My 5 All Time Favorite Bills

[tedstrong]

Nice list first of all. I especially agree with BRAXTON and Hooks and Chandler. Additionally, I would say the most unappreciated Bills.

1)Eugene Marve (easily the best linebacker in that era on the Bills. I can still see him tossing Micky Marvin out of bounds by his shoulder pads)

2)Joe Devlin (crazy, but a stud)

3)Kenny Davis (the Texas Twister)

4)Reggie McKenzie (is there a GOOD reason he is not on the wall of fame)

5)Robb Riddick (all he did was get you that first down)

6)Jim Haslett (skinny legs and a mean streak)

7)Art Still (leadership and class)

8)JD Hill (when the ball was thrown)

9)Big Ben Williams

10)Ed Rutkowski (I don't know how he did it but he always did it)

 

Hated Lucious Sanford and Scott Radicic (sp?)- always arriving late at the pile like they would have done something. Big soft spot for Ray Bentley, but didn't quite earn the list.

[purple haze]

Nice list first of all. I especially agree with BRAXTON and Hooks and Chandler. Additionally, I would say the most unappreciated Bills.

1)Eugene Marve (easily the best linebacker in that era on the Bills. I can still see him tossing Micky Marvin out of bounds by his shoulder pads)

2)Joe Devlin (crazy, but a stud)

3)Kenny Davis (the Texas Twister)

4)Reggie McKenzie (is there a GOOD reason he is not on the wall of fame)

5)Robb Riddick (all he did was get you that first down)

6)Jim Haslett (skinny legs and a mean streak)

7)Art Still (leadership and class)

8)JD Hill (when the ball was thrown)

9)Big Ben Williams

10)Ed Rutkowski (I don't know how he did it but he always did it)

 

Hated Lucious Sanford and Scott Radicic (sp?)- always arriving late at the pile like they would have done something. Big soft spot for Ray Bentley, but didn't quite earn the list.

 

Isaiah Robertson should be on that list too.

 

My top 5:

 

The Juice

Bruce Smith

Thurman Thomas

Nate Odomes

Jerry Butler

 

Romes, Reed, Donald Wilson, Talley, Winfield, Sam Cowart, Cribbs, Mario Clark, Ferguson, Frank Lewis

Derrick Burroughs

 

- I don't know why I bothered trying to pick just 5.

 

But truthfully I could put another 20 players in that list.

[Mark Long Beach]

5. Brian Moorman

 

First guy that I thought of. Then thought: A punter is one of my favorite players for my team? Man, it's been a rough last decade.

Edited May 6, 2012 by Mark Long Beach

[MARCELL DAREUS POWER]

my top 5

 

1- bruce smith- growing up playing hs football, i tried to be just like him! i played de also and coaches hated how i ignored the run lol

2- andre reed- never seen so many big plays from rac...

3- eric moulds- was the andre johnson of the nfl, only a greater deep threat... top 3 wr from 98-02- explosion was gone after severe groin injury in 30s...i have never seen a physical specimen like eric moulds. great great player who would have been a hof wr if he had a better qb...

4- jim kelly

5- tied between sam cowart and antoine winfield.... cowart would have been a hof lb if he didnt hurt his achilles...

Edited May 6, 2012 by MARCELL DAREUS POWER

[DFITZ1]

A lot of great names mentioned and I don't want to repeat them just to say they're my favorites. However, my 5 favorites are those who changed the course of Bills history in a positive way. They are, in no particular order,

 

1. Cookie Gilchrist - didn't see him play as a Bill, but was the Bills first legitimate star, and one opponents had to account for on every play. He took on anything or anyone in his way at full power, be it a tackler or the City of New Orleans (when they wrongly tried to impose segregation on AFL all-stars)

 

2. Jack Kemp - first leader of the offense. Like Cookie, advanced the Bills to the top echelon of the young AFL

 

3. Jim Kelly - leader who brought the Bills to the post season map and arguably our greatest teams (can't forget the 64-65 teams, could they have won a Super Bowl? Some of the players think so).

 

4. OJ Simpson - put the Bills on the NFL map. First RB that I knew of to publicly praise his O-line. It was OJ who insisted that the O-line be part of post game interviews after the 2000 yard game.

 

5. Lou Saban - coach who put the Bills on the AFL and NFL map. This franchise may have fizzled out of existence if it weren't for him. I've forgiven his quick exits. It was his nature and given that he stayed at the Bills longer than any other employer, it's time to honor his contributions on the stadium Wall.

 

Honorable mention to many others like Billy Shaw, Elbert Dubenion, Bruce Smith, Tom Sestak, Steve Tasker, Andre Reed, Darryl Talley and others.

[Buffalo Barbarian]

Favs

1. Ted Washington

2. Bryce Paup

3. Jamie Mueller

4. Fred Smerlas

5. Jim Ritcher

6. Shane Conlan

7. Phil Hansen

8. Daryl Talley

9. Pete Metzelars

10. Aaron Schoebel

 

least fav

1. Bruce Smith (dickhead)

2. Jim Haslett (same)

3. Aaron Maybin (Bum)

4. Eric Flowers (Bum)

5. Mike Williams (bum)

[jumbalaya]

Preston Reidelhuber and Ashton Youbouty - their names do it

Haven Moses

Elbert Dubenion

Tom Sestak

George Saimes

 

Some that could have been but careers cut too short by injury

 

Shane Nelson

Jerry Butler

Jeff Nixon

[Rico]

OJ is always #1

Bruce

Jimbo

Thurman

Andre

 

That was pretty easy.

 

Favs right now:

Fred

George Wilson

Dareus

Fitz

Stevie/Byrd/Barnett

[T.O.]

1. O.J. SIMPSON....Best pure runner in the NFL and College. Every Sunday every opposing defense and entire stadiums new who was going to get the ball on first and third downs and still could not stop this man. 2000 yards in fourteen games will never be duplicated again, period.

 

2. Jim Kelly...... When asked by a reported if he was having problems over throwing receivers upon his arrival in Buffalo he said he was "use to faster receivers" in the USFL, they finally cut the guys he was talking about and the Andre Reed/ James Lofton era soon followed along with four Super Bowl appearances.

 

3. Bruce Smith..... With less than 2% body fat and whatever he weighed I never seen a defensive end spend as much time in an opposing teams backfield! Running down opposing teams backs and quarterbacks was his specialty, this is why he was better than Reggie White.

 

4. Cookie Gilchrist... Tough-fess SOB to put on a Bills uniform. Light years ahead of his time both mentally and physically. The Cookie never crumbled! Look at his average yards per carry. Nuff said.

 

5. Thurman Thomas... Great hands receiving coming out of the backfield. Lacked Simpsons speed and power but a better receiver. Great all around back.

 

6. Honorable mention.... Ron McDole...Tom Sestak...Andre Reed and Cornielus Bennett

Edited May 7, 2012 by T.O.

[Nick Heightz]

My Top 5 on the current team are:

1. C.J. Spiller

2. David Nelson

3. Jairus Byrd

4. Aaron Williams

5. Steve Johnson

[Buftex]

Favs

1. Ted Washington

2. Bryce Paup

3. Jamie Mueller

4. Fred Smerlas

5. Jim Ritcher

6. Shane Conlan

7. Phil Hansen

8. Daryl Talley

9. Pete Metzelars

10. Aaron Schoebel

 

least fav

1. Bruce Smith (dickhead)

2. Jim Haslett (same)

3. Aaron Maybin (Bum)

4. Eric Flowers (Bum)

5. Mike Williams (bum)

 

Since this is all for fun (presumably), let me ask...how do Bruce Smith and Jim Haslett make you "least favorite" list as "dickheads", while Fred Smerlas is #4 on your favorites list? #76 was/is still a complete dickhead. I will give you, Smerlas was a pretty good, maybe even great, football player...but he was no Bruce Smith (DE/NT, I realize)...so if they are both dickheads, why not "like" the one who was better? Just sayin'

 

Great stuff, NewEra, esp. about Cribbs. It was killer when he went the USFL. But, he still played his heart out of the '83 Bills. I think he played two full football seasons right in a row - playing in the fall for the Bills and then in the spring for Birmingham.

 

And, you can picture Andre going over the middle, catching it and never losing stride the whole time!

 

TCali - I had a similar thing around that same time. We had a Bill in the neighborhood. His name was Dudley Meredith. Played for the Oilers, too and died a number of years ago.........But, he came in and sat down and talked with my family one night, and he looked so huge in the living room. Great guy!

 

 

Love the Chuck Knox Bills too...Cribbs was awesome...recently watched a couple of games from the 1980 season, hard to remember how potent that offense was. Cribbs was made it all happen. The 1980 and 1981 seasons were the first time in my life I ever "dared to dream" that the Bills could make it to the Super Bowl...those teams made a huge impact on me... softened the blow of losing the Braves (my favorite Buffalo team in the 70's), just a tad.

 

 

Also, just watching a bunch of Ferguson for the first time in a few years, there was something about him that reminds me a bit of Drew Brees now...just something about the way he threw the ball...hard to explain...Fergy probably had a stronger arm.

[Formerly Allan in MD]

Billy Shaw, Butch Byrd, Elbert Dubenion, Ernie Warlick

I meant to include Cookie. The pile hasn't budged since he departed.

[Buffalo Barbarian]

Since this is all for fun (presumably), let me ask...how do Bruce Smith and Jim Haslett make you "least favorite" list as "dickheads", while Fred Smerlas is #4 on your favorites list? #76 was/is still a complete dickhead. I will give you, Smerlas was a pretty good, maybe even great, football player...but he was no Bruce Smith (DE/NT, I realize)...so if they are both dickheads, why not "like" the one who was better? Just sayin'

Don't know about Smerlas' behavior as the media wasn't as available to me then as it is now but I loved the way he played. By the time Smerlas was gone I could see Bruce never really liked it here so I didn't like him either (guess I should add Marshawn and Willis to the list). Haslett came to my school with some other Bills to play a game of B-ball against the teachers and he was just a mean prick so I didn't like him for that.

 

1. O.J. SIMPSON....Best pure runner in the NFL and College. Every Sunday every opposing defense and entire stadiums new who was going to get the ball on first and third downs and still could not stop this man. 2000 yards in fourteen games will never be duplicated again, period.

 

2. Jim Kelly...... When asked by a reported if he was having problems over throwing receivers upon his arrival in Buffalo he said he was "use to faster receivers" in the USFL, they finally cut the guys he was talking about and the Andre Reed/ James Lofton era soon followed along with four Super Bowl appearances.

 

3. Bruce Smith..... With less than 2% body fat and whatever he weighed I never seen a defensive end spend as much time in an opposing teams backfield! Running down opposing teams backs and quarterbacks was his specialty, this is why he was better than Reggie White.

 

4. Cookie Gilchrist... Tough-fess SOB to put on a Bills uniform. Light years ahead of his time both mentally and physically. The Cookie never crumbled! Look at his average yards per carry. Nuff said.

 

5. Thurman Thomas... Great hands receiving coming out of the backfield. Lacked Simpsons speed and power but a better receiver. Great all around back.

 

6. Honorable mention.... Ron McDole...Tom Sestak...Andre Reed and Cornielus Bennett

 

Bo Jackson was the best runner ever too bad he wasted his talent in baseball and had that hip injury.

[Buftex]

Don't know about Smerlas' behavior as the media wasn't as available to me then as it is now but I loved the way he played. By the time Smerlas was gone I could see Bruce never really liked it here so I didn't like him either (guess I should add Marshawn and Willis to the list). Haslett came to my school with some other Bills to play a game of B-ball against the teachers and he was just a mean prick so I didn't like him for that.

 

 

Smerlas and Haslett, best buddys, were pretty legendary a-holes during their days in Buffalo...and Smerlas has pretty much bad-mouthed the city and the organization, consistently, over the years...he took a breather from it, when he was lobbying for Haslett as Bills head coach, and for himself as a Bills color guy on the radio broadcasts...but then, Marv was hired, and hired Jauron....honestly, in retrospect, would rather have had Haslett than DJ, but I get the feeling that Smerlas and Haslett were not like Ralph's long lost sons.

 

I lived in Buffalo back in the Haslett/Smerlas days, had season tickets. Make no mistake, I thought they were both terrific football players (Has when he was healthy) but don't have a lot of use for either of them, beyond that. Have heard some pretty nasty stuff about Haslett during his time as HC in New Orleans as well...

Edited May 7, 2012 by Buftex

[Buffalo Barbarian]

My Top 5 on the current team are:

1. C.J. Spiller

2. David Nelson

3. Jairus Byrd

4. Aaron Williams

5. Steve Johnson

1. Kyle Williams

2. Eric Woods

3. Fred Jackson

4. Marcel Dareus

5. Marrio Williams

6. Chris Kelsay ... ha JK

6. hopefully Tank Carder

[San Jose Bills Fan]

<br>Favorites not mentioned: <br>Lucious Sanford<br>Carlton Bailey<br>Joe Cribbs<br>James Lofton<br>Clay Matthews (if we picked him)<br>Leonard Smith<br>Kurt Schultz<br><br>Least Favorite<br>Jeff Wright<br>Marshawn<br>McGahee<br>Vince Ferragamo<br>

<br>BTW, I met Vince Ferragamo and he seemed like a really great guy but he threw a soft ball and that just didn't fly in Rich Stadium.<br><br>This topic is very generational. Clearly there's a lot of posters here who have a great appreciation for those Chuck Knox teams. Knox was an excellent Head Coach and de facto GM because in those days the Head Coach typically made all the personnel decisions including the draft and free agency and even used to negotiate contracts up until around the mid to late seventies.<br><br>I was first old enough to start following the Bills in 1969 after their AFL glory days. There's a bit of nostalgia involved in my picks because players are more special when you're a boy than when you're a man.The 1980 Bills was a star-studded team and except for a few of the Saban/OJ years, was the first winning Bills team that I could really appreciate.<br><br>I tried to choose players who hadn't been mentioned too much and I pretty much eliminated the Super Bowl teams because a) it's too easy (so many great players), b) in spite of their excellence, those guys were not really a likable group and c) I was grown up by that time. I also tried to pick players who spent appreciable time in Buffalo so that eliminates two of my faves, Doug Flutie and Chris Spielman.<br><br>So my picks are (already breaking one of my rules because he's been mentioned several times) the cornerback/safety <b>Tony Greene</b>, and two underrated DEs who played most of their careers pre-1982 (significant because sacks were not a statistic), <b>Big Ben Williams</b> and <b>Sherman White.</b> White ironically was the 2nd pick overall by Cinci after the Bills drafted Walt Patulski. White was an exceptional player and played more years in Buffalo than did Patulski. Williams and White manned the defensive end spots for the Bills for 8 consecutive seasons. They were excellent players who played on some good teams and some bad teams. Because they played in Buffalo during a largely mediocre era, their careers have gone underappreciated.<br><br>Of course I loved Fergy and Chandler and Jerry Butler but they're getting lots of play already so to finish out my team I'll go with two wideouts from the OJ era who were awesome players but played on bad, run-oriented teams. You knew they were great players and they both proved that after they left Buffalo. <b>Marlin Briscoe</b> (who along with former Bills QB James Harris is one of the NFL's more historically significant players) and <b>Haven Moses</b>.<br>

 

<div><br></div><div>Both Briscoe and Moses made Pro Bowls and Super Bowls after leaving Buffalo. I remember being heartbroken when they left but to the Bills good fortune (we've almost always had superior receiver groups until the present), they were succeeded by the likes of Bobby Chandler, JD Hill, Ahmad Rashad and then later, Frank Lewis and Jerry Butler.</div>

Edited May 7, 2012 by San Jose Bills Fan

[Buffalo Barbarian]

Smerlas and Haslett, best buddys, were pretty legendary a-holes during their days in Buffalo...and Smerlas has pretty much bad-mouthed the city and the organization, consistently, over the years...he took a breather from it, when he was lobbying for Haslett as Bills head coach, and for himself as a Bills color guy on the radio broadcasts...but then, Marv was hired, and hired Jauron....honestly, in retrospect, would rather have had Haslett than DJ, but I get the feeling that Smerlas and Haslett were not like Ralph's long lost sons.

 

I lived in Buffalo back in the Haslett/Smerlas days, had season tickets. Make no mistake, I thought they were both terrific football players (Has when he was healthy) but don't have a lot of use for either of them, beyond that. Have heard some pretty nasty stuff about Haslett during his time as HC in New Orleans as well...

If I knew that when I was young I would feel different, now that I'm older I don't really care what people think of us, so I'll just remember him as knew then and ignore him now.

[Wiz]

You are lucky you didn't find your picture on a milk carton...

Young fellow, you're too young to recall a time before the radicals, in fact the very mentors to our current "commander in chief" infiltrated our government, society and our very culture. This was before the so called "war on poverty" and the conversion of our culture from one in which there was a right and wrong to one in which society or some ambiguous disease was blamed for people's ill's, perversions and criminality. The great majority of people had a sense of personal responsibility for their actions. Of course, there weren't the creature comforts and the luxury's we now enjoy and people did suffer as they always have and always will. However, there was a clear distinction between right and wrong. Prison was a punishment and not a place for "rehabilitation" and, definitely, not a right of passage for an entire sub-culture created from the aforementioned "war on poverty." Things weren't perfect as some may say. However, one could enjoy the trust of his fellow Americans to do the right thing. Amen!!!

 

Anyhow, my favorite pre-Super Bowl Bill was Joe Ferguson. He had a great arm and great anticipation of his receivers breaks. Although his stats didn't indicate it, I believe that with the NFL today, he would be a top five QB in the NFL.

[bbb]

Since this is all for fun (presumably), let me ask...how do Bruce Smith and Jim Haslett make you "least favorite" list as "dickheads", while Fred Smerlas is #4 on your favorites list? #76 was/is still a complete dickhead. I will give you, Smerlas was a pretty good, maybe even great, football player...but he was no Bruce Smith (DE/NT, I realize)...so if they are both dickheads, why not "like" the one who was better? Just sayin'

 

 

 

 

Love the Chuck Knox Bills too...Cribbs was awesome...recently watched a couple of games from the 1980 season, hard to remember how potent that offense was. Cribbs was made it all happen. The 1980 and 1981 seasons were the first time in my life I ever "dared to dream" that the Bills could make it to the Super Bowl...those teams made a huge impact on me... softened the blow of losing the Braves (my favorite Buffalo team in the 70's), just a tad.

 

 

Also, just watching a bunch of Ferguson for the first time in a few years, there was something about him that reminds me a bit of Drew Brees now...just something about the way he threw the ball...hard to explain...Fergy probably had a stronger arm.

 

Where can you watch 1980 Bills games? On youtube?

[San Jose Bills Fan]

Favorites not mentioned:

Lucious Sanford

Carlton Bailey

Joe Cribbs

James Lofton

Clay Matthews (if we picked him)

Leonard Smith

Kurt Schultz

 

Least Favorite

Jeff Wright

Marshawn

McGahee

Vince Ferragamo

BTW, I met Vince Ferragamo and he seemed like a really great guy but he threw a soft ball and that just didn't fly in Rich Stadium.

 

This topic is very generational. Clearly there's a lot of posters here who have a great appreciation for those Chuck Knox teams. He was an excellent Head Coach and de facto GM because in those days, the Head Coach typically made all the personnel decisions including the draft and free agency and head coaches even used to negotiate contracts up until around that time.

 

The 1980 team was a star studded team and except for a few of the Saban/OJ years, was the first winning Bills team that I could really appreciate. I started following the team in 1969 after their AFL glory days. There's a bit of nostalgia involved in my picks too because players are more special when you're young than when you're grown-up.

 

I chose players who hadn't been mentioned too much and I pretty much eliminated the Super Bowl teams because a) it's too easy b) in spite of their excellence, those guys were not really a likable group and c) I was grown up. I also tried to pick players who spent appreciable time in Buffalo so that eliminates two of my faves, Doug Flutie and Chris Spielman.

 

So my picks are (already breaking one of my rules because he's been mentioned several times) Tony Greene, and two underrated DEs who played most of their careers pre-1982 (significant because sacks were not a statistic), Big Ben Williams and Sherman White who ironically was the 2nd pick overall by Cinci after the Bills drafted Walt Patulski. White was an exceptional player and played more years in Buffalo than did Patulski. Williams and White manned the defensive end spots for the Bills for 8 consecutive seasons. They were good players who played on some good teams and some bad teams.

 

Of course I loved Fergy and Chandler and Jerry Butler but they're getting lots of play already so I'll go with two wideouts from the OJ era who were awesome players but played on bad, run-oriented teams. You knew they were great players and they both proved that after they left Buffalo. Marlin Briscoe (who along with former Bills QB James Harris is one of the NFL's more historically significant players) and Haven Moses.