About 12

[dhg]

Highmark is older then War Memorial Stadium when they knocked it down. That's crazy to me

Edited 3 hours ago by dhg

[Punch]

Thank you @dollars 2 donuts, what a beautiful tribute.

 

I grew up on Sheldon Road during the Kelly era. For a decade, the Bills were my neighbors: the Stadium was visible from my childhood bedroom and we could hear the roar of the crowd seconds before a great play appeared on the TV. I recently visited Western NY for the holidays and in addition to visiting some other haunts from my past, I drove down Abbott Road to see the new Stadium in person for the first time. 40+ years of memories flooded me and I began to well up. My Dad used to send me up to the ticket office to buy tickets on gameday mornings. My first time in the stadium was for a preseason game in 1985, my Dad and I and a friend. I remember how proud I was to take him to a Bills game (it was the 2002 home finale against the Bengals where fans "recruited" Takeo Spikes).

 

I was there when the 12th Man was added to the Stadium Wall. The 1993 AFC Championship against KC when Thurman Thomas ran for 186 yards and 3 TDs. I saw Marshawn Lynch's debut (and Kevin Everett's unfortunate accident), in a game the Bills never trailed but lost on a FG to Denver as the clock expired.

 

So many great QBs, all in my backyard: Joe Montana, Warren Moon, Brett Favre, John Elway and later Steve McNair, Phillip Rivers, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger.

 

What you suggest feels like destiny. I can imagine no greater way for Rich Stadium to go out than to raise that Championship flag in the shadow of my childhood home. Where else would you rather be?

[stevewin]

2 hours ago, dollars 2 donuts said:

The Bills should have 1 home preseason game next year, based upon the rotating schedules which gave us 2 this year.  They also will have 9 regular seasons games, and no out-of-country contests this time around.  If they get home field advantage and/or the 2 seed they will likely see two home playoff games, barring anything unusual should they make it all the way as a three or four seed.

 

That leaves the old girl, Rich-Ralph-New Era-Highmark Stadium, with 12 games left before she calls it day for the last time.

 

She'll be 53 years young by her last go around.  For many of us we saw our first ball game there.  For some of us we saw a player who was famous before he was infamous, juiced and electric and before our own eyes carrying a football like we had never seen anyone do before.  We saw the unbeatable on Monday Night Raiders get beat on Monday Night under her lights and under the stars.  We were there when The Streak ended in 1980 with the plea from one endzone banner simply reading "Please."  We were there when Fergy and Hooks made Big Ben into something more than just a clock in England.  We were there at the start of the playoff magic in 1988 against Houston, and there at mostly its end with our Hall of Fame QB against Jacksonville in '96.  We suffered through back to back 2-14 seasons in the mid 80s that gave way to our team's second golden era of the 90s, and we were there for the suffering, and yes surviving, of The Drought.

 

And although her halls were too narrow, and bathrooms too cramped and too few, and her foundations cracked and leaky, and her seating numbers dwindled for the sake of the new and changing NFL, she today shines brighter than ever for the third golden era as the sounds of Mr. Brightside echo throughout her shell.

 

...and in 12 games we say good bye to her forever.  All memories, good or bad.

 

For those of us who've been there, with friends and family alike...with their mom who took them by herself to see a 1979 late season game in the cold all because she loved her son and she knew how much he loved football.  For all of us at The Comeback, all 95,000 of us, who'll never forget it as long as we live.  

 

For those of us who still have the ticket stub from the final home game in 2007 against the Giants after which we may have told  our father, "You never know dad, this may be your last Bills game. So enjoy it, regardless of the loss" only to have him respond, "true."...and hating that it was "true."

 

...we get 12.

 

For her 53rd year she deserves to be the bell of the ball.  She deserves a right and proper send off.

 

She deserves to have everyone of her remaining games in 2025 start with the phrase "Home of the World Champions."  She deserves another AFC championship flag waving up high. 

 

...and she most certainly deserves her first ever Super Bowl Champion banner glaring for all to see from her top,  and to go along with the silvery Lombardi trophy encased in her foyer.

 

She deserves this as the birth place of so many of our fondest memories...for the things that happened there, and the people who were there with us.  Some of whom are gone and like this concrete and steel house with the green pasture, will never be forgotten.

 

Go Bills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice post.  This is the banner I will forever remember.  As far as other seared memories, being a young lad watching people pissing in hand washing stations in the bathrooms of course 😛 

 

And being there for the highs of 51-3, to the lows (lowest of lows) of 6-3 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by stevewin