Bill name Chan Gailey coach over Leslie Frazier; why?

The Buffalo Bills took Chan Gailey as their new head coach and to replace the fired Dick Jauron. Chan Gailey brings an 18 win, 14 loss NFL record to Buffalo, and a reputation of being a conservative offensive coordinator.



The hiring of Chan Gailey is shocking in the wake of the way Minnesota Vikings Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator Leslie Frazier's "minority token interview" by the Seattle Seahawks and now apparently The Buffalo Bills.

The NFL now must answer for The Rooney Rule, because it appears NFL owners outside of a few, have a desire to limit the number of coaches in the league who happen to be black. Chan Gailey is not a proven winner; his selection as head coach is questionable. ESPN's John Clayton writes that the Bills wanted "An offensive mind" with "head coaching experience."

Leslie Frazier has a better record with the Vikings as assistant head coach than Chan Gailey does at 18 and 14, and the Vikings 34 to 3 NFC First Round Divisional Playoff win just helps his credentials. Chan Gailey is seen by many NFL fans as "conservative", take this commenter over at the Chicago Sun-Times blog who wrote this before Gailey was selected by the Bills:

Well at least the (Chicago) Bears are looking at Chan Gailey, one of the most conservative coordinators ever. He is highly mediocre, but suits the role of coordinator who only gets one or two year contracts before he is fired. By that criteria he meets every qulification that Lovie is looking for. Mediocre, Conservative, Doesn't last long with a team, easy to fire, easy to hire, attacks a defense by not attacking a defense. But most think Gailey will end up with the Bills.

With this evaluation, the Buffalo Bills must explain to their fans why Chan Gailey really was their choice. If it was to escape a "Rooney Rule" hire, as Leslie Frazier would have been, then "The Rooney Rule" itself is to be reevaluated. Moreover, it appears something is going on here.

While Sports Illustrated's Peter King mentioned the Chan Gailey hire is "easy to knock" because of his "conservative" offense, he failed to mention The Rooney Rule issue, or even a single African American NFL coach that the Bills could have interviewed. King says that Gailey "took a team in decline and staved it off for as long as he could" - that's called being a "coach killer". A "coach killer" is good enough to field a competitive team, but not good enough to build a championship team.

Stay tuned.