E-Mail
Print
19 years ago today the Bills got annihilated by the Cowboys in Super Bowl 27. Monday was the 18th anniversary of the loss to Dallas the following year. Last Friday marked 21 years since Norwood's kick went wide right in Super Bowl 25 against the Giants and the day before that marked 20 years since the loss to Washington in Super Bowl 26.
Thanks for the reminder, right? Look, I know. We don't just sound like the old guys in the bar talking about how great it used to be. We have become the old guys in the bar talking about how great it used to be. It happens to all of us about something, sometime. My approach to it these days is to embrace it without letting it consume me.
I still get emotional thinking about wide right. Not so much about the loss, but for how it hit me. I wanted that kick to go through more than I can remember wanting anything in my life. Years later I think that's because at the time, the Bills were the thing that tied me to home, to my Dad. I spent 1988-1991 in New Haven and missed the start of the glory days for the Bills. When I talked to my Dad then it was like it always has been and still is. We talked about the Bills, their quarterback and their line, and whether or not their defense was good enough.
When you're 25 years old you don't look at these things the way time gives you the liberty to look back on them now. I know that when they were lining up for that kick I was thinking about a living room 500 miles away in West Seneca. Afterward I sat with my head in my hands for a good long while, maybe an hour, maybe more.
Over the years I've talked many times about this and have found myself feeling almost embarrassed that I can still get so emotional about it even now. I think the passage of time hasn't softened the blow. In fact, knowing that I'm already the old guy in the bar talking about how great it used to be only makes it worse. I'll be 47 in July. Dad will be 79 in September.
I heard a guy my age talking on the radio the other day about how many more good years of working he had before retirement and when he said maybe 15 years I went, "hey, whoa, what the, 15 years?".
These days I worry more about whether or not I'll have an NFL team to grow old with than I do about when they might actually be good enough to consider, you know, winning.
It would be pretty great if we could that sorted out soon.
You know what they say about time, right?
It goes by.
Thanks for the reminder, right? Look, I know. We don't just sound like the old guys in the bar talking about how great it used to be. We have become the old guys in the bar talking about how great it used to be. It happens to all of us about something, sometime. My approach to it these days is to embrace it without letting it consume me.
I still get emotional thinking about wide right. Not so much about the loss, but for how it hit me. I wanted that kick to go through more than I can remember wanting anything in my life. Years later I think that's because at the time, the Bills were the thing that tied me to home, to my Dad. I spent 1988-1991 in New Haven and missed the start of the glory days for the Bills. When I talked to my Dad then it was like it always has been and still is. We talked about the Bills, their quarterback and their line, and whether or not their defense was good enough.
When you're 25 years old you don't look at these things the way time gives you the liberty to look back on them now. I know that when they were lining up for that kick I was thinking about a living room 500 miles away in West Seneca. Afterward I sat with my head in my hands for a good long while, maybe an hour, maybe more.
Over the years I've talked many times about this and have found myself feeling almost embarrassed that I can still get so emotional about it even now. I think the passage of time hasn't softened the blow. In fact, knowing that I'm already the old guy in the bar talking about how great it used to be only makes it worse. I'll be 47 in July. Dad will be 79 in September.
I heard a guy my age talking on the radio the other day about how many more good years of working he had before retirement and when he said maybe 15 years I went, "hey, whoa, what the, 15 years?".
These days I worry more about whether or not I'll have an NFL team to grow old with than I do about when they might actually be good enough to consider, you know, winning.
It would be pretty great if we could that sorted out soon.
You know what they say about time, right?
It goes by.