Buffalo Bills Coach Doug Marrone Mass Texts Players to Say He’s Leaving Team, Players React

There’s been a lot of drama going on this week around the NFL regarding management and coaching changes, and Buffalo Bills head coach Doug Marrone is now the latest one to part ways with his football team. On Wednesday, the Bills announced that the organization’s head coach of two seasons was opting out of his contract. His original contract, which he signed before the 2013 season, was for a four-year period but it included an opt-out clause that Marrone could exercise in the event that the Bills changed ownership. (In October 2014, former owner Ralph Wilson Jr. passed away and ownership passed onto Terry Pegula and his wife Kim.) Marrone’s departure comes as a surprise to the whole Bills organization. Mr. Pegula said in a statement, “”We are disappointed that coach Marrone will no longer be an important part of our organization. We thank him for all of his hard work and leadership during his tenure and wish him and his family the best with the next chapter in their lives.” Word on the street is that Marrone may end up at Rex Ryan’s old job coaching the NY Jets.

When a coach decides to leave his team, you would think that the first people he would tell other than the owner would be his family, friends, and of course his players. Well it turns out that Marrone never actually told his players face to face about his decision to leave and instead he decided to send out a mass text after the news was announced by the media. It seems a little disrespectful that a head coach would tell his players something that significant through a text message, and a mass text at that. Maybe he didn’t have a good relationship with his players and that could have been part of the reason for Marrone’s unexpected decision to leave the team. Some of the players who received the text reacted on social media.

Safety Aaron Williams, running back CJ Spiller, center Eric Wood, and other Bills players were understandably surprised and upset at the news and the way they received it. Hopefully this will end up being a good move for both Marrone and the team but only time will tell.