Maiorana: Why Doug Marrone walked away from the Bills

In the aftermath of Buffalo's asterisk-tagged season-ending victory over the half-Patriots Sunday, the last thing I thought I'd be doing on the inaugural day of 2015 was writing about an ex-Bills head coach.

I figured a 9-7 record, Buffalo's first winning season since 2004 — with one of those victories against the Green Bay Packers plus that win over New England, even though it lacked luster because Bill Belichick treated it like a preseason game — was more than enough to prevent Doug Marrone from getting the axe from new owner Terry Pegula.

Full steam ahead, I thought. Find a quarterback, improve the offensive line, do your best to keep this excellent defense together, and if all that happened, there was no reason to believe Marrone's Bills couldn't finally end their interminable absence from the playoffs in 2015.

And then Marrone quit. Pulled the rip cord on his golden $4 million parachute and bolted Buffalo before the bubbly began flowing on New Years Eve.

Echoing center Eric Wood's tweet that night, I sure didn't see that coming.

Now, it's chaos at One Bills Drive as reports throughout New Year's Day indicated just how disenchanted Marrone was while working for the Bills.

How did this happen?

Simple: Greed, insecurity and thin skin.

As was the case for many fans, Marrone frustrated me with his in-game management — the silly punts on fourth-and-short from the plus side of the 50-yard-line, his unimaginative offense that he entrusted to his in-over-his-head coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, and his inability to get anything out of the offensive line which was supposed to be his specialty. I didn't think he was a bad coach, just one who needed to be more aggressive in his approach.

I liked Marrone more as a guy than I did as a coach and I never had a problem with him personally. Sure, he irritated me with his insistence on not reading off the list of injuries at his pressers, and he wasn't always the best guy to quote for a story because he had a habit of rambling off course and never really answering your question. But I liked him.

He was occasionally a curmudgeon (believe me, it takes one to know one), but he could also be engaging and fun to chat with off the record. He always touts his pride about being a New Yorker (even if he was a down-stater), and though he was making $4 million a year, there was a certain blue-collar persona to him.

Well, I like him and his starchy white collar a little less today than I did Sunday after the Patriots game.

Let's cut right to the chase: He took the money and ran. And then he apparently spit on the organization on the way out the door, reportedly speaking to Bill Polian and telling him the franchise was in disrepair, which seems to have dissuaded Polian from rejoining the Bills.

The incredible opt-out clause that Marrone's agent, Jimmy Sexton, somehow convinced the Bills' hierarchy to agree to when they hired him in 2013 revealed Marrone to be just like almost every other guy who works in the world of professional sports. They love to say it isn't about the money, but it's always about the money. Always. And power doesn't hurt, either.

All that talk of family, and team, and continuity, and doing what's best for the Buffalo Bills? Marrone did what was best for Marrone. Though, perhaps unintentionally, he did what was best for the Bills by leaving.

In the three days he had to wield his clear-cut leverage before the opt-out clause expired Wednesday at midnight, Marrone must have looked like an Olympic fencer whooshing his sabre at owner Terry Pegula knowing no matter what, he was still getting $4 million free and clear.

Sources say what he specifically asked for was a two-year contract extension for himself, and extensions for his coaching staff so that the assistants were all on the same cycle. They were off kilter because he had to bring in several new coaches in 2014 after Mike Pettine took several of his guys to Cleveland last year.

Marrone's NFL record is 15-17, yet he was asking Pegula for a hefty raise, an additional two years at a cost of $8 million.

Pegula said no to it all.

Upon hearing that, Marrone's insecurity kicked in. One source said he was uncomfortable about the prospect of a new football czar being hired to oversee the operation. Marrone is maniacal about the details — remember, it took the Bills four days of interviewing before he agreed to come aboard because he was so nit-picky about everything. The uncertainty of what the future held, whether he could get along with that man personally as well as professionally, and how much control he'd have over the roster really weighed on him.

According to reports, Polian was seriously considering returning to Buffalo until speaking to Marrone. Polian told the Buffalo News Thursday that once Marrone and Kyle Orton left, the job changed and it went from being "fun" to being a "heavy lift" which did not interest him at the age of 72.

The final element to Marrone's departure apparently was his own inability to not let criticism bother him. It came to light that he was tired of the negativity emanating from the local media and fans about his job performance, as if that's something new in the NFL, or unique to Buffalo. He felt he was too frequently taken to task about his decision making, and apparently the criticism had begun to upset his wife and children, too. As I remember, that was one of the reasons Mike Mularkey gave when he quit the Bills after the 2005 season.

All I can say is good luck in New York, where it is rumored Marrone may end up as coach of the Jets. If the western New York media got under his skin, what's going to happen in Gotham?

Gregg Williams, Mularkey, Dick Jauron, Perry Fewell, Chan Gailey, and now Marrone; Buffalo's coaches since Wade Phillips was stupidly fired in 2000 by Ralph Wilson despite a 29-19 record and two playoff appearances in three years.

Who's next on the carousel? Frank Reich? Rex Ryan? Bill Cowher? Adam Gase? Dan Quinn? Some college coach?

Whoever it is, there's no grace period. The fans have had it. This team is close to being a consistent winner, and if it gets just competent quarterback play in 2015, it should make the playoffs.

Pegula has more money than the majority of the NFL owners. He can hire anyone he wants. Let's hope the Bills finally get it right.

MAIORANA@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/@salmaiorana

Polian won't join Bills

According to a report in The Buffalo News Thursday afternoon, Bill Polian has decided not to rejoin the Buffalo Bills.

The man who built the Bills into perennial Super Bowl participants in the 1990s, and later lorded over a dynasty in Indianapolis with Peyton Manning that produced one Super Bowl victory, was considering returning to Buffalo in a mentoring/consulting role.

However, he told the News once veteran quarterback Kyle Orton retired Monday, leaving EJ Manuel as the best option at the position, and then coach Doug Marrone opted out of his contract Wednesday, the job no longer was attractive.

"So the job, from my perspective, changed," Polian told Vic Carucci. "It went from a mentoring and advising role, which would have been fun, to a real heavy lift — hire a new coach, hire a staff, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. The bottom line is the job description changed pretty dramatically and the most important thing is that it would have required a really long commitment to a new coach, who deserved a long commitment that I wasn't prepared to make. And that wouldn't have been fair to the organization or to whomever their new coach was. The coach is going to want to know that you're going to be there for a reasonably long time."

Of course, Friday it could all change given this uproarious situation. Last weekend Polian vehemently denied he was going to take a job with the Bills, and then a few days later, he admitted he was being courted by owner Terry Pegula and seemed ready to accept a position.

Thursday was a busy day on the rumor mill. Marrone reportedly has already secured head coach interviews with the Jets, Bears and Falcons. The Jets job is particularly interesting to him as he is a native New Yorker and worked for the Jets from 2002-05 as offensive line coach.

A source confirmed to me Thursday that Marrone decided to exercise his opt-out clause in his contract because Pegula would not grant him a contract extension, and he was uncomfortable with the uncertainty of the front office situation moving forward. Also, Marrone had grown tired of being criticized by media and fans regarding his coaching style and philosophy.

— Sal Maiorana