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It’s long overdue, but on Sunday at Ralph Wilson Stadium, Booker Edgerson will finally be honored by having his name placed on the Buffalo Bills’ Wall of Fame. It’s safe to say that a lot of the fans in the stadium won’t have any idea who Edgerson is or what he meant to the Bills’ franchise when he played. Edgerson was signed by the Bills as an undrafted free agent out of Western Illinois in 1962 and became a fixture for the team at left cornerback for 8 seasons. He was a track star in college and used that speed to blanket the best receivers in the AFL during his career. When the American Football League came into existence in 1960, the game plan for the new league was to offer a wide-open, more exciting alternative to the “three yards and a cloud of dust” NFL. The league featured exciting offense and a lot of downfield passing and more scoring. The AFL’s biggest star in their first few seasons was Houston Oilers’ QB George Blanda, and in Edgerson’s first game ever in ’62, he intercepted Blanda twice, and had 6 picks in all as a rookie. In 1964 the Bills, coached by Lou Saban, dominated the AFL the old fashioned way – with a hard nosed running game featuring bruising fullback Cookie Gilchrist, and a stifling defense. Edgerson was a key player on that defense. Today, Darrelle Revis of the Jets, who is hurt and won’t be playing in the game on Sunday, is celebrated as the best defensive player in the league, as the NFL’s premier “lockdown” cornerback, whose job each week is to cover the opponents’ top wide receiver and take that player out of the game by not allowing him to contribute to his team’s offense. The term “lockdown” corner wasn’t used in the 1960s, but Edgerson was an early version of what Revis is doing in the NFL today. In those days the AFL was loaded with rifle-armed quarterbacks and fleet wide receivers, and the best of the best was Hall of Famer Lance Alworth of the San Diego Chargers. In 1963, the Chargers totally dominated the league behind a wide-open offense designed by coach Sid Gillman and orchestrated by QB Tobin Rote, throwing to Alworth and handing off to RB Keith Lincoln. The Chargers buried the Boston Patriots 51-10 in the title game, and were clearly the class of the new league. In 1964 the Bills proved the old adage that offense wins games but defense wins championships as they shut down the high-flying Chargers 20-7 in the AFL title game. Gillman complained afterwards that the bad field conditions at old War Memorial Stadium, plus the fact that Alworth was out with an injury, was the reason his team lost. Just to prove a point, in 1965 the Bills shut out the Chargers on their own home field, 23-0, to repeat as champs. Thanks mostly to Edgerson’s efforts, Alworth was a non-factor in the game. The San Diego speedster was widely regarded as the fastest player in the AFL, if not in all of pro football, but Edgerson is the only player to ever to catch Alworth from behind. Booker was also a nemesis of another AFL marquee player, Joe Namath of the Jets. In the season the Jets shocked the Colts to win Super Bowl III, the Bills were aging and on the decline, and only won one game. The win was over the Jets. They intercepted Namath 5 times and returned 3 for touchdowns, including one by Edgerson.

In an earlier post I documented players at each position that were not in the football Hall of Fame in Canton but deserved to be, and Edgerson was one of those mentioned. It’s not Canton, but the Bills’ Wall of Fame is still a great honor for the 71 year old Edgerson. He is active in charity work as the president of the Bills’ Alumni Association and can be seen around the stadium or in the field house on game days, talking to fans and just being a great ambassador for the team.  If you’ve seen him you’d probably agree with me that he still looks like he could suit up and play today. Congratulations on a well-deserved honor to one of the Bills’ all-time greats!