Published: November 18, 2009 12:44 am      

FAN REACTION: Jauron firing is best news of the season for many

Bartender Omar Harris let fans gathered around his bar Tuesday speak for themselves regarding news that Buffalo Bills head coach Dick Jauron had been fired.

“How do we feel about Jauron getting fired?” he called out to his customers, holding up the phone for the half-dozen gathered at Porter’s Pub in Tonawanda to respond.

The response was knee-jerk applause. A loud chorus went up amid the static, likely containing a mixture of “yeas,” “hoorays” and “ ’bout times.”

It was the same sort of jubilant reaction one could imagine if the team had made the playoffs, but instead fans were celebrating the end of the three-and-a-half year Jauron era, the latest foul run by a beloved team that hasn’t reached the playoffs in a decade.

Down at the bar, the atmosphere was all warm and fuzzy as reports of Bills owner Ralph Wilson’s decision were looped amid ESPN’s 24-hour college basketball marathon.

“Tell ‘em Mark Dzina said it’s the best move Ralph Wilson could have made,” Dzina, a bar patron, said. “We got some good players but we just don’t have the right lineup. We don’t have a quarterback and we don’t have a coach.”

He said he thinks fan reactions and possibly even players’ disapproval led to the move.

“Enough people came to him and said this is something you really have to do,” he said of Wilson.

And at the time early Tuesday afternoon, that was still the case. Later it was reported the team, 3-6 on the season, promoted defensive coordinator Perry Fewell to fill in as the interim coach for the remainder of the season.

Jauron led the Bills to a less-than-stellar 7-9 record all of the past three years he’s been at the post, a statistic bound to get worse this year.

Dzina’s son Justin indicated the team’s problems may be even deeper: “You can keep changing the numbers but you can’t change the equation,” he said.

He was talking in part about what Harris called a series of “quick fixes” in recent years to a team that must ultimately overhaul its method of drafting players and fielding a roster — not simply by signing individual stars to short-term contracts but as equal components of a working game plan.

“They’re not looking for anything long term,” Harris said. “They look for one- or two-year good sprints and after that they’ll look at how Ralph Wilson is doing.”

Calling it a theory that’s difficult to discuss publicly, he indicated the fate of the team is attached to the fate of the elderly Wilson himself. Speculation abounds about the fate of the team once Wilson dies.

“You can only put so much money into it until he dies. Nobody knows the end game,” he said sincerely, adding successful players are often let go early.

Wilson is a beloved figure in Western New York sports. The recent Hall of Fame inductee, however, has himself expressed utter frustration this season by the performance of the team.

While for many fans and commentators the firing should have at least come at the close of last season, Harris said the writing on the wall should have been obvious at the very least before the bye-week.

“It should have happened a couple of weeks ago. I think it was to keep the fans from boycotting,” he said.

On Wide Receiver Terrell Owens, he said it’s one more example of the “quick fix” mentality. He said Owens still has more than enough capability on the field, but likely not in Buffalo, where as part of an inept offense he is off to the worst start of his career.

Even the news of an unpopular coach being sacked wasn’t enough for some. Bills fan Pat Bennett tried to summarize his frustration with a lingering old saying:

“You remember the old saying about this town: a drinking town with a football problem. I’m so sick of that.”

Contact reporter Neale Gulley at 693-1000, ext. 114.