Two Bills Drive

“When Buffalo running back Antowain Smith heard that the Bills were taking a serious look at troubled Lawrence Phillips during the off-season, he got moving. He woke up early to lift weights. He went running in the searing heat of Houston’s summer afternoons. He peeled the skin off chicken and piled vegetables on his plate. “They were trying to tell me something,” said Smith, who gained a respectable but unspectacular 1,124 yards last season while averaging what for him was a disappointing 3.8 yards per carry.”

“Jerry [Ross] worked real hard in the off-season and I thought he was committed to playing. But he said his heart wasn’t in it and you have to respect that,” Phillips said. “If your heart isn’t in this game, you’re in trouble, so it’s best he did leave.”

“This year I have some goals to attain and I’m going to go and try to get ’em,” said Washington, who despite a second straight trip to the Pro Bowl is coming off a season in which his pants size overshadowed his immense talent. “I didn’t think I had a good season last year and I want to try and get back to where I was in ’97.”

“In scouting you’re seeing the future of a team right in front of you,” [Dennis Abraham, a Bills’ scouting assistant who dreams of one day becoming a full-fledged scout] says. “You get to see the future stars of the NFL, and you’re going to hit or miss on them, that’s the challenge. Everybody can scout the big superstars. But it’s a big challenge to find the Phil Hansens, the House Ballards. That’s how Buffalo really set itself in the early ’90s and late ’80s. It really set itself on that. We have the best scouting staff in the NFL, bar none.”

“On time. On budget. Those might be the most important terms in any construction project and they fit perfectly with the $63.25 million retrofitting of Ralph Wilson Stadium.”

‘”I have to use this camp to prepare to be the starter,” Flutie said. “I’ve got to perform. There’s no security in this profession, and Rob’s one hell of a quarterback.”‘

“Among the features at this year’s training camp are new sideline seating with bleachers closer to the field, interactive games from the Buffalo Bills’ Experience, a Wegman’s booth with five holes of miniature golf, booths doing face-painting and temporary tattoos, a Jills’ booth with the team’s cheerleaders and a collectors’ corner for purchasing cards and sports memorabilia.”

‘If the season opened today, Phillips said Flutie would start because that’s the way ’98 ended. “But we’re not playing today,” Phillips said. “Doug made the Pro Bowl and he deserved it. And the other guy didn’t do anything wrong. I want to give Rob an opportunity to play.”‘

“For a seventh straight year, general manager John Butler got all the team’s draft picks signed on time.”

‘”Of course it caused me some concern,” Smith said about Buffalo’s serious effort to land Phillips. “Maybe it sent a message to me that they aren’t as happy with me as they need to be. I just took it upon myself not to worry about it. He’s a great athlete, I can’t take nothing from him, but I don’t consider myself a slouch. Basically, it gave me some incentive to come out here and work hard and show them they don’t need anybody else, that I’m the No. 1 man.”‘

1999 Training Camp Facts