"The Comeback" BIlls-Oilers, January 3, 1993 20 Year Anniversa

[BuffaloBillsFan1972]

It's depressing to talk about the current team, so let's turn back the clock in advance of the 20 year anniversary of "The Comeback." I'm writing a story about this game and would like to incorporate some stories about how fans experienced the game. Everyone in WNY old enough to remember this game has a story about that day. I was at the game and almost left at 35-3- Thank God I didn't! What's your story?

[Campy]

I was in my early 20s, and it was 8 days after my mother lost her battle with cancer, 36 days after my father lost his life in an auto accident.

 

My parents were both big Bills fans and I couldn't help but think that maybe, somehow, they played a role in the outcome of that game, if for no other reason, to provide me with a few moments of joy in what had been a pretty crappy holiday season.

 

I'm not saying they did, but back then, thinking they may have certainly gave me some comfort.

 

I know, strange, right?

[BuffaloBillsFan1972]

I don't think that's strange at all. We live and die with the Bills in WNY and it's easy to see how a game like that could have helped you through a really hard time.

[bschmoove]

I had a ticket to the game but gave them to my brother who went with my mother and his friend.

My girlfriend and I went to the movies instead. Went in knowing the Bills were down, came out to a lobby of people hi-fiving.

I gave up a ticket to the best Bills game ever to watch a movie I don't remember with a girl who I broke up with after she started doing too much acid.

Damn.

[Meathead]

the day before i had just moved into a new house and by the time we were done i only had time to set up the bed and go to sleep. i lived in rochester and had to leave early the next morning to meet my family and be able to tailgate together, so everything i owned was still sitting there in boxes. when houston got that pick six to start the second half i told my dad i was gonna leave the game to go home and unpack. he easily convinced me to just let it sit a few more hours and have fun getting drunk and dancing in the endzone. why not right? thank god

[marauderswr80]

My buddy Tim had tickets to that game he had 2 extra ones....

 

Just before the game a guy approached him and asked for tickets, my buddy says 50 bucks they are yours! Guy says i dont have money, i have a brick of weed...my buddy is straight as an arrow too! He says ok fair deal....

 

My buddy returns home after the game to sell the brick of weed to his hippie friend...yea it wasnt weed, it was just a crap load of different green leaves compacted together!!!

 

To hear my buddy tell the story is priceless! He reminds me of kramer on seinfeld!

[Wagon Circler]

I had to run some errands for my wife at halftime which took longer than I expected.

When I walked in my wife said "don't bother watching. Houston scored again (a pick six).

I sat down on the couch and said in jest, "no I'm gonna keep watching because to be a Bills fan is to NEVER GIVE UP".

[BuffaloBillsFan1972]

Good stuff, guys, thanks. After the Bills won that one, I remember how we were called a "team of destiny." I also recall how some people wanted Frank Reich to continue on as the starter, even after Kelly was ready to go again. Looking back, it was a total team comeback, but the fact that they were missing Kelly, Biscuit and Thurman for most of the second half makes it even more remarkable. Reich was a great guy and a pretty darn good QB too. He could do no wrong in the 2nd half of the game.

Edited December 27, 2012 by BuffaloBillsFan1972

[chaccof]

Went through my usual pre-game routine (watching Bills highlights from '88 - a Team, a Town a Dream); got into my game time seating position and before I knew it they're down 21-3. My wife askes me why I'm torturing myself and I ignore her. Now it's 28-3....at this point I say "screw it", get changed and head to the golf course (I live in VA). By the time I get there it's 35-3 and I'm feeling pretty good about giving up on the Bills (first time that I can remember). As I make the turn after nine holes I go into the club house to get a beer and there's no one in there but the bar tender and he's got the game on. I ask him what's going on with the game and he says the Bills just scored to make it 35-31.....now I'm crapping myself. I jump in my car to come home with the game on the radio and the Bills score to go ahead 38-35 and I'm am literally near tears....I get home, wife, kids and her mother are out shopping, I'm home by myself and by this time Houston is about to kick the tieing FG.....of course the Bills win in OT and I'm running around the house screaming, called my best friend from high school (in WNY) and we scream and yell and when my wife gets home I'm in the garage nearly in tears telling her about the "greatest come back in NFL history....." She was unmoved (she's from Philly)......

[sodbuster]

I'm too young to remember the game (2 yrs old), but I watch it several times a year, usually when the Bills do something crappy. My parents got tickets the night before from the owner of our local IGA, dropped me off at Grandmas house the next morning and went. They were so amped up after the game, they forgot to pick me back up.

 

I saw the DVD at wal mart a couple years ago around xmas time, and bought it for my dad. We watched it xmas morning, and when we were done, he gave it to me and said "You need this more than I do." How freaking depressing.

 

I have the program from that game signed by Reich, framed, up on my wall, one of my most prized possessions.

Edited December 27, 2012 by sodbuster

[dogman]

Three of us sat in a living room in Canisteo NY watching the game. Two of us were going home at half-time except the pizza hadn't arrived. By the time the pizza got there the comeback had just started. Pizza guy said he smelled gas in the apartment. After he mentioned it we all smelled it. We called the gas company (1-800-IGO-BOOM) . They said to evacuate the building. By that time the comeback was in full mode so we sat in a gas filled apartment and watch it. By the way we did have a gas leak and the gas repairman watched the game with us as he fixed it.

 

I remember an on-field fist fight between Howard Ballard and I think Glenn Parker. They were throwing haymakers over a missed assignment, but the announcers didn't seem to notice it in all the chaos.

 

Anyone else see the fight?

[Chef Jim]

My father-in-law who was German was watching the game with us. He really knew nothing of American "football". When the Bills made it 35-17 or something he asked how many points for a TD. I said 7 with the PAT. He said "you know, they just might win". Yeah, whatever old man.

[Best Player Available]

Well you can write about the gate attendance that day. Over 476,684 were in attendance at the end. Yet the stadium still looked like it had room. Crazy stuff.

[Just Jack]

Went through my usual pre-game routine (watching Bills highlights from '88 - a Team, a Town a Dream);

 

????

 

Town, Team, Dream didn't come out until 2000.

[BillsFanNC]

I was there with my father. I wanted to leave at halftime and he talked me out of it. I was halfway up the aisle to the exit at 35-3 when he got me to come back to my seat again. He promised we would leave if Houston scored again. When Houston scored next to tie it at 38, I asked him if he still wanted to leave. What a game, and I'm one of the few who can say he stayed and watched the whole damn thing thanks to my dad.

 

With the joke this team has become in the past decade, this game seems like it happened even longer than 20 years ago.

[chaccof]

????

 

Town, Team, Dream didn't come out until 2000.

 

Hmmm, I must have the name wrong but it's the one that starts out with Chris Berman saying "Sunday morning, Buffalo, NY......" it's the highlights from the 1988 season when they lost to Cinncyin the AFC championship....I'll have to dig that video out and see what the heck it's called....and yes, I still have a video player and no, it's not a Beta Max....

[OhIDunno]

My wife at the time was pregnant but I had a ticket to the game anyways and was going to go with my sister's husband... 3am, wife started feeling "funny", 45 mins later contractions started and by 9:30am my daughter was born... when the game started, we were in a room with our new baby and the wife's uncle, who's not a Bills fan, was kind enough to come and give me updates that were scrolling across the bottem of the waiting room T.V. (didn't have one in the room yet)... After I hadn't seen him in a while, I went into the waiting room and sat and watched the updates until the Bills got within seven, then calmly walked out to the parking garage and listened to the rest of the game sitting in my car... After they won, I went back into the room and the wife asked me where I was, I told her, she just looked at me and shook her head.

[Chef Jim]

My wife at the time was pregnant but I had a ticket to the game anyways and was going to go with my sister's husband... 3am, wife started feeling "funny", 45 mins later contractions started and by 9:30am my daughter was born... when the game started, we were in a room with our new baby and the wife's uncle, who's not a Bills fan, was kind enough to come and give me updates that were scrolling across the bottem of the waiting room T.V. (didn't have one in the room yet)... After I hadn't seen him in a while, I went into the waiting room and sat and watched the updates until the Bills got within seven, then calmly walked out to the parking garage and listened to the rest of the game sitting in my car... After they won, I went back into the room and the wife asked me where I was, I told her, she just looked at me and shook her head.

 

I can see why she's no longer your wife.

[BillsFanM.D.]

I was at my girlfriend's (now wife) house with her very "non-football" oriented family. They knew I was 'nuts' about football and that I'd be watching the game on their TV. I honestly remained optimistic until the pick six to start the second half and 'mentally' mailed it in at that point. Obviously...as the Bills started to come back the optimism appeared again and it was game on. I still recall fearing they would come all the way back and then somehow lose. That would have been even more devastating. Thankfully, they gave us the performance of a lifetime. By the end of the game, my future father in law, who didn't know jack about football, was giving me high fives and screaming at the TV. It's a great memory for me.

[Meathead]

and I'm one of the few who can say he stayed and watched the whole damn thing thanks to my dad.

 

mcfly did you even read my post

 

but regardless, welcome my brother!

[OhIDunno]

 

 

I can see why she's no longer your wife.

 

Yea..... It only took her 17 years after this to figure out I was totally unworthy of her!!

[MILFHUNTER#518]

It was my eighth birthday, and unfortunately my parent's marriage was on the rocks. My father was about to move out, wanted to see the game without interruption so he went to a local bar to view on satellite as it was blacked out. Hence, I had to listen on a handheld radio outside in my front yard. Had a rock next to the road in my front yard, sat there and listened up until the third quarter when I couldn't wait any longer and had to go to my neighbor's house to proclaim the Bills were staging a comeback... Best sports experience of my life (up until the Sabres comeback against the Rangers staged by Chris Drury.)

[GoBills!]

My dad got tickets and asked if I wanted to go to my hockey game or go to the bills game. We went to the bills game. We sat in the 100s and were hit with snow balls by the oiler fans all game..by half time my dad asked if I wanted to go and I said no lets stay (also thought dad drank too much) so we stayed through the end and I remember walking by and seein all the people beg to come back in by the end of the third quarter. I still have my ticket stubs to this day..

[jester43]

????

 

Town, Team, Dream didn't come out until 2000.

i beg to differ...that was what they named the 88 highlight vid. i still have a vhs copy myself.

[SavetheBills]

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.

[Just Jack]

i beg to differ...that was what they named the 88 highlight vid. i still have a vhs copy myself.

 

Then NFL films is not very original if they're naming two of their videos about the Bills with the same title.

[Martimus]

Just got through watching the greatest comeback in NFL history with the Buffalo Bills beating the Houston Oilers in Jan 93. After the Bills clean house this off season and start their 2013 re-build "again" pre-season. The 2013 players need to watch this game over and over. This is how you win football games. This is how every player on the team contributes. This is how to play smash mouth football. This is how to overcome adversity. Every player on that team was making plays not just the money guys. All this with a back up quarterback and a coach that everyone believed in. Time for them all to step up and contribute. We are just a few players, a coach and a quarterback away from greatness. Here is the you tube link to the game.It's a beautiful thing. Get it done Wilson! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S_A6aHt8H0&list=PLE515EEF211E58386

Edited December 29, 2012 by Martimus

[Mr_Blizzard]

Yes, I was there. Terrible weather and a terrible game . . . Until the middle of the 3rd quarter when suddenly the Bills started firing on all cylinders. It was amazing to watch and the most pumped-up I have ever been at any Bills game. Memories...

[Dibs]

I will never forget that day.

 

I live in Australia and was camping in the bush with a group of friends. Most of us happened to be American Football fans so we went into the nearest town and hijacked the local bar's TV(which had cable). The game wasn't live at the time but since we avoided any media prior it had that live feel.

 

In hindsight, that game was a mirror opposite of what it feels generally to be a Bills fan. Instead of giving hope and then dashing them in the worst possible way and at the worst possible time.....it spiraled any Bills fan watching into the pits of despair....and then vaulted them into the elation.

 

That game truly is a highlight life memory for me.

[first_and_ten]

I was there and almost left at halftime. Thanks to my wife and brother, I stayed. What a great game and a great memory.

[Packerland Bills Fan]

I wasn't at the game, but I was able to see all of it. I was going to graduate school at RIT at the time and was home visiting my parents in North East, PA. The game was blacked out, but the cable company carried the Cleveland station and I saw the whole thing. I almost left at halftime, but I decided to stay because I wanted to avoid the game traffic. I headed back to Rochester after the game was over and still ran into the game traffic. I got a glimpse of some of the excitement as people were honking their horns at the Buffalo toll booths like people do coming from a wedding.

 

What an unbelievable game! I just wish I had recorded it. It was the first playoff game I didn't tape.

[djp14150]

Gor me....went over to Ft Erie. My friends now ex wife knew and owner of a bar over there. A bunch of us went over there. I remember I believed a comeback was possible.

 

From my experience, and it isnt just in football....if a team was able to put up x pts in y minutes, your team could too.

[section 315]

Random Memories of heading up to the game-

 

Traveled from Rochester to the game with a group of 8-10 guys... fortunately we did not have all our seats together, remember-cell phone were not common. You could not just buzz your buddy and ask, "You want to leave?"- some of us may have left early.

 

I recall at halftime walking in the concourse, fans were in disbelief. I mean we were playing at home, getting our butts handed to us. That was not suppose to happen.

 

The second half doesn't start well with a pick 6. Time to start drinking, I mean I smuggled beer into the stadium and still had some left for the second half...

 

Holy Crap- Something is starting to change, you can feel it in the stadium...

 

OMG! We might just pull this thing off...

 

HIGH FIVING SCREAMING! Jumping onto complete strangers, strangers jumping onto me... IT WAS UNBILLIEVABLE!

 

I went into work the next morning. Exhausted. My voice was weak and sore from screaming during the second half... I had this stupid ass grin all day, my entire body ached. it was the best day of work I had.

[dib]

My son was 4 months old and I was holding him and walking around while watching the game. Every time I stood next to the TV the Bills did something good (serious sports superstition here). When things heated up for the Bills my wife said: "Give him to me before you spike him"

[gomper]

My son was 4 months old and I was holding him and walking around while watching the game. Every time I stood next to the TV the Bills did something good (serious sports superstition here). When things heated up for the Bills my wife said: "Give him to me before you spike him"

 

Lol. Smart Woman:)

[grider]

This game was blacked out in Toronto for some reason... dunno if was blacked out in Buffalo?

 

Anyway, with no other option I tuned in to listen on the radio. What a bummer of a first half. I gave up at half time especially since with Kelly out we had no chance and instead agreed to go shopping with my wife. In the car I flipped on the radio just before the comeback began. Firstly the feeling of disgust as the first couple of scores came. Y'know.... why couldn't they have done this earlier when there was still a chance. Then the growing excitement as they picked up momentum. Finally screaming like a deranged lunatic while driving as they went ahead. I can still remember the exact spot I was at in my car.

 

Fantastic!!!

 

Gosh, it's been a long hard road since the end of the Kelly era. I haven't wavered as a fan and have not missed a game but they keep trying really hard to make us quit. I find my inspiration in those glory days (4 superbowls... wow!).

 

[Corp000085]

For every time that we complain about calls going the pats' way, look at how beebe absolutely got away with a fumble and a td. Calls go towards the better teams.

[USAFBillsfan]

It was the last game I attended before leaving for Air Force Basic Training in Feb '93. My Dad and I had season tickets together for a few years, but he invited a friend to go too, so we made an arrangement before the game. I bought a single ticket behind the tunnel endzone where I would sit during the first half, and then at halftime me and his friend would switch and I'd sit back up with my Dad in the upper deck for the rest of the game.

 

Well, it was obviously depressing when we switched at the half, but I tried to convince my Dad (and myself) that we still had a chance if we scored right away. That obviously didn't work out either, and we probably would have left after that quick interception if I wasn't leaving WNY a few weeks later.

 

After the comeback started it was the most amazing thing I've ever experienced, and I just kept hoping that we wouldn't fall just short. When Christie's FG went through the uprights in OT it was just overwhelming shock. Everyone in our section just hugged and kissed each other, and the feeling was unreal.

 

I still have the ticket stubs from both my 1st and 2nd half seats together with all my memorobilia.

 

Best wishes fellow Bills fans!

[Garion]

I was there.

[Just Jack]

'Within his reach': The greatest comeback in football history started with Mark Maddox

 

 

 

Thursday is the 20th anniversary of the greatest comeback in the history of the National Football League: The Buffalo Bills, trailing 35-3 in the third quarter of a playoff game against Houston, righted themselves and pulled out a victory that remains surreal, two decades later. Buffalo quarterback Frank Reich is rightly remembered as the guy in the middle of that rally. But it started with a fumble that came achingly close to being recovered by the Oilers, and the game turned on a desperate effort by Mark Maddox, an effort at the bottom of a pile that was invisible to the crowd in the stands. This is a column - edited for timeliness - that I wrote about Maddox and that moment 20 years ago, while the Bills were preparing for what would be a Super Bowl defeat against the Dallas Cowboys.