[Mike Silver] Shirtless Joe Brady is ‘a true player’s coach,’ and his upbeat Bills are feeling the vibe

The night before Joe Brady’s first game as an NFL head coach, he entered a ballroom at the JW Marriott near the Houston Galleria and stood up to address the Buffalo Bills.

Many of the players looked around and wondered, What would he say? How would he handle the moment?

Brady’s message to the team before its season-opening showdown with the Houston Texans, at the dawn of what some are calling a new era?

Well, it wasn’t much of a message at all.

“I didn’t have much to say,” Brady recalled Sunday following his victorious debut, a head-spinning 36-31 triumph decided in the final seconds. “It was, ‘You’ve heard enough. Let’s go play football.’ ”

The Bills play again on Thursday night, hosting the Detroit Lions (1-0) in the first regular-season game at their new stadium. With a raucous crowd on hand, the occasion will be steeped in emotion. However, don’t expect Brady, who turns 37 later this month, to hammer home that theme in a hyperbole-laced, hyper-serious pregame speech.

His minimalist approach the night before the Bills’ opener was a stark contrast to that of his predecessor, Sean McDermott, who was fired after last January’s divisional-round playoff defeat to the Denver Broncos, ending a successful nine-season run. The tightly wound McDermott had been known to overreach in his motivational talks to the team — he once infamously used the 9/11 hijackers to stress the importance of teamwork and coordination.