20 seasons with the Bills: the best I've seen

by SuperFan82 on Jul 23, 2008 9:24 PM EDT Comment 12 comments

I've been a Bills fan since the 1988 season when I was 8 years old in Philadelphia. My Dad is notoriously anti-Philadelphia sports, so when I "announced" to him one night in '88 that I wanted to watch football now that the baseball season was over, I was destined to hate my hometown Eagles. I asked him who his favorite team was and although he had been a long time St. Louis Cardinals fan, since they had moved to Phoenix the previous offseason, he said he didn't have one. Annoyed, I asked him what NFL players he liked and he happened to say he really liked this Jim Kelly character who was playing against the Jets on Monday Night football that night. I stayed up and watched this Jim Kelly guy (whose Bills were not on my Tecmo Football video game, so I had never heard of him or his team) throw 3 TDs as the Jets were booed all over the Meadowlands that night. I decided that night that Jim Kelly and his Bills were my team...20 seasons later and 16 family vacations to Buffalo, NY (I had converted my parents and two little sisters by the first playoff game at Rich Stadium against the Oilers later that season), I've seen a lot of Buffalo Bills football.

As the Bills prepare for their 21st season under my watch, here his my 53 man roster of Buffalo Bills for the 20 seasons I've followed them from 1988-2007. 20 is a nice round number and the fact that the Jauron regime is now enetering its 3rd season in charge (and the built-in excuses of the Donahoe mess are officially no longer relevant), I only considered Bills with a minimum of three seasons with the team. Hopefully, 20 years from now and five Super Bowl titles later (without illegally taping our opponents signs!), names like Lynch, Whitner, McKelvin, Fine, and Butler will be all over the top of any such list. But for now, here's my roster for the first 20 years:

Jim Kelly, Frank Reich, Doug Flutie

Thurman Thomas, Travis Henry, Kenneth Davis

Sam Gash

Andre Reed, Eric Moulds, James Lofton, Lee Evans, Steve Tasker, Roscoe Parrish (PR)

Pete Metzelaars, Keith McKeller, Jay Riemersma

Will Wolford, Howard Ballard, Jason Peters, John Fina

Ruben Brown, Jim Ritcher, Glenn Parker

Kent Hull, Jerry Ostroski

Bruce Smith, Phil Hansen, Aaron Schobel, Marcellus Wiley, Mark Pike

Ted Washington, Pat Williams, Jeff Wright

Cornelius Bennett, Darryl Talley, Bryce Paup, Takeo Spikes

Sam Cowart, Shane Conlan, London Fletcher, John Holecek

Nate Odomes, Antoine Winfield, Nate Clements, Thomas Smith, Terrence McGee (KR)

Leonard Smith, Henry Jones

Mark Kelso, Kurt Schulz

Steve Christie, Brian Moorman, Adam Lingner

This FanPost was written by a registered user of Buffalo Rumblings. Its views do not necessarily reflect the reviews of Rumblings' editorial staff, but are just as valued as our own.

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Good list

surprised I don’t see Josh Reed on there.

I don’t really know where I’d make any changes to the past 20 year team. I’d probably replace John Holecek with Carlton Bailey, Sam Rogers or MarVcus Patton.

I’m struggling to come up with other guys I may consider including. Maybe Don Beebe, Jeff Burris, Carwell Gardner, Billy Brooks, Peerless Price, Travis Henry, or even Bledsoe could make their way onto the team. In fact, I might put Henry over Kenny Davis.

Good old Mark Pike. I loved that guy.

by Kurupt on Jul 23, 2008 9:54 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

How about Sam Adams instead of Jeff Wright at DT? Now that would be a massive wall of a goal-line formation with three Washington, Adams, and Williams weighing in at well over half a ton.

Also, I’d take Jeff Burris over Thomas Smith.

by Krenn on Jul 23, 2008 10:32 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Nice

I like it! I guess I’m a year behind you becuase my first memories of a Bills fan were from the ‘89 season (when I was 4 1/2 years old!). I don’t really remember a time when I wasn’t a die hard Bills fan.

That first superbowl we decorated the entire living room with Bills gear. My brother and I had our face painted in Bills’ red, white, and blue. We got a bucket of Wegman’s style country sweet wings for half time. Of course, they lost and I cried myself to sleep. But it was still an amazing memory nonetheless.

BTW, that’s a pretty kick a$$ LB corp isn’t it?! If Chris Spielman played one more year in Buffalo he would have had to gone on the list as well. Man I loved that guy! He and Paup were a scary tandem!

John I.

by jri111 on Jul 23, 2008 10:49 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Cool read. The first Bills game I watched from beginning to end – and gave a crap about – was the comeback win over Houston. I feel so young…

by Brian Galliford on Jul 24, 2008 7:45 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

And it makes me feel old....

First game I watched, Kemp was the QB…. The argument around my uncle’s living room was whether the Bills should put Lamonica in there instead… Didn’t take long, and I was hooked to the Bills as a native Western NYer, and that guy Kemp, similar to how Superfan was hooked by Kelly… But hey… I’m from Buff… Gotta love dem Bills!!!

by Cinga on Jul 24, 2008 2:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The first Bills game I will always remember is the first game I attended against Miami 11/29/87 in which the Bills won 27-0.
I think I would have put Kenny Irvin on the list at CB and Chris Mohr for his incredible hang time punting.

by gatornation on Jul 24, 2008 8:46 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

One guy

you might want to consider adding to your list is RB Robb Riddick, who was an unbelievable short yardage specialist in his time. (And we know how much the Bills have struggled here in recent years…)

Reggie McKensie & Joe D also deserve mention at the G spot as well.

Get the Bills back to the big game!

by Blitz on Jul 24, 2008 10:51 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Keep in mind that these are guys that Nick has seen play since he became a Bills fan in 1988. Joe D and McKenzie were well before that time…

by Brian Galliford on Jul 24, 2008 11:09 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

O.K.

I’ll retract McKensie and Delamellieure. But I’ll offer Joe Devlin and Fred Smerlas instead.

Get the Bills back to the big game!

by Blitz on Jul 24, 2008 11:19 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Wow!

All the way back to 1988? Amazing.
Is this supposed to be interesting in some way other than stroking your own
puported “knowledge?”

by LeClaireBill on Jul 26, 2008 6:31 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

It’s a tribute to the best players he’s seen in his 20 years as a Bills fan. Did you read the article?

by Brian Galliford on Jul 26, 2008 6:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I sure wouldn't call reflection "knowledge" or "interesting"...

...I’m just an interested observer of this franchise. If anything, it’s definitely been an “interesting” 20 years following this team for me. There have been more bad times than good times in recent years, but overall, I enjoyed watching the above 53 players playing for my favorite team…having a frame of reference dating back to 1960 would be great, but I’ve only seen 1988 and thereafter. While I appreciate Kemp, Byrd, Stratton, Ferguson, Cookie, and all the other great players prior to that season, in all honesty, I’m taking the word of others in calling them great players because I never saw them.

...You guys mentioned some other great names above, and I couldn’t argue with any of them. I will say that Smerlas and Devlin were on the downside of their careers by the time I saw them (although I have fond memories of Smerlas’ column in “Shout!” the magazine), but they certainly were great players as well…John I., as usual, I agree…the linebackers in Buffalo have particulary great over the years.

...I’ve admittedly hated watching players like Rob Johnson, Chris Watson, Josh Reed, Jake Arians, Eddie Robinson, Mike Gandy, Marques Sullivan, Robert Royal, and Larry Tripplett ruin many of my autumn Sundays over the last 20 years…It’s just more fun to think back on the good Sundays that were delivered by these players above. Hopefully, this team is ready to start making some more good Sunday memories starting aginst Seattle the first Sunday in September (I’m cautiously optimistic despite my reservations about the head coach).

Never forget 56-10. Revenge.

by SuperFan82 on Jul 27, 2008 10:50 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs