Gentleman Ralph lacks will to pay the Bills

The following will be unpopular because Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson has long been such a class act in the NFL. He's been called the conscience of professional football and has always carried himself without the short-man syndrome of a Daniel Snyder or blatant kookiness of Al Davis.

Yet these are the facts.

The Bills, once one of the great turbines in the NFL, have devolved into a horrible joke. They haven't made the playoffs since 1999. After they miss the postseason this year, that'll be 10 straight years of no playoffs. Ten ... consecutive ... years. The organization is a mess. It can't draft, has been unable to find a franchise quarterback and is frighteningly cheap. The Bills have turned into the Baltimore Orioles.

Ralph Wilson's Bills are headed for a 10th consecutive non-playoff season. (US Presswire)

If Al Davis were in charge of the Bills, the rip jobs would proceed at Warp factor nine. It's true that Wilson is a gentleman and Davis is the old goat screaming at people to stay off his freshly watered lawn, but Wilson hasn't done much better than Davis or the horrible Snyder or even the nightmare that's been William Clay Ford.

What a pass Wilson has received. What a golden, must-be-nice, Willy Wonka-like pass he's gotten for so long from the media and others.

Anyone who's been around the Bills understands how great this franchise once was. I covered all of their AFC title games and Super Bowl appearances in the early 1990s. Going to Buffalo, even in the hardened nastiness of an upstate New York winter, was a pleasure because you always witnessed gritty and superbly run teams. Their four straight Super Bowl appearances, despite blowout losses in three of them, still remain one of the great achievements in sports history.

The Bills were once overflowing with stars and impact players like Bruce Smith, Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed. They had an intellectual giant in Marv Levy coaching and it's no coincidence that so many Bills recently entered the Hall of Fame, including Wilson himself.

Since those high moments something's happened to Wilson. It's not age, it's bitterness. He's become so obsessed and angry over the small-market disadvantages that he's lost perspective and retreated into a spending shell, more consumed about potential ticket sales in Toronto than regaining the once flawless touchstone that was his temperament and judgment.

Owners like Snyder may be super-jerks, but Snyder spends. Wilson is arguably the cheapest owner in the NFL. Only recently, with the fired Dick Jauron, did Wilson pay a coach more than $1 million. As coaching salaries rose, Wilson refused to adapt, and his cheapness and anger over the smallness of Buffalo's market hardened, the way large roots from an ancient tree grow deeper into the soil.

The cheapness hasn't crept up on Wilson. It's been there for at least 10 years, yet Wilson's bargain-basement mentality has escaped the kind of criticism that's been leveled against other curmudgeonly and stymied owners because he's well liked within NFL circles and the media.

Jauron is a perfect example of what's gone wrong with Wilson. He was a terrible hire, and the only reason Wilson went with Jauron was because he was one of the cheaper options.

Most of the time, you can't buy your NFL coaches at Wal-Mart; in many instances, you need to at least go to Bloomie's.

"Anybody that says I'm cheap is looking down the wrong side of the street," Wilson told the Associated Press on Thursday.

Not even sure what means, though I do know it's been many years since the Bills have been down Easy Street.

Despite Wilson's protestations about him not being cheap, he has been, and that explains why Mike Shanahan likely won't end up in Buffalo. Wilson is talking a good game, but Shanahan will cost a great deal of money. Few people should be convinced that Wilson has really changed his miserly ways, because Wilson's done nothing recently to demonstrate that he will.

What Wilson needs to do is first overhaul an inept front office and then open his wallet for a good coach. Spend $8 million to get Bill Cowher or Mike Holmgren (they're the best out there) and go from there.

Shanahan? Meh. He's been average minus John Elway.

Buffalo's fans deserve better than they've received recently from Wilson. Once upon a time, fans got the best from him, and his legacy seemed untouchable.

Wilson used to be class, the gold standard, the owner who was hermetically sealed inside a bubble of greatness.

Now, he's in the same league as a Snyder or Davis and that's just ...

... sad.