Mr_Blizzard

The league has changed tremendously since '87. Free agency in those days required the team signing a "free agent" from another team to give up 2 first round picks, which essentially killed that option. Plan "B" was still a couple years away. Biscuit was a rare talent that only comes along once every several years - a true game-breaker. Would LOVE to have a guy with his talent on the 2011 Bills. I agree 100% Just got to thinking the other day about the start of the glory days, and ol' Cornelius was a key part of the Bills defense. When we had Conlan, Talley, Bentley and Bennett stacked up behind Bruce Smith and company, we had one of the best defensive front sevens in the league

Halloween Day 1987 - the Rams, Colts and Bills are involved in one of the biggest trades in NFL history. The complex trade sent Eric Dickerson to the Colts, Greg Bell to the Rams, and Cornelius Bennett to the Bills. What Buffalo gave up: Greg Bell, RB (a former Bills 1st round pick). 1st round Pick (14th overall) – 1988. 1st round Pick (26th overall) – 1989. 2nd round Pick (53rd overall)– 1989. In hindsight - Was this trade worth what it cost Buffalo? Bennett Recorded 52.5 QB sacks, 6 INT, and 22 Forced Fumbles. He spent 9 seasons in Buffalo, and was selected to 5 Pro Bowls. I say YES. Thoughts?? C. Bennett Career Stats

One of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet, and a good reporter too. I'll miss her on WHAM

Hull of a player, a man, and a Dad Business First by Tim O'Shei, Buffalo Business First Managing Editor Date: Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 2:45pm EDT - Last Modified: Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 3:30pm EDT Tim O'Shei Buffalo Business First Managing Editor - Business First When I heard the news last night of Kent Hull's untimely death at age 50, I knew what I'd be doing this morning. I stopped by my parents' house and sifted through some boxes in the basement. It took about 10 minutes to find what I was seeking: A dusty old 1995 edition of !@#$, the then official team magazine that was published by Business First. At the time, I was a 19-year-old college sophomore who doubled as a Bills beat reporter for the magazine. In this edition, I profiled Kent. The story included a locker-room conversation with the then-Buffalo Bills center, an interview with his wife Kay, and a family photo that included both of them with their two kids: Drew, then 8, and Ellen, 5. There are plenty of tribute columns you'll be reading – in fact, I'll have my own in the Friday edition of Business First. But here, I'll focus on an aspect of him that the public rarely glimpsed, but I was lucky enough to see for my story: Kent Hull as a family man. One year earlier, 33-year-old Kent had signed a four-year, $5.2 million contract. The Bills wanted to lock him up for the rest of his career. One person was unhappy about it — 8-year-old Drew. He badly wanted a dog, but was told he couldn't get one until the family was done moving between Buffalo and Mississippi. "We kept saying, 'When Daddy retires, you can get a dog,'" Kay told me. Then Drew heard – on the radio, no less – that Dad signed a new deal and would be around a while. "We were in the car when Drew heard the news," Kay said. "He yelled, 'Daddy, no!' He was really upset." The Bills had good reason to keep Kent around. The team had just lost two key linemen, Will Wolford and Howard Ballard. Kent was a solid mentor to their younger replacements, shared a strong bond off the field with Jim Kelly, and had an almost instinctive relationship with him on the field. "Jim, gosh, I mean, a lot of times he'll mess the snap count up – he'll want it earlier, and I'll give it to him because I know he wants it," Kent told me. "I can tell from his voice that he needs it and wants it." Kent was also the finest player spokesman the team had – both then and probably ever. He had a knack for answering reporters' questions in a way that was both straightforward, funny and respectful. In fact, when Kent retired in 1996, all of the Bills beat reporters banded together to throw him a thank-you lunch at Ilio DiPaulo's Restaurant, a longtime hangout for the players and coaches. It was a rare sendoff that bridged the gap that usually separates players and reporters. Kent was gracious to us all, and even seemed to appreciate the "gift" – a mock-up front page with a fat headline ("A Hull of a guy") and short tributes from a dozen reporters. He didn't, however, seem sad. Kent seemed ready to move home to Mississippi, back to the farm life, and have more time with his family. I don't know if Drew finally got his dog, but I'm certain they all loved having their dad and husband for the 15 years that followed. Linky

Ode to the Everyman Former Bills center Kent Hull, 50, died of internal bleeding Tuesday at his home in rural Mississippi. After an 11-year career that spanned the Bills' glory years, he retired to his childhood town of Greenwood, Miss., and tended to 800 head of cattle on his ranch. He had been ill for a while with a form of cancer, but his death, at far too young an age, stunned his teammates and hit them hard. "Thurman [Thomas] called to tell me,'' Steve Tasker told me Saturday, "and it was hard to understand him. He was bawling like a baby.'' I write about this mostly anonymous man because players like Hull are the bedrock of so many good teams, past and present. Hull did his job and never sought glory. If glory came, as it did in the form of three Pro Bowl nods and two All-Pro selections, he would deflect it. He was the perfect Bill Polian/Marv Levy player. Do your job, be responsible, lead when needed, care only about winning -- and be smart. I am confident in saying he was one of the five or six most valuable players on those four Buffalo Super Bowl teams, because of what he meant to the team in making the line calls on the fastest-moving offense in football, and for what he meant as the last guy out of the locker room ... after every game, after every practice. If a problem needed to be solved, he'd help. If someone just wanted to talk, he'd talk. Part of his football life included being there if anyone needed him; someone usually did. I remember lots of big-talking (rightfully so), boisterous players on those Bills teams, on and off the field, and I remember Hull, with a dip between his lip and gum, accommodating teammates, reporters, fans, and never being too big for any of it. He'd do it quietly. He loved Levy's trademark, "Where would you rather be than right here, right now?'' He lived that. Being a cog in the wheel was his thing. Hull and Jim Kelly were signed by the Bills after the United States Football League folded in 1986. When they arrived in Buffalo, Kelly got in a limo and was cheered by nutty fans on highway overpasses and on the sides of roads on his way to the Bills' offices. Hull got in the back seat of the Bills' equipment van, with his and Kelly's luggage. In Hull's first practice with the team, offensive coordinator and line coach Jim Ringo confused him with another player, a guard, and ordered Hull to get down in his guard's stance for a drill. He had never played guard, but he tried to get down in a stance like a guard, and it wasn't quite right, and Ringo blistered him for being in an NFL camp and not knowing how to line up. "Coach, I'm sorry. I'm a center,'' Hull said. Soon, Ringo and Marv Levy realized that Hull was the kind of technically perfect player and peerless engineer of blocking schemes that made the K-gun no-huddle offense work. Kelly was Lindbergh, and Hull the airplane mechanic. "Someone figured out once that, on average, there were 16 seconds between every play in our no-huddle,'' said Tasker. "Jim would be able to look over the defense and call the formation we'd get in, and make the play call. Then Kent would figure out our blocking assignments and call them out just before Jim would get the snap. Sometimes, Kent would know Jim had made the wrong call for the defense they had out there. Once, Jim got down to get his hands between Kent's legs for the snap, and there was Kent, turning his head around from his stance, shaking his head. Like, 'No, no, no.' And Jim would change the play call. And it got done. No big deal. It just got done. "And off the field, you know, in an NFL locker room, you cannot hide. Guys are in there talking about politics, personal hygiene, world events, whatever. Discussing, arguing, everything. I can't tell you how many times Kent would be in there, just listening, and then you'd hear him give his opinion, and then you'd hear a few guys say, like, 'Yeah. That's what I think.' That's the kind of presence he had. "What a teammate he was. And from being at the funeral [Friday in Mississippi], it was the same in his personal life. He had intelligence, his heart was always in the right place. Nothing in his football career or his life was about him. It was about the guys, it was about the team, it was about winning. Period." That's value. Bruce Smith and Kelly -- you're not winning without them. Thurman Thomas too. And Darryl Talley and Andre Reed: vital players. After that, who? Hull, I'd say. The man who was always there for everyone else. In retirement, not much changed. When one of his herd was slaughtered, Hull often would take 20 or 30 pounds of the prime beef to a community kitchen that served the less fortunate. "Don't tell anybody,'' he'd say. That's a man right there. Peter King --> MONDAY MORNING QB Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/10/24/Week7/index.html#ixzz1bvZF2bMe

Raccoon moved in This one made me laugh out loud

We'll never know...

Could be time for T.O. to hang up his cleats.

Plus the guy has some playing time under his belt. Hopefully he can contribute right away..

Sad but not surprising. I still think it was worth the risk signing him when we did. Hopefully there is a serviceable FA journeyman available. Maybe director of pro player personnel can find an LB from someone else's practice squad. Tough break for Merriman... Edit - Apparently the Bills re-signed Antonio Coleman this afternoon. So there's our answer.

The Bills are way more exciting that the colts this year.

The later you get into a season, the fewer first stringers are still healthy. The Bills are pretty beat-up at this point..

Frick - I missed it!

Having My Baby - could qualify for one of the worst pop songs of the century, and Little Willy would be right there with it!

To be serious a minute, I think if we had John Kidd instead of Tuten, Fred Smerlas instead of J. Wright, and Tasker as a 3rd/4th receiver, we would have blown the Giants out. Plus giving Thurman a few more touches would have helped. Memories . . .

I don't own one myself, but I haven't heard anything bad about them from my my fellow tekkies.

Super-size please!

This gets my vote.

Link to Wilson and Knight Funeral Home Kent's Obit

See - you don't appreciate those guys either. THEY ARE UNDER APPRECIATED!!! Bahahahahaaaaaa And thanks for the props for Al Edwards. He had a huge touchdown catch for us. As a matter of fact, I think it was his ONLY touchdown catch!

I think that if anyone takes a good look at the state of the Bills 18 months ago versus now, we are a much better team. Let's face it - we were terrible last year. It's takes more than 2 drafts to build a team, and the talent cupboard was pretty bare when Chan and buddy inherited the team. I give them one more off-season to get the talent level to where it should be. We need better starters at LB, and quality depth. We are lacking in those areas, and the recent injuries have made the problem more visible.

Quote from Cornelius Bennett referring to Kent's funeral gathering: "It's a sad occasion but it's also a great occasion, because it gets us together to show love for one another and support for one another. Kent will always be with us in our hearts and in our minds."

McRib -> YUM!!!