NFL Team Profile - The Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills: An overview of one of the smaller NFL franchises
Matt Lively continues his series profiling every NFL franchise, in today’s edition, we are talking about the Buffalo Bills!
Buffalo Bills - A History
The Buffalo Bills are one of the original teams in the National Football League. They were admitted into the league as the seventh team. The franchise was awarded to Ralph C. Wilson on October 28, 1959. Since that time, the Bills have experienced extended periods of both championship dominance and second-division frustration.
The Bills didn’t have much success in their first few seasons but that finally broke in the fourth season. In 1963, the Bills tied for the AFL Eastern division crown but lost to the Boston Patriots in a playoff. The Bills played in the AFL before the AFL and the NFL merged together.
Wilson owned the Bills from 1965 until he died in 2014 at the age of 95. The Bills have had a very up and down history that included four straight Super Bowl trips and the longest active playoff drought in NFL history at one point.
The Bills were originally called the Bisons but the new nickname "Bills" was a reference to frontiersman Buffalo Bill Cody, and was chosen instead of other clever names suggested including Blue Devils, Nickels, and Bullets.
Stadium
The Bills have been playing in the same stadium since 1973. It was first named Rich Stadium, then Ralph Wilson Stadium, New Era Field and it is now referred to as Bills Stadium.
The stadium opened in 1973 located in Orchard Park, New York. The first playoff game came in 1988. The stadium holds over 71,000 fans.
Bills Playoffs and Championship record
The Bills have one of the wildest playoff histories in NFL history. They are owners of two AFL Championships in 1964 and 1965. The NFL and AFL would merge later and that’s when the Bills really made history.
The Bills are the only team in NFL history to win four consecutive Conference Championships but are also the only team to lose in four consecutive Super Bowls. They have a 14-17 record all-time in the playoffs, but their Super Bowl history is unprecedented.
From 1991-1994, the Bills made four different trips to the Super Bowl. They were defeated every single year, and even lost one year on a field goal that was missed from their own kicker. They were defeated by the New York Giants, Washington Redskins and then twice in back-to-back years by the Dallas Cowboys.
The Best Coach in Team History
The greatest coach in team history is hands down Marv Levy. Levy led the Bills from 1986 to 1997. He led the Bills to four Super Bowl appearances, four AFC Conference Championships, seven Division Championships and eight winning seasons, with six of them coming in a row.
In all, Levy’s record with the Bills is 112-70. He was the creator of the “hurry up” offense that changed the game of football forever. He took the Bills to the playoffs eight times out of his 11 seasons. Levy was also AFC Coach of the Year in 1988, 1993 and 1995, and won NFL Coach of the Year honors in 1988.
While Levy is forever known as the Bills greatest coach, he is also known as the head coach who couldn’t pull off a Super Bowl win in the four trips that he took.
Three Best Players in Franchise History
Jim Kelly
Kelly played for the Bills for ten extremely successful seasons and is one of the greatest QB’s in NFL history. After taking the Bills to four straight Super Bowls, Kelly was inducted into the NFL’s Hall of Fame in 2002. He went to five Pro Bowls, he owns almost every single Bills team record in passing and ranks in the top 10 in many statistical categories.
Bruce Smith
The hard hitting defensive end was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2009 after playing for the Bills from 1985 to 1999. Smith was there through all the ups and downs of the 90’s success. Named to NFL’s Team of the Decade in both the 1980s and 1990s, Smith also anks 20th in NFL history with 279 games played and was the first overall pick in 1985.
Thurman Thomas
Thomas was the go-to back when the Bills had their success in the 1990s. The offensive powerhouse played in Buffalo from 1988 to 1999. Thomas was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007 and is only one of three players in the Bills Ring of Honor with Kelly and Smith. He is the first player in NFL history to lead NFL in yards from scrimmage four straight years
Greatest Draft Pick in Team History
The Bills drafted Bruce Smith with the number one overall pick in the 1985 NFL Draft. An Outland Trophy winner as the nation’s top collegiate lineman at Virginia Tech, Smith made an immediate impact upon his arrival at One Bills Drive.
The hard-hitting freshman was AFC Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1985, and for the next 15 years, the hits, and awards, kept on coming. Bruce was a nine-time Pro Bowl selection (a Bills team record), a first-team All-Pro selection by multiple publications in multiple seasons, a four-time UPI Defensive Player of the Year, Defensive Lineman of the Year in multiple seasons, Pro Bowl Most Valuable Player in 1987, and finalist for the Miller Lite NFL Player of the Year in 1994.
Best Free Agent Signing or Trade in Team History
The best trade in the Bills history was actually for a draft pick. After selecting Tom Cousineau first overall in the 1979 NFL Draft, he decided he was not going to play in the league and instead play in the Canadian Football League.
After winning a Grey Cup, Cousineau expressed interest in playing in the NFL again. The Bills traded him to the Cleveland Browns for a first-round draft pick.
The team was able to turn that pick into Jim Kelly. In the end, it was probably a good thing that Cousineau went to Montreal instead of Buffalo.
The Team’s Greatest Moment
The greatest moment in team history came in the form of a comeback. The Bills trailed 35-3 in the Wild Card game during 1992. They trailed the Houston Oilers by 32 points but mounted the ultimate comeback.
Davis would score from one yard out followed by four touchdown passes from Reich, three going to Andre Reed.
Miraculously, the Bills held a fourth quarter lead. Houston would tie the game on a field goal and the game went to overtime. In the extra period, Buffalo would win on a Steve Christie 32-yard field goal. Buffalo stole a 41-38 win and completed the largest comeback in NFL history. Reich threw for 289 yards and four touchdowns in the place of Kelly. Davis carried the ball 13 times for 68 yards and a touchdown after replacing Thomas.
