General Manager Buddy Nix: Thanks for coming. I hope we can make my part short but a couple of things I just wanted to address with you. I was given the responsibility, didn t necessarily ask for it, to conduct a search for a new head football coach.

Started that immediately, that was the number one thing on my list. I told you we were not going to talk about the search when I first talked to you as far as specifics, but in general, I ll tell you that we conducted a thorough search. I gave you the criteria that I d like for a head coach, that I thought would help us be successful, but I knew that sometimes it s like Christmas morning. You don t get everything on your list, so I thought we needed to be thorough in our search and this search as you know included Interim head coach Perry Fewell, Leslie Frazier, and those are the two guys that s been reported accurately that we talked to. Those are a fact and you know that. Very impressed. I had a good time talking to a lot of good people.

We covered the entire gambit and I did that because I wanted to be satisfied that we had looked at all the possible candidates that we could. I told you also I wasn t going to let outside forces make me go faster than I wanted to, make me do something that would be popular at the time, and I was able to do that. You guys have heard everything in the world about all the reports. I can sit up here and tell you I don t read that stuff, I try not to, but you ve got to be in a coma or you know what s happening. About I d say, given the benefit of the doubt, 20% of the things that were reported had some truth to it. About 80 percent was complete fabrication and it was amusing really and made some good stories. Wasn t many openings so I don t know what they d have talked about if we hadn t been looking for a new coach, but it kept the media working anyway. But anyway, the criteria that we set forth to start with; I said I d like to have a head coach that was successful in this league. I didn t want to go through a guy having to learn the NFL, the workings of the NFL, and it is different, there is a learning curve and everybody goes through it that hasn t done it.

The head coach there is no school for it, there is no internship. I don t care how long you ve been an assistant, the day you become a head coach you start learning how to be one and before that you don t know. There s no preparation. It s good that you ve coached, you know football, but the head coach is different. We said we wanted an offensive minded coach, now again this doesn t necessarily mean it had to be I said that to start, but a guy that coached offense. I wanted somebody that had developed quarterbacks. We ve got to have that... folks with good quarterbacks are winning, folks with bad ones are losing, it s not that hard a game. We wanted somebody that s had success developing quarterbacks. We also wanted to find a guy that had some character. He wasn t going to embarrass this organization, he s going to lead it, and by doing things right, he s a good teacher, got good leadership skills, anybody we stand up here and present there ll be some negative things obviously, we know that.

I want you to know with all due respect, I don t care, that don t bother me. Everybody s got an opinion. You guys got a job to do and I m trying not to make it difficult. I m going to try to help you do that, I understand it, but my job is to get us the best guy to help us win games. And we found that guy. This guy s met more of the criteria than I ever thought we could find. This guy s won everywhere he s been. Very few times do you get an offensive minded coach that s been a coordinator on defense, he s been a special teams coach in the NFL, and he s been successful everywhere he s been. I told you when we go draft a guy we re going to get a guy that s got some body of work. He did it in junior high, he did it in high school, and he did it in college, there s a good chance he ll do it again. And he s done it everywhere he s been and there s a good chance he ll do it again. I ve talked longer than I meant to. Let me introduce the 15th Head Coach; this guy is a guy to get us back to winning and get us back to where we want to go: Coach Chan Gailey.

Head Coach Chan Gailey: Thank you Buddy. First let me thank Mr. Wilson and Buddy Nix for this opportunity. I understand the challenge that s ahead of us. The challenge to get the Buffalo Bills back to a winning franchise on a consistent basis and that is the plan. I know it s going to be a tough task, it s going to take a lot of hard work, and it s going to be something that s not done easily and the only way to get it done is for everybody to be on the same page. And the great thing about our situation right now is the two people at the top of this thing, Buddy Nix and I, who are in charge of the football operation are on the same page. That makes it easier for everybody involved when that is the case and I feel very fortunate to be in a situation like that. I also think I have through the years come to understand what it takes to build a winning organization. What I believe about things: I believe you have to be fundamentally sound. I think you have to teach fundamentals. I worked for a guy way back when I first started coaching he had a great saying and the saying was "plays are more fun than fundamentals, fundamentals are more important than plays," because everybody s got the double reverse pass and the "Bumbaruski" and all those kinds of things and they re great and there s a place for them but what wins the majority of the time is blocking and tackling and throwing and catching and kicking. That s what wins games so I believe in fundamentals and teaching fundamentals and being fundamentally sound. I believe in toughness and discipline. It s a tough game for tough people and this is a disciplined game as well. You can t just go out there and be a tough guy and run around wildly, you ve got to be disciplined, but you can t be so disciplined that you play under control, you ve got to have some toughness to you. That s a fine line and you have to talk about those two terms in the same breath. I believe in organization, removing the gray area as much as you possibly can, and when you do that then comes accountability. Once everybody has their role defined, once everybody has exactly what they re trying to get done explained to them perfectly then there s accountability, for everybody from the top to the bottom for everybody that s involved in winning football games. And last but not least I believe in character. I believe we re going to try to get our guys to understand how important it is to do things the right way both on and off the field. It s for the good of the team and it s for the longevity of their career. So those are the things that I believe that it takes to be very, very successful and I look forward to being a part of this, hopefully for many years to come.

On his relationship with Bill Cowher and reports that he had quite a bit to do with his recommendation for this job:

CG: I can t report on that. You ll have to call him and ask him if he had anything to do with that. I don t know if he did or not. I have an unbelievable amount of respect for Bill Cowher because I learned about how to be a head coach probably more from him than anybody else I ve been around through my years, and I ve been around some great people. I ve worked for Dan Reeves, I ve worked for Bill Cowher, I ve worked for Dave Wannstedt, I mean I ve worked for some unbelievable people and I ve learned something from each one of them. Everybody in here is a product of the people that they ve touched in their lives. Every one of us. You ve taken the good and the bad from each of them and I ve been around some successful people and I think that s why I ve been able to be successful somewhat in my career is because I ve been around those guys, and they ve shared with me and taught me and I ve been fortunate.

On if he ever thought he d get another shot at being an NFL head coach considering how long it s been:

CG: I didn t know. That s a great question. If you sit there and say "do you lose confidence and lose belief in yourself?" No, you don t. But do you see opportunities going by? Sure you do and you hope what Buddy said earlier, the body of work at some point will speak for itself, but sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn t. The beauty s in the eye of the beholder. That s the way it is.

On if he s relieved or excited:

CG: Yeah excited, that s a great word. You can use that one.

On if there was anybody that he d consider the greatest influence on his career:

CG: No, I can t say that. I just mentioned three of the guys and I m leaving out some guys that have been unbelievable factors in my life. It started with my high school coach, my parents, I can go on and on. So no, nobody s more than the other.

On how he s going to approach what may very well be a "dispirited" fan base coming into this season:

BN: Win games. That s the only way you can fix it. I can stand up here and tell you all that we re going to do but you ve heard that before so I m not going to waste my time or yours, but I will tell you this. In November or December, or a year from now, I think you ll know more about what we re about.

On if he ll act as the Offensive Coordinator and Head Coach:

CG: I will do both. I may have a guy that has the title offensive coordinator but I m going to run the offense to start with. If you want to get it the way you believe it needs to be done from the start then you need to do it. Don t mess around here and try to make this match with that, you have to get it the way you want it and what you believe in and that s what I plan to do. That way, even if as time goes on, I distance myself a little bit from it, and I m talking about years not days or months, I m talking about years from now as I distance myself from it then I ll still have the basis of it and know exactly what s going on so that I can correct it or do whatever needs to be done to get it right if it s not right.

On how he ll attract a good strong offensive coordinator if he s not going to do the job:

CG: The people that we re going to attract probably won t have the names that somebody might recognize right off the bat. We re going to get the best teachers. The best people to help fit in to a program. Everybody is not the superstar on the team. Everybody s got a role on the team. We re going to get the best people to come in here and be a part of our organization to help us build a winner and everybody s got a role. That s my job as the offensive side of it.

On the Bills offense and his core offensive principles and philosophy:

CG: When you talk about base offense, I think if you talk to the people that I have worked with or the players I ve coached, the one thing that I ve always tried to do is put people in position to be successful. We don t have a name for our offense – we re not East this, West this, North this, South this. We don t have a name for it. We re going to do whatever it takes to move the football, score touchdowns, and if it has to adjust because we have players better suited for one thing than another, then we re going to do that. I think that s the responsibility. Every player is not going to be suited for every offense, so you have to suit things to those people. Some core things I believe: you ve got to run the football and you ve got to be able to run it. Now, you don t have to lead the league in rushing to win football games. You don t have to lead the league in passing to win football games. You ve got to be smart, you ve got to move the football, be intelligent with how you try to score points each and every week, and that s what we ll try to do.

On the quarterback position:

CG: Buddy and I have talked about it somewhat, but until I get in there and watch film, and evaluate, it s unfair for me to sit here and say what s going to happen. That s not fair. I would be talking off the cuff and that s the quickest way to get in trouble. So I m trying, I want to make sure that we do a thorough evaluation, thorough study, do a great job of deciding and then us talking about what needs to go on in the future. So no, I can t tell you what s going to happen right now and what the plans are. I know both guys have had some success playing in the NFL but they have not done it for a length of time with consistency. So can they? We re going to decide that.

On thinking about who he wants to bring in on staff and if that process has already started:

CG: Oh yes, it s already started. That s something that when you get the call the very first time about, hey, we may be interested in visiting with you about the job, you start to formulate that in your mind. Now you don t make the calls, but you start to formulate those kinds of things in your mind. But that again, is a very fluid situation because you may be able to get some people, you may not be able to get some people. You would like to try to fit things in exactly perfect, but it will not happen most times. But yes, I have given that some thought. No, I m not going to name names, but I think we ve got, again I ll go back to the statement I made earlier, I think we ve got the right people in mind as far as teachers, and being able to put together a winning unit.

On running a 4-3 in Dallas and in Georgia Tech, and if that is his defensive philosophy:

CG: I think right now we re going to look at other options. I don t want to sit here and say we re going to do this or that today. That s one thing that I have to see the coaches that we re talking about. I have an idea of the direction that we want to go but I want to talk with Buddy (Nix) about drafting and how can you draft for these certain positions if you go to 4-3 or 3-4. You have to talk about all that to see the direction that you want to go but I know one thing, I m much more open to the 3-4 than I used to be because I know what a pain it is to go against it every week.

On why Buffalo seemed to be a job that nobody wanted:

CG: Well I can t speak for other folks . . . you look at the history of the Buffalo Bills and I ve come in that stadium enough times to know about the fans of the Bills Nation. Who wouldn t want to come here? Maybe some guys have personal reasons that they don t want to be here, great. I m glad, because I get to come here!

On his relationship with Buddy Nix:

CG: We start telling our age if we go back. South Conference is probably the first time, when I was at Troy? We re talking about the '70s.

BN: We won a National Championship in that division too, and Chan did at Troy. We started then and kept up with each other since.

On his response to the people in Buffalo:

CG: I can t say anything to change anybody s mind. All I can do is go try to help us win football games. If we win football games, everybody s mind will be changed, right? That s what will happen. Now I will say this: there s a lot of sixth and seventh round draft picks that have become Pro Bowlers. Right? It s what you do with the opportunity when you get it.

On what he has learning in previous head coaching positions:

CG: You know I think about those things, and I think about the way you deal with week-in and week-out situations, how you ve dealt with issues that have come up on the team that maybe you can do a better job of handling issues that are dealt with. I think that the first year I was at Dallas, we go to the first round of the playoffs and I take the blame for that, for losing that game, because I think I let the team get over confident in that ball game. Because we had played Arizona earlier in the year and we had beaten them so bad and that was a mistake. And I didn t think it at the time but as you go back through the years, what can you do better, maybe I did that. And if I did, I certainly won t let it happen again.

On coaches not wanting to come to Buffalo:

BN: Well I wish you guys had been answering my phone the last two weeks. We probably got, and I m trying not to exaggerate, 15 calls a day, begging for an interview and wanting this job. I could have hired 35 or 40 the first week. And you would be shocked at some of the names. All this stuff you see about folks, I saw were a couple of guys or one guy turned down a chance to interview and I was there, and I must have been 1,000 miles away at the time. I mean, trust me. It s a good job. Don t ever think you can t fill coaching jobs even if you re bad.

On if he wants to clear up the rumors of who interviewed for the position:

BN: No I don t, you don t deal with them when you re wrong, so I won t deal with them either.

On why he believes he will help the team turn around:

CG: Well if you don t believe in yourself and you don t believe in the people that you re going to bring in and the way you re going to run a football team, then you shouldn t be standing up here in the first place and probably every one of those guys believed in what they were going to do. And I certainly do myself, believe that. You can t promise in this league – there are 31 other teams out there that are trying to do the same thing that you are doing. You can t take me for my word because we haven t done it yet. I understand that. So all you can do is understand who we are, what we re about, what we re trying to get done, and you can hope, fans can hope, and expect, and that s a big difference. Because I learned from a coach way back, there are two types of coaches: those who hope to win and those who expect to win. And I ve been around enough winning programs and enough winning organizations that when I walk on the field I expect to win. I don t just hope to win, I expect to win. And I can sit up here and we can talk and you can ask questions and we can do this back and forth for another couple hours, but the bottom line is, we got to do it on the field, right? We have to do it on the field and we have to get the players in. We have to get them organized, we have to get them headed in the right direction, and we have to go produce a winner. I can t make you any other promises other than that.

On who will have final say on the 53-man roster:

CG: He (Buddy Nix) will, but we are going to talk. It starts at the top and he and I are on the same page.

On if he feels he s got the best guy or if the Bills settled:

BN: You know, let me go back and talk about, "we offered this guy and we offered that guy" and first of all, I m smart enough, I would not offer a guy without him meeting our owner. That s out of respect for him and he does own the team. The only guy that was invited in here to meet the owner is standing up here now. So that answers the question about how many got offered, I think. I also will tell you that without any doubt in my mind, we got the best qualified guy, a guy that was on the list early, he was again, we wanted to do a thorough search, but we got the right guy. We got the right guy for us. I have full confidence in him, and to answer your question, I ve always been a little bit lucky and the search turned out good.

On his previous health situation and how it will effect coaching in the NFL:

CG: I m fine, and I plan to be fine. Hopefully I m smarter about how I m taking care of myself now. My wife is kind of making sure of that to a certain degree. But you know, you make stupid mistakes about how you handle your health sometimes when you don t realize it, and I was not taking care of myself the way I needed to. So hopefully I m doing a better job, I haven t had any issues and I plan to finish here and in good health all the way.