The news this morning is that the Buffalo Bills have fired head coach, Sean McDermott, demonstrating as clear as glass that the operative environment in the NFL these days is,
- “What have you done for me lately?”
Sean McDermott came to the Bills in 2017; when he arrived, the Bills had not been to a playoff game since 1999. McDermott has been the head coach of the Bills for 9 seasons, and the Bills have been in the playoffs in 8 of those 9 seasons. Quite the improvement …
In the regular seasons since 2017, the Bills’ record has been 98-50; in round numbers, the team under Sean McDermott has won two out of three regular season games. Quite the improvement again … In the 9 seasons prior to McDermott’s arrival, the Bills cumulative regular season record under 6 different head coaches was 59-85. Not enough improvement there …
There appears to be a virus spreading among NFL owners causing some awfully successful head coaches to be fired in this offseason. And another “successful head coach” chose to step down from his position according to him. That means there will be 10 new head coaches in 2026; almost one-third of the coaches in place back in August will have been replaced when Training Camp opens in July.
Eight of those ten job openings remain unfilled this morning; only the Giants and Falcons have hired replacements so far. The Giants reportedly will pay John Harbaugh $20M per year for 5 years to make the Giants relevant again; the Falcons reportedly will pay Kevin Stefanski $14.5M per year for 5 years to coach the Falcons. Eight jobs are still open – – and given the rate at which coaches are falling this year, there could be more.
Moving on … There were reports late last week about gamblers and athletes conspiring to fix college basketball games. Reports called the investigation “wide-ranging” which would seem to be appropriate since part of the allegation is that the conspiracy began by manipulating a game or games in the Chinese Basketball Association. [Aside: I make no representation here as an authority on gambling, but I have never encountered betting lines on the Chinese Basketball Association anywhere.]
The alleged fixers followed what would seem to be a well paved path, according to the AP:
“The scheme generally revolved around gamblers who placed bets and recruited players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for purposefully underperforming during a game. Those fixers would then bet against the players’ teams in those games, defrauding sportsbooks and other bettors, authorities said.”
According to charges filed in Philadelphia, the criminal enterprise began by fixing two games in the Chinese Basketball Association in 2023 and then expanded its market by manipulating men’s college basketball games as early as January 2025. Since then, 29 games have been “fixed” involving 39 players and gamblers.
What I find amazing is that the investigators say the players were paid between $10K and $30K per game to “arrange the outcome”. For that to be “sustainable” – to use a current business buzz word – the gamblers must have been betting much larger sums so that they could make those payoffs and still show a net profit for their “efforts”.
Again, from the AP:
“Prosecutors named more than 40 schools involved in games that were targeted by the scheme. Those included Tulane University and DePaul University.
“Rigged games included major conferences and some playoffs, including the first round of the Horizon League championship and the second round of the Southland Conference championship, prosecutors said.”
Indulge me with some math here … If I am a fixer and I have targeted a game in the Horizon League – – let’s make this up and imagine it was a game between Robert Morris and Cleveland State – – and I have recruited two players on the Cleveland State team to make sure Cleveland State does not cover whatever the spread might be. For their trouble, the two players will receive a total of $50K from me – – $25K per player per game.
Most spread bets on college basketball games carry odds of minus-110 meaning I would need to bet $55,000 on Cleveland State just to cover the cost of manipulating the outcome. Obviously, I would not stop there; if I am in the game-fixing business, I am not out to enrich players; I am out to enrich me. So over and above the $55K I would wager on the game to play off the players, I would bet at least that same amount so that I can show a tidy profit.
So, now I am wagering more than $100K – – and maybe a lot more than $100K – – on a Robert Morris/Cleveland State game. And somehow, that sort of action was allowed to happen in as many as 29 different games without an alert being sounded? Wow!
Here is a link to the AP report on this matter; it is worth a glance.
Finally, Benjamin Franklin may have summed up the Sean McDermott firing with these words:
“Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones – with ingratitude.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………