Latest / The Facts with Jamal ๐บ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ / The #BillsMafia infamous run of losing 4 straight Super Bowls will never be matched or forgotten.
Transcript
- 0:02You're if you're a team that has been kind of sniping away with
- 0:09massive failures and or really infamous moments in sports
- 0:15history, you necessarily don't want to be known for a bunch of
- 0:25negative things. Or if you are a player who you
- 0:32know made an infamous mistake, you certainly don't want to be
- 0:36that. But what about in the case of a
- 0:44franchise in the NFL that, for mostly the right reasons, made
- 0:56history in the wrong way? I'm gonna talk about how the
- 1:05Buffalo Bills, from 1990 to 1993 became the only franchise in NFL
- 1:14history to make it the four straight Super Bowls.
- 1:21However, they also became the 1st franchise to ever lose four
- 1:28straight Super Bowls. I'm going to explain how after
- 1:3730 years have gone by that we really should be remembering
- 1:45Buffaloes now infamous one more positively.
- 1:51But instead. And like I said, for maybe good
- 1:56reason, we look at their run back then as kind of like a
- 2:03punchline for all losing teams up until 1990.
- 2:19The Bells were after they had, you know, from the when they
- 2:26went from the AFL, they were just really another NFL
- 2:31franchise. I mean, they made the playoffs
- 2:33sparingly, but they weren't really nothing to write home.
- 2:40But it wasn't until the late 80s when Marc Levy was hired by the
- 2:50organization to turn around that franchise.
- 2:54And despite the plethora of talent that the franchise had
- 3:02that started ruining the mid 80s.
- 3:04From Jim Kelly who came over from the USFL to Bruce Smith,
- 3:09Andre Reed, Dermot Thomas, Steve Tasker to Darrell Talley as the
- 3:17outside linebacker to James Lawson, that team has century
- 3:26everything in. Who can forget Workman like
- 3:29players like Don Beebe and even kickers Scott Norwood and Steve
- 3:38Christie. In 1998, the Bills went to the
- 3:48AFC title game, but they lost in CISNAT 1989, they took a step
- 3:55back, losing against Cleveland early in the playoffs.
- 4:01And it was really in that two year period that while the team
- 4:06was starting to emerge, that's a possible pretender that, you
- 4:12know, they had a lot growing up to do.
- 4:14I remember, you know, being somewhere on YouTube or watching
- 4:20a clip about, you know, how 1 Buffalo reporter reframed them
- 4:26or name them rather as like the biggling Bills, if you will.
- 4:31You know, tons of talent, quality players, just a little
- 4:37immature. And it seemed like by the time.
- 4:42And this is where the crux of all this really begins.
- 4:47As far as Buffalo's infamous run, it seemed like 1990, all of
- 4:55that biggling Bills and immaturely might have been put
- 5:01to the side. So 1990 comes around.
- 5:11The Bills not only made it back to the AFC title game, but they
- 5:18the smallest the Las Vegas Raiders in the game.
- 5:21And I quite forgot it was never that close.
- 5:24Part of the reason for the Bill's success, which became the
- 5:29callous of the runs was the up tempo K gun off.
- 5:36It was a century like you wanted to establish early if you were
- 5:41Jim Kelly, either quick passes, long throws, or have Thurman
- 5:47Thomas run in between the tackles the daylight.
- 5:52And they would do it in like a let's say like a 2 minute
- 5:55offense. Like it was up tempo up to the
- 5:58line to where opposing defenses had to literally call timeouts
- 6:04just to essentially get their players to catch a breath.
- 6:07Because the Bills have practiced that so many times.
- 6:12There was almost nothing to it. So after defeating the Raiders
- 6:19in the AFC title game, they went down to Tampa, FL for the Super
- 6:25Bowl against the veteran Lady New York Giants.
- 6:30Now, obviously, that game is, you know, more remembered for
- 6:35the Gulf War that was happening at that point and obviously
- 6:41Whitney Houston's beautiful national anthem.
- 6:49But it's also remembered for how Bill Belichick, the defensive
- 6:57coordinator for the Giants, and how his game plan essentially
- 7:03shut down Buffalo's K gun offense.
- 7:10See, going into that game, Bowacheck realized that Durmond
- 7:15Thomas was probably going to run roughshod over the defense led
- 7:19by Lawrence Town. So he devised the game and at
- 7:26first the Giant players were not happy about it.
- 7:30But this came with a caviar. They were going to allow Derman
- 7:35Thomas to run rush hour with them, which he did was he had
- 7:38over 120 yards. But they were going to lock down
- 7:47the Bills receivers, notably Andre Reed and James Loft and
- 7:52Don Beebe and Frank McKellar at the tie in spot.
- 7:59And that's why Bill Belichick is considered, you can argue, the
- 8:04greatest coach in Fr history. His game plan was not only
- 8:11successful, but it essentially made Buffaloes receivers not
- 8:18being able to get much separation.
- 8:22And then of course, you know it all came down to the last
- 8:26seconds of the game. Scott Norwood, who have been a
- 8:34reliable kicker over the years. All he needed to do was kick a
- 8:4047 yard field goal to essentially because it was 4
- 8:45seconds. You know at the time when this
- 8:47was happening it would have essentially won Buffalo the
- 8:50game. All he needed to do was kick the
- 8:54game-winning field goal in the middle's swell champions.
- 9:01But then came the 2 words that became infamous and not only NFL
- 9:07history, but certainly in Buffalo sports law today.
- 9:14Why? Right.
- 9:20And once that happened, that Century signed, sealed and
- 9:24delivered Buffalo's crushing reality that the Super Bowl
- 9:30dream was over and the veteran New York Giants won the Super
- 9:37Bowl for the second time in five years.
- 9:44As heartbreaking as that game was, and I can only imagine if
- 9:49you are a Bills fan how that must have felt from if you were
- 9:57at the game downtown. But even watching it on ABC,
- 10:01that'd be heartbreaking. But you know what?
- 10:07Sometimes when you're a young team and you finally had success
- 10:11after the franchise have been so morphed for, you know, a good
- 10:16while, you figure, well, we'll learn from this experience and
- 10:21then we'll pick up where we left off and we'll hopefully get back
- 10:25to this point in the future. Let's enter 1991.
- 10:33So 1991 rolls around and once again the offense that have been
- 10:40the countless as to how they got to the Super Bowl year prior
- 10:44actually was better. And Derwent Thomas was the NF LS
- 10:48Most Valuable Player backing up over 1900 yards from scrimmage.
- 10:55And the Bills once again found themselves in the Super Bowl,
- 10:59which was played in Minneapolis against another veteran team,
- 11:06the Washington let's. Now, if you go back to the year
- 11:13prior when they were in Tampa, the Bills, you know, they
- 11:17admitted that they weren't completely focused, you know,
- 11:23that whole week that they essentially stayed out at the
- 11:26curfew, that they didn't really have any, you know, real
- 11:34seriousness leading up to that game.
- 11:37Now, that's actually a good admission, believe it or not,
- 11:42because here's why. Excuse me for that.
- 11:52You always as a young teen, want to learn from your mistakes,
- 11:55right? You always want to learn from at
- 11:58least something that went wrong in your previous account so that
- 12:06eventually when you, let's say you get back to that point, you
- 12:15can learn from it and you can ultimately find a way to be
- 12:18better, right? Well, it seemed like it did, but
- 12:27then came Super Bowl Sunday against Washington and then this
- 12:34is when, and I still do not understand how this is even
- 12:39possible. So during the national anthem
- 12:47went back to him and Thomas, somehow, you know, he was
- 12:51supposed to be in the game when Buffalo got the ball off as
- 12:54after Washington pundit right on their first procession, somehow
- 12:59his helmet got lost by one of the performing bands that have
- 13:05been doing the national anthem 'cause they kinda needed that
- 13:09space I believe on the Bills sideline to find out whatever
- 13:14they were gonna do for the performance.
- 13:18So Buffalo they have from you know that you know, that first
- 13:27series offensively and eventually it came into the
- 13:30game. But I even when I watched the
- 13:35documentary on that, I don't know, I didn't think it was a
- 13:39big deal, but maybe it was a sign that mentally Buffalo was
- 13:45just never really there. Oh, and it also didn't help the
- 13:51fact the Washington that year, you can argue, was the most
- 13:58prolific high schooling offense in the NFL.
- 14:01Mark Lipman, the quarterback going off winning Super Bowl
- 14:05MVP, and the running back tandem of uninspired and Gerald Wiggs
- 14:13may mince me. Along with the big offensive
- 14:18line nicknamed the Hogs. They may mince me a Buffalo's
- 14:23pass rush and interior line. However, for Buffalo side, it
- 14:31was not Jim Kelly was sacked five times, actually sustained
- 14:36the concussion and was actually told to leave the game at one
- 14:41point. But he stayed in there 'cause
- 14:45again, if you've seen a story, especially after how his career
- 14:50ended, going through surgery, you gotta admire the guy for
- 14:54even hanging in there. So at one point, Washington had
- 15:0017 enough at the half. And even though Buffalo tried to
- 15:05make a game out of it, it was it was really too low, too late.
- 15:13And of course, the Redskins and the wins so old for two, right?
- 15:21And again, I wasn't born when this was happening, you know,
- 15:26that's why I watched several documentaries on it.
- 15:31But the Bills now were over 2 and back-to-back appearances.
- 15:38And you even have people outside the organization when fanbase
- 15:44really to start the question, you know, is this just a blurb
- 15:49going up against veteran teams that will making, you know, a
- 15:54century final runs at a championship or was this
- 15:57starting to become a pad? Now let's get to 1992.
- 16:11For the third straight season, the Bills were able to win 11
- 16:17plus games. But despite not a great regular
- 16:22season, many in the media have started to question the once
- 16:29lovable franchise that had only been accustomed to losing by
- 16:35now, essentially wondering if they are going to be only making
- 16:40deep playoff runs just to fall short.
- 16:46And it didn't help matters when in the final week against the
- 16:50Houston Oilers, they were receiving a quarterback.
- 16:55Jim Kelly unfortunately suffered a serious knee injury and had to
- 16:59miss the four weeks playoff opener at home against the same
- 17:04opponent, Houston. Frank Wright, the back of
- 17:08quarterback had to start that game and Houston took it to
- 17:15Buffalo. Really old.
- 17:18I mean, it was so bad that it became 35 to 3:00 at one point.
- 17:23And if you're a Bills fan or just a football fan in general,
- 17:28you pretty much heard this story.
- 17:31The fans who ultimately were, they like the game.
- 17:36At one point, they all left and they essentially thought, well,
- 17:43maybe this one isn't gonna continue.
- 17:46We might fall short in the playoffs at home.
- 17:50So they all left, but Marth Levy the and it's even amazing that
- 17:59100 years old today, he is still as upbeat as anybody that has
- 18:07probably over existed. He essentially told him to have
- 18:11that, look, you're down, but 30 minutes from now when you go
- 18:17back out there, don't you let anyone tell you if you even come
- 18:23back that you didn't prove yourselves out there.
- 18:28And whether or not he said this for Frank Wright, who was
- 18:31starting the game, was sure or not.
- 18:34You know, he said to Frank, you know, I have time, 'cause
- 18:39remember Wright had read one of the great college football
- 18:43comebacks when he was the quarterback at Michigan against
- 18:47Miami. He said to write, you did that a
- 18:51couple years ago for Maryland. Now today you're going to do
- 18:56that and it's Houston in the second-half.
- 19:02And sure enough, that game went to looking like being gay
- 19:08demolish effort by Houston to all of a sudden, one of the
- 19:17great comebacks and therefore, playoff history.
- 19:22So the Bills that were down 35 to 3:00 turned it on in the
- 19:28second-half. Andre Reed had scored three
- 19:31straight touchdowns. Kenneth Davis the back of the
- 19:35dummy. Thomas actually started the
- 19:38comeback with a touchdown on his own.
- 19:40And then one by one, it just seemed like everything clicked
- 19:46for Buffalo at that point. And oh, by the way, those same
- 19:56fans that have left, you know, moments earlier, they came back.
- 20:02I don't know how they were able to 'cause remember, once you
- 20:06read the confines of a professional sports setting,
- 20:11you're not allowed to come back. But somehow that you heard, you
- 20:16know if they were on. In in their cars listening to
- 20:21radio or let's just say a restaurant somewhere, somehow
- 20:25they heard that this was happening to come back and those
- 20:31that were able to get back to the game, God bless.
- 20:36And to wrap it all up, Steve Christie had kicked the
- 20:42game-winning field goal in overtime to give the Bills, even
- 20:47today, the most remarkable comeback in playoff history,
- 20:52from being down 35 to 3:00 to winning 4138.
- 21:01Maybe the book wasn't close on us.
- 21:05Maybe. It was probably still realistic
- 21:09that they had gotten essentially heartbroken 2 straight times and
- 21:15that looked like they were probably going to get through a
- 21:18playoff home opener against Houston.
- 21:22And then one quick miracle turn around, everything changed.
- 21:29So maybe. And they say third time's a
- 21:33charm, right? So maybe that was going to
- 21:36happen first. And after being Miami in the AFC
- 21:42title game, they ran out to Pasadena, CA at the Rose Bowl
- 21:48mind you for the Super Bowl. Now when they got there, the
- 21:58media onslaught and sue once they landed there was merciless.
- 22:05Now, mind you, I said after they have lost to Washington here
- 22:11plier many as speculated, you know, was this just two tough
- 22:17losses in a row? But they're finally matured
- 22:21enough to where OK, we took off bumps and bruises.
- 22:25Now we are finally ready to be at the mount.
- 22:29The media apparently didn't think that was the case 'cause
- 22:34somebody asked GM Bill Polian, somebody's asked them if you
- 22:41were to lose once again, will you be the greatest losers of
- 22:46all time? I gotta be honest with you.
- 22:52If you were a football team and you essentially got asked those
- 22:58kinds of questions, I mean, I wouldn't wanna answer it if I
- 23:02were the coach, player or even management, but I mean, what
- 23:10could you say that was probably gonna sway the media.
- 23:12They're thinking differently. I mean, they kinda have a point
- 23:17in asking that. Now, mind you, I, I wanna bring
- 23:19yourself clarification. If you remember the Minnesota
- 23:24Vikings on the UH by Grant God's song, if you remember his tenure
- 23:32as Vikings coach, they have went to four Super Bowls in an 8 year
- 23:38span, including three out of four from 1973 to 76.
- 23:45Their first appearance as a franchise was four years earlier
- 23:48in 1969. So that was a century in four
- 23:53times in an 8 year span they have lost those Super Bowls,
- 23:59including as I mentioned, three out of four years span, but no
- 24:06franchise at that point had ever lost three straight.
- 24:14So the Bills were kind of in a way, trying to avoid infamously
- 24:19making history for all the wrong reasons.
- 24:23And it certainly didn't help the fact that this time around they
- 24:28weren't going up against a veteran laying team like the
- 24:31Giants and the Redskins. Pride.
- 24:35In this case, they were going up against the youthful, talented,
- 24:41hungry Dallas Cowboy who were back on the national stage in
- 24:46Pasadena. Now you would think, OK, Bills
- 24:52fetching Lane despite 2 tough endings to Super Bowls.
- 25:00Finally I've matured enough and already be Super Bowl champions
- 25:05against a young team. Let's just get to the game.
- 25:16Jim Kelly had left the game earlier, was forced to leave
- 25:20once again with a knee injury, and Frank Wright was called on
- 25:25once again to try to work his magic like he had did against
- 25:32Houston in the wild card round. Now, this would have been a
- 25:36great California, you know, kind of how like it was against
- 25:41Houston that they were able to find a way to come back and, you
- 25:47know, be at the mountain top finally for the first time in
- 25:50franchise history. And that game in Pasadena, the
- 25:55Super Bowl, was anything but. Long story short, the Bills
- 26:06committed a Super Bowl record and still a record today.
- 26:13They committed 9 turnovers. Yes, you heard that correctly.
- 26:21They committed 9 turnovers in that game.
- 26:27But what gets lost and I'll even say forgotten, is that there was
- 26:361 moment in that game that Century calculated one player
- 26:42never giving up even when things went back.
- 26:47So if you remember at that really when the game was
- 26:51outreach, we all that had picked up a formal easy touchdown,
- 26:57right? But then out of nowhere came
- 27:01Dawn Beebe #82 and you've probably seen the same four
- 27:04times he is spraying down the sideline.
- 27:08We all let it look like he had an easy touchdown, right, But he
- 27:12coasted essentially show bowling and comes Beebe like a shot out
- 27:18of the Canyon and knocked the ball out of we all let just as
- 27:23he was crossing the end. So it was ruled A touchback to
- 27:28Buffalo, but the game was essentially over at that point
- 27:33that it really didn't matter, even though BB even admitted
- 27:38himself that it meant nothing at that moment.
- 27:43But it wasn't until Ralph Wilson, the owner of the Bills
- 27:47came right up to him after the game and said, I am extremely
- 27:52proud. You showed me today and you
- 27:56showed all of us what the Buffalo Bills are now.
- 28:04That kind of never give up add to will actually be beneficial
- 28:09for Don BBS. He himself would be only one of
- 28:13a few handful, Bill pulling the general manager being the other
- 28:18and then fine, forget anybody of no worry.
- 28:21I apologize but for Beebee's case, that never give up
- 28:26mentality would be the reason why he finally won Super Bowl in
- 28:30his own right when he joined Green Bay in 1995, but then won
- 28:35it in 1996 with by far Michael Grimm and those guys.
- 28:44But unfortunately for the purposes of that game against
- 28:49Dallas and Pasadena 52 to 17, like I said it was the game was
- 28:58really a annihilation and now the Bills became the only
- 29:05franchise at that point to lose 3 straight.
- 29:11So you would figure after an embarrassment of that kind of a
- 29:22game being over three being essentially you go from 1990,
- 29:31right? You go from having the most
- 29:34heartbreak of you could and that wide right moment against the
- 29:39Giants to being down really trying to fight back.
- 29:44But it was true against Washington and then essentially
- 29:48the third time around which you fought.
- 29:50Third time's the charm, but it ultimately end up being a total
- 29:54ass kickin. You had to think Buffalo did not
- 29:59have it within them to make it a fourth time right now.
- 30:07Let's get to 1993. So pretty much same songs on the
- 30:16verse Bills once again back in the Super Bowl, but it was
- 30:22really at this point the entire country.
- 30:26They had enough of the bills. They did not want to see them
- 30:31going back to the Super Bowl and to essentially get their ass
- 30:36kicked once again. And personally, I didn't blame
- 30:42them from the documentary I saw because if I was my team that
- 30:46had gotten beaten three straight times in the biggest game, I
- 30:50probably wouldn't wanna see them either.
- 30:53But you know what? The Bills fans, certainly the
- 30:57organization and most of your players, they did not care.
- 31:04They had that slogan. You know, if you're a Bills fan,
- 31:08you might remember, piss them off and go for four.
- 31:13You might remember that in in a way that's actually a good thing
- 31:19because it gave the players, I apologize, it gave the players
- 31:25essential motivation to ignore whatever the outside was saying
- 31:31about them and do it for their fans that had stuck with them
- 31:36for many years, even through some of the most difficult
- 31:40seasons up until the 9th. So once the Bills did what they
- 31:46had to do during their playoff run, they once again found
- 31:49themselves back in the soup, this time down in Atlanta.
- 31:55And they just happened to be going up against the same team
- 31:58that kicked their ass, you know, the year prior.
- 32:01And Dallas. And let's just Fast forward to
- 32:11the game because there's multiple ways to look at that
- 32:17game in particular. So here's how things somehow
- 32:31actually start promising for Buffalo.
- 32:36They actually were reading the Cowboys at 1.13 to 6 at the
- 32:41half. You know, Dallas, I don't know
- 32:45why it was they just didn't seem and I'm not accusing Jimmy
- 32:52Johnson of this, but it just seemed like, you know, they were
- 32:54kind of in a way shell shocked by the way they came out kind of
- 32:59flat in the first half that, you know, maybe OK, three times
- 33:08might not have in the world for Buffalo.
- 33:11But hey, who's to say that 4th opportunity isn't realistic for
- 33:15this team to finally get a time. Now both teams made their share
- 33:20of mistakes. And you know, Buffalo at that
- 33:26point, like I said, has some point.
- 33:28We ate at halftime. But Hall of Famer Troy Aikman
- 33:35has started the game. He even know it one time that
- 33:39when he it's coming out of the tunnel for the second-half, he
- 33:44just happened to glance over the bells, 'cause I believe they
- 33:48were coming out from the opposite side.
- 33:49He glanced over and he thought to himself, they were confident
- 33:55coming out of the locker room. I saw this in the four Foster
- 33:59Buffalo documentary. You should check it out.
- 34:01It's pretty good. He just thought that, you know,
- 34:05despite the bells dominating the Cowboys in the first half, it
- 34:12just seemed like they were out of emotion, that it just felt
- 34:18like, you know, everything was going well and you thought, OK,
- 34:23maybe this is Buffalo Smoke, but it never really came to be.
- 34:31And Troy Aikman was absolutely right.
- 34:34The other thing you have to remember, and I'm not making
- 34:36this as an excuse for saying, yeah, it is for Buffalo, OK, but
- 34:40this was the reality. Think about the preseason games
- 34:46at that point before, you know, they had to shorten it today to
- 34:51three preseason. You were playing at best 56
- 34:58games preseason a year, and then if you coupled that with the
- 35:04regular season, 16 games at that time, so you had Central League.
- 35:11Let's just say for the sake of argument, 5 preseason games, 16
- 35:15regular season games, at best three playoff games, with the
- 35:24exception of 1992, 'cause they hosted the playoff game against
- 35:28Houston. So it's three or four games
- 35:34along with the Super Bowl. The Bills from a from that four
- 35:38year stretch, you can argue four year stretch, they are played at
- 35:46best close to 25 games a year in that four year stretch.
- 35:55And the reality was that is not saying that that is an excuse,
- 36:00OK? But the reality is, is that you
- 36:03play those main games in the four year stretch, you're just
- 36:08going to run out of energy at some point mentally and
- 36:13physically. And then, you know, and I'm just
- 36:17going to say by that point, you know, in that last Super Bowl,
- 36:22the Bills were completely running on adrenal.
- 36:28And that second-half against Dallas, it completely showed you
- 36:34know, the Bills opening Dr. offensively Dermot Thomas, who
- 36:40had fumble earlier, he committed his second fumble recovered by
- 36:47Cowboys offensive back James Washington and he returned it
- 36:51for a touchdown. And when Washington had scored
- 36:57the touchdown for Dallas, everything shifted from that
- 37:03point. And it was actually within that
- 37:06second-half that Dallas had gone back to semblance of what made
- 37:13them dominant in that Super Bowl a year play.
- 37:18Emma Smith on one particular drive, led by that monster
- 37:24offensive line of Dallas, they metallically picked the part to
- 37:30build some more race. And of course, Emma Smith scored
- 37:35that touchdown. That was calculated on that one
- 37:38drive where whether it was 6 yards, 8 yards, even 10 yards,
- 37:43Smith was getting that. Buffalo defense was getting worn
- 37:47out. And then it just seemed like
- 37:54from that point, Buffalo had almost no chance of coming back.
- 38:02And from that point, Dallas took over and never looked back.
- 38:08The Cowboys ended up winning 30 to 13, winning their second
- 38:14straight Super Bowl, and gave Buffalo, unfortunately, their
- 38:21fourth straight Super Bowl loss. No team in professional sports
- 38:33has even come close to what Buffalo did, losing four
- 38:39straight Super Bowls, all four appearances.
- 38:44And yeah, and you know what, there have been plenty of, you
- 38:50know, franchises and professional sports.
- 38:52I'll just break it down 1 by 1. No NBA team had ever won, you
- 39:00know, at least since the in my lifetime, Kobe and Shaq Lakers
- 39:04of the early 2000s, nobody has ever won 3, Hasn't won three
- 39:08straight Major League Baseball. The Yankees had made the three
- 39:14straight World Series, one those 3, but remember they had won the
- 39:19World Series 2 years prior in 1996.
- 39:23So from a three-year span, 199899 and 2000.
- 39:28OK. And hockey, it hasn't been since
- 39:32the Iowa Ders winning 4 straights around cups, but
- 39:36making it to five straight of all.
- 39:39No one has come close to that, and certainly in the NFL, the
- 39:46Patriots, most recently at the dynasty, have gone to three
- 39:52straight and actually won two or three.
- 39:59No team in professional sports history has ever lost a major
- 40:09championship four years in a row.
- 40:15And unfortunately, even today, Buffalo holds that.
- 40:21The Buffalo wills, I'm sorry, they hold that distinction of
- 40:26being the only professional sports team ever to lose four
- 40:33straight schools. Wow.
- 40:42So more than 30 years have passed and you know, again the
- 40:50Bills and maybe it was for the right reason and I guess
- 40:55justifiably so there became the punchline of all teams,
- 41:04unfortunately, if you had made it, you know, straight at a
- 41:07certain point. But then when one, they
- 41:10essentially became the joke, the butt end of a joke of that for
- 41:17many years. And I kinda hate to say it, but
- 41:20those people that did it were absolutely right.
- 41:24I mean, you don't get to hide the fact that you ended up
- 41:29losing four straight Super Bowls, all more one to flame
- 41:33than the other. I think you can't escape from
- 41:37criticism. And you know what, from Marv
- 41:40Levy to Jim Kelly, the Dermot Thomas, Andre Reed, Bruce Smith,
- 41:45Cornelius Bennett, Darrell Talley, Steve Tasker, all those
- 41:48guys, Bill Pullian. Now, in his case, he was the GM
- 41:53of three of those 4, all of them served blame.
- 41:58OK, I mean, you can go down the list.
- 42:00Every one of them deserves some form of blame for why they never
- 42:05got done. But should we really be looking
- 42:10at that time as the infamous four run, you know, in a
- 42:17negative way, or should we actually look at it differently?
- 42:27There was just a couple of things that during Buffalo's
- 42:30time making that run that would really apparent almost
- 42:36immediately. While they're K gun offense
- 42:41actually was what propelled them to those Super Bowl runs.
- 42:46There was this one small problem that kind of offense only works,
- 42:54you know, in the regular season. Now it could work, you know, for
- 42:58a few playoff games, but not in the Super Bowl.
- 43:03See, if you go back to when I talked about the New York Giants
- 43:07when Belichick essentially shut down their passing game and made
- 43:11Buffalo 1 dimensional, you gotta be able to turn out the clock
- 43:16with a sustained running game. If the opposition is going to
- 43:20take away your passing attack, then that kind of should say you
- 43:28should focus on trying to be a run heavy team and only pass it
- 43:33when needed. Buffaloes often simply, in my
- 43:38opinion, did not put more of an emphasis on the run game.
- 43:43The other problem is, is that with all due respect to some
- 43:48individual talent, defensively, they were really, in all
- 43:54honesty, and now it's defense. See, they weren't exactly, you
- 44:00know, at the cream of the crop as far as top defense when they
- 44:04made the run. They were essentially a middle
- 44:06of the road defense that really were, you know, at any given
- 44:12moment an opportunistic defense. They didn't really capitalize on
- 44:20many takeaways or get any rally to help out the offense.
- 44:26And in the big games, in the more critical ones, you need to
- 44:32pass for us to get the quarterback and you need your
- 44:36secondary to come up with at least some big plays to help
- 44:41you. They don't really get many
- 44:46takeaways during the playoff runs.
- 44:50And I'm just going to be real honest, I don't know if you can
- 44:54have essentially a top flight offense and not really a great
- 45:00defense to help you because you're going to probably end up
- 45:04losing a lot of games more than you're going with.
- 45:10And here was the 3rd and unfortunate reality as to why
- 45:17Buffalo just seemingly was never able to get to the top
- 45:22throughout that time period. If for those of a certain
- 45:25generation, the NFC from 1984 to 1997 when Denver won the Super
- 45:40Bowl, it was a 1314 year stretch when the NFC was the clear cut
- 45:46dominant conference. OK, no AFC team, at least at
- 45:55that point had ever came close to the drawing.
- 45:59The NFCI mean it was literally impossible for an AFC team to
- 46:07win some point. Now it wasn't until, like I had
- 46:12mentioned 1997 when the Broncos finally broke through and ended
- 46:19up being the Green Bay Packers in San Diego.
- 46:25So if you really think about it, Buffalo.
- 46:32And I don't mean this as a sign of disrespect, at least
- 46:36throughout the 90s, they didn't really have anybody challenging
- 46:43them in all seriousness throughout that time.
- 46:46So it's essentially like AC Pickens for Buffalo.
- 46:51So the lack of really a true competitor in the AFC as the 90s
- 46:57turned along with the NFC as a whole conference being the
- 47:03stranglehold. It only makes sense why the NFC
- 47:09was able to be so dominant over that decade stretch because they
- 47:13didn't have no challenges. But All in all, oh look, I'm
- 47:23just going to be real honest, I don't feel bad for many sports
- 47:28franchises who are here in that have had terrible owners or
- 47:36quite frankly, in some of their cases, just have had just a
- 47:42string of unfortunate luck go their way where it seems like it
- 47:46will never end. The Bills, however, are one of
- 47:53those rare exceptions 'cause look, I have seen, you know,
- 47:58whether it's not through documentaries or, you know,
- 48:04watching those fans, I can see from a distance how passionate
- 48:11they are. I can see how much they wanna
- 48:15see their franchise finally wins.
- 48:19Now as we move into the mind day, they have had
- 48:22opportunities, have the, you know, the franchise missed the
- 48:26playoffs at the 17 years straight.
- 48:29And while they have come up short and no question about it,
- 48:35you just can't help but think if you had to root for a franchise
- 48:39that wasn't your team, Buffalo is the next team you will look
- 48:46at and say, you know, I may not be a fan of that Bill's team.
- 48:52I sure as hell hope they actually won one.