Colorado Mike

When I was a young lad our dad took my brother and me to a few Bills games there and some Bisons games as well. Considering that was a long time ago and I was rather young, I could be mis-remembering but I seem to recall some times at the Bisons games a ball would occasionally land in some pool or fountain and the announcer would say "splash". I also recall being at the last Bills game played there and seeing fans after the game tearing down the goal posts.

Seat, singular. I was living in San Antonio at the time and watched the AFC championship against the Raiders on tv with my brother and girlfriend, telling them before kickoff that if we win, I'm going to the Super Bowl. AFAIK it was the first and only time the Super Bowl was the very next weekend. I had no ticket but my girlfriend and I drove all day Wednesday from SA to Tampa where she had an aunt and uncle we could stay with. For the next several days I was all over town, asking pretty much everyone how I could score two tickets. I attended events that had drawings for tickets, etc. but no luck. The day of the game we drove down to the big sombrero about 4 hours before kickoff with lots of cash in my pocket. A couple miles outside the stadium we were already passing people holding "need ticket" signs and we hadn't even thought about making one. We asked a vendor for an empty 12-pack carton and made our own crappy sign, then wandered around the stadium asking people if they had two tickets to sell. We had to be careful because the Tampa PD made it well known that not only were they busting scalpers, but also anyone attempting to buy a scalped ticket. I actually witnessed an undercover cop do exactly that. Eventually we ran into a guy selling upper deck corner seats for $1200 each. That was really extreme for 1991 and I couldn't haggle him down so I passed. After some more time passed some guy who saw our crappy "need tickets' sign offered us is nicer sign because he just scored tickets and didn't need it anymore. Now armed with two signs, we decided to split up to cover more ground and meet back at a certain spot every 30 minutes. We did that at least a few times with neither of us having any luck. Then, after moving a couple streets farther away, walking by myself and close to giving up about an hour before kickoff, I thought I heard a guy I just passed say he had a ticket. So I stopped and asked if he just said what I think he did and he said yes. I asked him if he was a cop and he said no. I asked why he was selling it and he said something about having a business relationship with Miller Brewing who gave him two tickets and his wife didn't want to go, so he already sold one and just had the one left. We moved more out of sight between some parked cars and I asked to see it. He showed it to me and it was legit since it had the hologram on it. I asked how much and he said $500. I asked where's the seat (not that it mattered at this point) and he said he honestly didn't know. I had come prepared with a map of the big sombrero seating chart torn from the yellow pages and my jaw dropped when I saw what a great seat it was. Paid him $500 cash and met back up with my girlfriend and said I had good news and bad news. She totally understood (she's not from WNY but super supportive) and said it's fine, she'd go watch the game at her aunt and uncle's house and come back and pick me up after the game. As a side note, I ended up marrying her and we're coming up on our 30th anniversary. Funny thing was my seat was on the Giant's side of the field and other than one couple who were sympathetic 49's fans, I was surrounded by Giants fans giving me grief all game. Also, it turned out MC Hammer and his entourage were sitting a few rows behind me, and Jeff Hostettler's wife was two rows right in front of me. As soon as the game was over a TV crew came into the stands to interview her and I can be seen in the background on TV (still have it on a VHS recording) in my Bills regalia and my Alice Cooper eye paint a la Ray Bentley.

I was at the game with a seat 19 rows up from the field and exactly at the 30 yard line that was the line of scrimmage for the kick.

You should have done like me for mine and the wife's trip to Spain and Portugal; wait for the schedule to come out to know when they have their bye, leave right after the Titans game and return just in time for the Dolphins game.

congrats, man. very impressive

I was a pretty young kid but I was there too and that stands high on my list. Great game.

Was looking to see if someone would mention Bill Simpson. Not saying he was the very best but he was damn good, and underrated.

Thanks for stepping up. I too really appreciate and enjoy reading this kind of daily update.

Anyone but NE

That Talking Proud woman always used to grate on my nerves and still would, but I remember it well enough from when it was new never to play it again.

yes, happy birthday man!

Good point. Hadn't thought of that but can see that happening. To be really forward looking, it's crossed my mind that with this many high picks, say they do get it right and select multiple really good players and we find ourselves in a situation about 4 years down the road when all their rookie contracts are running out at the same time and we won't have the cap room to retain them all. Good problem to have, I guess.

As always, thanks. Next best thing to being there.

May have already been stated in the thread as I am too lazy right now to thoroughly check, but I could see the Patriots pulling a Chris Hogan and then he has a big year for them and we get more bad press for tendering him too low. Not a prediction, mind you, just a bad vision. Would love to keep him around.

tears in my eyes

Add RT: -cut: Mills -add: practically anyone else

Atlanta. Recently moved here from Denver. May need to change my username :-)

You beat me to it.

two more: "we need to look at the tape" " we need to get a hat on a hat" Actually, many of these others listed annoy me more but thought I'd add these couple of lesser but still overused sayings. Good topic!

Thanks man! I was wondering what time that went down. Happy holidays.

I am flying in from the Denver area with my two high school age sons for this game (yea, I paid a boatload of $ early in the season). If perchance the lot is already full, is it still cool to park elsewhere and come in on foot to say hello?

It was indeed amusing how often on TV i could hear booing when a penalty was called on us, loud cheering when the Bills made a good play, etc. Certainly we've seen this from time to time with other road games, but for me I have never noticed it as much as yesterday. I thought Bills fans last year represented very well when we were at the Bills-Broncos game, but yesterday looked almost like a home game or neutral site. Very nice!

Exactly. When multiple guys have you like that you should know you aren't going to break free and when they are working on stripping you just drop to a knee, your rear end or something to put yourself down before that can happen.

I've noticed that too. Of all our off-season acquisitions there may be none more important than bringing in Roman.

Last year I looked into it but as stated by others, you couldn't start the feed for any of the Sunday games until after the Sunday night game ended. That is way too long after the Bills have typically concluded their game for me to avoid all media so as to be able to watch it without already knowing the outcome. However, I looked it the NFL Game Pass FAQ the other day and I believe it says that all the early and late afternoon games can be viewed as soon as the later afternoon games are done. Still less than ideal, but that is definitely better. Hadn't been able to find a price yet, though, just the free trial link.