Mike Rodak, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Russ Brandon continues transition away from Bills' football decisions

Buffalo Bills president Russ Brandon will now oversee the Buffalo Sabres after Bills and Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula parted ways Monday with Sabres president Ted Black and replaced him with Brandon.

From a Bills perspective, not much will change. Brandon's title with the Bills will now be managing partner/president and he'll keep his main office at the team's practice facility. He will still be in charge of business operations, which has been his main focus since the Pegulas bought the team last October.

Yet the leadership change for the Pegulas highlights how Brandon continues to move away from the football operations of the Bills, where decisions are now made solely by general manager Doug Whaley and coach Rex Ryan, who report directly to the Pegulas.

"We have now reached what we were hoping to achieve, and we saw it when we sat on the podium the day that Terry and Kim bought the Bills," Brandon said Monday evening on WGR 550. "That I could now focus on the business side, which is really what my job is, and Doug Whaley -- and now Coach Ryan -- is the football man, and squarely the football man with his staff.

"So I think this really delineates really more, in concrete, that we have a hockey department with [Sabres general manager] Tim [Murray] and Coach [Dan Bylsma], we have a football department with Doug and Coach [Ryan], and now we have a business department that I oversee: the business and culture within both organizations."

In his previous roles, Brandon had more sway over football operations. He had organizational control over the Bills -- including their general manager and head coach -- in the final years of former owner Ralph Wilson's life, and also served as the team's manager in 2008 and 2009 following the retirement of Marv Levy.

Brandon, whose background is in marketing, was criticized for the team's roster and coaching moves during that period.

"I know that I take some heat there, and understandably so. I understand why," Brandon said. "But that gets a little bit overblown on that front. There's collaboration in every organization. There were times when I was filling a void within the structure of our organization at times.

"That ended when Buddy [Nix] took over [as general manager, in 2010]. Buddy was in charge of football, period. And when we transitioned into [Doug Whaley], he's in charge of football, period.

"We don't make decisions based on what the 53-man roster looks like. I've never made a decision based on that. I've never weighed in on that, I should say. But from a budgeting standpoint -- just pure business, of what we do -- that's what we do in any business.

"But they have full autonomy, Doug Whaley and Coach [Ryan] and Tim Murray and Coach [Bylsma]. They have full autonomy to run their departments, and they report to the owner. And that's the way it should be."

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