Seeing the Buffalo Bills of the Super Bowl Era

I was at this game! My one time seeing the Buffalo Bills of the Super Bowl era, with Levy, Kelly, Thomas, Smith, Bennett, and Tasker,. Beebe and Talley were gone by then, though. I'm a Giants fan, yet still have nothing but respect for that great Buffalo Bills team! Four straight Super Bowls, greatest comeback in NFL history, and the winningest team during the first half of the nineties. Not too shabby!

Now, granted, the Bills were already a couple of years past their Super Bowl days by this point. They had reached the final of their four consecutive Super Bowls in the 1993-94 season. But most of the core of that team was still there, and that was why I made such a point of seeing them. I mean, being a football fan, there was that desire to see a team that had made such history. Even to this day, nobody has equaled the feat of reaching four straight Super Bowls, although the New England Patriots might have a chance to do exactly that if they get back to the next one next season. Even if they do, the Buffalo Bills were the first franchise to do it. 

That was a hell of a team! As a Giants fan, I remember being very concerned even after being elated that my Giants had just knocked off the San Francisco 49ers. Why? Because when the Bills destroyed the Raiders, 51-3, in the AFC title game, they looked like they were peaking, and seemed just unstoppable at that point. Plus, they had already beaten the G-Men, and at Giants Stadium! Buffalo had clearly positioned themselves as the favorites to win the Super Bowl. They were hot, had that explosive offense, and even had a very strong defense, which was not typical of teams with great, explosive offenses like that.

Everyone, all of the experts, seemed to expect the Bills to win. The Giants had a great season, the thinking went, and they had managed to knock off those 49ers in San Francisco. But the Bills were a different animal, and it hardly seemed like the offense could even be slowed down. 

Well, the Bills did almost win, and everyone remembers poor Scott Norwood's field goal sailing just wide to the right. Buffalo was very good, though, and so they got back the next year, only to face a powerhouse, a juggernaut in Washington, and they only got going too late. By the time that the Bills started to really play that game the way that they were supposed to, they had fallen too far behind to realistically entertain any hopes of coming back.

Then, those two losses to Dallas. It was a mixture of the energy of a young and rising team finding it's pace, mixed with past hauntings of Super Bowl failures of the past, which I think truly hurt the Bills in Super Bowl XXVII, and resulted in them having a disastrous collapse in an epic blowout. Then, even though they outplayed the 'Boys in XXVIII through the first half, and even dominated them, it seemed like they were just waiting for something bad to happen. It did, and the Bills collapsed all at once, allowing sacks, missing tackles, committing turnovers, and seeing their last chance to winning a Super Bowl evaporate before their eyes. 

Sometimes, it makes me sad to think that the Bills did not win the big game. Not that I would have wanted to see Norwood's kick split the uprights, as I did not want to see my Giants lose. But I was very disappointed when Buffalo's return trips wound up as such disasters for them, and for the city that they represented. They deserved better. 

I still have fond memories of that team, and that era! I remember being particularly impressed with coach Marv Levy, who seemed like a legitimately decent man and scholar. There were two phrases that he used to say. One was, "Where would you rather be than right here, right now?"

Thurman Thomas, in a recent 30 for 30 documentary on that Buffalo team, laughed at the thought of that question, as the Bills took the field sometimes in sub-freezing temperatures and truly ugly weather, and kind of asking, in retrospect, if that were a serious question.

The other thing that Levy used to say was, "If it's too tough for them, it's just right for us."

Indeed, it was for a long, long time, and for most teams. Hell, even the critics of the Bills, whom said that the team did not deserve to be in the Super Bowl, seem to forget that Buffalo actually enjoyed a 14-2 record in the regular season against NFC teams during that four year stretch, when they qualified for the Super Bowl each season. Some of the most impressive wins against NFC teams? Beating the Eagles and knocking off the Giants at the Meadowlands, about six or so weeks before those two teams would meet in the Super Bowl. They beat Chicago in 1991, and won tough road games at San Francisco (the first ever NFL game without a punt) and at New Orleans in 1992, and then beat the Cowboys in Dallas and the Giants at Orchard Park in 1993. Plus, they obviously completely dominated the AFC during that stretch, as well. It is unfair that some people have given them the label of losers, when they actually won so often at that point!

I ran into this video of their game at the Jets during the 1995 season. I remember making a point of going to it, and taking my then girlfriend, who would eventually become my wife, and is now my ex-wife, to that game. It was a real thrill seeing those guys, who had made it to so many Super Bowls, do what they do best, and play football and win some games! 

Here's to the memories!