Tipster19 Posted November 3, 2008 Posted November 3, 2008 ....it was 1973 and my admiration for the Bills was just beginning and watching OJ Simpson rushing for over 2,000 yards rushing in a single season. I was just a young kid not fully comprehending the magnitude of such a feat. ....big changes occurred with the hiring of Chuck Knox and trading OJ to the San Francisco 49'ers. ....getting tortured unmercifully by my older brother year after year for being a Bills' fan. ....working in a pizzaria in the late '70s/early '80s proudly wearing my Bills' hat. ....going to a MNF game in 1981 against the Dolphins on bus trip from Rochester with our favorite local bar. I took the sheets off of my parents' king- sized bed and made a sign out of it. It went something like "We're no babies and we don't need no Cribbs because we come from the school of hard Knox". It was fandemonium because we stomped them. What a great night that was! ....watching later that year in the post season a gimpy Joe Freguson gallantly tough it out in a losing cause against the San Diego Chargers. ....seeing us draft a Jim Kelly and then wondering what we did to deserve him not wanting to play for us. ....suffering thru the Hank Bullough Era and seeing our stars quit against a team like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. ....going to the Jim Kelly/Bills home opener in the 1986 season against the New York Jets. Once again another lost but man what an exciting game that was! Finally we got hope again. ....watching Bill Polian accumalate more of those great players of the '80s and '90s teams and realizing that Darryl Talley is my favorite all time player. ....the 1988 season we finally arrived as a true contender. The Bengals were just a little too much for us in the end but I couldn't wait for the next season to begin. This is when I also realized just how big Boomer Esiason really was. In the AFC Conference Championship game Bruce Smith went to tackle him and Boomer was shoulder to shoulder/eyeball to eyeball with him. ....being in the endzone seats in the 1990 AFC Conference Championship game against the Raiders and watching Darryl Talley intercept a pass for a TD and return it pretty much right in front of me! What a rout! ....watching my brother-in-law slip and fall down a slope on a muddy day leaving the Ralph after a win. I forget which game it was but he was so drunk and he was going to show me how to cut thru the crowd on the outside of the exit ramp. He was wearing white sweats and was covered with mud from head to toe. I couldn't stop laughing my @$$ off. What an idiot! ....witnessing the refuse to lose mentality of this team in the 1990 season against the Broncos and the Raiders in back to back wins. We were getting our @$$e$ handed to us in both games, especially the Bronco game, when the Bills exploded for 24 points in a 1 minute/17 second span. The next week against the Raiders I think something like 21 points in a 3 or 4 minute span for another big time win. It was magical and I never see much of those two ever mentioned. It's too bad because it was some of the most exciting football I ever saw. ....going to every post season home game during our Super Bowl runs but pussying out and not going to the Greatest Comeback. I wanted to but the problem was that my buddy was a diehard Houston Oiler fan and HATES Buffalo. I wasn't confident that we were going to win and I wasn't going to ride all the way up and back to Buffalo and listen to his mouth, especially during the game. It was a no win situation for me. He's a true bad@$$ and even if we won I couldn't rub it in because he would of killed me, literally. To compound matters more that game was blacked out. I had to listen to it on the radio but it didn't squelch the elation I felt when I heard it. ....seeing my favorite team win the AFC four consecutive years. I was disappointed and heartbroken when they didn't convert just one of those Championships into a Super Bowl win but I was always proud of them just the same. ....feeling how proud I was when I watched Thurman score that 31 yd TD, it was also the 1,000 point scored in Super Bowl history. What an emotional game that was for me. I even punched a hole in my wall, not out of anger but pride. ....afraid to dream in that first Super Bowl when it came down to that FG. I'm not kidding, I felt that it was against us. That wasn't really Norwood's comfort range and it was on grass. I was devastated and watching any great length of that game still puts a lump in my throat. What I won't forget is when the Bills win their first Super Bowl how I will think and feel. It will be fulfilling my life. I think about the Bills EVERY single day. They are a fiber of me for decades now. I swear that they must be a part of my DNA. What I won't forget is the pictures and images of my sons when they were little boys dressed in their Buffalo Bills' pajamas, knowing that the Bills hold a special place in their hearts no matter where they are in this world because of their dad. The Bills are important to them because of me and THAT gives me great joy. When they think of the Bills, they think of me. How great of an honor is that?
Recommended Posts