Fallout from the Bills' disastrous news conference continued Thursday

Pete Grathoff, The Kansas City Star on Jan 22, 2026

Published in Football

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The Buffalo Bills’ decision to part ways with head coach Sean McDermott stunned NFL observers and fans.

That’s why Bills owner Terry Pegula and general manager Brandon Beane held a news conference Wednesday morning: to put fans at ease.

It had the opposite effect.

Pegula said the Bills had hit “the proverbial playoff wall,” but he also claimed Buffalo lost because of a bad call. Hmm. As many noted, how can McDermott be blamed for a loss if the owner says it was the officials’ fault?

Worse yet, Pegula decided to take a shot at wide receiver Keon Coleman.

“I will address the Keon situation. The coaching staff pushed to draft Keon,” Pegula said. “I’m not saying Brandon wouldn’t have drafted him, but he wasn’t his next choice. That was Brandon being a team player and taking advice of his coaching staff who felt strongly about the player. He’s taken, for some reason, heat over it, and (he’s) not saying a word about it. I’m here to tell you the true story.”

Throwing a player on your roster under the bus doesn’t seem wise. And shortly after the news conference, video of Beane talking about his intent to draft Coleman was widely shared on social media.

That disastrous news conference generated headlines and was fodder for sports-talk shows on Wednesday. The fallout continued into Thursday.

“After yesterday, I now fully understand why the @BuffaloBills don’t have Terry Pegula talking to reporters more,” Bills fan/political strategist Erin Maguire wrote Thursday morning on X.

Joe Raineri of SportsGrid unloaded on the Bills Thursday morning.

“I gotta say congratulations to the New York Jets. Why? Well, for years, the New York Jets have held the title for the most dysfunctional organization in all of sports,” Raineri said. “But this morning, yeah, no, now ... we are handing that crown to Terry Pegula and the Buffalo Bills, because yesterday’s press conference wasn’t just bad, it was a dumpster fire inside of a train wreck.”

Bills fans have started an online petition to reinstate McDermott as head coach, something that’s virtually unheard of in sports. As of Thursday morning, it had garnered more than 25,000 signatures.