Buffalo Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. looked at the credentials of the men the team was

considering for general manager and decided the one he liked best was in his own building.



Wilson's hiring of Buddy Nix as general manager Wednesday gives the Bills a man who has held

every key position on a football team except general manager over a 49-year career in the

game. It gives the Bills a connection to their glory days, because Nix was the Bills'

Southeastern scout from 1993 through 2000 and was a key aide to former Bills executives John

Butler and A.J. Smith in San Diego. And it gives Wilson someone with whom he is comfortable,

an important factor to the team's 91-year-old owner.

"The only way I could be more of a football guy is live longer, because that's all I've ever

done," said Nix, who turned 70 on Dec. 6. "And I've had all the titles except this one."



"He's from that long scouting school of Bill Polian to John Butler to A.J. Smith to Buddy,"

said Bills Hall-of-Famer Marv Levy from his home in Chicago. "That's a pretty good tree right

there."



Nix oversaw the Chargers' college and pro scouting operation from 2001 through the 2008

draft. Nix added the title of assistant general manager in 2003 after Butler's death and the

ascension of Smith to the GM job. Nix pulled the names off the Chargers' draft board with

remarkable success. The Chargers' drafts have included a string of doubles, triples and home runs,

including LaDainian Tomlinson and Drew Brees in 2001, Quentin Jammer in 2002, Philip Rivers

(via draft-day trade for Eli Manning), Shaun Phillips, Nick Hardwick and Michael Turner in

2004, Shawne Merriman, Vincent Jackson and Darren Sproles in 2005 and Antonio Cromartie and

Marcus McNeil in 2006.



Nix had some kind of falling out with Smith in 2008, which never has been publicly explained.

"The first 6 years was great and then the last six months was a little strained," Nix

told The Buffalo News in March.

Nix left the Chargers in what was termed a retirement, and in February 2009 Tom Modrak, the

Bills' vice president of college scouting, lured him to Buffalo as a national scout. The Bills

had compiled a dossier of GM candidates from outside the organization. But the more Wilson

looked at Nix's record, the more he liked it.



"He knows what a good football player looks like," Wilson said.



Wilson conducted an interview with Nix for more than four hours in Detroit on Wednesday.

Wilson also interviewed John Guy, Bills vice president of player personnel. Nix was offered

the job Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, Bills Chief Operating Officer Russ Brandon was given a promotion and the new

title of chief executive officer. Brandon relinquishes the title of general manager. Brandon

will oversee the entire organization and report to Wilson, but Nix will have control of

football decisions.

"Russ and I scanned the list of possible candidates," Wilson said. "I didn't know them. I

don't think Russ did. We narrowed it down to two candidates for this job of general manager

— two in-house candidates [Nix and Guy]. We had extensive interviews with them. We made

the decision that Buddy had a little more experience in management and had been an assistant

general manager of the San Diego Chargers for a number of years. So we selected Buddy."



"I just want to tell you that I'm glad to be here," Nix said. "This is something that's kind

of been a whirlwind the last six or seven days. It's not what I had in mind when I came back

here in February."



Modrak, 66, had declined the GM's job when the Bills hired Levy back in 2006 and it's

believed he was not inclined to make a push for the job this time around. He continues to have

a good relationship with Wilson.

Will Guy and Modrak be retained?



"I'm going to take time, evaluate every person in every department in football operations

and then make a decision," Nix said. "I'm not going to make one on things I've heard or things

I've read. I'm going to make it in person."



Nix's big task now is to hire a head coach.



Interim head coach Perry Fewell will be interviewed for the position. The Bills have compiled

a list of candidates for Nix to consider.



One name to keep an eye on is Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, who is believed to be held in high

regard by the Bills' front office.

But Nix has made plenty of connections in his career. Coaches who served with the Chargers

during his tenure include Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and former Bills

receiver James Lofton, both of whom have been mentioned as head-coaching candidates in recent

years. While the Bills made contact with former Steelers coach Bill Cowher weeks ago, it's

still expected that he is not going to be interested in Buffalo.

Nix on coaching candidates: "You've got to have a leader and a good teacher and a guy

everybody can work with. I think it's vital that the general manager and head coach have to

communicate. They have to talk. Most of the breakdowns come when you don't talk to each other,

when you don't discuss it."



"I'll tell you another thing that's important, obviously, more so maybe sometimes than the

head coach is the assistants — the coordinators. You need a guy who can put a good staff

together."



Nix said prior head coaching experience is preferable but not essential.



"I believe that a guy who has been a head coach probably has an advantage," he said. "I've

been one and there's not a way to prepare for it. It's different. I don't care how good an

assistant you are, when you get to be the head man and got it all, then you might be

successful at it and you might not. You're rolling the dice."



Nix lives in Chattanooga, Tenn. but is going to move to Buffalo. During the fall, however, he

expects to spend probably a couple days a week on the road scouting college players.



"I like to go out and, as some of them old scouts used to say, smell their breath," Nix said.

"I want to see "em in person. I'll do it as much as I can, and I'll see "em all on tape."



Nix acknowledged he wasn't a high-profile candidate. He said he's not worried about it.

"It doesn't matter what kind of splash we make today, what matters is two years or three

years down the road that we've got this thing turned in the right direction and we're

winning."