cwater10

Sprained and broken! The man who owns the foot says it was broken. "We taped that ankle up as much as we could," said Ferguson in Legends of the Buffalo Bills . "But it really hurt. I just couldn't get going with it. When I got back home and had it examined a final time, it was discovered that the ankle had been sprained, torn, pulled and stretched. And there was a cracked bone in the back of my ankle to top it off." https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2011/7/9/2263975/buffalo-bills-joe-ferguson-1980-nfl-playoffs

I seem to remember it being reported in the aftermath of the SD playoff loss. It's all hazy now. If I am mistaken, blame it on some tainted bash from a 4th Dev floor party/exorcism. I was actually three floors down in Shay. When I think of 4th Shay, I can only think of a dude we just called Grateful Kevin! Good man!

I think I'd rather rank my children in a Facebook post than to attempt to triage 8/9/95 vs 12/8/80. Close, but I've gotta go Lennon. Why did you make me think of this.... You must be my long lost Bertha... Sorry kids, I am keeping the other list to myself.

Perfect!

No flames. A few tears perhaps, but no flames... "Imagine all the people, living life in peace"... For whatever your personal experience of John Lennon was, for whatever magic that was there that for some reason you were not experiencing, you missed something damn special. John Lennon changed the world, but not every individual in it. I honestly never viewed Lennon's death in the context of nixing a reunion and I don't know anyone that did. Sure, we may have observed that it would no longer be possible, but that was very far removed from what the moment was about, or what it meant. It was only ever about the tragic and violent loss of a legend, an icon, and a rare cultural world leader. Again, no flames, I always enjoy your posts. More power to you and your insights. This one simply dropped my jaw and reinforced John's own words: "Yeah we all shine on, like the moon and the stars and the sun." - John Lennon (after he left The Beatles)

No. Not exactly. The Bills had just beat the Rams and danced on the field afterward in the fog (great memories... favorite Bills season ever), but they still had some good old fashioned Bills drama left. The lost the following weekend in New England and Ferguson broke his foot. Because it was 1980, he played through it and nobody really acknowledged that it was broken. The final week it was all or nothing in San Fran in the Candlestick mud against a young Joe Montana that was still learning how to be Joe Montana. There is a famous Van Miller call floating around on You Tube of the final play that goes something like "And so the season all comes down to this one final play." Montana heaved a Hail Mary into the end zone that was close, but batted away at the last moment by the Bills, finally giving them the AFC East crown. Interesting footnote to that season: every AFC playoff team, division winners and wild cards included, finished 11-5. If Montana completes that pass, Bills would have been out. It seemed like an unnecessarily close scare to the 6-10 49ers. The following year, Montana figured out who he was going to become and won his 1st Super Bowl. Super fun season in 1980. And it was also tragically memorable due to the event referenced by OP. I remember sitting in silence with friends in a dorm room at St. Bona in disbelief as Howard broke the news. I think I heard nothing but John Lennon music for the next month. RIP John! Still missed.

Complete agreement with this. Cribbs was an incredible back. I like Singletary a lot. Joe Cribbs was truly a special back. Give me Cribbs any day.

Are you effing serious right now? Did you just equate data collection and application methods used by astronomers and physicists to the recreational junk science known as Football Outsiders? Queue perspective any time you feel inspired for your next revelation. Data does not show anything. Data DOES inform our interpretation! You have yours. I find it depressing and self flagellating as a fan.

What was the DVOA of the 1990 Buffalo Bills vs that of the NY Giants? How about the 1991 Bills vs Redskins? How many rings do we really have?

War Is Peace Freedom Is Slavery Ignorance Is Strength 5-2 Is 3-4 1984 is 2-12 Then Came Bruce 2019 Is NOT 1984 Football Outsiders are Not Football

South Florida KNOWS we got the right Josh. All eyes here on Jimmy Butler and 2020 for a new fins QB.

This list, particularly at WR, has serious flaws. Frank Lewis was always the 2nd best receiver on his own team, behind Butler. Not even close... Where's Jerry? Evans over Bob Chandler? No! McKenzie, Braxton, Tony Greene, Hasslett (an absolute animal with knack for timely big plays) to name a few more belong here. Look, I get it. The Super Bowl era was great, but I'm pretty sure that the 70's and 80's happened. Having done those years... ummm... aggressively? I may only remember preciously little of them, except for those Bills teams and The Dead's first set at The Aud in the fall of '81. And I'm pretty sure those were real, approaching great things. I swear! So sorry, Nothin Shakin' on this street without Reggie, Jerry and Bobby.

Great memories... That was my senior year at Bonaventure, then I was on the road as well. I get back at least once a year. I now live in Southwest Florida, but Buffalo will always be home. I think that is the spirit that caught Kelly by surprise once he spent some time here. Houston could never offer that! Glad he came around and happy that he stayed. Following The Bills has been a journey. My family had season tickets from the OJ years and I finally let them go in... 1989. That worked out well. My first four seasons as a non season ticket holder were all Super Bowl years. I figured it was a sign to say away But following from afar has been great, especially since the internet arrived. It always amazes me how many "Bills Mafia!" yells I get wherever I wear my Bills gear around here and out west too! Great fans from all generations... Can't touch 'em... I still remember the "Go Sabres, and Take The Bills With You!" bumper stickers from the 70's. We would see them and laugh. We would have been heartbroken if they ever did go. Thank you Terry and Kim. Everyone is right where they belong. Except for that guy who sat in front of me in section C from 1981 - 1987. That guy belongs in custody! Maybe he is... Good thread. Good night!

Oh man... Like it was yesterday. Thanks for the memory, Albany. My inner Phil Ranalo just smoked a cigar. What's new Harry?

Your question may have been best answered by Roger Waters and David Gilmour in 1979 "I don't need no arms around me And I dont need no drugs to calm me. I have seen the writing on the wall. Don't think I need anything at all. No! Don't think I'll need anything at all. All in all it was all just bricks in the wall. All in all you were all just bricks in the wall." It was easily the most dispiriting time ever to be a Bills fan. The drought of 2000 -2017 was mind numbing mediocrity for the most part. This was something quite different. For Baby Boomer Bills fans, the 10 year period from 1976 - 1986, the experience of waking up every day to read the Courier Express, watching a 4 minute local sports report (or 3) every evening, just trying to live the good life of being a Bills fan, was brutal. And strangely, it was also wonderful. It was, as Marv would eventually say, exactly where and when we wanted to be. It was like a twisted dream that drew on emotions that would have been expected from... let's say: The Great Depression, Woodstock, and some other horrific historical reference that was so inhumane, that a football metaphor would be completely and irresistibly inappropriate for. By the time Jim opted for the USFL and declared that being drafted by Buffalo made him cry, it was just another brick in the wall. Still, it somehow made viscous cosmic sense to Bills fans just like losing that 4th Super Bowl did. In 1976, we came crashing to earth from the euphoric ride of the OJ era. First OJ held out and demanded to be traded to LA. Then, on the eve of the opener, he signed with Buffalo once again, and all seemed normal. We all exhaled that the thrill ride of OJ would continue and at least the offense would keep us on the edge of our seats. After a 2-2 start, Fergy suffered a broken back somewhere in that haze, and they never won again. 2 -12 in 1976 led directly to 2-12 in 1977. OJ tore up his knee, and would never again be relevant (until he was again... in ways that we could not believe, until we had to believe it). Because of prior trades and expansion, those twin 2-12 finishes did not even net us a #1 overall pick. Instead we drafted Phil Dokes. Remember him? If you do, it's just scar tissue. If you don't, there is good reason. Finally, 1979 brought us a good break and the OJ trade gifted us the #1 pick overall. After much fanfare, we selected a linebacker, Tom Cousineau from Ohio State. Cousineau was apparently a role model for future Buffalo highly drafted stars. He said thanks, but no thanks and opted to sign with the freakin' Montreal Allouettes of the CFL. Seriously... we lost the #1 overall pick to the CFL. Can you imagine the Twitter meltdown if that happened today? Yep, it was another brick in the wall to feed tortured Bills fans souls. More hemlock please! Somehow the Bills landed on their feet and had a great draft anyway, landing foundational players in Jerry Butler, Fred Smerlas, Jim Haslett, Jeff Nixon and good depth in Rod Kush and Ken "Baby" Johnson. A pleasant 1979 turnaround to an encouraging 7 - 9 (sound familiar), actually did usher in a brief period of Woodstock like euphoria for Bills fans. 1980 began with breaking the Miami "curse" of the 1970's (0-20). The curse was every bit as vile in the 70's as "The Drought" was for modern day Bills fans. Soon the city was all singing "Talking Proud" and players were dancing and partying on field. Goal posts came down. Chuck Knox was the football messiah that we had been dreaming of. With the # 1 defense and Ferguson in a groove, Super Bowl dreams were real, even likely. And then more bricks.... Fergy with a gruesome ankle injury on the eve on the playoffs followed by an apparent playoff victory in San Diego blown up in shocking and sudden Billsy fashion as Rod Smith (who?) goes like 85 yards with a minute left. WTF? Another playoff season followed in 1981. 1982 arrived with promise of more playoff fun, and the Bills started 2-0 after a thrilling come from behind home victory over Minnesota on Thursday night. Times were good, right. Look out! INCOMING BRICKS! At that point the NFL Players went on strike for a month or two, and nothing was ever the same for Bills fans. For added foreshadowing effect, 3 days after that thrilling Bills victory over Minnesota, the beloved Courier Express just went out of business. The player strike followed a day later. Bricks everywhere! When the smoke cleared the Bills were a mess and just tanked the rest of the abbreviated season. After the season ended in misery, Chuck Knox said "get me outta here" and decided that Seattle would be a nice place to live. An angry Joe Cribbs would soon decide to spend what seemed like an eternity demanding more money or a trade, while checking in daily with reporters from "his mother's home in Sulligent, Alabama", instead of on the field with The Bills. He would soon take his talents to Birmingham, Alabama of the USFL. One last ray of hope was that The Bills had recouped some measure of compensation for the Tom Cousineau debacle in the form of an extra first round pick in the upcoming draft when Cousineau decided that The CFL was not so cool and he wanted back into the NFL. Buffalo traded his rights to Cleveland for a first. Yes, Cleveland Rocks! That pick, of course, became Jim Kelly. A moment of silence to digest the kick in the gut that we all felt when, almost on queue, Kelly turned around and pulled a "Cousineau" and refused to come to town. It really was the final brick in the wall. 1984 brought 2-14. 1985 brought 2-14. Darcy Regier never imagined this kind of suffering. So, in summary... for those of you that were not around, don't remember or maybe don't care, this should give you a sense of why we lined the streets in welcome when Kelly finally came to town in 1986. The 4 Super Bowls that followed were so great and so Buffalo! I would not have missed a minute of any of this. God bless Tim Russert's soul, and "GO BILLS!"

Klay Thompson, Ken Griffey Jr, Andrew Luck, Clay Matthews III, Barry Bonds, Brett Hull, Kobe Bryant and Cal Ripken would all like to apply for inclusion into your club. Archie Manning isn't quite sure what to make of it all and Nick O'Leary was last seen running from this thread with one glove on. Even Marcia Clark and Mark Fuhrman know, These Gloves Don't Fit!

Hilarious... You are insulted that you had to waste your time clicking on a thread titled " Allen or Darnold: Who Would You Rather Have?" to see what it was about, if it was worth your time, or if it was of interest to you? What were you expecting the thread to be about, the meaning of life? In the immortal words of Mr Rodgers, RELAX! We are neighbors here, eh?

Great! Send us back Jason Peters and we will send back McCoy.

"Heroic run to 1 - 4"

Because Buffalo signed Beast Mode to a one day contract, stopped the game in the final minute to put him on the wall of fame... And then handed him the F8c^^n** Ball!

Somewhere, P.T. Barnum is laughing.

So, you are saying that while Kelly raised the level of play of his of his teammates, Luck has not?

I think my ex wife has somehow created 743 unique profiles on TBD. Virtually every post reads like she is screaming the words at me.

Perhaps I can be the one to interrupt what must be a really bad trip. You appear to be quite agitated and traumatized by the notion that Brandon is doing "football things" by executing his duties as CEO and President of a professional football team. This slip down the looking glass appears to be exacerbated by the omission of some fantastical, mythical football god who would, in theory, be more adept at doing this "football stuff". Don't look down! Because what you may see lurking down there below the ledge that you have found yourself are these mythical, fantastical "football guys" doing "football stuff" that Brandon has hired to do this "football stuff". They are guys named Nix and Whaley. One is walking away and one is walking straight at you. Do not look him straight in the eye! If you do, he will telekinetically burn a big orange "S" into the dark recesses of your struggling psyche. Be careful out there man. And even though these football dudes are invisible to some, it is rumored that they do indeed, now do the football stuff thinking down there in Orchard Park Wonderland. And just because neither of these invisible wizards hail from the evil kingdom of Syracuse, they still opted to listen when the football community of other football wizards whispered in hushed tones about one very highly acclaimed football coach whom several other football guys sought for their own football kingdoms. If only they had turned an run when they spotted the big orange "S" clouded from their view under that cleverly worn visor. Then we could all just climb back out of the chess board and resume screaming at the other demons that plague our daily hells....

The Mayan calendar thinks this question is messed up...