Russ Brandon (born June 1967) is an American sports executive, and current President of the

XFL XFL may refer to: Sports * XFL (2001), a defunct American football league that played its only season in 2001 * XFL (2020), a professional American football league Vehicles * Bell XFL Airabonita, a 1940 U.S. Navy experimental interceptor aircra ...

. Brandon is best known for his 21-year tenure in the front office of the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

Career

Early career

Brandon is a 1989 alumnus of

Saint John Fisher College St. John Fisher University is a private liberal arts college in Pittsford, New York. It is named after John Fisher, an English Catholic cardinal and saint. It was named St. John Fisher College until July 1, 2022. History St. John Fisher Unive ...

. In 1990, Brandon began his career with the

Rochester Red Wings The Rochester Red Wings are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They are located in Rochester, New York, and play their home games at Innovative Field ...

, then the Triple-A affiliate of the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

, where he was a member of a staff that included

Joe Altobelli Joseph Salvatore Altobelli (May 26, 1932 – March 3, 2021) was an American professional baseball first baseman and outfielder who played for the Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball. He was also a manager for the San Fr ...

Glenn Geffner Glenn Geffner, a Miami native, is a radio play-by-play announcer who recently announced for the Miami Marlins. Geffner joined the Marlins radio broadcast team in 2008. Geffner partners with Dave Van Horne on the Marlins Radio Network. In addition to ...

Joe Kehoskie Joe Kehoskie (born January 18, 1973) is an American baseball consultant, executive, and entrepreneur. He has worked in professional baseball in a variety of capacities since 1984, formerly working in minor league baseball (1984–1994) and as a ...

Josh Lewin Josh Lewin is an American sportscaster who works as a play-by-play announcer for the UCLA Bruins football and basketball teams. Early life and career Lewin is originally from Rochester, New York, but lived outside of Boston for several years ...

, and

Bob Socci Bob Socci (born 1967) is an American TV and radio sports broadcaster. He is currently the radio play-by-play voice of the NFL's New England Patriots. Early life and education Socci was born in Auburn, New York. He is a 1985 graduate of Au ...

. Brandon had risen to co-general manager of the team by the time he left in 1993. After a brief stint with a

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

division called Sports Advertising Network, he eventually joined the front office of the

Florida Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The club's home ballpark is LoanDepot Park. The franc ...

and was there as part of the

1997 World Series The 1997 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1997 season. The 93rd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Cleveland Indians and the National L ...

championship team.

Buffalo Bills

Six days after the Marlins won the World Series, Brandon joined the

of the

on November 1, 1997. Brandon was first named to a high-level executive position within the franchise in 2006, being named director of non-football operations alongside

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

Marv Levy Marvin Daniel Levy (; born August 3, 1925) is an American former football coach and executive who was a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for seventeen seasons. He spent most of his head coaching career with the Buffalo Bills, lea ...

. Brandon, although his title did not change, assumed Levy's responsibilities as ''de facto'' general manager after Levy retired. Brandon was promoted to CEO upon the hiring of

Buddy Nix Charles Kenneth "Buddy" Nix (born December 6, 1939) is a former American football coach and executive. He was the general manager of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL) from 2009 to 2013. Nix was a scout for the Bills from 199 ...

as the Bills' general manager. Among other things, he is credited with expanding the Buffalo Bills fan base throughout the Western New York-Southern Ontario region, and was instrumental in the deal for the Bills to play two games per season (one preseason, one regular season) in Toronto, Canada, which many football fans have regarded as a sacrifice of home-field advantage in favor of revenue. An influential NFL executive, Brandon also served on several league business and marketing committees. As CEO, Brandon increased his influence on the team and handled most of its day-to-day operations while owner

Ralph Wilson Ralph Cookerly Wilson Jr. (October 17, 1918 – March 25, 2014) was an American businessman and sports executive. He was best known as the founder and owner of the Buffalo Bills, a team in the National Football League (NFL). He was one of the fo ...

's health began to decline. This culminated in Wilson officially naming Brandon as president on January 1, 2013, giving Brandon full control over the franchise. Known as the architect of the Buffalo Bills 17 year playoff drought, Brandon is the third person to serve as president of the Bills, after Wilson and

Tom Donahoe Tom Donahoe is the senior director of player personnel for the Philadelphia Eagles. Previously, he was general manager of the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL. Biography Donahoe was born and raised in the Pittsburgh suburb of ...

. Since Wilson's retirement, Brandon had served as the team's representative in owners' meetings in lieu of Wilson, a position he continued even as his widow inherited the trust that held ownership of the team.

Buffalo Sabres

Shortly after

Terrence Pegula Terrence Michael Pegula (born March 27, 1951) is an American billionaire businessman and petroleum engineer. He is the owner of Pegula Sports and Entertainment which owns the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL) and, with his wife Ki ...

purchased the Bills, Brandon was also assigned the role of president of the

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team was established in 1970, along w ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

following the dismissal of previous president Ted Black on July 27, 2015. With his assumption of the Sabres role, Brandon also became president of the

Rochester Americans The Rochester Americans (colloquially known as the Amerks) are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League; the team is an owned and operated affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres. The team plays its home games in Rochester, New York, a ...

of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

. The change also changed Brandon's title with the Bills to that of "managing partner," but despite the title change, Brandon did not receive a partnership stake in the franchise (unlike predecessor

Larry Quinn Lawrence J. Quinn (born March 9, 1963) was an All-American lacrosse goaltender at the Johns Hopkins University from 1982 to 1985, leading the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays to the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship in 1984 and 1985, and two additional fi ...

, who owned a share of the Sabres during his time of managing partner).

Resignation

Brandon announced his resignation from

Pegula Sports and Entertainment Pegula Sports & Entertainment (PSE) is an American sports and entertainment company based in Buffalo, New York. The company was established after multi-billionaire Terry Pegula and his family combined their sports, property and entertainment ass ...

on May 1, 2018. In a statement to the press, Brandon stated that the departure had been planned since he had reached 20 years with the Bills franchise in November 2017 and that he fulfilled his duties to the Bills and Sabres for the remainder of the season before tendering his resignation. A report in ''

The Buffalo News ''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...

'' claimed that Brandon had been subject to an internal investigation regarding inappropriate relationships with female employees; neither the Bills nor Brandon mentioned such in their statements. Pegula's wife

Kim Kim or KIM may refer to: Names * Kim (given name) * Kim (surname) ** Kim (Korean surname) *** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties **** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948 ** Kim, Vietnamese f ...

, already active in the Bills' operations as a part owner, took over Brandon's positions.

XFL

On November 8, 2021, Russ Brandon was named President of League and Football Operations of the

, succeeding the departing

Jeffrey Pollack Jeffrey Pollack (born 1965) is an American sports executive and business consultant. After a brief career in politics, Pollack moved into the industry of sports business where he's held executive roles with the NBA, NASCAR, World Series of Pok ...

Filmography

* ''

Draft Day ''Draft Day'' is a 2014 American sports drama film directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner. The premise revolves around the fictional general manager of the Cleveland Browns (Costner) deciding what to do after his ...

'' (2014) (as himself)

Personal life

Brandon is the brother of Gregg Brandon, who is the executive vice president and general counsel for Pegula Sports and Entertainment.

Career

Early career

Buffalo Bills

Buffalo Sabres

Resignation

XFL

Filmography

Personal life

References

Notes

Further reading