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1969 Buffalo Bills -the long road back


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With just 1 win in ‘68, anything would be an improvement. More stars from the mid-60’s title teams left, this would be Jackie Kemp’s final season and many rookies made the team. 1st overall pick OJ Simpson joined Bill ‘Earthquake’ Enyart and James Harris, forming an all rookie backfield. We opened the season against the Champs NY Jets and finished with the eventual Champs KC Chiefs, playing very well in those games.

Enjoy!

 

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Chandman the historian.  Keep em coming as good for those who don’t know or remember our origins.  It is an extra step as you can’t open these YouTube’s from you’re link, but you can get the title and just do a two second search and watch there. I wouldn’t change a thing bud.  Thanks again.

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7 minutes ago, machine gun kelly said:

Chandman the historian.  Keep em coming as good for those who don’t know or remember our origins.  It is an extra step as you can’t open these YouTube’s from you’re link, but you can get the title and just do a two second search and watch there. I wouldn’t change a thing bud.  Thanks again.

It doesn’t provide the direct link to it on YouTube? It does for me, but maybe that’s because I copied the link.. 

Crap!

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15 minutes ago, Chandler#81 said:

It doesn’t provide the direct link to it on YouTube? It does for me, but maybe that’s because I copied the link.. 

Crap!


For me I just have to hit ‘Open in YouTube’. 
 

I was born in ‘69 so before my time but wonderful to see nonetheless! Thank you!

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51 minutes ago, Chandler#81 said:

It doesn’t provide the direct link to it on YouTube? It does for me, but maybe that’s because I copied the link.. 

Crap!


no worries Chand.  It’s as easy as just look at the title go to YouTube and look it up.  I don’t mind, even if there is an ad. 🤪. Sorry that was for dingbat who has a problem closing out a simple ad for all of half a second on the whining thread.

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11 hours ago, WotAGuy said:

I think the Bills used to make these films available to community groups to view. I never knew they existed until they started showing them on ESPN or ESPN Classic. 

They did. Every year, my Boy Scout troop got the FILM for a meeting and rather than tie knots or ‘help the Girl Scouts Get undressed’, we watched the previous season highlight film. 

 

My favorite recollection of the BSA!

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I know it's a highlight reel, but Jim Harris looked like the real deal before that season-ending injury against Oakland. In the season opener, you could tell even Broadway Joe was a fascinated spectator when OJ got the ball. Could have won that game. Kemp looked like a bum on that swing pass to the right flat that got picked for six.

Edited by Sargent Hulka
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15 hours ago, PonyBoy said:

Murderer or not.. Simpson was incredible even by today's athletic standards. Epic running back.

Unfortunately, he was barely used in his first three seasons with the Bills.  Imagine that in today’s game...

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2 hours ago, RangerDave said:

Holy cow!  I saw a million personal fouls and unsportsman like penalties that were never flagged.  The refs were horrible back then!!  🤓

The rules were different back then.  What we see as fouls, people cheered as tough hits.  Back then, players were smaller and slower, and collisions not as deadly.  The rules changed as the players developed the capacity to hurt or kill each other.  The Raiders deserved their reputation for dirty, aggressive play, with Jack Tatum deliberately trying to cripple receivers who came across the middle (and he did just that with Darryl Stingley, a Patriot). People look back at those days in the NFL as a man's league, with toughness and courage more important than today.  I think that's nuts.  Players are human beings, and they deserve to walk away from the game when their time is over.  

2 hours ago, mannc said:

Unfortunately, he was barely used in his first three seasons with the Bills.  Imagine that in today’s game...

His coach, Rauch or maybe someone who replaced him, said he was going to use OJ as a decoy.  Seriously.  

 

So Simpson wasn't very productive or dominant at first, and as I recall a halfback (as they were called then) named Calvin Hill, for Dallas, stole OJ's thunder.  It wasn't until Lou Saban came in, the Bills rebuilt their O line, and they decided to focus on running OJ, that things turned around.  The lousy years from 68-72 made 73, with OJ getting 2004 yards and the Bills getting Rich Stadium, all the sweeter.  

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Looking at that old tape, I had to shake my head at the talent on that team.  A lot of the holdover guys simply weren't as good as they'd been, but they had been so good before that no one wanted to see them go.  Unfortunately some of the wrong guys were let go.  Ron McDole was deemed too old by Rauch, who traded him to Washington, and he played great there for several more years.  Haven Moses, they said, wouldn't block, so they traded him to Denver where he was really good.  Marlin Briscoe led the league in receptions, or nearly did, but he was traded to the Dolphins.  

 

But the core of the team, the culture of the team, from the championship years, was gone.  The Bills of 68-72 were losers and they couldn't get it turned around.  They had good players but still made such terrible mistakes.  A lot of NFL teams, including the Bills in most years, had lineups studded with good players but no team culture of winning.  Younger fans might not appreciate the miracle of McBeane, not just getting good players, but establishing a culture of winning.

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4 hours ago, Sargent Hulka said:

I know it's a highlight reel, but Jim Harris looked like the real deal before that season-ending injury against Oakland. In the season opener, you could tell even Broadway Joe was a fascinated spectator when OJ got the ball. Could have won that game. Kemp looked like a bum on that swing pass to the right flat that got picked for six.

James Harris had a rocket launcher for an arm.  Maybe as strong as Josh Allen, I'm not sure.  But the problem was that Harris threw rockets when he needed to throw touch passes, and that seemed hard for him.  Also the team around Harris just wasn't very good, and the Bills traded their good receivers.  Also I'm sure he had to deal with racism that we would find hard to believe today.  He had a middling career after he left Buffalo, another promising player whom we couldn't develop.

7 hours ago, Chandler#81 said:

They did. Every year, my Boy Scout troop got the FILM for a meeting and rather than tie knots or ‘help the Girl Scouts Get undressed’, we watched the previous season highlight film. 

 

My favorite recollection of the BSA!

Hmmm.  My Boy Scout troops never did ANYTHING with Girl Scouts.  

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