Back in November, Buffalo Bills general manager Buddy Nix definitively stated Chan Gailey would be back as head coach in 2013.
In Nix's mind, the franchise had leaned too heavily on coaching turnover to change the culture in the years since Marv Levy left town. That had to change.
"You appease 'em for about three months, and then when you line up, you gotta do it again," Nix said of the Bills' lather-rinse-repeat methodology, via The Buffalo News.
Nix had a significant change of heart in the two months that followed, of course. Gailey was fired Monday, one day after the Bills completed a third consecutive double-digit-loss season.
"I say stay the course all the time, and you want to stay the course -- if you're on the right course," Nix said Monday, via BuffaloBills.com. "If you're heading in the right direction. I think once we got toward the end of the season and we weren't going in the right direction, then after three years, you gotta make a change."
Nix was asked what changed his mind.
"Chan and I talked about it with five games to go when we were still mathematically alive, said we gotta do good enough to be headed up to justify going on the way we're going," he said. "I think any time realistically that you don't make the playoffs, then the year's a failure. I don't care if you're 9-7 or 7-9."
Meanwhile, the Bills' operation is shifting beneath Nix's feet. NFL.com's Albert Breer reported Tuesday that Nix will keep his GM role, with a succession plan to ease assistant GM Doug Whaley into his place.
Gailey was gone in an instant. Nix's slide into the darkness will be more gradual.
Follow Dan Hanzus on Twitter @DanHanzus.