Archives for August 4, 2009

‘”I think the best decision that was ever made in my career was hiring Ted Cottrell,” Smith said.’

‘Noted for tremendous work ethic.’

‘Bruce Smith, the first overall pick in 1985, is the first player from that draft class to make the Hall of Fame. Here’s a sampling of who could be next.’

‘"I’ve never met him, don’t know anything about the guy,” Finnegan said. "I like players that make plays and that are real good, because that makes me better and he is all that.”’

‘"I think he is motivated in almost everything he does by a love of the game and its history, not because it is primarily a financial undertaking," said Marv Levy, the retired coach who led the Bills to an unprecedented four Super Bowls, from 1990 to 1993, and is a member of the Hall of Fame. "He cares about the people who work for him, very much, and they begin to understand how important the love of the game is to him."’

‘Barring injury, Jackson is scheduled to start the season opener against the Patriots in New England on Sept. 14. But Rhodes also is expected to see plenty of action. "Just the way the reps are going, I would say that I’m the guy right now, but he’s definitely going to get his opportunities, too," said Jackson, who graduated from Coe College, alma mater of legendary former Bills coach Marv Levy.’

‘”I remember going to Houston, to a Gamblers game,” Wilson said. “After the game, Jim Kelly and I were talking. I said he couldn’t throw the ball into the seats and hit anybody. There wasn’t anybody in the stands. I told him, ‘We need a quarterback.’ He said, ‘You do need a quarterback.’ That put us on the map.”‘

‘”I wanted to go at them from every direction,” he said in “The Other League,” a 1970 book by Jack Horrigan and Mike Rathet that detailed the AFL’s 10-year history.’

‘”This is very cool. I’m excited to do a good job for him,” Berman said. “This is not about me. It’s his day. He deserves to have 20,000 fans stand up and cheer him.”‘

‘”When Stephanie was diagnosed, and I decided to stay at home with her, I remember going to the mailbox and there was a check for $10,000 made out to the Stephanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research from Ralph Wilson and the Bills. It was something I’ll never forget. He was one of the first to believe in what we were doing. Now we’ve raised more than $5 million."’

‘”I don’t believe, when you have a team in a city and you have very passionate fans, that you should move the team to a new city,” Wilson said. “And if you are going to move the team, the fans should know well in advance. I never got that far. … We always have had great support. That’s why I stayed.”‘

‘ The only original American Football League owner who kept his franchise in its original city since the AFL’s inception. … The only president in Buffalo Bills history. … Served on all major NFL committees during his tenure, including collective bargaining, revenue sharing, television contracts, the original AFL-NFL merger and realignment. … Chairman of Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Enterprises in Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich. … Family includes wife, Mary; daughters, Christy Wilson Hoffman and Edith Wilson. Another daughter, Linda Bogdan, was the NFL’s first and only female scout until her death in April.’

‘”(Wilson is) just a great guy. I met him when I was 9 years old,” Joe Horrigan said. “My dad went to New York to do PR for the AFL. We did that for 31⁄2 years, then went back to Buffalo. I was the team ballboy in ’68 and ’69. It was nepotism gone wild.”‘

‘”The attitude of the NFL then was very conservative,” said Alliance native Charlie King, who with his brother, Tony, became the first black siblings during the modern era to play professional football on the same team after Buffalo took Charlie in the 1965 redshirt draft and Tony in 1966. “The NFL wanted to run the ball. The AFL brought in quarterbacks to throw the ball. They ran reverses, used motion before the snap. The NFL was 3 yards and a cloud of dust. … It was great seeing the changes.”‘

‘The move comes as no surprise, since Goodell was the lone arbiter of the appeal and essentially reviewed his own verdict in sticking with the decision.’