ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- John Butler, as responsible as almost
anyone for building the Buffalo team that went to four straight
Super Bowls, was fired as the Bills' general manager Tuesday.
Owner Ralph Wilson said he fired Butler because he couldn't wait
any longer for Butler to decide whether he would be staying in
Buffalo. Butler, whose contract expires after the season, has been
courted by several teams, notably San Diego.
An animated Wilson said he had no choice and that the two had as
many as six contract negotiations since training camp July without
any progress.
"I could never get anything definitive from him," Wilson said.
"I had a very uneasy feeling. Maybe he didn't want to be with the
Bills."
Butler, informed of his dismissal by phone while traveling to
Montgomery, Ala., to scout the Blue-Gray Game, arrived back in
Buffalo later in the day and said he didn't want to be rushed into
making a decision on his contract.
"Mr. Wilson, I guess, wanted an answer a lot faster than I was
prepared to give one at that time," Butler said. "When you make
decisions like that, I need to consult my family and other people.
That's the way sometimes things end. But John Butler's got to do
what John Butler's got to do for his family and himself."
He added that he understood Wilson's need to have an answer to
maintain the Bills stability.
Wilson said he offered to double Butler's salary, which
reportedly is in the $600,000-$700,000 range, believed to be among
the bottom third in the NFL. Wilson said he arrived at his new
offer by averaging the top eight GM salaries in the NFL. He was
then willing to go even higher after Butler turned him down on
Friday.
The last straw, Wilson said, came when the two last discussed
the contract on Monday.
"I said, generally speaking, 'John, if you can't give me an
answer that you're going to be the general manager of the Bills,
now, not in the future, not after the last game, then I'm going to
have to look elsewhere,' " Wilson said he told Butler. "He was
just nonchalant about it and left."
Butler, Buffalo's general manager since 1993, broke into the NFL
as a scout with the Chargers in 1985 before being hired as
Buffalo's director of college scouting in 1987.
He was involved in drafting such players as Thurman Thomas, Don
Beebe, Phil Hansen and many of the Super Bowl Bills, as well as Marcellus Wiley and Sam Cowart from the current team. He is
considered especially adept at finding small-college players like
Beebe (Chadron State) and Hansen (North Dakota State), as well as
Wiley, an Ivy Leaguer from Columbia.
Such drafting kept the Bills competitive even as the Super Bowl
stars aged. The team made the playoffs in five of Butler's seasons
as general manager.
Dwight Adams, promoted to vice president of player personnel
last summer, and A.J. Smith, director of pro personnel, are both
under contract with the Bills and considered early candidates for
Butler's job.
The Bills have struggled this year and missed the playoffs after
a season that included a public feud between quarterbacks Rob
Johnson and Doug Flutie. The Bills were also hamstrung by the NFL
salary cap, which forced 16 players to be cut last offseason,
including Thomas, Bruce Smith and Andre Reed.
Wilson said he was happy with the job Butler did in Buffalo, but
not with the negotiations.
The Bills players were informed of Butler's dismissal just
before practice.
"As a person, it's just like losing a teammate," said Wiley,
who has replaced Smith at defensive end and become just the fifth
Bill to get more than 10 sacks in a season. "He comes out to
practices, he jokes with us, we slap-boxed in the elevator before.
He won. He's just a great guy."
Wiley, who becomes a free agent at the end of this season,
didn't know if Butler's departure would affect his negotiations
with the team.
"I'm a Buffalo Bill. This is where my desires are," Wiley
said. "He didn't take the city with him, he didn't take my team
with him. He didn't take all the coaches with him. ... It's not
something that discourages me. We haven't got that process rolling,
so I don't know."
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VIDEO
  ESPN.com's John Clayton looks at GM John Butler's termination from the Bills. wav: 284 kRealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 |
