Chance encounters with current/former Bill players. Did it change your opinion of them?

[Einstein]

I’ve met Kelly and he was fine in the very VERY brief encounter I had.

 

Ive heard from others that met Kelly (and Reed) for longer and they said they are absolute a-holes of the highest order.

 

Definitely dampered my thoughts of them.

Edited October 7, 2022 by Einstein

[Lost]

44 minutes ago, SageAgainstTheMachine said:

I saw Rex Ryan at a grocery store in Los Angeles yesterday. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything.  He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?”  I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Milky Ways in his hands without paying.  The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.  When she took one of the bars and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence,” and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each bar and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.

 

Pretty much how I would expect a Rex Ryan encounter to go

[Clyde Smith]

Ran into Bruce twice. Not as tall as I thought he was but dude was diesel as hell. Wearing a tight ass shirt when I ran into him the second time in the club. 

 

For Thurman to be short, his hands are huge.

 

Phil Hansen is a big tall dude and awesome.

 

Jim is cool, he has jokes lol. Talking about my hat.

[Real McClappy]

3 hours ago, Starr Almighty said:

I met Drew Bledsoe at the Sundowner #TrueStory

 

I've met others but this is my favorite one to tell people.

Met Bruce Smith at Sundowner and Sabre Mathew Barnaby on different visits before in the mid 90's.

 

I shook Bruce's hand there and felt like a little child, his hands were like 3x mine.

[Augie]

21 minutes ago, boater said:

I'm not very good with faces. Compound that with those faces being buried in a helmet, and I'm done for. Tom Brady could pass me on the street and I wouldn't even notice.

 

FWIW... a friend of mine had an Ed Oliver experience at Dave & Busters. It was very positive and made him an Ed Oliver jersey owner. There's a lot to be said about being humble and having basic manners.

Very true about the bold. I’d love to be rich, but I’d hate to be famous. I’d like to think that I would always be gracious, but it must be tough if you can’t go out to eat or drop into the grocery store without be approached by strangers. 

 

I’m not an autograph guy and tend to leave famous people alone, but I understand folks wanting to say hello, Go Bills or get a pic. One bad experience wouldn’t bother me much. You never know what they are dealing with that day. Maybe their dog just died, who knows? But when you keep hearing the same reports about a guy from different people, maybe that’s just who they are at that time of their life. 

 

[Motor26]

Bagged Don Beebe's groceries when I was a teenager, nice guy. Ran into Josh, his (very long legged) girlfriend and I assume some former NCAA/NFL player based on his size at a golf dome. Just gave Josh the nod and said what's up like he was anyone else. If I was an athlete I'd want to live in Buffalo, wouldn't have to worry about fans being all up in your business all the time. Granted, that was right after Joshes rookie year and I have since left the area. I'd like to know if he can still walk around town with the same freedom. 

[mrags]

47 minutes ago, Nextmanup said:

Whenever you hear only side of a story like this, I often wonder what the other side of the story is, and if the version we are hearing is actually the "right" one.

 

Don't get me wrong mrags, I'll side with you on this one.  

 

But I just wonder about some of these.  Some fans out there are freaking crazy, really weird, or just abnormal people, and I can see a famous person trying to get far away from them once they catch a whiff of it! I'm with the famous person in that situation.

 

Now, if a fan is polite and straight forward, but the famous person is just an a-hole, well, that's different.

 

We heard that story up-thread about Nate Odomes shafting a kid 3 times inside a half hour!  Hard to think the kid was the wrong party in that exchange!

 

 

 

I won’t get into specifics here. I know how much all of those guys are loved around here. Kelly and Reeds exploits of the 90s are in record tho to back up my opinions. I’ve got serious terrible stories about both from other people I know and trust though, as well as my own personal contacts with them. 
 

ive met countless Bills in my lifetime. There was a time where I would go to any autograph signing or public meet and greet as possible. Have countless autographed material to show for it. And these 3 take the cake for me for the 3 biggest POS I’ve ever met that were famous sports players. 

[BillsFanNC]

14 minutes ago, Motor26 said:

Bagged Don Beebe's groceries when I was a teenager, nice guy. Ran into Josh, his (very long legged) girlfriend and I assume some former NCAA/NFL player based on his size at a golf dome. Just gave Josh the nod and said what's up like he was anyone else. If I was an athlete I'd want to live in Buffalo, wouldn't have to worry about fans being all up in your business all the time. Granted, that was right after Joshes rookie year and I have since left the area. I'd like to know if he can still walk around town with the same freedom. 

 

My wife is more into the celebrity side of football and as such she listened to Matthew Stafford wife's podcast before the season opener. She had Josh's girlfriend on as a guest and she talked about how great Bills fans are etc. but at the same time she was excited about their new house on gated property since fans would often ring their doorbell at their old house asking for Josh to sign stuff.

 

It just boggles my mind that people would do that.

Edited October 6, 2022 by DRsGhost

[BigDingus]

I met Taron Johnson's parents at the Houston airport... does that count? 😆

 

It actually did change my opinion of him, as he was still a rookie that I didn't know much about, and his parents were insanely supportive & friendly. Made me really pull for him even more.

[Rocket94]

I remember meeting former safety Jeff Nixon. He was selling pools and he seemed surprised that I recognized him. I even remembered that he led the NFL in interceptiuons early on!

[Ethan in Cleveland]

I have a Marv Levy connection too. First I saw him eating dinner alone at Russell's Steakhouse a few years ago. I was there with my siblings for a family reunion. We had a big group. We left him alone but as he walked out he stopped by the table and spoke with my family.

Second one of my patients was faculty at Coe College. He knew Marv very well from his time there. I did not know this but Marv kept up his connection to Coe throughout the years. They named a street on the campus after him. My patient said Marv was always kind and generous with his time.

[JohnBonhamRocks]

I remember trick-or-treating in Marcellus Wiley's neighborhood and he was just walking around with his kid in a wagon filled with candy. Pretty cool.

 

My ex was loud and annoying and blew up Tyrod Taylor's spot while he was waiting for his sushi burrito at Market Expo on Main downtown. He seemed like a super nice guy.

 

Also can say Mark Kelso is a really nice guy and good coach.

[Einstein]

3 hours ago, JohnNord said:

 

I’d also agree that Jim has changed over the years, yet people want to drag ***** up from 30-40 years ago to disparage him.

Is there evidence that Jim has changed? I hadn’t heard.

[145B4IDIE]

JK used to hold his football camp at St. Bonaventure in early 90s. Someone was looking for one of those giant photo-op checks they use for donations. I made that and JK came in the place I worked to pick it up and signed it. Was returned after the whole photo op but have no idea what happened to it. Players after camp would hit local bars and have drinks. And yes, Andre Reed was unapproachable with his ‘people’ around him.

When the bar closed (good friend with owner) we had a little after-hours and Kent Hull and Will Wolford hung out and helped hammer plaster off a brick wall we were revealing😀 super nice, real people, just hanging out having a good time!

 

also met House Ballard, Don Beebe and Brad Lamb at a charity basketball game at local high school, signed a jacket.

 

this is the wall

[Curt]

The only Bills player that I ever met was Andre Reed. It was in December 2011, when the Bills were in San Diego to play the Chargers. On the Saturday night, the eve of the game,  the San Diego Bills Backers organized an event downtown San Diego. I don't remember how much was the evening per person but it was fairly reasonable.  It included some food and we could also get a picture taken with Reed plus his autograph. Quite frankly, I have nothing positive to say about my short experience with him. I found him very arrogant. He couldn't care less about the fans who had to wait a long time just to meet him. He was probably tired,  had enough and couldn't wait for that to be all over.   

[Process]

30 minutes ago, Buffalo619 said:

Played 18 holes with Andre Reed at Maderas GC. Great guy!! He really warmed up when I told him I was from Buffalo and a huge fan.  
Good golfer, we exchanged numbers and text each other every now and then. He’s a cool dude. 

We found Andre's burner.

[Pete]

where there is smoke, there is fire.  It seems like Andre and Jim are jerks.  Thats too bad

[Solomon Grundy]

I met OJ Simpson during the Bills SB era at a downtown hotel. Really cool guy. Liked his Bloody Mary's

[Dopey]

What is now Templeton Landing used to be Crawdaddy’s back in the day. Was there one night wearing a pair of Bruce Smith sneakers from the “Bad things” commercial. He saw, smiled, shook my hand and offered to buy me a drink. He was on his way out with Biscuit. 
Almost met Andre Reed, almost. Waited in line at the McKinley Mall at an autograph session and with 11 people left, he left. I was one of those 11. 

[BBills83]

I'll come to Jim Kelly's defense. This past May my wife, sister and I met his daughter Erin, who was a sweetheart, and sat with Jim for about 40 min in his charity's conference room. He talked with us like he'd known us for a long time. We discussed his teams and this one. He loves Josh and has high hopes for this group. We all left feeling great about meeting them.  Definitely not an a$$.