Bills’ Levy Says He Was Lax on Players

Buffalo Bill Coach Marv Levy took the blame Monday for failing to keep all of his players focused on the Super Bowl, resulting in some well-publicized off-field distractions.

“I’ll tell you where I feel I came up short--that is the fact that we had four individual incidents where I didn’t reach our players,” Levy said.

Actually, Levy was referring to three players--Bruce Smith, Thurman Thomas and Leon Seals--and defensive line coach Chuck Dickerson.

All four were involved in controversy during Super Bowl week: Smith, Thomas and Dickerson before the Washington Redskins’ 37-24 victory and Seals afterward.

“Their pronouncements are something we don’t approve of,” Levy said. “And they hurt themselves more than they hurt our football team.”

Dickerson was fired two days after the Super Bowl. Members of the Redskins’ offensive line, known as the Hogs, said they used Dickerson’s televised comments before the game for inspiration.

In what he intended as humor, Dickerson did hog imitations and said Joe Jacoby drooled, Jim Lachey had bad breath and Jeff Bostic ate grease.

On the Tuesday before the Super Bowl, defensive end Smith, the NFL’s defensive player of the year in 1990, said he was thinking of leaving Buffalo because of racist mail he had received.

The next day, Thomas skipped a mandatory media session, allegedly angry over a Bill coach’s comment that Jim Kelly was the Michael Jordan of the Bills.

On the day after the Super Bowl, defensive end Seals, who had said all year that he was unhappy about contract negotiations, said he didn’t want to return to the team.