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There is a contest slated this week on the NFL schedule between two of the league’s high-flying “bird” teams in the first half of this season – the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals. For this week’s edition of Throwback Thursday, we travel back a long way in time, further back than any Throwback Thursday post ever – to the 1948 NFL Championship game played between these two franchises. The Cardinals were two cities removed from their current  Glendale, Arizona location. They hadn’t even moved to their St. Louis home yet (they did that in 1960). These Cardinals played in Chicago, while the Eagles, although belonging to the city of Brotherly Love as they do today, played at old Shibe Park. The title game, a rematch of the previous year’s championship matchup, was played on December 19, 1948. There were no “extended” playoffs back then, with wild cards and divisional rounds, just a title game between the Eastern and Western Division champions, and the game was actually played in the same year as the regular season, prior to Christmas even. The Eagles were the home team, and on the morning of the game Philadelphia was hit with a massive snowstorm of blizzard proportions that continued throughout the game. The stadium grounds crew needed help from players from both teams to remove the tarp, buried under the heavy snow, from the field prior to the game. This title game was significant for another reason – it was to be the first NFL Championship game to be televised. ABC Network would broadcast the game, and the broadcasters themselves were important NFL figures – Harry Wismer, who would go on to found and own the New York Titans (later to become the Jets) in the American Football League, and former Chicago Bear standout Red Grange. In those days, “snow” was a problem with all TV broadcasts, but in this case the problem would be real snow threatening to postpone the contest. In fact, league commissioner Bert Bell considered a postponement, but decided to allow the game to go on because both clubs wanted to play it.  A few minutes into the contest, the yard markings on the field disappeared under the heavy cover of snow, and Bell ordered the head referee to make all first down and touchdown calls by his own observation. The Eagles’ star player, halfback Steve Van Buren, almost missed the game. He stayed home thinking it surely would be canceled, and Eagle coach Greasy Neale called him to let him know it was still on. Van Buren had to catch 3 trolleys and walk 6 blocks to reach the stadium in time, and it’s lucky he did, as he scored the game’s only touchdown in the fourth quarter on a five yard run. The blizzard conditions made for a sloppy, scoreless contest through three quarters, and when Chicago fumbled in their own territory in the final stanza, it set up Van Buren for what turned out to be the winning points.  The 7-0 win by the Eagles avenged a 28-21 Cardinal victory in 1947’s title game, and Philly went on to win again in 1949, shutting out the Los Angeles Rams 14-0.

Players help remove tarp during the “Philly Blizzard” 1948 NFL title game

With the Detroit Lions facing the New Orleans Saints on this week’s NFL schedule, the “Throwback Thursday” feature harkens back to November 8, 1970, to a game played between these 2 franchises in which Saints’ kicker Tom Dempsey booted a record-breaking 63 yard field goal in the dying seconds to give his team a 19-17 win. Dempsey wasn’t your average run-of-the mill NFL placekicker. He not only was a straight-ahead style kicker in a era when soccer-style kickers were becoming more prevalent, he also was born with no toes on his right foot and no fingers on his right hand, and wore a quirky flat-surfaced shoe on his right kicking foot. In the early 1970s, the Lions were an elite team in the NFC, while the Saints were only four years removed from being an expansion franchise, so Detroit was a heavy favorite in the game. The Lions got touchdowns from Charlie Sanders, their All Pro tight end, on a throw from Bill Munson, and on a ten yard run by Mel Farr, while the Saints attack settled for Dempsey field goals. He kicked a total of four in the game, including the record-breaking game winner. As the fourth quarter was winding down, Dempsey kicked his third three-pointer to put New Orleans ahead and looking to be on their way to the huge upset. Then Munson led the Lions downfield and set up Erroll Mann for a short field goal to put his club ahead. It may have been total desperation that caused the Saints to even attempt the winning try. The team had fired their original coach, Tom Fears, and this matchup was the replacement coach J.D. Roberts’ first game at the helm. With pretty much nothing to lose, Roberts sent Dempsey out for the unimaginable record attempt, and Dempsey came through. On the kick, holder Joe Scarpati handled a perfect snap from the long snapper, Jackie Burkett. Amazingly, and in stark contrast to today’s era of specialization, Scarpati and Burkett also made huge contributions that day to New Orleans’ defensive effort, with Scarpati snagging an interception and Burkett contributing a pair of picks. The win, which was one of only two games the Saints would win that year, cost the team the top college draft pick in 1971, but they did alright with the second pick, selecting quarterback Archie Manning, who would be a lone bright spot of their losing franchise in the coming years. Dempsey’s record broke the old mark, held by Baltimore’s Bert Rechichar, by seven yards, and the record would stand until the Broncos’ Matt Prater, kicking in the high altitude of Denver, hit a 64 yarder in 2013.

Tom Dempsey boots record 63 yard field goal

The Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots tangle in an AFC East rivalry game this weekend on the NFL schedule, and that takes our weekly Throwback Thursday feature back to November 29, 1998, to a game with a very controversial ending. The Patriots, guided by Drew Bledsoe, had jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead in the game before the Bills rallied back behind the season’s Comeback Player of The Year, their QB and New England native Doug Flutie, to pull ahead 21-17. This set up a final Patriot drive with just under 2 minutes remaining in the game, and Bledsoe led his team down field with crisp passes, reaching the Bills’ 37 yard line. Buffalo’s defense stiffened, giving up only a single yard on three separate downs to set up a crucial fourth and nine play with only 11 seconds left on the clock. Bledsoe then fired a pass to Shawn Jefferson, who caught the ball at the sideline and was brought down. The Bills disputed that the receiver had first down yardage and was even in bounds, but the officials awarded the Pats a first down. In postgame interviews, both Flutie and receiver Andre Reed, who were standing on the sideline near where the play took place, claimed they overheard the refs say, “just give it to them.” With only six seconds now left, and the ball at Buffalo’s 26, Bledsoe threw to the end zone to Terry Glenn, and the ball bounced out of his hands. However, a controversial interference call was made on Bills’ safety Henry Jones, and with no time left on the clock, New England was awarded one more play at the one yard line. Bledsoe took advantage of the gift and hit his fine tight end, Ben Coates, in the back of the end zone for the winning score. The Bills were so incensed with the game’s ending that coach Wade Phillips took his team off the field and into the locker room prior to the extra point try, so Patriot kicker Adam Vinatieri took the snap directly and ran the ball into the end zone for a two point conversion, giving his club a 25-21 victory that left an extremely bad taste in the mouths of Buffalo players in the locker room. Flutie commented afterwards, “The refs gave them the game, so we decided we might as well give them the extra point.” It was an especially disappointing afternoon for Flutie, who was robbed of what should have been a rousing homecoming comeback win.

The Bills’ cantankerous owner, Ralph Wilson, barbecued the officials in interviews after the game and basically dared commissioner Paul Tagliabue to fine him, which he did. Of his meeting with the commissioner in the league’s New York office to decide his punishment, Wilson proclaimed, “the commissioner lecturing to me as if I were a novice, instead of one who has been involved in football infinitely longer than he has, contends that criticizing a call has ‘destructive and corrosive effects on the game’. What is more destructive and corrosive — errant calls in front of millions of viewers, or my statements of opinion? People all over the country registered shock at the way the officials, however honorable their purpose, took the game away from us. Even the league has admitted to us that the calls near the conclusion of the game were incorrect.”  Wilson added: ”I do know I don’t need pompous lectures from the commissioner and I feel that the $50,000 is not only unwarranted, but punitive in nature. The next time he may ask me to sit in the corner.” To that memory of this Throwback Thursday game, I can only say – God bless you, Mr. Wilson, and rest in peace. As the new Pegula era of Bills’ ownership begins officially this week, that’s a terrific remembrance of ol’ Ralph. He was truly one of a kind.

Patriots’ QB Drew Bledsoe

On the week five National Football League schedule is a game between two NFC clubs, the Philadelphia Eagles and St. Louis Rams. “Throwback Thursday” for this week will be a contest played on a Monday night – Monday, November 5, 1975 to be exact, between these two franchises. It was a lop-sided game played between 2 teams headed in opposite directions at the time. It was in the relatively early years of Monday Night Football, when each week’s game was a nationally televised spectacle with the broadcasting team of Frank Gifford, “Dandy” Don Meredith and Howard Cosell providing as much entertainment as the game at times. At a prior appearance in Philly in 1973, Cosell was supposedly drunk during the broadcast (he had been drinking in an attempt to stay warm) and disappeared from the broadcast booth late in the game after he apparently threw up on Meredith’s cowboy boots. The Ram franchise was still located in Los Angeles, and the team was a powerhouse in the NFL, as they wound up losing only 2 regular season games that year. The Eagles, on the other hand, were mired in a miserable year under coach Mike McCormack, and coming into this prime time clash had lost 5 of their previous 6 games. In an interview prior to the game, McCormack made a comment to the media that his roster contained “some dogs”, and the notorious Philadelphia fans came to the game loaded for bear that night. The fan base in Cleveland, nowadays, has all but copyrighted the title of “Dawg Pound” at their home games, with an end zone section of the stadium nicknamed that, as fans come dressed in dog masks and pelt the field with dog biscuits. It’s become a tradition in the city.

On this November 1975 night in Philly, however, the Eagle fan base pre-dated Cleveland with their own version of the pound, as they picked up on coach McCormack’s remarks by wearing dog masks, parading around Veteran’s Stadium carrying a giant Alpo dog bone and tossing biscuits at the team’s bench. With their home fans turning against them, the Eagles didn’t show much fight. Ram quarterback James Harris had a great night, throwing for 207 yards and 3 touchdowns, 2 of them to former Eagle Harold Jackson. Roman Gabriel, a legend when he played for the Rams in the late 1960s, had been traded to Philly for Jackson and had a terrible night, throwing 2 interceptions before backup Mike Boryla came in and threw 2 more. The Ram defense polished off the night by returning 2 of the picks for scores in the final quarter, with Fred Dryer and Isiah Robertson doing the honors. The Rams walked away with a 42-3 victory, and that type of blowout usually ended with the Monday Night broadcast team filling the airwaves with whatever nonsense they could come up with. I’m sure Cosell was his usual obnoxious self, and Dandy Don probably sang his trademark “turn out the lights, the party’s over” very early that night.

 Coach McCormack with Harold Carmichael, Roman Gabriel (photo courtesy of philly.com)

The National Football League’s week four schedule includes a match between the Minnesota Vikings and Atlanta Falcons, and so this week’s edition of Throwback Thursday returns to 1998, one of the most successful seasons in Vikings’ history. That is, right up until January 17, 1999, the date of the NFC title game that season between the Vikings and Falcons. The game was a match between the conference’s 2 best teams, with the Vikings finishing 15-1 and the Falcons 14-2. In a fact that made it perhaps a true “modern era” title game, it was the first conference championship game in NFL history played between two teams who played their home games in domed stadiums. Coach Dennis Green’s Viking squad featured a high-scoring passing attack led by quarterback Randall Cunningham throwing to his dynamic receivers – Chris Carter and Randy Moss. Their offense set an NFL record by scoring 556 points, and the team was undefeated at home. The Falcons, under coach Dan Reeves, were led by a journeyman QB, Chris Chandler, and behind young running back Jamal Anderson, were affectionately known to their fans as the “Dirty Birds”, after a winged touchdown dance the players did when they scored. The Vikings had been so dominant that year, with 10 Pro Bowlers on their roster and having won their home games by an average of 23 points, that Atlanta came into the title game as 11-point underdogs despite losing only twice all season.   It turned out to be one of the league’s most exciting title games of all time, as Minnesota, as expected, jumped out to an early lead only to see the Falcons rally to overcome a 13 point deficit. Still, the Vikings pulled ahead 27-20 and drove into field goal position with the chance to go ahead by a pretty much insurmountable 10 points. Old pro Gary Anderson was the Vikings’ kicker, and had completed a “perfect” regular season, having made all his extra point and field goal attempts. However, he sent a 38 yard attempt wide left, his first miss of the year, leaving an opening for Atlanta with just over 2 minutes left. Chandler drove his club down the field and hit Terance Mathis on a 16 yard TD pass to tie the game and send it into overtime.   The teams traded punts in the extra session before Atlanta’s kicker,Morten Andersen, another seasoned vet, hit the game winning field goal from 38 yards to send the underdog Falcons on to the Super Bowl. Chandler’s performance was memorable, as he threw for 340 yards and 3 touchdowns while limping around on an injured ankle. It was an unfortunate ending to a sensational season for the Vikings, but it should be noted that they lost 5 starters to injury during the game. The bottom line was that the franchise that had four Super Bowl losses on its’ resume, this time found a way to come up short in the conference championship, with probably the most talented roster in team history.

Falcons’ kicker Morten Andersen celebrates his game-winning kick (photo courtesy of petemyersrules.com)

The Kansas City Chiefs meet the Miami Dolphins in one of the week 3 matchups on the NFL schedule, and that will make the “Throwback Thursday” feature for this week a game played between these two franchises on Christmas Day, December 25, 1971, that became the longest game played in league history. The game was played in the era prior to regular season overtime being implemented, but because it was a playoff game it had to be played until a winner was determined, and wound up going into double overtime. The Chiefs, under coach Hank Stram, had won the Super Bowl 2 seasons earlier, having shocked the Minnesota Vikings to give the upstart AFL their second straight title before the merger took full effect and the AFL was dissolved. It was the last game played at Kansas City Municipal Stadium, as the Chiefs would move into their new home, Arrowhead Stadium, the following year. Both coaches, Stram and Miami’s Don Shula, would go on to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as would 12 other players involved in the game. The game was a see-saw affair, as K.C. jumped out to a 10-0 lead, only to see the Dolphins come back to tie. The teams traded scores and Chief quarterback Len Dawson then engineered a classic 91 yard scoring drive, with unsung back Ed Podolak supplying much of the yardage and capping off the drive with a three yard TD run. Miami’s Bob Griese then matched Dawson by guiding the Fish to a tying score, hitting tight end Marv Fleming with a short touchdown pass to cap it off. When Podolak returned the ensuing kickoff 78 yards to the Dolphins 22 yard line, it looked like the Chiefs were a lock to win, especially since their field goal kicker was Jan Stenerud, arguably the best kicker of the era and still the only pure placekicker to make it into the Hall of Fame. Stenerud, however, sent his game-winning 31 yard attempt sailing wide right, and suffered his own personal Scott Norwood moment 20 years before the Bills’ kicker’s failed attempt. The game then went on long into the night, before the Dolphins’ Garo Yepremian finally won it with a field goal after 82 minutes and 40 seconds of playing time. It became the longest game in pro football history, surpassing the 1962 AFL title game between the Houston Oilers and Dallas Texans. The Texans won that game, and ironically the coach and quarterback of that Texan team were Stram and Dawson, as the Chiefs began their AFL lives in Dallas as the Texans before moving to Kansas City.

Podolak had a game for the ages in a losing cause for the Chiefs. He rushed for 85 yards on 17 carries, caught 8 passes for another 110 yards, returned 3 kickoffs for an amazing 153 yards, and with an additional few yards on punt returns, set an NFL record with 350 all-purpose yards in a single game, a mark that still stands today, some 40+ years later. Miami fullback Larry Csonka was quoted as saying afterwards that the game was going to be played until “somebody won, or died.” The win was the first playoff victory in Miami franchise history, and they would go on to advance to the Super Bowl, where they lost to Tom Landry’s Dallas Cowboys.

 Chiefs’ LB Willie Lanier takes on Miami FB Larry Csonka (photo courtesy of Spokeo.com)

This week’s Throwback Thursday featured story was an easy one to pick, once I saw that the Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers were scheduled to meet. That matchup immediately brought me back to a game etched in the memory of any NFL fan who followed the game in the 1960s. It happened on a muddy field, on December 12, 1965, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, where the Bears played their home games at that time. The Bears had three first round draft picks in the college draft of 1965, and two of their choices, linebacker Dick Butkus and halfback Gale Sayers, were destined to become Hall of Famers. On this particular day, Sayers put an exclamation point on a sensational, record-breaking rookie season, scoring six touchdowns to lead his team to a 61-20 rout of the 49ers. My apologies to the San Francisco franchise, since I’ve now started this year’s “Throwback Thursday” posts by featuring two of the most crushing losses in the team’s history, but this game was memorable. Sayers was spectacular, scoring four rushing TDs, from 1, 7, 21 and 50 yards out, on an 80 yard pass from quarterback Rudy Bukich, and also on an 85 yard punt return. His record-breaking day overshadowed a terrific performance by Bukich, who threw for 347 yards (a huge single-game amount in the NFL of the 1960s) and three TDs on only 16 completions. Sayers would end the 1965 season with an NFL rookie record 22 touchdowns, and although knee injuries shortened his brilliant career, he still managed to do enough in the six seasons he played to become the youngest player ever inducted into Canton when he was voted in, in his first year of eligibility in 1977.  Having played his college ball at Kansas, Sayers would come to be known, as his career progressed, as the “Kansas Comet”, a moniker that described his speed and ability to elude defenders, but having only played full time for a little under five seasons, it might also be fitting to say that, like a comet, he flashed across the NFL landscape for a short period, yet his likes will never be seen again.

Bears RB Gale Sayers torments the 49er defense

The 2014 National Football League season opens tonight, which means it’s time for the season’s first “Throwback Thursday” post of 2014, which highlights a game of the past that was played between two of the teams scheduled to play each other that week. The Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers open the 2014 campaign against each other on Sunday, and the obvious choice for a “throwback” game between these 2 franchises would be the 1981 NFC Championship game which became forever known as “The Catch”, as Dwight Clark caught a touchdown pass from Joe Montana in the back of the end zone to launch the Niners into a decade of domination. However, we’ll go back to an earlier playoff contest between the two teams, an NFC Divisional playoff game in 1972.

To set the stage for this game, these teams were fast becoming playoff rivals. The Cowboys had eliminated the Niners in 1970 and ’71, and this was a third chance for San Francisco to get revenge. Coach Dick Nolan’s 49ers came out flying, as Vic Washington returned the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown. When Larry Schreiber scored on a pair of one yard plunges to give the 49ers a commanding 21-6 lead, it looked like Dallas’ past dominance was about to end. Cowboy quarterback Craig Morton hit Lance Alworth for a touchdown to bring the Cowboys closer at the half, but when Schreiber scored from a yard out again in the third quarter to up San Fran’s lead to 28-13, it looked like a lost cause. That’s when Dallas coach Tom Landry made the decision to bench Morton, who had struggled all day, in favor of Roger Staubach. At this point, the 49er players figured the game was theirs, and began taunting the Cowboys, but little did they know that Staubach was about to write the first chapter of what would become a string of come-from-behind performances that would earn him the nickname “Captain Comeback”. Staubach proceeded to lead his team on three fourth quarter scoring drives, culminating in a Toni Fritsch field goal and touchdown passes to Billy Parks and Ron Sellers. When the dust settled, Dallas came away with a 30-28 victory, and the San Francisco players who had done the taunting slithered away with their tails between their legs.

 Dallas QB Roger “The Dodger” Staubach leads a stunning comeback

One of the highlights of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s induction ceremony weekend, for me, is touring the Hall itself. In fact, it’s probably better to check out the Hall on a visit that doesn’t include the inductions, since the crowd for the enshrinement is large. The Saturday of the ceremony this year was rainy during the daytime, so the crowd inside the Hall was even bigger than normal. You had to be patient to get to see one of the main attractions, the gallery of Hall of Fame busts, this year. Since I’ve seen the gallery on a few occasions already, I decided to skip it this year, but there were a lot of displays that caught my eye throughout the rest of the building. That’s the thing that makes Canton a special place to me. One of the guides working there once said that at any given time they are only displaying a small percentage of the artifacts they have on hand, and because of that there is always something new to check out that you hadn’t seen before. It is truly a lively, ever-changing  fluid museum that is worth the trip. Here are a few things I discovered on this most recent trip that are worth noting:

I was surprised to discover that the very first player transaction in league history involved a Buffalo franchise, the Buffalo All Americans, who acquired a tackle named Nasty Nash in 1920 from Akron for $300. I had no idea Buffalo had a pro football franchise way back then.

On display at the Hall is a football presented to Washington Redskins receiver Bobby Mitchell in 1962 for leading the league in receptions that year. The Redskins were owned at the time by a confirmed racist, George Preston Marshall, who swore he would never have a black player on his team, and only traded for Mitchell after being pressured by the government (they threatened to revoke his lease on D.C. Stadium). Although respected in the locker room (the ball presented to him was autographed by all his teammates), Mitchell wasn’t necessarily greeted with a warm welcome by the front office. He went on to complete a Hall of Fame career in Washington, and is one player who earned his bust in Canton for more than just his stellar play on the field.

This shiny new building on the Hall’s grounds is the Ralph C. Wilson Research and Preservation Center, which houses archives and artifacts for the museum and was made possible due to a donation from the late Bills’ owner. Wilson’s legacy as an NFL owner is that he always put the good of the game ahead of personal team interests, so the center is a fitting tribute to him. It wasn’t open to the public during enshrinement weekend since it was hosting private parties, but being able to tour it is a reason for a future visit.

Sections of the Hall are dotted with murals of Hall of Fame players, including large ones in the entrance, surrounding a statue of Jim Thorpe, of Jim Taylor, Dick Butkus and Bruce Smith, among others. This one caught my eye. Was Mike Ditka really ever this young?

Standing in front of a wall of paintings of former great players, from left to right, “Mean” Joe Greene, Deacon Jones, Jim Brown and the back end of Dick “Night Train” Lane.

This is an old down marker called the “boxman”. A box with four sides, numbered one through four, would swing on a dowel to mark the down. Technology for marking downs has changed some over the years, but not that much really.

When an injured Joe Namath showed up on the Jets’ bench wearing a fur coat it caused quite a stir. But how about the fancy, self-promoting sideline jacket Ernie Nevers of the Duluth Eskimos wore in the 1920s? I’ve really only scratched the surface as far as all the things there are to do inside the Hall. There are also interactive helmets that you can put on to simulate hearing a play being called in to you from the coach, artifacts and videos from all different eras of the game, a display of all the Super Bowl rings from every year that the game has been played, and the Super Bowl theater that plays NFL Films videos. It’s a can’t-miss trip for any true football fan.

Bills’ fans in Canton (photo courtesy of fansided.com)

The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio held its’ 51st annual induction ceremony over this past weekend, and with former Buffalo receiver Andre Reed among the inductees, the Hall’s grounds and the ceremony inside the stadium basically turned into what resembled a Bills’ home game. Rain dampened the afternoon of the day of the induction, but it didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the many Bills’ fans roaming the party area around the Hall. There was a sprinkling of team jerseys of the Giants, Buccaneers, Raiders and Seahawks among the party crowd, and even a couple of Cardinal jerseys, but the number of fans representing the Bills was overwhelming. The ceremony itself was clearly a Buffalo event. The crowd made it overwhelmingly a Bills’ event, as they came to honor one of the stars of the team’s glory years in Reed. It’s been a tough off-season for the Buffalo fan base, with the passing of long-time owner Ralph Wilson and the uncertainty of the team’s future with the franchise up for sale, the cancer struggles of another glory years hero, Jim Kelly, and the season-ending injury to one of the current team’s young stars, Kiko Alonso. It was almost as if the team’s fans needed the ceremony as a therapy session, to grab onto something positive to offset all the negative happenings surrounding the club. ESPN’s Chris Berman helped flame the Buffalo celebration by leading a “nobody circles the wagons…” cheer with the crowd, and totally amping things up when it came time to induct Reed. The night’s biggest cheers involved Buffalo moments that included Reed’s induction and speech, and the introduction of Kelly at the start of the ceremony. There were over 100 Hall members present, and they were introduced alphabetically at the beginning of the night. Kelly was given a long standing ovation when he was introduced. The guy I felt most sorry for was one of my childhood heroes, former Browns’ running back Leroy Kelly. His introduction following Jim Kelly’s was almost an afterthought, and was lost in the emotion of the fans still cheering for the former Bills’ quarterback.

When Ralph Wilson started the Bills’ franchise back in 1959, he was a businessman looking to own his own team, after serving as a minority owner of his hometown Detroit Lions for awhile. I’m sure he had little inkling of the monster his franchise would grow into as part of the country’s favorite pastime these days. His $25,000 investment is soon to be sold for probably over a billion dollars. I’m also pretty sure he never envisioned that the team would become so much more to the city than just a sports franchise. Over time, his Bills became a family, with an enduring bond among the fans, among the players and between the owner, players and fans. There’s a common thread of love for the team that spans generations. The love and emotion the fans have for their team shows when the entire Hall weekend is dotted with “Bon Jovi-Free Zone” signs and t-shirts. Fans from other cities may have been scratching their heads over the meaning of those signs, but all Bills’ fans present know what they’re all about. Sure, the Pittsburgh Steelers, fans and former players, would argue that their franchise is tops when it comes to support for their team, but it’s easy to love a team that’s won six Super Bowl titles. Bills’ fans and former players share a bond that’s endured many long periods of losing. Even in the glory years there’s the spectre of four Super Bowl losses, but the players from those teams seem to share a bond of love and loyalty like no other. Probably the closest thing to the special bond Bills’ fans have is the long-suffering fan base of baseball’s Chicago Cubs. Bills’ fans approach every coming season with optimism, and more times than not the optimism is crushed by another year of mediocrity or worse. But like those teams of the 1990s that never gave up, the fans come back re-energized and enthusiastic the following year. Like Berman said, nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills, and their fans.