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The Flutie Curse


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If only Phillips had started Flutie, McKelvin wouldn't have fumbled

 

by Bud Poliquin/The Post-Standard

Wednesday September 16, 2009, 12:28 AM

 

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Well, do you believe in the Flutie Curse now?

 

After watching the Buffalo Bills squander an 11-point lead with barely two minutes to play on Monday night -- and after seeing Leodis McKelvin ill-fatedly choose to run back that late kickoff and then fumble the ball (and the game) to the New England Patriots -- do you still think the Flutie Curse is hooey?

 

Montezuma and his revenge? That Chicago billy goat's hex on the Cubs? King Tut and the deadly whammy he placed on those fools who entered his tomb? It's all just so much folderol compared to what has happened to the wretched Bills since Jan. 8, 2000.

 

So, you don't think there's a Flutie Curse, huh? Well, how do you explain this late-game fumble by the Buffalo Bills' Leodis McKelvin?

 

Or since that dark day when Wade Phillips benched Doug Flute for no good reason and started Rob Johnson at quarterback in the Bills' infamous playoff game at Tennessee. The one Buffalo lost on that madcap Titans kick return with only seconds showing on the clock.

 

Did you know that in the nine-plus campaigns since then, the Bills have won just 58 times in 145 tries? That they haven't had a winning season? That they've gone through four head coaches?

 

Did you know that in the nine campaigns before the one that ended with a healthy Flutie on the pine, the Bills were 40 games over .500 and went to four Super Bowls?

 

Coincidence? I think not.

 

Here's the immutable point: The football gods have long memories.

 

They haven't yet forgotten that in 1999 the diminutive Flutie had passed and run for 3,647 yards and 20 touchdowns while leading the Bills to a 10-5 record (in 15 starts) and to a 16th regular-season contest that had no meaning. They haven't yet forgotten that Phillips rested Flutie in that insignificant finale and then got starry-eyed as Johnson, the taller backup, led Buffalo to a 31-6 victory over Indianapolis in Orchard Park. They haven't yet forgotten that Phillips then got awfully dumb.

 

That's right. On Phillips' silly coaching hunch, Flutie (21-9 as a starter with the Bills) sat against Tennessee . . . Johnson (9-17 as a starter with the Bills) played in the seething Flutie's place . . . and Buffalo lost. And it has been losing ever since.

 

Facts are facts, people. And spells are spells. And the Flutie Curse is the Flutie Curse. You don't actually believe Leodis McKelvin just dropped that ball, do you?

 

-- Bud Poliquin

bpoliquin@syracuse.com

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