Bills fans are well known for their love for their favorite team and their big, big hearts.
So it’s no surprise that after the stunning firing of head coach Sean McDermott, someone from one of the NFL’s most passionate fanbases would start a petition.
In the wake of the controversial firing of one of the best Bills coaches in team history, someone started a petition demanding McDermott be reinstated. As of Friday afternoon, the petition was nearing 52,000 signatures. Is that a lot? Well, the Bills new Highmark Stadium will hold up to 62,000 spectators when it opens later in 2026, according to Emily Barnes and Ryan Miller.
Maria Maisonet, the woman who started the petition on Change.org, says she has been a Bills fan for over 40 years and McDermott’s firing “has left me and countless others heartbroken and baffled.”
By ending Buffalo’s playoff drought, Maisonet says McDermott brought a “renewed sense of hope and excitement to a community that lives and breathes football.
“Firing Sean McDermott seems like a step backward, negating all the progress we’ve made under his guidance,” Maisonet said. “The decision appears to be short-sighted, overlooking his contributions and the respect he commands among players and fans alike.”
The petition doesn’t call for a boycott of the Bills, but wants the team’s management to reverse a mistake and put McDermott back in charge of the team.
Bills leadership under fire
The sentiment reflected in the petition is also evident in a Rochester Democrat and Chronicle poll that asks whether the Bills fired the wrong guy? Sixty-six percent of the over 4,000 voters so far said Buffalo should have fired general manager Brandon Beane.
In some circles, Beane is blamed for failing to bring in the top wide receiver quarterback Josh Allen has desperately needed since WR Stefon Diggs was traded in early 2024 to the Houston Texans for an extra second-round pick in the 2025 draft.
McDermott’s firing has been a public relations disaster for the team, so much so that it forced owner Terry Pegula and Beane to hold a bizarre, hour-long news conference Jan. 21 where Pegula said he made the call to let McDermott go and both men blamed the “coaching staff” for everything from drafting WR Keon Coleman to the team ending up the sixth seed in the AFC playoffs this postseason.
Coleman, the top second-round pick in the 2024 draft, suffered through an awful sophomore season and has yet to emerge as a reliable pass-catcher for Allen.
Could McDermott come back?
The coaching carousel is notorious in the NFL, with several instances of head coaches fired by one team being hired to lead another franchise. In the Super Bowl era (nearly 60 years) of the league, only one head coach has ever been fired and rehired by the same team.
Art Shell was the head coach of the then-Los Angeles Raiders from 1989-1994. Owner Al Davis fired Shell after a 9-7 season in 1994, a move Davis later called a mistake. Shell was rehired as head coach by the Oakland Raiders in 2006 and led his team to its worst record (2-14) since 1962.
Regardless, it seems unlikely McDermott would return to leading the Bills while Beane remains in charge.
Bill Wolcott is a producer who helps cover the Buffalo Bills, high school and Rochester sports in general. The lifelong New Yorker has been a journalist for 31 years.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills fans are lining up to sign petition to bring back Sean McDermott
Reporting by Bill Wolcott, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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