Bills scout to deliver NFL-style pep talk in Philharmonic commercial

The Buffalo News

By Tom Buckham
News Staff Reporter

The clock ticks down.  Crowd noise shakes the locker room.  Adrenalin is rushing.  A lens peers over the players' shoulders as the coach begins his pep talk,
"OK, listen up," drawls the big, moon-faced man wearing a gray fedora.  "You are without a doubt the finest group of professionals that Ah've ever worked with."
"You're at the top of your game.  This is your night!  Now, get out there and play like the winners you are, and make us proud."
Everybody leans forward.  The coach says, "OK, bring it on in here."
Coach and players clasp hands and chant in unison: "One-two-three.  Let's go!"
And then a fired-up Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra charges madly onto the Kleinhans Music Hall stage and plays the concert of its life.
Anyway, that's the fantasy conjured up by a new commercial starring Dwight Adams, Buffalo Bills player personnel director, coming soon to a TV screen near you.
It's the brainchild of James A. Gillan, and advertising executive who dreamed up the 1996 Philharmonic spot that featured a tuxedoed concert-goer diving into a mosh pit and Kleinhans as the orchestra played the rock anthem, "Hey!"
Gillan discovered the colorful Adams while listening to a radio report about National Football League prospects.
Adams, Gillan recalled, was raving "in the thickest Arkansas accent you can imagine," about a particularly talented wide receiver.
After signing him for an automotive commercial, Gillan hit on the idea of pairing Adams with Buffalo's favorite classical music team.
The commercial was to have been shot a year ago, but was postponed because of turmoil in the Philharmonic's front office, Gillan said.
Philharmonic President Joseph E. Goodell, who recalled that whenever the 1996 spot ran, "the phones rang in the ticket office," gave the go-ahead for the new shoot, Gillan said.
The model for the coach, he said, was the late Bear Bryant, he legendary University of Alabama coach.
Adams, an Arkansas native who played football at tiny Henderson State Teachers College and was an assistant coach at the University of Florida before entering the NFL 14-years ago, shunned the comparison.
He may be a bear of a fellow, but he's no Bear, he said in all seriousness.
"Nobody could be Coach Bryant.  He was one of the all-time best – a people person and a great motivator."
Bryant, he might have added, would not have been caught dead in a gray fedora.  He preferred houndstooth hats.