What is your favorite Bills memory

[Helpmenow]

We need a senior message board! So we can discussed pre 89.

[Mark Vader]

For me it's September 13, 1992, 49'ers-Bills in Candlestick Park, the first NFL game without a punt.

 

This was special to me because I was there. What a thriller it was. Watching two superstar teams battle it out for 60 minutes.

 

Jim Kelly & Steve Young each having 400 yard days. Andre Reed had a big day(10 catches) even though he didn't have a touchdown.

 

I swear that Pete Metzelaars ran for the longest TD in his whole career that day. It was 53 yards.

 

I know there are other games that would be more popular to choose: The Comeback, 51-3, Flutie bootleg, 31-0 against the Pats, AFC Championship vs. Montana and the Chiefs.

 

But I choose this game because I witnessed it. Definitely the greatest game I have ever been too. Not just a great Bills game, but a great NFL game.

 

I wish that NFL Films would do a special on this game. It deserves more recognition.

[San Jose Bills Fan]

As a UK Bills fan, the only time I'd seen the Bills, live, was in 1991 when they played (and beat) the Philadelphia Eagles in a pre-season game at Wembley Stadium in London. When I retired I saved up my pounds and came across to see a game at Ralph Wilson Stadium. The year was 2011, the month was September and the opponents were New England. Loved the game (and the result!), the city and the people (and the Philharmonic Orchestra - I went to a great concert on the Saturday evening). Great memory! I've saved up some more pounds and am coming over in November to see the Jets game (and another concert) but it'll have to be VERY special to beat my trip two years ago.

 

Good show!!!

 

Your true fandom brought us good fortune!

 

May it do so again!

[Chef Jim]

We need a senior message board! So we can discussed pre 89.

 

Pre 89? How about pre 71.

[Chef Jim]

 

 

Smashing the Raider by a million points in the 91 AFC championship game.

 

Although it was sad watching the great Howie Long jump offsides a hundred times in I think it was his last game.

 

Ahhh more fuzzy memories. Howie's last game was the AFC Divisional Playoff game January 1994. That was the bitter cold game and Jim drew Howie offsides a bunch of times. And that was anything but sad.

[It's in My Blood]

Pats comeback game last year. Watching Belichek hopelessly lingering on the sidelines while we downed the ball a couple times before the kick was a thing of beauty.

[Stealth]

Pats comeback game last year. Watching Belichek hopelessly lingering on the sidelines while we downed the ball a couple times before the kick was a thing of beauty.

 

2 years ago we lost to the pats both times last year

[Ramblin' Rob]

Mine is the first Dallas super bowl. My family and I moved to Taipei, Taiwan on super bowl Sunday. The game actually aired live Monday morning local time and my dad scheduled our school registration for the afternoon. Needless to say, we did not where our AFC championship shirts to register.

The next morning as I sat in the math faculty office of Taipei American School taking a math placement test, I heard an obnoxious kid making fun of the score of the game...he and I would later share the same circle of friends, but he remained obnoxious. One day while kicking a soccer ball with friends, he continuously interrupted our play by hitting the ball away from us with his hands. Then as he leaped and punch an intended head ball to me, I under cut that preppy little Auburn fan like a defenseless receiver. It felt great.

[Buffalo Barbarian]

Ahhh more fuzzy memories. Howie's last game was the AFC Divisional Playoff game January 1994. That was the bitter cold game and Jim drew Howie offsides a bunch of times. And that was anything but sad.

 

 

[KGUNBILLS]

Jim Kelly's last regular season home game against the Chiefs. (I think it was still called Rich Stadium ) We were losing the whole game until the fourth qtr. Thurman had reached another 1000 yard season. Chris Spielman had an interception. I was sitting in the end zone when Jim threw both td's right in front of me. I think one of them was Tony Cline's first TD pass. I remember his eyes were as big as silver dollars when he caught the pass. With that win, we made the playoffs, and were headed to Jacksonville. It seemed like it was a pretty cold day. During warm ups you could see steam on everyone's breath. Just a great day for football in Buffalo.

[Kemp]

At Shea Stadium, watching OJ go over 2000.

[San Jose Bills Fan]

2 years ago we lost to the pats both times last year

 

How'd we do against them 3 years ago last year?

 

[Thirty Year Fan]

Winning the AFC EAST in 1980 after 0 for the 70'S

[Helpmenow]

64 season

 

 

 

Pre 89? How about pre 71.

agree . Were getting old.

 

Ask them if they know the name James Harris.

Edited September 22, 2013 by roush

[LARD BUM]

Great memories, all, Fratellone deficiente. Still, I think my favorite Bills memories, by far, are listening to Van call a game (any game, really) on that little black radio on a crisp autumn day while we were slinging a football around in the backyard or along the river picking apples. Hope your hand feels better...

 

Yeah … Roland Hooks ; thanks for that reminiscence, RJ. Indeed, Van was agonizingly slow in making winning calls. You’d hear the home crowd go nuts for a second or two before he would confirm. My brothers and I would always crack up over that (after we recovered).

 

So many other favorites …

 

Last game of the year in ‘73 vs. Jets; watching the game with my brothers in the basement on an ancient B&W TV that I think my dad had garbage-picked. The vertical refresh would go haywire every few minutes and we’d have to turn our heads sideways to see what was going on. Our favorite moment was not in fact OJ topping the rushing record, but rather Bill Cahill busting back a punt for a TD, effectively putting the game out of reach. Truth is, we cared more about winning the game than about that damn rushing record.

 

Home game against the powerful Raiders in ‘80. Fergie deftly feints left, then swings it out right to wide open rookie Joe Cribbs, who waltzes untouched into the end zone, both arms extended horizontally. To our astonishment, the Bills are 4-0, and after a decade of youthful futility as Bills fans, we sense we could actually win it all.

 

Crushing the Fish 27-0 in ’87, with Jimbo revealing after the game that the Bills were especially fired up after Fish Linebacker Jackie Shipp commented before the game that he had been “embarrassed” to lose to the Bills earlier in the season. You could just feel the power in that Bills squad about to burst forth …

 

… and burst it does: Bills at Browns as Municipal Stadium in 1990 (42-0 payback only 10 months after the Ronnie Harmon playoff drop). Jamie Mueller leads Thurmon left on a toss sweep. Some hapless Browns safety flashes into the backfield, and Mueller … lays … him … out. I mean thundering, limbs-splayed, flat-on-his-back OUT; hitting the ground so ferociously you could barely follow it live. The slow-mo in my mind still shows Mueller’s lips curling into a vicious snarl an instant before he lays the wood .…

 

Watching the game alone in my crappy apartment in Houston in ’93. Trying in a frenzy to call home after Steve Christie kicked the comeback winner – and all the lines to Buffalo were jammed. The freaking lines were JAMMED. God, how I loved my tough little hometown at that moment. I went out on my balcony with my Bills sweatshirt and hat on and screamed every abuse I could think of at Houston for about 15 minutes (until I thought the better of it; lots of guns in Houston).

 

Last Sunday night. Sitting on the edge of our living room couch here in Italy, clinging to hope, headphones connected to my laptop, following John Murphy’s call on GR online; trying desperately not to wake up my wife and kids. Punching the wall when EJ throws the pick-that-came-back (goddamn hand is still sore as I type this a week later). Doing the silent scream when Stevie hauls in the winner. My teenage daughter staggers blinkingly into the living room: “Papi, what was that weird squealing sound?” I swear I don’t know. The kid of course informs on me in the AM, and my wife calls me a “deficiente” (exactly as it sounds).

 

Honestly, I don’t blame her. But you guys all understand.

Edited September 22, 2013 by LARD BUM

[TDO'Kearney]

 

 

"Watching the game alone in my crappy apartment in Houston in ’93. Trying in a frenzy to call home after Steve Christie kicked the comeback winner – and all the lines to Buffalo were jammed. The freaking lines were JAMMED. God, how I loved my tough little hometown at that moment. I went out on my balcony with my Bills sweatshirt and hat on and screamed every abuse I could think of at Houston for about 15 minutes (until I thought the better of it; lots of guns in Houston)."

 

 

 

 

It's funny that you bring up infrastructure. Sometimes it's not the game itself but the little things. In 1991 I was at college in NYC and came back to Lockport to visit my family. I remember how literally all of WNY was focused on the Bills. Walking through the Eastern Hills Mall looked like the concourse at Rich Stadium....a sea of blue and red. Every two-bit tavern had something on their signs "watch the game here" or just " Go Bills".

 

Anyway, after the game my uncle needed a ride to see his buddy who happened to work at the water company. I guess they were getting high later, but the guy showed me an interesting thing...the 51-3 Bills game nearly caused a water emergency in the City of Lockport. They had these machines with spiral graphs that tracked water usage over time. He showed me where water use dropped to almost ZERO around 1 PM, and the 41-3 masterpiece first half had glued everyone to the screen. Then, around 2:15, a 20,000 gallon spike that he said set off low pressure alarms and forced him to open valves to reserve tanks he'd never used. Yes, the entire town got up to take a whiz at the half and apparently flushed almost in unison.

 

Then the Miami game in 2002 during the "blizzard", what most of us would just call a snowy day. The Bills are getting killed by Ricky Williams on the ground but improbably, Bledsoe pulls the Bills ahead 31-21 on two long pass plays to Moulds and Price and the crowd could smell victory. As if to seal the coffin, during the timeout between the third and fourth quarters a gust kicks up and the snow falls hard enough that I started to lose sight of the crowd on the other side of the Stadium. But I could HEAR them though, because we knew Miami had to miserable in the snow and the crowd cheered that snow gust as if it was another touchdown.

[RCOHEN13]

When EJ Manuel leads us to a Superbowl victory this yr in NY!

 

Oops? pre-mature???

 

GO BILLS!

[Braedenstearns]

1988 Bills and Jags! Flutie with the upset win.

[San Jose Bills Fan]

"Watching the game alone in my crappy apartment in Houston in ’93. Trying in a frenzy to call home after Steve Christie kicked the comeback winner – and all the lines to Buffalo were jammed. The freaking lines were JAMMED. God, how I loved my tough little hometown at that moment. I went out on my balcony with my Bills sweatshirt and hat on and screamed every abuse I could think of at Houston for about 15 minutes (until I thought the better of it; lots of guns in Houston)."

 

 

 

 

It's funny that you bring up infrastructure. Sometimes it's not the game itself but the little things. In 1991 I was at college in NYC and came back to Lockport to visit my family. I remember how literally all of WNY was focused on the Bills. Walking through the Eastern Hills Mall looked like the concourse at Rich Stadium....a sea of blue and red. Every two-bit tavern had something on their signs "watch the game here" or just " Go Bills".

 

Anyway, after the game my uncle needed a ride to see his buddy who happened to work at the water company. I guess they were getting high later, but the guy showed me an interesting thing...the 51-3 Bills game nearly caused a water emergency in the City of Lockport. They had these machines with spiral graphs that tracked water usage over time. He showed me where water use dropped to almost ZERO around 1 PM, and the 41-3 masterpiece first half had glued everyone to the screen. Then, around 2:15, a 20,000 gallon spike that he said set off low pressure alarms and forced him to open valves to reserve tanks he'd never used. Yes, the entire town got up to take a whiz at the half and apparently flushed almost in unison.

 

Then the Miami game in 2002 during the "blizzard", what most of us would just call a snowy day. The Bills are getting killed by Ricky Williams on the ground but improbably, Bledsoe pulls the Bills ahead 31-21 on two long pass plays to Moulds and Price and the crowd could smell victory. As if to seal the coffin, during the timeout between the third and fourth quarters a gust kicks up and the snow falls hard enough that I started to lose sight of the crowd on the other side of the Stadium. But I could HEAR them though, because we knew Miami had to miserable in the snow and the crowd cheered that snow gust as if it was another touchdown.

 

Very good stuff!

 

:thumbsup:

[Stranded in Boston]

Then the Miami game in 2002 during the "blizzard", what most of us would just call a snowy day. The Bills are getting killed by Ricky Williams on the ground but improbably, Bledsoe pulls the Bills ahead 31-21 on two long pass plays to Moulds and Price and the crowd could smell victory. As if to seal the coffin, during the timeout between the third and fourth quarters a gust kicks up and the snow falls hard enough that I started to lose sight of the crowd on the other side of the Stadium. But I could HEAR them though, because we knew Miami had to miserable in the snow and the crowd cheered that snow gust as if it was another touchdown.

 

Ah, thanks for that one Kearney ... I'll never forget that game. The snow and wind kicked up like the wrath of God, and the crowd went beserk. You could just sense the life draining out of the Fish; they were done, reduced to staggering around the field, stammering, "WTF is wrong with these people??". A thing of beauty.