The announcement came via text Friday afternoon and represented the end to an era.
Bud Carpenter, the Bills long-time trainer, was retiring after 33 years.
At age 66, Carpenter was probably ready, though the press release was followed by another which revealed Shone Gipson, the team’s head athletic trainer, was let go after 17 years. Gipson stepped into his most recent position when Carpenter was elevated to Director of Athletic Training Operations two years ago.
So whether retirement was totally Bud’s decision, or nudged by new coach Sean McDermott — given Gipson’s firing — is an open question. After all, Carpenter is a survivor having weathered coach Doug Marrone’s attempt to make changes to the athletic training staff four seasons ago.
Bud was hired in 1985 by Bills’ Wall of Fame trainer, Ed Abramoski, the same day Buffalo drafted Bruce Smith.
Eleven years later, when Abramoski retired, Carpenter became head trainer and that’s when I got to know him. A native of Allegany and alumnus of St. Bonaventure, Bud felt a bond that he took seriously.
Back in 2007, when he and his staff were presented the NFL Training Staff of the Year Award, he agreed to talk about it to only one member of the media … me. Anything but a self-promoter, Carpenter still felt a sense of responsibility to his hometown newspaper.
When his crew first won the award, it focused on a specific event, the severe neck injury suffered by tight end Kevin Everett in a collision covering a kickoff against Denver in the season opener.
The Bills medical and training staff had practiced, at Bud’s direction, for handling a traumatic injury barely a week earlier and their quick response plus a controversial spinal procedure precluded Everett’s potential paralysis.
That second Training Staff of the Year citation — voted on by peers from all 32 NFL teams — came in 2014.
In my mind, Carpenter survived for over three-plus decades for two reasons: one, an infectious sense of humor, and two, long before HIPPA became law in 1996, he fiercely guarded players’ right to privacy … what happens in the Bills training room stays in the training room.
Bud actually spent a season with the Boston Bruins training staff and eight years as trainer at SUNY Fredonia where the Bills then held training camp. Legend has it, when Abramoski was looking for an assistant back in ‘85, linebacker Jim Haslett and tackle Ken Jones campaigned for him to hire Carpenter, whom they’d gotten to know and respect over several summers.
Upon the announcement of his retirement, Bud told Mark Gaughan of the Buffalo News, “We (he and the team) mutually agreed that now is the time (to retire). How lucky am I to be 33 years in the same occupation and not have to move? How many people can say that in the world of sports?
“To walk away knowing who you’ve dealt with and the respect you have from so many players, that’s the most important part. I can put my head on the pillow saying, ‘Hey, I did the best that I could for that player.’”
Of his career, he told Gaughan, “You start out with being blessed … a lot of good fortune. You pay attention to detail, but more importantly, you pay attention to people. You care about people … your players, your coaches, the rest of the staff … that doesn’t go unnoticed.”
In his 33 seasons, including McDermott, Carpenter worked for 13 head coaches — two of them short-term interims — while Brandon Beane is the ninth general manager of his tenure.
Of course, Carpenter, a member of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame, isn’t retiring from his charitable work. He’s still President of the Ilio DiPaolo Scholarship Fund which has raised over $1 million for WNY student-athletes and he works with D.A.R.E., Kids Escaping Drugs and the Center for Handicapped Children.
And now he’s got a lot more time to do it.
(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
