Wheels Not So Golden Now

Sorry. Been away for a while. The ticket is free. The wheels aren't golden anymore. At my age, there are more like rusty wheels. It's free. It's free.

I have one ticket available for practice on August 3rd.

I have one ticket available for practice on August 3rd.

From biography about Archie Manning (his two sons were pretty decent throwers): Coach Johnny Vaught’s instructions to Archie Manning on passing. Grip the ball with the fingers overlapping the laces slightly behind the middle of the ball. Grip firm but not hard, remember, fingers not the palm should grip the ball. If you can push the index finger of your hand between your palm and the ball, you have the proper grip. You can control the ball with your fingers but not with the palm. When delivering the ball, the quarterback’s action of transferring weight from back foot to front foot, leading with the front foot, and developing the follow through with the arm should be a rhythmical, fluid motion. Prior to the weight transfer, get the ball above the head by extending the arm. The left hand can only guide the ball up part of the way. If you attempt to let the left hand guide the ball all of the way up, it will destroy the rhythm. After getting the ball up, attempt to coordinate the weight transfer and the “darting technique” of throwing the ball. By attempting to throw the ball like you throw a dart, you emphasize finger control. The fingers are the last parts of the body to touch the ball. The fingers release the ball from the little finger to the index finger. Rotate the wrist away from the body. The index finger is the last finger to touch the ball and it is with this finger that you put RPMs on the ball. The sequence: Stand tall and balanced; ball high; step with the left foot and point with the left arm; dart the ball – put RPMs with fingers; follow through with right foot. Three common faults the passer must recognize. 1. Ball going high to target – Indicates early release by fingers. 2. Ball going low to target – Indicates late release by fingers. 3. Ball wobbly - Indicates inward rotation of wrist instead of outward rotation which allows finger control.

If my memory isn't deceiving me, I believe there was a phantom pass interference call on Robert James that affected the outcome of the game. When the Bills beat the Dolphins in 1980 I joined the post-game celebration on the field and sat on the Bills' bench and soaked in the glory of it all.

After waiting hours, I finally got through at 4:05 only to be told that ALL tickets are sold out. I had set it up for my granddaughter from Ohio to be here and take them. If anyone has extra tickets (preferably 4) for either August 27th or 29th or 30th, please let me know.

Chandler wrote a pretty interesting autobiography: "Violent Sundays".

"Rediscovering The Magical Season Of The 1980 Buffalo Bills" by Rich Blake is an interesting read on that magical season that started off with a tremendous victory over the hated Dolphins after losing every single %$# time to them during the 70's. Jeff Nixon, the Bermuda Triangle, Fergy, Cribbs, Jerry Butler; ahhh those were the days. BTW, there were certainly some terrible calls by the refs during a few of those games in the 70's that definitely affected the outcomes. Little surprise considering that Shula ALWAYS got the calls to go his way.

Glenn Bass (Duby's running mate) was part of the trade as well. You can read about how the trade was viewed during the '67 season here: A big raid that really paid off - Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com Needless to say, it wasn't looking good for the Bills.

I remember one of the Buffalo Evening News sports writers (Larry Felser?, Steve Weller?) writing at the end of the year, "All I want for Hannukah is to get back Daryle Lamonic." R.I.P. Daryle.

1972-73 Rookie of the Year: Bob McAdoo; 1973-74 Rookie of the Year: Ernie D.; 1976-77 Rookie of the Year: Adrian Dantley. And let's not forget the coach i.e., the great Jack Ramsay who let Portland to the NBA championship the year after he left the Braves. "Buffalo, Home of the Braves" by Tim Wendel (grew up in Lockport) is definitely recommended reading for Buffalo sports fans.

Interesting side note. I recently read the book "Buffalo, Home of the Braves" by Tim Wendel which told the story of the NBA Buffalo Braves. Braves owner Paul Snyder was on the NBA committee that negotiated the merger with the ABA. It was at that those negotiations that Snyder met John Y. Brown. They became business partners and eventually Brown masterminded the movement that led to the dismantlement and demise of the Braves and their subsequent relocation to San Diego. If only.....

When I lived in Cincinnati I heard Bob Trumpy say that Bengals head coach Paul Brown said that to him after he "over celebrated" after scoring his first NFL touchdown. That would have been in 1968.

Consider this scenario, you outscored the opposition 24 - 3 in the second half. Your defense is rested and playing well (held the opposition to 113 yards and the one field goal in the second half). Your offense is rolling to the tune of 311 yards and 24 points in the second half. But at the end of regulation, the score is tied. Fortunately, you win the toss. Since your QB and defense are playing lights out do you take the ball, or do you defer? Well, under the old rules, the Bills won the toss and took the ball whereupon they went three and out after only gaining 6 yards. They punted the ball and Tampa went 94 yards for the winning TD. Having the most dynamic QB in the game and a defense playing well doesn't guarantee a third possession in OT.

Well there is this alternative approach that was successful back in the day: "We don't take what the defense gives us; we take whatever the hell we want." -Al Davis

I lived in Cincinnati at that the time. Later that week I heard Chris Collinsworth on the radio saying the Bengals knew they could easily get into Burroughs' head and mess with him. He laughed about Burroughs falling for their "strategy". https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiMocjxnM3xAhXOXM0KHUGaC0QQFnoECAMQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.chicagotribune.com%2Fnews%2Fct-xpm-1989-01-09-8902240376-story.html&usg=AOvVaw32mWUa_btUbe-nE3LmQQJe

And as my cousin's husband (a retired gym teacher and football coach) says, "And those who cannot teach, teach gym."

Happy birthday Joe. Keep on keeping on.

I grew up near Sestak & Maguire's. We'd go there Friday nights after our basketball games back in the late 60's. Great pizza indeed. And has gotten better as the years go by.

Can anyone edit the video so that it just includes the part about Josh i.e., get rid of the Brady/Tampa Bay, Rogers, etc. stuff?

It's not how you win that matters. It's how many you win that matters.

Fergy graduated from college the same year I did i.e., 1973. Always enjoyed watching him play. Happy Birthday Joe and thanks for the memories.

I used to live in Cincinnati and I would not be surprised one bit if Mikey Brown went the cheap route and used dial up. Their Ohio rival Browns will probably call them just to break the connection and mess up their pick. And Belichick won't need his film crew to hack their signals either.

It doesn't seem as bad when you consider that the Bills ended up trading Patulski for the Cardinals' second round draft choice that turned out to be offensive tackle Joe Devlin who played 14 years for Buffalo.

Besides the already mentioned Harvey Johnson, whose qualification for coaching was seemingly a shared love of horse racing with his boss Ralph Wilson, and the John Rauch fiasco with his questionable use of O.J.’s talents, I want to touch on these three other old time head scratchers. The first is the trade that didn’t happen. According to Joe DeLamielleure’s biography during the 1976 training camp O.J. was AWOL for much of the camp and wanted to be traded to a west coast team. Word around training camp was that a trade was in place where the Bills would get Jack Youngblood (future hall of fame defensive end), Jim Youngblood (a middle linebacker), Jack Snow (a wide receiver), and Lawrence McCutcheon (a Pro Bowl running back) for O.J. Wilson nixed the trade and paid O.J. more than $700,000 which was the richest contract in the NFL. O.J. rushed for 1,503 yards that season but it was the last time he passed the 1,000 yard mark. When the Bills did trade Simpson in 1979 the Bills received the 49ers No. 1 draft choice in 1979 (Tom Cousineau; 2nd round draft choice in 1978 (Scott Hutchinson) and 3rd round draft choice in 1978 (Danny Fulton) and 2nd round draft choice in 1980 (Joe Cribbs) and 4th round draft choice (Ken Johnson) in 1980. The handling of the Cousineau contract was another head scratcher as they let him sign with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. Incredible! But at least that one turned out alright for the Bills. Cousineau never signed with Buffalo and they traded him to Cleveland for a 1st round draft choice in 1983 (Jim Kelly), a 3rd round draft choice in 1984 (Rodney Bellinger) and a 5th round draft choice in 1985 (Matt Darwin). My last head scratcher is letting Pete Gogolak get away. Gogolak was the first soccer style kicker in professional football. He had two very successful years as the Bills placekicker but after the 1965 season he became a free agent and signed with the New York Giants which helped contribute to the AFL-NFL merger. Gogolak went on to become the Giant’s all-time leading scorer and the Bills were saddled with the likes of Booth Lusteg, Grant Guthrie, Bruce Alford and I have to stop now because it’s getting too painful.