1964 Topps football card, from www.CheckOutMyCards.com , of Buffalo Bills’ defensive back Ed Rutkowski, who was mostly a special teams player in his career. However, in the old American Football League’s annual Thanksgiving Day game on November 28, 1968, Rutkowski had his shining moment of glory. The Bills were a bad team in ’68, while their opponent that day, the Oakland Raiders, were an AFL powerhouse. The Bills had lost their entire roster of quarterbacks to injury, and Rutkowski was forced to become the “disaster quarterback”. The Bills’ defense played an inspired game that day, and Rutkowski led a late-game drive on which he was stopped at the one yard line on a QB sneak, preserving a 13-10 win for the Raiders. Rutkowski followed his teammate, Jack Kemp, into politics after his playing career ended, and served for a long period as Erie County Executive in Western New York.
