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One of the darkest days in Bills history. I’ll never forgive Ralph.


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5 hours ago, SoTier said:

 

The article you quoted said that they reached an agreement with Smith.  It didn't say that he signed a contract.  There is a significant difference between agreeing to contract terms and actually signing the contract.   


He signed the contract. They had a press conference and everything, Rules were different back then. It was allowed to combat the USFL.

Edited by Mcdermott
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10 hours ago, SoTier said:

 

No college player can sign with any NFL team until after the NFL draft.   Bruce Smith was the #1 over all pick in 1985, which the Bills owned because of their crappy record the previous season.  Flutie was taken in the 11th round (#285) of the LA Rams.

 

I think that Smith rejected the WFL as an option, so the Bills drafted him, but he couldn't have been signed before the draft.   First round draft picks holding out into some time into TC was very common before the rookie salary cap went into effect about 2010 or so.

Smith agreed to terms before draft and Kelly was USFL player 

 

12 hours ago, SoTier said:

What I have heard over the years is that Wilson traded Lamonica because he had an affair with another player's wife.  I don't how true that was but it seems consistent with how Wilson ran the team.

 

I think that Lamonica would have failed in Buffalo.  The loss to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship (for the berth in Super Bowl I) was the Bills' last hurrah and ushered in 2 decades of misery for Bills fans which were only broken by Lou Saban's short lived return as coach (1972-the first 5 games of 1976) and the Chuck Knox regime (1978-1982)  until Bill Polian took charge of the Bills in 1986.  Between 1967 and 1985, the Bills were mostly uncompetitive with the rest of the NFL.  Wilson didn't like paying top money for quality players, so the Bills drafted primarily based either position (lots of DBs in the first round) or whether a draftee would accept the Bills' low ball salary offers in the first round.  In the 20 years between 1967 and 1986, the Bills had the #1 pick in the entire draft 4 times (OJ Simpson (1968), Walt Putulski (1972), Tom Cousineau (1979), and Bruce Smith (1985)), 3 top 5 picks, and 2 top ten picks.  Simpson and Smith both held out a long time before finally signing with the Bills.  Cousineau chose to play in the CFL rather than for the Bills.  Jim Kelly (the only QB taken in the first round during this period) chose the WFL over the Bills.

 

 

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12 hours ago, SoTier said:

What I have heard over the years is that Wilson traded Lamonica because he had an affair with another player's wife.  I don't how true that was but it seems consistent with how Wilson ran the team.

 

I think that Lamonica would have failed in Buffalo.  The loss to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship (for the berth in Super Bowl I) was the Bills' last hurrah and ushered in 2 decades of misery for Bills fans which were only broken by Lou Saban's short lived return as coach (1972-the first 5 games of 1976) and the Chuck Knox regime (1978-1982)  until Bill Polian took charge of the Bills in 1986.  Between 1967 and 1985, the Bills were mostly uncompetitive with the rest of the NFL.  Wilson didn't like paying top money for quality players, so the Bills drafted primarily based either position (lots of DBs in the first round) or whether a draftee would accept the Bills' low ball salary offers in the first round.  In the 20 years between 1967 and 1986, the Bills had the #1 pick in the entire draft 4 times (OJ Simpson (1968), Walt Putulski (1972), Tom Cousineau (1979), and Bruce Smith (1985)), 3 top 5 picks, and 2 top ten picks.  Simpson and Smith both held out a long time before finally signing with the Bills.  Cousineau chose to play in the CFL rather than for the Bills.  Jim Kelly (the only QB taken in the first round during this period) chose the WFL over the Bills.

 

 

I believe you meant to say USFL. The World Football League folded over a decade earlier.

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5 hours ago, njbuff said:

How about when Ralph fired Polian?

 

How dark of a day was that?

 

The Lamonica trade was a little before my time.  For me, Ralph's worst move was firing Bill Polian...for some words Bill had with Ralph's daughter.  All downhill from there.

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14 hours ago, Mcdermott said:

The Bills chose Smith because he was clearly better then Childress. You are right, he didn’t hold out but they didn’t draft him because they could sign him.

As for Flutie, he ended up going in the 6th or 7th round which goes to show you how smart fans are.

Any person who watched Bruce in the North South game tackling everyone in sight for a loss could tell he was better than anyone on the DL that we had ever seen. That kid was awesome in college but it was his work effort to slim down in the pros that made him the great sacker he became. 

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On 3/15/2020 at 8:49 AM, SoTier said:

What I have heard over the years is that Wilson traded Lamonica because he had an affair with another player's wife.  I don't how true that was but it seems consistent with how Wilson ran the team.

 

I think that Lamonica would have failed in Buffalo.  The loss to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship (for the berth in Super Bowl I) was the Bills' last hurrah and ushered in 2 decades of misery for Bills fans which were only broken by Lou Saban's short lived return as coach (1972-the first 5 games of 1976) and the Chuck Knox regime (1978-1982)  until Bill Polian took charge of the Bills in 1986.  Between 1967 and 1985, the Bills were mostly uncompetitive with the rest of the NFL.  Wilson didn't like paying top money for quality players, so the Bills drafted primarily based either position (lots of DBs in the first round) or whether a draftee would accept the Bills' low ball salary offers in the first round.  In the 20 years between 1967 and 1986, the Bills had the #1 pick in the entire draft 4 times (OJ Simpson (1968), Walt Putulski (1972), Tom Cousineau (1979), and Bruce Smith (1985)), 3 top 5 picks, and 2 top ten picks.  Simpson and Smith both held out a long time before finally signing with the Bills.  Cousineau chose to play in the CFL rather than for the Bills.  Jim Kelly (the only QB taken in the first round during this period) chose the WFL over the Bills.

 

Bruce Smith was not a hold out after the draft. 

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I have hard time saying I blame Ralph. Buffalo swung and miss but it seems that at the time the move made sense and was of fair value. If it is true also that the Lamonica had an affair or they had concerns on his medical health then it makes even more sense. Unfortunately with trades sometimes they work great, sometimes they are equal, and sometimes they are a disaster. Buffalo missed with Darryl but we hit homeruns with Bennett, McCoy, and Jerry Hughes to a lesser extent.

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6 minutes ago, Buffaloed in Pa said:

Flash in the pan. Nothing more

Who? Lamonica?? Shirley, you jest. POY. Mad Bomber. Absolutely destroyed the Bills every time we played against him.

3 hours ago, \GoBillsInDallas/ said:

Great story! Thanks GBID!

  • Thank you (+1) 1
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