goes 21-29 or whatever. Hey, the guy worked hard. McDermott deserved much better than this firing form letter”
McDermott had just shown an unusual level of fire after the loss on Saturday, directly criticizing officials for an interception in overtime that he believed should have been ruled a catch for wide receiver Brandin Cooks.
Bills Hint at Big Changes Ahead
In the statement, Pegula hinted that the team would be taking a different direction after moving on from McDermott.
“Sean has done an admirable job of leading our football team for the past 9 seasons,” Pegula said. “But I feel we are in need of a new structure within our leadership to give this organization the best opportunity to take our team to the next level. We owe that to our players and to Bills Mafia.”
The Bills found great success during McDermott’s tenure, winning five straight AFC East titles, but advanced to the AFC Championship game just two times and failed to reach a Super Bowl.
Quarterback Josh Allen, the reigning league MVP, will be 30 in the coming season, and the team could be nearing an end of his peak seasons.
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