This is the best weekend of the year if you’re a Bills fan. Opening Day. A new season. A new beginning. A new reason to believe. Because until the season actually begins, and the Bills begin to dash our hopes, anything is possible.
It’s not the biggest game of the year. It’s not the most important. But it’s the first. It’s the season kickoff. And it’s special.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t always been kind to the Bills. They lost their very first season opener. Not to mention their second, third, and fourth before they finally won the opening game of their fifth season. Marv Levy lost his first opening day. So did Lou Saban (twice). So did Chuck Knox. So did every single Bills head coach except...believe it or not....Joe Collier.
But over the years, there have been some truly memorable opening games. And some of them were memorable in a good way. Here’s my list of five that stand out.
September 16, 1973: The Juice is loose
Before he killed two people (allegedly) OJ Simpson killed ‘em on the football field. Not right away. He struggled his first couple years, and there were those who thought he would be a bust in the pros. But in 1972 he had his first 1,000-yard season. And 1973 was magical. And the opening game kicked it off in a big way. Simpson ran over, around, and through the New England Patriots in Foxboro. He ran for 250 yards. A new NFL record. Two touchdowns, one of them a spectacular 80-yard run. And the Bills stomped the Patriots, 31-13. Simpson would have two more 200-yard games that season….another one against the Pats, and then the season finale against the Jets, when his final carry gave him the first 2,000-yard season in NFL history. Others have broken his record, but they took 16 games…OJ is the only one to do it in a 14-game season. And that opening day set the tone.
September 7, 2003: Pounding the Pats
Is this really the last time the Bills beat the New England Patriots? Yep. 15 straight and counting. But the last Bills victory was a good one. 31 to nothing. Oh, the memories. The Bills intercepting Tom Brady four times. Including a pick by Lawyer Milloy, cut by the Pats and signed by the Bills just that week. Another by Sam Adams…how can we forget the 300-pounder rumbling stumbling his way 37 yards into the end zone. On the offensive side, Drew Bledsoe was still good back then. Travis Henry scored two touchdowns that day. (12 points for the man with 11 children!) It was a good old-fashioned butt-whipping. Which is pretty much what the Pats have done to the Bills ever since. But on this opening day, the Bills ruled the Ralph.
September 9, 2007: A chilling moment
It may be the scariest sight ever at Ralph Wilson Stadium. (except for the time we saw Dick Jauron smile….people still have nightmares about that) But on this day, every person at the stadium and everyone watching on television held their breath at the second half kickoff when we saw Kevin Everett lying still on the field….and we saw the replays of the collision that left him paralyzed. Not to mention in danger of dying. We didn’t know at the time how close he came to losing his life….but we knew it was bad. Really bad. Imagine being one of the Bills players that day….trying to go on with a game (a game!) after the ambulance took your teammate away and you saw the look on the faces of the medical staff. The Bills were leading Denver at the time. The Broncos took the lead, the Bills got it back….but then Denver won the game on a last-second field goal. As we know, Everett made a miraculous recovery thanks to trend-setting treatment, and was walking again later that year. That may be the biggest victory ever by a Buffalo Bill.
September 10, 1989: Magic in Miami
The Bills opened the 1989 season on the road against the Dolphins….and it provided one of the most memorable moments of the Jim Kelly era. The Dolphins led the game 10-3 at halftime, and when they took a 24-13 lead in the 4th quarter, things looked pretty good for our hated rivals in front of their obnoxious fans at Joe Robbie Stadium. (Personal note: I lived in Miami then and I was at that game with a group of fellow former Buffalonians…taking our lives in our hands by wearing Bills shirts in a stadium full of coke-fueled, gun-toting Dolfans) But the Bills closed the gap to 24-20 when Kelly threw a touchdown pass to Flip Johnson. An interception of Dan Marino gave the Bills the ball back….and with two seconds left, the Bills were on the Dolphins two-yard line with time for one last play. Kelly shocked everyone (especially the Dolphins defense) with a quarterback draw….he made it over the goal line and the Bills won a last-second thriller, 27-24.
September 7, 1980: Snapping “The Streak”
The mother of all great season-openers. The mother of all memorable Bills-Dolphins games. The end of “The Streak”. If you’re old enough, you lived through it….if not, you’ve heard about it for years. Oh for the 70’s. The Dolphins beat the Bills every single time they played in that decade. 20 straight. No other team in the history of the NFL has lost as many consecutive games to another team as the Bills did to the Dolphins. (of course the Bills’ losing streak to the Patriots is getting dangerously close….but let’s not worry about that for a couple more years)
But 1980 was a new decade….and with Chuck Knox as coach, Bills fans were hopeful. Nearly 80,000 filled Rich Stadium for opening day…..and they got their money’s worth. A 17-7 Bills win that led to the wildest celebration ever at the stadium….fans pouring onto the field and tearing down the goalposts. Breaking the curse. Getting a decade-long monkey off their backs. For my money, 31 years later it is still the best opening day ever for Bills fans.
So what will it be this year? Well, the game is in Kansas City, where recent Bills games have certainly been entertaining. Last year we had the last-second overtime loss, and in 2008 the Bills scored 54 points against the Chiefs. (That’s when Trent Edwards was still good) Will we have a memorable game? Will we have a memorable moment? It’s Opening Day. Anything is possible.
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