Two Bills Drive

‘"I personally felt like my tank was running low as far as some of the stuff you had to put up with around there, and then week in and week out getting yourself pumped up mentally thinking you have a chance to win and then be disappointed most of the time," said Spikes. "My mind was pretty much made up. I felt like my time was over. I did my time and, like I told (Lewis), he had some personal goals that he wanted to accomplish in life and I had some at the same time. And I felt that me being there with him and him being there with me, I think we would kind of be cutting short each other of our personal goals."’

‘"(LeBeau) does a great job on game days acting as an assistant coach. He’s in an advisory role to me constantly," said Williams. "When I was a young coach in this league, (Krumrie) was still playing and I loved watching him when he was playing and he coaches the same way, with the same attitude as he played."’

‘"If it weren’t for football," he says solemnly, humbly, "I’d be one of three places. I’d be dead, I’d be in jail, or, what’s the third thing? — selling drugs. I guarantee you I could give you 30 names right now of people I grew up with who are dead. We got ’em dead, we got ’em in jail, we got ’em on the street hustling."’

‘Against Miami and Philadelphia the past two weeks, the Bills committed 21 penalties worth 168 yards and lost both games, deflating the team’s early season momentum like police road spikes piercing the tires of a getaway car.’

‘”I think it helps to know players’ tendencies,” he said. “I never had to play against the Cincinnati Bengals offense, but I practiced against them a lot. Just seeing how they react in certain situations, who seems to turn it up a level, who falls below the level, who seems to be like ‘I’m going to just do my job and see what happens.’ I definitely know that.”‘

‘”We will continue to work from the list of our clientele,” said Tom Donahoe, Bills’ president and general manager. “We will utilize this month to get a firm understanding of exactly where we are in the process. The figures are now in but we want to take a good look at what they indicate.”‘

‘"It gets to the point where you’re getting tired of being an average defence," said Spikes.’

‘The Bengals’ plan would appear to be to run Johnson in Dillon’s role as the featured back and spell him with Brandon Bennett.’

‘Q: Are you surprised by the power Lewis has in the organization and what he has been able to do? A: “What has he done? The only thing I know is what the record (1-3) is right now.”‘

‘Off the field, Spikes has become a celebrity. He’s been interviewed by media megastars Jim Rome and Dan Patrick. He appears in ESPN commercials that trumpet the network’s NFL coverage. And he’s all over the Buffalo and Rochester TV and radio air waves. “That comes along with winning,” Spikes said. “You can go out and hire all the best people (to promote you), but if you don’t win, it’s pretty much irrelevant.”‘

‘That’s right, the Eric Moulds Show airs weekly on the Empire Sports Network across the state of New York. Here on the Coast and anywhere else outside of New York, the Empire Sports Network is available on DirecTV.’

‘You have to get there to lose. So there is something to be said for just getting there. The day before the Super Bowl was always the best. The day after was always the worst. But it might happen this year. I thought that until [the Sept. 21 game] against the Dolphins.’

‘”You got to go out and prove something,” explained the Bills linebacker. “Two of the things I miss about Cincinnati are the friendships I built with some of the guys, and I miss the fans there also.”‘

‘After seeing how the Bills dress, no wonder Buffalo is known as a “drinking town with a football problem.”‘

‘The Bills announced that the team has re-signed wide receiver Jerel Myers to its practice squad.’