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Who's been most screwed by the Bills? Of All Time.


LA Grant

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9 hours ago, YoloinOhio said:

Wade is the only one imo 

I agree.  I liked Wade and wish he would have been retained. 

 

I loved Flutie but I realized from the get go that he was a gimmick to fill the seats.  The Bills new he was well loved by the Canadians and his improv would also impress WNYers.  

 

Was Flutie screwed over?   Not imo 

 

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2 hours ago, Virgil said:

 

There are two sides of Flutie.  

 

The positive side was that he played one of the original versions of “street ball” and just found ways to win.  He was exciting and unorthodox.  He was short, but could run. Sound familiar?

 

The negative was that he was never supposed to be “the guy”. We traded high for Rob Johnson who showed flashes, but had overall more stinkers.  But because both were capable, there were A LOT of rumors about Flutie trying to turn the locker room against Rob.  Flutie was likable via the media, but many thought it was an act. 

 

As for the MCM, Flutie was the starter pretty much all season and the reason we made the playoffs.  We benched a few starters in Week 17 to give them a “bye” week and rest. Rob Johnson played out of his mind that game. I mean, he looked like a hall of famer to be honest. From that, Wade made the choice to start him from that one game.  

 

The rest is history.  

 

It wasn't Wade's choice.  It was Wilson's.

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8 hours ago, CookieG said:

In 1967, Lamonica and wide receiver Glenn Bass were traded to the Oakland Raiders for wide receiver Art Powell and quarterback Tom Flores. Lamonica recalled, “Art Powell said to me, ‘I am probably the culprit, because I wanted to get back to Canada. I probably instigated that.’ Whether that is true or not, I don’t know.”

Lamonica continued, “There were no agents back then. I got to talk to both Ralph Wilson Junior and Senior the night before I was traded. Mr. Wilson Sr. said, ‘You will be our starting quarterback coming back this year.’ I was so fired up I could run through a brick wall. Eight hours later, I was traded. I still don’t know. Mr. Wilson has never explained it to me, why he traded me.”

However, Lamonica did not find out about the trade from traditional channels. Lamonica recalled, “I was talking to somebody and he said, ‘Hey, you have been traded to the Raiders!’ I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, right. No way.’ I had to call the Fresno Bee, my hometown paper, to find out that I was traded. I called my mom and she said that Al Davis had called and wanted me to call.”

 

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/where-are-they-now-daryle-lamonica/

 

 

          Thanks for the link.   Any link that has the slightest bit on info on the mid-60's Bills is always appreciated.

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This should be a poll and the FANS category would win easily. The Bills in Toronto was the ultimate "screw you" to the long suffering fans. I don't really feel sorry for anyone else. Even Flutie (who I was a big fan of) got his chance and unfortunately wasn't able to capitalize.  Wade also had his chance and bungled several games. He didn't even make the decision on Flutie being benched over Johnson because he backed down from Ralph. Nobody else got screwed but in the case of Thurman, Bruce and Andre they should have finished their careers here and not be treated with disrespect.

 

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1 hour ago, RJ (not THAT RJ) said:

At the top of any screwed by the Bills list has to be James "Shack" Harris. The Bills were brave enough to draft him out of Grambling in 1969, but could never hand over full-time QB'ing to an African American. By the time Lou Saban was hired—who had already screwed over QB Marlon Briscoe in Denver—Harris was shipped out, and ended up a Pro Bowler in LA. There too, he was screwed for reasons as simple as black and white.

 

I can't help wondering how much better the Bills would have been in 72 and 73, years in which the QB play was abysmal, if they had given a young vet like Harris the keys. Oh, well.

 

         Early in the year that Harris was drafted, I read a sports magazine that had OJ and Harris as future stars of the game that would lead Buffalo out of the depression they were in.   That could have been the greatest depression ever, although there are a fair number of contenders.   So I watched Harris's progress closely.  He probably had the greatest arm of any Bills QB.   They had a drill where the QB had to throw the ball through a swinging tire.  Harris hardly ever missed.  He was also plenty tall enough to see over the line.   That was the good.   

       During his first training camp, he missed a lot of time.  It was reported as a "stomach issue."   It certainly did not help his progress.  He also didn't have much of a touch on short passes.  He seemed to throw a 10 yard pass with the same velocity as a 40 yard pass.  A lot of short passes were just too hot to catch.  And remember Rauch's idea of using OJ was to free him up using short passes. 

      I was always disappointed he didn't start more often but it is not like he was playing so well they had to play him.  I don't buy into the black versus white issue.  The team/coaching really sucked back then.  A familiar theme over the years.

 

      I have to admit, when EJ stood in the pocket, it reminded me of Harris but  EJ never had Harris's accuracy.  I was also a fan of Fergy.  He was a much better passer than many give him credit for.

 

     So I have never bought into a QB since Harris.  I never believe the hype.  Not even Jim Kelly before he played here.  I always take the wait and see attitude.  Anyone may be the savior.  Anyone may not be.   The reality is,  a QB will not be deemed the answer until he is,  and that is solely based on winning.  And even then there will always be those that will believe he isn't.

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9 hours ago, Real McCoy said:

Not mentioned - WR Eric Moulds --> This guy could have seriously been a HOF WR if he played with a real QB all his career, such wasted talent.

 

9 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

The Jills

 

Good call on both of these. Eric Moulds is terribly underrated as a WR. The whole thing with the Jills was a debacle.

 

8 hours ago, ProcessTheTrust said:

Tyrod didn't get screwed. He got the opportunity of a lifetime, fulfilled a dream, got to be a starter on a team for over 2 years and is financially set for life from it. Any career back up should envy the guy. Now he gets to go and compete again with no bias, and if he doesn't win a starting role again, he gets to be a really nice back up somewhere. Not shedding a single tear for the guy. Many of us knew for a very long time this experiment was drawn out too long.

 

Yeah, I can get behind this take. 

 

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18 hours ago, row_33 said:

Flutie was given yet another chance in the NFL and couldn’t win a playoff game, he was justly benched in favour of Rob Johnson.

 

flutie took them to a 10-5 record this year and then replaced him with RJ

This epitomizes screw job.

Imagine how crazy everyone would go in the media and a portion of the fans 

if TT won 10 games and then was benched.

The meltdown would be epic

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50 minutes ago, /dev/null said:

Most screwed by the organization: Wade

 

Most screwed by somebody tied to the organization: Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman

And most screwed by somebody tied to somebody tied to the organization: the entire world via Robert Kardashian's offspring

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9 hours ago, Greybeard said:

         Early in the year that Harris was drafted, I read a sports magazine that had OJ and Harris as future stars of the game that would lead Buffalo out of the depression they were in.   That could have been the greatest depression ever, although there are a fair number of contenders.   So I watched Harris's progress closely.  He probably had the greatest arm of any Bills QB.   They had a drill where the QB had to throw the ball through a swinging tire.  Harris hardly ever missed.  He was also plenty tall enough to see over the line.   That was the good.   

       During his first training camp, he missed a lot of time.  It was reported as a "stomach issue."   It certainly did not help his progress.  He also didn't have much of a touch on short passes.  He seemed to throw a 10 yard pass with the same velocity as a 40 yard pass.  A lot of short passes were just too hot to catch.  And remember Rauch's idea of using OJ was to free him up using short passes. 

      I was always disappointed he didn't start more often but it is not like he was playing so well they had to play him.  I don't buy into the black versus white issue.  The team/coaching really sucked back then.  A familiar theme over the years.

 

      I have to admit, when EJ stood in the pocket, it reminded me of Harris but  EJ never had Harris's accuracy.  I was also a fan of Fergy.  He was a much better passer than many give him credit for.

 

     So I have never bought into a QB since Harris.  I never believe the hype.  Not even Jim Kelly before he played here.  I always take the wait and see attitude.  Anyone may be the savior.  Anyone may not be.   The reality is,  a QB will not be deemed the answer until he is,  and that is solely based on winning.  And even then there will always be those that will believe he isn't.

 

Totally agree about Harris.  I think he played in a very difficult situation, less so in Buffalo than in some other cities.  I remember the way he threw those short passes, too.  JP Losman threw short passes the same way, only not quite so hard.  Of course, back in Harris' day, QBs didn't care much about short passes anyways.  That's what a whole lot of fans today don't understand about those QBs back in the 1960s and 1970s, they played an entirely different game so their stats don't look quite so impressive.  If you couldn't heave a football forty yards in the air with some accuracy, they sent you home.

 

BTW, Harris eventually became an exec with the NFL IIRC.

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Guest K-GunJimKelly12

Write in vote:  Me

 

I was 9,10, 11 and 12 during the Super Bowl years.  Can't go through something like that during your formative years without it having a lasting effect.

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Just now, K-GunJimKelly12 said:

Write in vote:  Me

 

I was 9,10, 11 and 12 during the Super Bowl years.  Can't go through something like that during your formative years without it having a lasting effect.

Dude....try paying for scalped tickets for two of those, then get back to me. ?

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