It was almost a year ago, in early January, when the Buffalo Bills called Rex Ryan back for a second interview for their head-coaching vacancy. Team president Russ Brandon was so impressed that he told owner Terry Pegula not to let Ryan out of the building.
"That's when we knew that Rex could be our coach, if he wanted to be," Pegula said days later, when Ryan was officially hired. "We just felt that he was our guy and trust me, we had some pretty impressive people that we felt could the Bills coach, but we said, 'Hey, let's go after Rex.