Two Bills Drive

‘Milloy won’t be wearing a Patriots jersey Sunday because the team believed he wasn’t worth a $5.25 million salary and he wasn’t willing to take a significant cut. “Two days before the Super Bowl, I’d make the same decision,” Milloy said. “The bottom line is, at that point, (the Patriots) weren’t about winning championships. It’s easy now to say that, because they’re doing well. But I made the right decision. Now that they have more wins the story is different. But that was a business decision.”‘

‘”We lost a lot of close games, where New England won the close games,” he said. “That’s the difference in this league. So you have to know how to win those close games and that’s what we didn’t do last year. I’ve talked to Drew after the end of the season and our focus is on next year. Last year was very unusual for him and for me. It just didn’t work out.”‘

‘Bills linebacker Takeo Spikes just shook his head at the memory yesterday, amazed at how good his team looked and how putrid the Patriots appeared. “It’s nice to be (at the Super Bowl) but not under these circumstances,” said Spikes, in town for the Super Bowl festivities. “I mean we beat those guys badly.”‘

‘”I am looking forward to going back to the sidelines very much. It is an honorary coaching position and I am looking forward to working with the Indianapolis Colts staff. Their offense is very similar to what we ran when I was in Buffalo and I have a lot of respect for their coaching staff. It will be wonderful to be on the field again with all of the great players. It is going to be nice weather in Hawaii and I am looking forward to being there.”‘

‘”Frustrating,” he says. “The style of offense we were forced to play was dramatically different than a year ago. We were set up personnelwise to play a lot more conservative style, but at times we tried to play the same style as last year. We just didn’t have the personnel for it.”‘

‘”I am happy that Coach Gray is staying because stability has always been very important to me. I always wanted to feel comfortable with the people and the system that they have in place, and right now in Buffalo I feel comfortable. We don’t have to learn a new system this year, we can just let our athletic ability take over without even thinking about the system. I felt like from week eight through 16, our defense really picked it up and played to its ability, so I am excited that everyone is still in tact and that we still have the chemistry that we had last year. Now we are catching on.”‘

‘Here’s your chance to ask Brown a question!’

‘Shafer was Syracuse’s starting punter for four years, 1999-2002. He is the school’s all-time leader with 249 career punts and 10,073 career punting yards, and he ranks fourth on the yards per punt list (40.5 ypp).’

"I’ve been working day and night on the game plan," Levy said during a press conference at the Super Bowl media center in Houston. Levy also joked that the last time he coached in the Pro Bowl it was against Knute Rockne. On a serious note, Levy and Shula expressed excitement at the idea of getting to work with some of the top players in the NFL today.

‘Zolman was a four-year starter at Vanderbilt, finishing with a school-record 596 completions for 7,981 yards. He was signed by Indianapolis as an undrafted rookie in 2002 but failed to make the team, and he finished the year as a member of Green Bay’s practice squad.’

‘Spikes will be richly rewarded for his trip to Hawaii. His contract with the Bills included a Pro Bowl roster bonus believed to be about $500,000.’

‘”Ticket prices, particularly here in Buffalo, are already sky high, and adding another tax to it would be too much,” said Tim Kane, president of the Monday Quarterback Club, a Buffalo Bills support group. “Any additional increases in price, and people just might not go.”‘

‘A Sloan man involved in drug activity with former Buffalo Bills lineman Jerry Crafts has been fined $2,000 and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.’

‘”I talk to Lawyer every week,” Law said. “He’s one of my best friends. . . . I still don’t say we’re a better team without Lawyer Milloy. That would be ignorant to say. He’s one of the best safeties in the league. We still miss him. But at the same time, we’re a good football team. That goes to show you, no one man wins a championship.”’

‘While the Milloy situation was depicted as a dispute over money – he refused to take a $1.4 million pay cut on his $4.6 million salary – it actually went beyond dollars and cents. Milloy, a former Pro Bowl player, had become selfish in the eyes of the organization. He demanded his $4.6 million salary even though he knew it would’ve forced the team to release three or four players to stay under the salary cap. That, the club felt, wasn’t very Patriot-like.’