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Yes, sir, the Hail Mary is more amazing when you see the whole improbable drive. That Hooks catch down the middle, diving over a defender, was freaking awesome. And for an encore, he won the game on the tipped Hail Mary. You were at the stadium? I envy you! I wasn't there but did watch the game on TV and, a big Hooks fan, was pulling for him all game. Sharing the ball with Leaks and Cribbs, Roland wasn't much of a factor until that final, incredible drive.

There was a nice article about him in Buffalo Rumblings in 2011. Ed must have been talented to survive 11 head coaches... For 36 seasons, only one man held the position of head athletic trainer for the Buffalo Bills. On this date 15 years ago, Ed Abramoski retired from that position after a time span that ranged from Jack Kemp to Jim Kelly. After a standout high school football career, Abramoski attended Purdue University on a football scholarship. A back injury forced an end to his football career, but he found his calling at West Point as an assistant trainer. By age 21, he was the youngest Division I trainer in the country at the University of Detroit. He also helped train the Detroit Lions, which led to his next gig. When Lions minority owner Ralph Wilson founded his AFL franchise, several Lions employees joined him, including head coach Buster Ramsey. Ramsey brought Abromoski with him. Abramoski is one of the few employees who joined the Bills in 1959. In 1986, he was inducted into the National Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame. The Buffalo Bills Alumni gave him their Appreciation Award not once, but twice - in 1990 and 1994. Also In 1994, the Bills honored Abramoski with a special version of the Ralph C. Wilson Distinguished Service Award for long and meritorious service to the club. He has also been active at the state level with the Special Olympics, and pushed for access by all high school players to athletic trainers... www.buffalorumblings.com/2011/5/4/2153065/ed-abramoski-buffalo-bills-trainer

Huh? Rental prices are lower in Buffalo than most other cities. Sightseeing? Two Frank Lloyd Wright Houses... Pierce Arrow Museum... Architectural tour... If you like donuts, I saw a list somewhere with Paula's Donuts as one of the 10 best donut shops in America.

My definition of dominance is a bit skewed. Football is a team sport and a player's stats are effected by his coaches and teammates. Like many others, I use stats to take something subjective ('most dominant player') and transform it into something partially objective. If a player is truly dominant, his superior performance should show up on a stat line. Btw, the Sporting News has Wilt as #4 all-time. Not too long ago, ESPN had him at #5. SI had him #3. www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/nba-greatest-player-rankings-1-10/1krt9rauze7s21xes8fi657ifo www.interbasket.net/news/the-full-list-of-espns-100-nbas-greatest-players-of-all-time-nbarank/19115/ www.si.com/nba/2016/02/08/50-greatest-nba-players-all-time#gid=ci02556958e0022580&pid=4--magic-johnson

I kind of feel about Brady like way I feel about Emmit Smith. Smith is the all-time rushing leader but there's no way in Hades I'd call him the greatest back ever. He just hung around a long time. Brady owns all the records but he hung around a long time to get them. He isn't even inarguably the best QB of his generation. I've heard people make good arguments for Manning, Brees, and Rogers. When I watched Brady play, I never thought I was watching a guy who was head and shoulders above his peers. When I watched OJ play, however, it was clear he was playing at higher level than any back in the league. And everything I've read about Jim Brown says it was the same when he was around. Domination.

This is a big question and after several hours of prayer and meditation, I came up with this. Players: Fitz and Josh. Two of my favorite players. Both bright. Both down to earth. Both fun-loving. Both seem to be good conversationalists. They like each other. All this will lead to an enjoyable evening. Actor: William Fichtner. Deciding on an actor/actress was the truly hard part. I didn't want a pretentious Hollywood peckerhead at my dinner party. And if the actor wasn't a Bills fan, he'd be left out of the conversation so what would be the point of inviting him or her. Fichtner is from Cheektowaga - I'm from Cheektowaga. And to seal the deal: he once played the role of a soldier - I once was a soldier. So Fich it is.

Coaches wish they were good at everything but they're not. They all have strengths and weaknesses. Some are good planners and organizers. Some are geniuses at x-and-o scheming. Some excel at in-game decisions and halftime adjustments. McD's biggest strength is culture building. The evidence is clear. After a win, players are quick to give credit to their coaches and fellow players. After a loss, you see a lot of accountability and very little, if any, finger-pointing. And when players leave this team - and there's no practical reason to kiss butt anymore - they still usually have great things to say about the culture here.

I agree with a lot of you guys. It's normal for a player to say nice things about his time. But if you follow football long enough, you can gage the expected volume and intensity of those comments. The things we're hearing from Bills players go beyond the norm.

Good historical knowledge, Thurman#1! I wouldn't personally choose Hudson as the most dominant ever but he certainly belongs in the conversation. Twice named NFL MVP, he was by far the best WR of his era and among the very best players of any position. The stats you cite are impressive.

I'm not arguing against Brady as the GOAT. The dude's had an incredible career. And yet there haven't been any individual seasons in his career where he was head and shoulders above the best other QBs in the league. Fitz recently said Peyton Manning was best QB ever. Brees, Mahomes, and others often played better than Brady. Brady did have some fantastic seasons but he's the GOAT because the Lombardis and because of his ability to play at a high-level year after year after year. OJ didn't sustain like that. But in the '73 and '77 seasons, he dominated the league in a way Brady never did. When Jim Brown was around there was Jim and everyone else. No other backs were at his level.

I think Sanders would have been good in any era. But I agree with your general point. These days LBs are pass defenders first. In the old days, you had guys like Dick Butkus, Chuck Bednarik and Sam Huff who made it their life mission to kill running backs. And the rules allowed a lot more violence back then.

You're right: standards are higher today. Rules are different, too. It's not entirely fair to compare athletes from different eras. It's just offseason entertainment. But I do need to make a counterargument that Royale kind of mentions. If Babe Ruth played today - or Jim Brown or OJ - wouldn't they also benefit from today's strength training, coaching, diets, medicine, and so on? I don't know enough baseball to have a strong opinion about Ruth, but if OJ and Jim Brown had all the modern benefits, they'd run all over these pass-first defenses.

I thought about defensive players - Bruce, Reggie, Taylor. But I don't think offenses feared them as much as defenses feared OJ and Brown. I remember games when Pro Bowl linebackers were instructed to spy on OJ the entire game. This was on top of the rest of the defense being instructed to stop OJ at all costs. But they couldn't stop him.

I also saw OJ play and thought he was the most magnificent athlete to ever trot onto a gridiron. The way you describe Jim Brown - "a man amongst boys" - that's what I saw in OJ. An amazing combination of speed, strength, agility and vision. He didn't just make good plays more often than other backs. Sometimes he did things no one else could do. Walter Payton was a stud, too. Using league-leading yards versus #2 player yards as my metric for dominance, here are the modern era top four RB seasons: 1. OJ, 1973: 1.75 (75% more yards than the #2 guy) 2. Jim Brown, 1963: 1.70 3. OJ, 1975: 1975: 1.46 4. Walter Peyton: 1977: 1.45

Yeah, I love watching Barry's ankle-breaking moves. He was an absolute freak of nature. But, IMHO, he was not in the same category as Jim Brown and OJ. In Barry's very best season, he finished with 22% more yards than the next-best back. That's really good - but not as dominant as OJ's or Brown's peak seasons. It's true that defenses knew he'd get the ball 20+ times a game and they still couldn't stop them - but that was true of OJ and Brown, too. And Barry played in the 1990s when NFL defenses had evolved to stop the run more than the pass. Still, I think Barry would be a supernatural force in today's NFL.