"Chan Gailey closed out his 17th season as an NFL coach Sunday when his Buffalo Bills lost what was essentially an inconsequential game in New England. Though he has seen it all in professional football -- Gailey was once fired by Dallas after two seasons despite leading the Cowboys to a pair of postseason berths -- he has never faced the kind of circumstances he does with the Bills.

Gailey has experienced back-to-back sub-.500 seasons for the first time in his NFL career and only for the second time since he began coaching at Florida as a graduate assistant in 1974. The last time that happened was in 1981 and '82, when he was a defensive assistant at Air Force.

For the Bills, who haven't enjoyed consecutive winning seasons since 1998 and '99, this is commonplace, but for a coach who stressed changing the losing culture as his primary target, this is different."