Harvey Johnson – Buffalo Bills New Head Coach!

Anybody know what happened to Harvey in the years after?

So much has to do with personalities… and the quality of players.

Harvey Johnson went 2-23-1 with aging Bills teams…a fireable football offense to be sure, but that his predecessor Joel Collier went 13-16-1 that same starting to creak roster did not preclude Collier from going on to a nice run with Denver as D-CO for 20 years including 3 Superbowl teams.

Fate too intervened Buffalo, confluence age, injury & unfortunate decisions by several folks including Owner Ralph Wilson/his hiring/firing practices; that he eventually lured Coach Lou Saban back suggests Wilson at least learned from his mistakes, if only to repeat them again/ in need a refresher.

Wilson was spoiled by the Bills success; that said gave way to a lack thereof was not entirely due a greying team. When you morph from QB Kemp to Darragh as your QB, exit Cookie & enter various lessers, make bad trades (an Lamonica out, Powell & Flores in), lose stars to injury (Burnett, Sestak) etc., it all contributes to the descent that came to pass in Buffalo

I am certain Wilson never thought at the time those halcyon days of 1964-1965 would be the summit of his success (personally, I don’t consider ‘getting to’ four Superbowls a success. That just makes them end up looking sorta like the 1950’s baseball Dodgers who got to several World Series but couldn’t manage win one until just before their tenure in Brooklyn ended, that ‘other’ NY team called the Yankees the only anyone remembers, i.e., the winner.

I also recall John Rauch, who went from an .805 winning % with the Raiders to a .259 with the Bills; I know Al Davis was a genius but Rauch wasn’t really that bad & didn’t lose his coaching touch almost overnight. Players. Too, he did get the Raiders to a Superbowl long before an overrated John Madden did so many years into the latter’s tenure OAK. Guess it’s all a matter of perspective, to each their own.

Would be interesting to put that old coaching tale into practice though, the one that goes ‘he can take his players and beat you, and then also take ‘your’ players and beat you’