Pegula Sports and Entertainment, the entity run by Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula that also oversees the ownership of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres among other Western New York sports clubs, hasn’t been taking the best of headlines recently.
In part due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, layoffs and furloughs have been announced by PSE. Despite the Bills being included in PSE, they’ve remained untouched. The Athletic’s Tim Graham investigated these recent moves made by the club, some of which included some high-ranking folks with the Sabres.
While much of the insight includes the Sabres and PSE as a whole, that doesn’t mean some names with the Bills aren’t concerned. Namely, head coach Sean McDermott. One excerpt from The Athletic‘s deep dive says McDermott is concerned that a “toxic culture” within PSE could leak over to the football operations, potentially:
Two sources close to Bills head coach Sean McDermott say the January meetings left him concerned about low morale eroding the culture he and general manager Brandon Beane have cultivated over the past three years with a meticulous, holistic attitude.
In a release when announcing some of the personnel moves for the Sabres, PSE stated the Bills would “continue to operate at normal levels” because the NFL is still mostly running at a status quo, which includes the upcoming draft this week.
Another mention of the Bills says the one source doesn’t want the Sabres’ “s—” affecting the football team. While issues with Covid-19 are certainly making a difference for the Sabres and PSE, many of the job changes were described as moves that would have been made regardless, leading to many anonymous survey PSE employees from past and present describing a “toxic culture” at the organization. Whether or not issues or job changes trickle over to the Bills could depend on the length of the current pandemic and if it does begin to the change the NFL’s upcoming schedule.
Thus far the Bills are completely going full-go into their offseason as business as usual. It was even announced by NFL Network on Monday that the Bills are one of three teams that will have their players working out together via virtual workouts since they can’t meet up in Buffalo per current NFL rules.
We’re still likely a ways away from seeing if the upcoming schedule will be changed and force the Bills and PSE’s hand in terms of making personnel changes. Thus far, no NFL team has made any sort of significant moves.
[lawrence-related id=59347,59307,59299,59289]