Archives for December 2001

‘”Some have gone from apparent greatness to nothing,” Carolina coach George Seifert said. “Others have come from apparent nothing to greatness. I think that’s the thing that we all hang onto.”‘

‘To the rest of the country, the Carolina-Buffalo game is a joke.’

‘Walls, 35, is the team’s second oldest player.’

‘So today, it’s One for the Ages. The only thing that could spoil it is if the teams play to a tie.’

‘After all, only the winless Detroit Lions and the expansion Houston Texans stand between these two teams and the top pick in April’s NFL Draft.’

‘There was an 80 percent chance of snow last night in Buffalo, with a northeast wind gusting up to 15 mph. But it shouldn’t be so bad for the game today. Forecasts were calling for temperature highs that could reach the upper 30s by this afternoon and it might even be sunny, with the chance for additional snow down to about 30 percent.’

‘”Honestly, I think guys would be lying if they didn’t say in the back of their minds, that, ‘Hey, that makes business sense,’ ” Seifert said. “But as a coach you can’t do it. You can’t function that way. There’s no way that I can go into a game and not do everything I can to win a game. When you compete, you compete to win.”‘

‘Crosby earned a roster spot and now finds himself second on the depth chart at fullback behind perennial Pro Bowler Larry Centers. He even got a start last Sunday night on national television against the San Francisco 49ers due to the offensive formation in which the Bills opened the game.’

‘Call it The Futility Bowl, The Pride Bowl, The Misery Loves Company Bowl. Two teams, whose combined records are 2-21, are playing for anything but a shot at The Super Bowl.’

KnowledgeMax & Sideware are merging and Sideware’s CEO James L. Speros is a former Bills Coach. Early in his career, Mr. Speros spent five years in the National Football League, coaching for Buffalo Bills ftr two years.

‘Predicting the outcome of Buffalo Bills games has gotten remarkably easy. It’s no longer a question of if they’ll lose, but how and by how much. Some optimists point to Sunday’s visit by the almost-equally dismal Carolina Panthers as Buffalo’s chance to avoid the third one-win season in franchise history, since Carolina hasn’t won since a Week 1 upset of Minnesota. But not all single-win records were created equal. Of Carolina’s 11 losses, seven were by eight points or fewer. Five came by the margin of a field goal or less, including a pair of overtime defeats. Buffalo has come within three points of victory just twice, with two other losses by a touchdown or less. More than half the Bills’ 10 losses, six, were by double-digit margins. Recent history also bodes well for the Panthers. They led New Orleans into the final moments last week, only to blow a lead in the final five minutes for the fifth time this year. That night, Buffalo turned in a thoroughly hapless performance in San Francisco, failing miserably in every phase of the game.’

‘Leif Larsen is expected to start for injured defensive tackle Shawn Price on Sunday, though rookie Tyrone Robertson will get plenty of snaps.’

‘To date, the sub-standard bearer is the 1971 club. That team should have been known as the Counterfeit Bills.’

‘Levy wasn’t merely an exceptional coach … he is a remarkable human being. Even as the Bills were in the midst of four straight trips to the Super Bowl, ‘The Coach’, whom Levy once employed, couldn’t rip him enough. Their knuckle-dragging listeners dutifully chimed in with their ‘me to’s.’

It was predictable … yet such a sad commentary on the human condition.

In the midst of Buffalo’s golden age of football, Levy was crucified by a loose cannon who once worked on his staff whose philosophy was any controversy, no matter how flimsily contrived, is good radio.’

‘Not that you were wondering, but the previous time two one-win teams met this late in the season was Dec. 13, 1993, when the 1-11 New England Patriots met the 1-11 Cincinnati Bengals. Surely nobody remembers the score of that one — a 7-2 thrilling win by the Pats.’