SavetheBills

Let's assume that the Bills beat the Patriots this weekend. That brings the Pats to the Dolphins, for whom Buffalo will, of course, be rooting. So is there anything that prevents the Bills from feeding the Dolphins every bit of potentially useful information from the Week 16 game experience? Patriot tics, mannerisms, anything that might help Miami devise a better game plan?

The sideline tackler could always claim that Ginn Jr. tripped over a newly placed power cable.

1. On TV: Watched it at home, in suburban Washington. My father -- who'd taken me to my first Bills game in 1963 -- called from Florida at game time, as usual, to demand, "Are you at your post?" We exchanged a few morose phone calls as the Oilers kept scoring, but by halftime the phone wasn't ringing. And when it was 35-3, I confess, I turned off the game in disgust. A few minutes later my sister called from Chicago. "They just scored, y'know," she said. "Like rouge on a corpse," I replied (using Jimmy Cannon's term for the refurbishing of War Memorial Stadium). "They just recovered the kick, y'know," my sister said. "I'll call you back," I said. And from then on, it was my father -- "Did you see that catch??!!" -- sister -- "They scored again!!" -- father -- "Look at Davis run!! Go! Go!" -- sister -- "Again!" -- until Steve "They can't ice me, I'm from Canada" Christie put it through for the win. I still have my phone bill for January 1993. It's like a rebroadcast. 2. At the stadium: Friend of mine recalls that in his section, some drunk a couple of rows down started shouting, "The Bills are comin' back!" early in the second half. People within earshot tried to ignore him, but he started handing out atomic fireballs -- those spicy hard candies -- as he shouted. Then the comeback began -- and people started asking for the fireballs. He kept giving them out -- must've been a big bag -- and by the time the score was tied, the aisle near his seat was jammed with fans, screaming for fireballs. More than a few people that day, I suspect, knew for a fact that they alone were keeping the rally going, whether with atomic fireballs or lucky coins or whatever. Me, after putting NBC back on, I stood for the rest of the second half and overtime. Had to keep that rally alive.

Your Mom is already a winner. She had you.