For some of you young, spoiled fans, here’s what the rest of us had to deal with. 1984 Buffalo Bills

[stevestojan]

The first season I can remember since i was 5 years old by the end (and i just remember the idea of Bills parties my parents held every Sunday). 
 

You’d think someone would have called CPS, but alas, it has turned into Stockholm Syndrome. 
 

Thanks a lot, Dad. 

[Augie]

4 hours ago, Nuncha said:

Ah yes.  Back-to-back 2-14 seasons.  They were so bad I actually wore a Bills winter coat to school with the logos removed.  Like you couldn't tell it was a Bills coat by the color scheme. lol

 

That was the first two years of my marriage. My bride asked me “Why do you do this to yourself?” 

 

Now she wears a Bills shirt that says “I Married Into This.”   

[BringBackFergy]

Pretty sure those two seasons permitted us to draft Bruce and then Kelly. So if there’s a silver lining, that’s it. I went to many of those games, when tix (and beer, stadium hots) were cheap. 
 

Imagine how many Superbowls we would have won if Kelly didn’t go play for the Gamblers?

[Chas56]

I watched every one of those god awful games. We have paid our dues. Its time for a Super Bowl!!

[Chandler#81]

1 hour ago, billsfan714 said:

Following this team for over 50 years, I can say without hesitation that no Bills fan is spoiled.

Yes there are. It’s been 7 years since we broke the drought. Fans 10 years and younger only know success.

[Toledo Bill]

1967-72 was no picnic, either.

[\GoBillsInDallas/]

4 hours ago, PonyBoy said:

But! Beating the Cowboys of all teams to break that goose egg was pretty sweet! 😄

 

 

[Low Positive]

They weren't lovable losers. They were just losers in a mostly empty stadium. I should know. I went to a lot of games back then as a kid because people just kept giving us tickets. 

[machine gun kelly]

5 hours ago, Chandler#81 said:

Back to Back horrible seasons!

 

I agree with the title as so many take our winning for granted and nothing is ever good enough.  Try being a fan where like the Aints, you want to put a bag over your head for being a fan that is sooooo bad.  Some just don’t appreciate what things are like now vs. those years.

[T.E.]

When I was a kid in the 90s and whine about the Bills, my dad would say, "You have been spoiled by watching good football. Do you know what we did during the 1984 season? Stood up and high-fived when they got a first down. It was a cause for celebration. That's how bad it can get."

[Greg S]

I would rather stick thumbtacks in my eyeballs then relive watching these highlights. 

[chris heff]

Those teams were awful. I met Ralph Wilson, nice man, loved talking about the Bills. He was good for the league, but not a great owner. In 1983 Wilson let Chuck Knox walk, starting the Kay Stevenson era. This was the kind of mistake Ralph made too often, he’d revert to the familiar. Stevenson had been a QB with the Bills and then a QB coach, no head coaching experience at any level. Ralph made this kind of mistake consistently, remember when he brought Marv back as GM. This era was also the ushering in of the red helmets, which some of you are so fond of. The reason for the red helmets was idiotic. They thought they would help Ferguson find his receivers, they didn’t. The years that followed were an accident of fate. Ralph hired Terry Bledsoe as GM, Bledsoe hired Bill Polian as head of player personnel, a position that had not existed for the Bills, Ralph was against it. Bledsoe had health issues and wasn’t particularly good at his job, Polian became GM by default and the rest as they say is history.

[NoHuddleKelly12]

6 hours ago, Nuncha said:

Ah yes.  Back-to-back 2-14 seasons.  They were so bad I actually wore a Bills winter coat to school with the logos removed.  Like you couldn't tell it was a Bills coat by the color scheme. lol

Fair weather bandwagon fan, eh? 🚨 

 

 

 

 

 

(I kid, I kid 😅)

[SF Bills Fan]

Lots of teams have bad seasons and use the draft picks to get out of it and back on track. Those 2-14  seasons  helped us get together the team that went to 4 Super Bowls in a row. I'd take two terrible years followed by great success as opposed to 17 years of being bad, but not bad enough to get the top QB or impact players to get back on track. We were cursed with a range bad or mediocre 6 to 9 win seasons for 17 years. Piddled around with guys like Maybin and let the Pats roll all over us. 

[hondo in seattle]

I lived through that era once.  Not sure why I'd want to relive it.  

[Draconator]

I remember a bumper sticker on more than a few cars during that era.

 

Go Bills, and take the Sabres with you. 

[manateefan]

My husband's birthday was the day of the Dallas game, so I bought tickets for his birthday. Buffalo had a terrible season, the weather was horrible, but we stayed. They won. First time that year. Pretty full stadium. My husband and I did eventually buy season tickets once the Bills got Kelly to sign. Had them until a year before we moved to Florida in 1994. And we traveled to Miami for Bills games 3 times.

 

My husband worked part time doing party tents. He let me come with him when they took down the one for Greg Bells wedding in his backyard. Greg was still there so I got to meet him, and I found a wedding invitation to Rick James, singer, who grew up in the area.

Edited 58 minutes ago by manateefan

[oldmanfan]

I’m not sure what was worse.  The teams of the mid 80s or those from ‘69-‘71.

[chris heff]

12 minutes ago, oldmanfan said:

I’m not sure what was worse.  The teams of the mid 80s or those from ‘69-‘71.

I was at a game at the old Rockpile when the Bills ran out of QBs, they had to use Ed Rutkowski.

[folz]

7 hours ago, US Egg said:

Not a stretch to say it seemed like we had a whole section to ourselves. Game on? Hell no. Party On!
 

Would go down behind visitors bench in the front rows harass the opponent all game. No security to be seen.

 

3 hours ago, Low Positive said:

They weren't lovable losers. They were just losers in a mostly empty stadium. I should know. I went to a lot of games back then as a kid because people just kept giving us tickets. 

 

Yeah, I was at that Dallas game too. The win was euphoric after what we had been through. I was sitting in the upper deck with a buddy and his dad. We had almost the entire section to ourselves. There were maybe two other guys down 7-8 rows and over 20 seats, and a couple more people maybe like 20 rows in front of us. I mean the upper deck was sparse of people. And more than a few fans at the game wore brown bags over their heads (in embarrassment of the team).

6 hours ago, EasternOHBillsFan said:

 

To be fair, losing is losing... those years after the early 2000s were absolutely terrible and the litany of QBs we had to endure. Two seasons of 2-14 pales in comparison with the worst non-playoff streak in Bills history. Every decade the Bills made the playoffs except for the 2000s. Even in the 1970s when the Bills were abysmal after Kemp retired they STILL made the playoffs and had Fergy.

 

1 hour ago, SF Bills Fan said:

Lots of teams have bad seasons and use the draft picks to get out of it and back on track. Those 2-14  seasons  helped us get together the team that went to 4 Super Bowls in a row. I'd take two terrible years followed by great success as opposed to 17 years of being bad, but not bad enough to get the top QB or impact players to get back on track. We were cursed with a range bad or mediocre 6 to 9 win seasons for 17 years. Piddled around with guys like Maybin and let the Pats roll all over us. 

 

No question the 17-year drought was tough and obviously longer. But, I don't think you guys appreciate how truly bad those earlier years were.

 

1976: We go 2-12 and coach Saban is replaced by Jim Ringo

1977: We go 3-11, and O.J. gets traded away to San Francisco

1978: We go 5-11...but there is some hope with new coach Chuck Knox.

1979: We improve to 7-9.

1980: We finally have a team, under Knox's direction, and go 11-5, making the playoffs (but losing our first playoff game in the divisional round).

1981: Success under Knox continues with a 10-6 season, a playoff berth, and our first playoff win since 1966 in the Wild Card game (lost in div round).

1982: Strike shortened year. We go 4-5. And Chuck Knox leaves Buffalo. If you youngins never lived through a strike year, let me tell you. it's not fun. Lost games, scab players, etc. A strike year alone feels like 2-3 years of the drought at least.

1983: Welcome aboard coach Kay Stevenson 🤦‍♂️. We draft Jim Kelly #14 overall and he refuses to play in Buffalo (because we're so bad). He leaves for the USFL and the Bills go 8-8.

1984: 2-14

1985: 2-14 Stevenson is dumped and we bring on coach Hank Bullough 🤦‍♂️. 

1986: There is hope with the return of Jim Kelly, but we go 4-12 and change coaches mid-season, hiring some unknown coach who was a special teams coordinator for the Chiefs (Marv Levy).

1987: Marv's first (almost) full year we go 7-8, in another strike shortened year. Yes, two strikes, two shortened seasons in 6 years.

[1988 would be the start of the 90s Bills team as we knew it.]

 

So, it wasn't a playoff drought (thanks to Chuck Knox in 1980 and 1981), but it was 12 pretty rough years overall (not just two bad years). I grew up in Rochester, the stadium never sold out, so there was a TV blackout for most of the games. Which meant if you didn't go to the game, you had to listen to it on the radio. I probably heard more games than I saw during some of those years.

 

Our winning percentage during the drought was .412%.

Our winning percentage during these 12 years was .361% (despite making the playoffs 2 years).

 

It was bad times. Six seasons with 4 or fewer wins. Seven seasons with 5 or fewer wins. Two strikes. Six different coaches in 12 years. 

During the drought, we only had two seasons with 4 or fewer wins. Three seasons with 5 or fewer wins (in 17 years rather than 12). Six coaches in 17 years.

 

Both periods were rough (as was '67-'72, as OldMan pointed out, though I was not around/too young to remember those years).

 

Edited 1 hour ago by folz