l< j Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 It appears that the vintage '08 Bills need to be blown up, and with them goes a great storyline that I had become really attached to earlier in the season. When we were looking good just a few weeks ago, I was high on my Bills. Not just because we looked good but because of how we got there. When Ralph Wilson found his organization at a low point following the disastrous Donohoe years, he turned to his old friend Marv to return sanity and respectability to the club. And when we jumped out to such a strong start, I began to think about playoffs, the elusive Lombardi trophy (a season or two or even three away, sure, but we were in the hunt and moving in the right direction), and vindication. Vindication for Wilson at the end of his years, and for Marv, who couldn't bring it home as a coach but seemed to have set everything up as a GM before gracefully stepping aside. It was all part of his plan. And of course for the long-suffering fans of a team in a long-suffering region where daring to believe in your team has always carried the risk of a big letdown. (Throw in Tim Russert watching from on high, if you want--I was not a fan--and you now have a story that makes "Rudy" look like a Freddy Kruger movie.) Now where are we: The team is apparently no better off than when Donahoe left (or when he took over; don't gloat, Mort, you SOB). Ralph Wilson has to wonder if he will see the other side of a rebuilding effort; Marv knows he will never be directly associated with a Super Bowl winner. And us? The future of the franchise is cloudier than ever and we find what comfort we can in shared memories of better teams (or equally bad: thank you, Friggin' Lonnie) and a schtick that Chris Berman started using over a decade ago. And the story that I had sold out for is now a joke. The selection of Marv seems more worthy of the mocking he received from sports radio at the time than the hopes I (and Wilson, and probably you) had invested in him. The Toronto experiment might make sense for a team on the rise, but for the current Bills, it is a double failure: Moving the game exposes the Bills for their inability to draw spectators within a few hours of home, because the team is bad and spiraling downward. And it deprives its fans of the opportunity to root against the hated Dolphins in the game that is still an important measure of success. What talent we have hasn't been developed, and opportunities to reload have been sqandered on players who can't cut it. Coaching seems to be something other teams do. Lots on the horizon for the Bills and its fans. But vindication is a long, long way off. I liked that story. kj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murra Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 The story that won't be told Looks like you told it anyways... the elusive Lombardi trophy It's a trophy...a fairly stationary object not needing personification. All kidding aside, I liked your post, but it did little to make me a greater Bills fan. There are about a million Buffalo area stories that will never be told. The Kick that should have sailed in. The comeback team that went on to win the superbowl. The hero Ronnie Harmon. The great Buffalo Bills victory in a wildcard against the Titans, marching on to beat the Rams with future hall-of-famer Rob Johnson at the helm. The great sprawling Hasek save on Brett Hull in the crease, moments before Holzinger took the game to Dallas for a 7th game. The list goes on, and no other teams have more woulda coulda shoulda stories. I don't get what you're saying, other than "hey, notch up another choke by a Buffalo Sports franchise." Hardly anything worth mentioning... (good post btw) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BADOLBILZ Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 It appears that the vintage '08 Bills need to be blown up, and with them goes a great storyline that I had become really attached to earlier in the season. When we were looking good just a few weeks ago, I was high on my Bills. Not just because we looked good but because of how we got there. When Ralph Wilson found his organization at a low point following the disastrous Donohoe years, he turned to his old friend Marv to return sanity and respectability to the club. And when we jumped out to such a strong start, I began to think about playoffs, the elusive Lombardi trophy (a season or two or even three away, sure, but we were in the hunt and moving in the right direction), and vindication. Vindication for Wilson at the end of his years, and for Marv, who couldn't bring it home as a coach but seemed to have set everything up as a GM before gracefully stepping aside. It was all part of his plan. And of course for the long-suffering fans of a team in a long-suffering region where daring to believe in your team has always carried the risk of a big letdown. (Throw in Tim Russert watching from on high, if you want--I was not a fan--and you now have a story that makes "Rudy" look like a Freddy Kruger movie.) Now where are we: The team is apparently no better off than when Donahoe left (or when he took over; don't gloat, Mort, you SOB). Ralph Wilson has to wonder if he will see the other side of a rebuilding effort; Marv knows he will never be directly associated with a Super Bowl winner. And us? The future of the franchise is cloudier than ever and we find what comfort we can in shared memories of better teams (or equally bad: thank you, Friggin' Lonnie) and a schtick that Chris Berman started using over a decade ago. And the story that I had sold out for is now a joke. The selection of Marv seems more worthy of the mocking he received from sports radio at the time than the hopes I (and Wilson, and probably you) had invested in him. The Toronto experiment might make sense for a team on the rise, but for the current Bills, it is a double failure: Moving the game exposes the Bills for their inability to draw spectators within a few hours of home, because the team is bad and spiraling downward. And it deprives its fans of the opportunity to root against the hated Dolphins in the game that is still an important measure of success. What talent we have hasn't been developed, and opportunities to reload have been sqandered on players who can't cut it. Coaching seems to be something other teams do. Lots on the horizon for the Bills and its fans. But vindication is a long, long way off. I liked that story. kj As Bills fans, we are guilty of being a bit too nostalgic about the Jim Kelly era. That team didn't win a SB. They were outstanding and very entertaining, but the bar is set too low here and we are far too concerned with validating what those guys did. They are what they are, a very talented team that choked in the Super Bowl because they weren't quite great. It was asking way too much to expect Levy to come in off the street and match wits with the best GM's in the game. He hired a coach like himself to coach a team he couldn't have won with. He carelessly discarded veterans and then used prime picks to replace them when his roster was much more in need of additions without subtractions. He greatly overvalued two crops of free agents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sisyphean Bills Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 Levy deluded himself to believe that good character was causation of great talent. Levy coached a team loaded with great talent that happened to have much good character, but those teams were not all choir boys singing hymns and helping little old ladies cross the street. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheChimp Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 The story that REALLY never gets told, except by me, of course, is how Marv Levy rode the coattails of those amazing Bills players in the 90s and was the real reason they never won the Lombardi. His got outcoached every single year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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