Two Bills Drive

‘What a difference a year makes. Now Bledsoe is on a new team and appearing in the fourth Pro Bowl of his 10-year career as one of the AFC’s three quarterbacks. The others are Oakland’s Rich Gannon , who will start Sunday against the NFC at Aloha Stadium, and Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning.’

‘Join former Buffalo Bills quarterback and National Hall of Famer, Jim Kelly on March 6th at CDS’ 25th Anniversary Celebration brought to you by BlueCross BlueShield of the Rochester area.’

‘So the question remains for Donahoe: Can the Bills afford to have two players being paid like "1-A" players at the position? The answer almost certainly is no, which Donahoe already has acknowledged.’

‘Former Buffalo Bills star Jim Kelly will be the keynote speaker for CDS Inc.’s 25th anniversary dinner March 6 at the Hyatt Regency.’

‘There was an area for autographs, a sports card show, raffles, and live bands playing all day long. I was even able to buy some really cool Bills merchandise!’

‘He was practically railroaded out of town by some offensive comments made by local sports talk host Chuck Dickerson. Parker thinks Dickerson lit the fuse and others piled on, making him expendable when the Bills had salary-cap problems. After he left the Bills, Parker was named the most valuable player on the Kansas City Chiefs and went on to a Super Bowl with the Giants.’

‘This morning, I met Eric, Ruben and Travis for breakfast. Drew couldn’t come because he was doing an interview for one of the TV stations. In was so hungry I had five omelets, 8 strips of bacon, and I lost track of all the pancakes. Even Ruben was in awe!’

‘Q: Danny from Salt Lake City, Utah asked if I am worried my tongue might get ripped out by an irate coach like the Calgary Flames mascot, and what precautions I am taking. A: I saw that clip too, Danny, and it was scary to see that such a thing could happen. So I guess I am a little scared. After all, I don’t know any of the coaches that are here at the Pro Bowl. But I think if I behave myself and, most importantly, keep my mouth shut, I should be able to leave Hawaii in one piece.’

‘Spending 15 hours on a plane is tough, but when I got to the airport I found out that Mr. Wilson bumped my ticket up to first-class!’

‘What do athletes and politicians have in common? More than you might think…’

‘Above all else, I enjoy and appreciate hearing from fans who are both passionate and sensible. The Buffalo fans I have heard from definitely meet (or exceed) this criteria. You guys rock.’

‘"One thing that I’m proud of is being able to be part of a team that I thought was very, very good. Both defensively and offensively. What I mean by that is – the three years that we had a lot of success, ’64, ’65 and ’66, although we did lose the (’66) championship game to Kansas City. If we would have won that game, that would have given us the first opportunity of playing in the Super Bowl," Ferguson said. "I just thought at that time, we were really unified, a lot of camaraderie, the guys were very close, and we just showed that all the way. On the field and off the field."’

We knew that the Hall of Fame would be opening its doors to a number of Bills over the next few years, but who would have expected the two who will be going in this year?

‘"They scared every team in the league but us," Banks said. "When we broke down the films, we saw they had abandoned the running game the last six games of the season. Their running game was a swing pass to Thurman Thomas. We said we were gonna play the pass and basically try to intimidate the receivers, punish them every time they got the ball. They ran a lot of crossing routes, similar to what the Raiders do."’

‘In fact, as I see it, even red zone stats, or third down stats, or opposing QB rating stats, aren’t nearly the measure of a championship defense as much as a defense’s ability to force turnovers.’