Dibs Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 He was a sixth round draft choice and in camp and played the entire pre-season on the Bills, and he missed every single kick, like 0-6 or something including several short ones and a couple PATs I think. 724548[/snapback] Oh, I was running with the assumption of the thread that he missed on purpose because we wouldn't pay him enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarthur31 Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 My Gary Anderson theory: 1982, the year we drafted GAry Anderson to be our PK, there was a rookie deadline, if they didn't sign by then they got some sort of automatic, very cheap, contract. Anderson, who I watched practically never miss a kick in college here at SU, was picked by Buffalo who played hard ball with him on his contract knowing he had his back up against the rookie deadline wall. Reluctantly, he signed, came to camp and then proceeded to miss everything. I mean EVERTYTHING. Even xp's. He practically wiffed a few in Charlie Brown fashion. Last cut before the season we dropped him even though he was the highest drafted kicker we ever had. We ended up starting Efren Herrera who never played again after that year. Anderson was signed immediately after we cut him by the Steelers, I think he signed the deal at the airport. If memory serves, it was well above that rookie benchmark, well above. He suddenly ends up being their starter on opening day despite his dismal preseason. He nailed 83% of his kicks in his rookie year while Efren hit only 57%. Hmmm......Why would the Steelers sign a preseason washout rookie PK and have him start from day one with out so much as a hint of a tryout? Could it be that his agent called the Steelers when Buffalo played hard ball on the contract and set it all up with Gary missing all those easy kicks on purpose? Bad enough but it gets worse: After Herrera went back to selling insurance, we messed around for a few years with Joe Danelo as our kicker until, in 1985, we signed none other than Scott Norwood. The rest is history. Ralph's cheapness, at least in those days anyway, resulted, eventually, in Scott Norwood lining up that 47 yarder for the title when it would otherwise have been Gary Anderson, the most accurate kicker in NFL history. Screwing a 6th round rookie kicker out of a few samolians cost us a freaking Super Bowl title. The irony, the agony, the paranoia. Just a theory. 724419[/snapback] Oh man you didn't check up on facts did you? Gary missed a shorter FG in the Metrodome (on turf!!!) that sent the Falcons to SB 33. That is ALOT worse my friend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albany,n.y. Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 Oh man you didn't check up on facts did you? Gary missed a shorter FG in the Metrodome (on turf!!!) that sent the Falcons to SB 33. That is ALOT worse my friend! 724555[/snapback] He was older & had a weaker leg by then, he had plenty of range during the Bills Super Bowl days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickey Posted July 18, 2006 Author Share Posted July 18, 2006 Thanks for that. That was just a hard choice. I have to admit, if I were the GM I probably would have cut him, and obviously it's a huge mistake. That's one of the reasons the Steelers have a better track record than the Bills, they make the right choices and the Bills often make the wrong ones. I don't think that was a no-brainer at all though, keeping him. It was one of those tough decisions you don't know how will turn out. Clearly there have been kickers in college as good as Anderson who never made it in the pros. Russell Erxleben comes to mind. Although he later made up for it by being a top notch securities broker. 724513[/snapback] I think Erxleben was using half deflated balls, er...footballs, which was legal back then in college but not in the pros. No one was clamoring to keep him after what he did in preseason and everyone was shocked when he had such a great rookie year in Pittsburgh. There weren't an awful lot of SU players likely to go far in the pros or even make a roster so were all following Anderson closely. I was so psyched when the Bills drafted him since I would have had one of my favorite college players in a Bills uniform. At the time I was hoping they would keep him and chalk the preseason up to rookie nerves but it was not to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H2o Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 And that after a perfect season for the Vikings. It was the first kick he missed all year. 724466[/snapback] Sounds like he pulled a Vanderjact Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramius Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 i think the bills should bring up fraud charges against gary anderson. in the end, he got his tho, by missing the kick against atlanta. karma is a B word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobody Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 If I recall - before the draft Anderson made it known that he wanted to play for the Steelers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Typical TBD Guy Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 If I recall - before the draft Anderson made it known that he wanted to play for the Steelers. 724729[/snapback] And so the plot thickens! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadBuffaloDisease Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 The truth about "Wide Right" is that Frank Reich, who was the holder on the FG attempt, failed to get the laces out, which prevented the ball from hooking back inside the uprights. The kick had plenty of leg and was just an inch or two off, so it wasn't like Norwood was way off with it. But outside of that, there were enough other blunders that lost the game for the Bills, rather than laying it at the foott of Norwood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickey Posted July 18, 2006 Author Share Posted July 18, 2006 The truth about "Wide Right" is that Frank Reich, who was the holder on the FG attempt, failed to get the laces out, which prevented the ball from hooking back inside the uprights. The kick had plenty of leg and was just an inch or two off, so it wasn't like Norwood was way off with it. But outside of that, there were enough other blunders that lost the game for the Bills, rather than laying it at the foott of Norwood. 724833[/snapback] Isn't that the plot for Buffalo 66? ****Sound of me throwing my replay hanky******** Find me some footage. Lets clear Norwood of theses scurrilous charges once and for all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sen. John Blutarsky Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 Maybe not Ralph, who was our GM way back then? 724498[/snapback] Terry Bledsoe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinandjokin Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 I was hoping beyond hope that the truth about Wide Right was that the kick was actually good, and that through extensive research, Gary Anderson was able to prove that it was in fact the goalposts that were Wide Left. Bummer. Next time I'll just stick with my own thoughts instead of actually opening and reading threads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadBuffaloDisease Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 Isn't that the plot for Buffalo 66? ****Sound of me throwing my replay hanky******** Find me some footage. Lets clear Norwood of theses scurrilous charges once and for all. No, it's actually the premise for Ace Ventura. And it's true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. K Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 I've always been convinced that Anderson missed those kicks in pre-season on purpose. It does not make sense that he would miss EVERY kick he attempted. And I seem to recall him saying publically that he did not want to be drafted by the Bills, before they drafted him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leh-nerd skin-erd Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 the plot thickens with even more...uh...thickness than you think. gary anderson met a girl the weekend before he left the bills and signed with the steelers. that girl and he fell in love. when they met the chemistry was palpable. they spent the weekend together, first as strangers, but then sharing the initmate secrets of love as only a placekicker and a woman can. he was one for one that weekend, one for one on the field of love, it's up and it's good. no wide right, he didn't come up short, 100% money in the bank. that girl, lafonda charlamane, fell hard for him, but thereafter time and distance kept them apart (she was from cleveland), and they drifted apart. lafonda found out just a few short months later that she was pregnant. her family urged her to call him, to let him know, to give him the opportunity to share in the life of his child. but she never did, you see, she loved him too much. so... the story goes that she kept her secret from him for many years, until, one day, their paths crossed again. her son had grown, of course, into a large and athletically gifted child, a lovable bear of a man who looked freakishly like the wandering travel gnome who was his father. as fate would have it, he would follow in the footsteps of the father he had never known. he, too, would wear the uniform of the Buffalo Bills. On that day, when he finally met his long-lost father, he pledged things would be different. he would play his heart and soul out, he would make it there. yes, my friends, young benjamin garret anderson was sure his star would shine brightly for years in the skies over lake erie... and now you know, the rest of the story... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bflojohn Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 First off, Timmo 1805, I believe I need the "Readers Digest condensed version" of that story.... whew!? However, after reading this thread, I'm left with only one thing to say. If this story is even remotely true, then Gary Anderson is one pathetic human being (or at least he was) and the Pittsburgh Steelers are just as much to blame, IF this incident is true! The NFL wouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole in 1982, but there would be huge ramifacations in todays' NFL if something like this ever happened. God, draft choices nowadays simply state that whichever team picks them is fine with them. They're "coached" by agents to say this now! Did Anderson actually come out then and declare that he wanted to be a Steeler? Wow, if true, that's amazing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickey Posted July 19, 2006 Author Share Posted July 19, 2006 First off, Timmo 1805, I believe I need the "Readers Digest condensed version" of that story.... whew!? However, after reading this thread, I'm left with only one thing to say. If this story is even remotely true, then Gary Anderson is one pathetic human being (or at least he was) and the Pittsburgh Steelers are just as much to blame, IF this incident is true! The NFL wouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole in 1982, but there would be huge ramifacations in todays' NFL if something like this ever happened. God, draft choices nowadays simply state that whichever team picks them is fine with them. They're "coached" by agents to say this now! Did Anderson actually come out then and declare that he wanted to be a Steeler? Wow, if true, that's amazing! 725172[/snapback] Saying you won't play for this or that team may not be as common today but it was once fairly common. Tom Cousineau was a much heralded LB that the Bills selected as the first pick in the entire 1979 draft. He swore he wouldn't play for the Bills and instead signed a contract with the Alouettes who promptly won the Grey Cup with Cousineau as the title game MVP. On a side note, when the Bills traded OJ to San Francisco, one of the picks they received was their first round pick for the '79 draft which they used for Cousineau. When Cousineau wanted to finally play in the NFL, we traded him to the Browns for some picks including the one we used to select Jim Kelly. Without OJ, we would never have had Kelly. By the way, if memory serves, Kelly had not interest at all in play for the Bills which is why he ended up in the USFL. Eli Manning made it pretty clear he wasn't going to play for San Diego as well. It just goes to show that you interfere with a person's freedom to contract for his services with the highest bidder at your peril. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibs Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 ......Without OJ, we would never have had Kelly....... 725173[/snapback] Thanks for the history lesson. I had no idea about any of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadBuffaloDisease Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 Saying you won't play for this or that team may not be as common today but it was once fairly common. The most famous example I can recall is Elway refusing to play for the Baltimore Colts and being traded to Denver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leh-nerd skin-erd Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 madbuff, next time i'll scale it back, but i was on a roll. admittedly, it was a lot of reading for a bad gary/bennie anderson gag. as for happening/not happening, and as rufus pointed out about the cooze not wnting to play in buff, it happened and strange things continue to happen in today's nfl. i'd be alot more content with all the mysterious coincidences (from days past, and other issues like controversial officiatin in the most recent super bowl) if we had at least one SB ring in buffalo. can't recall if it was a Buffalo News article or sports clip on the news that refered to cousineau as "Cousin-no-show". Great journalism, and another former nfl'er who is dead to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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