Sports Then and Now

A defense that includes former All-Pros Shawne Merriman (#56) and Nick Barnett has fans excited in Buffalo.

All of a sudden Buffalo Head Coach Chan Gailey and General Manager Buddy Nix are starting to look like geniuses.

Until a week ago, even the most loyal, optimistic Bills fans were being tempted to doubt. After a mostly dismal pre-season, the popular prognosis for the Bills ranged from regression to no improvement to a 6-10 record at best.

But then Buffalo spanked the Chiefs 41-7 for their most lopsided opening day win since the O.J. Simpson era. Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick had a nearly flawless game, and the Bills defense was looking like a cross between the classic Purple People Eaters and the Steel Curtain– or maybe– the much heralded “No-Name” Dolphins defense of the ‘70’s.

It was impressive and surprising for everyone. From the most subjective Bills fan to the most jaded pundit, everyone was left speechless– except, perhaps to say, “Wow!”  In fact, one NFL journalist had predicted a 42-7 score favoring Kansas City just days before the season opener. Wow! No, really. Wow!

But of course the question was, how real was that? Was it a fluke? Could the Bills repeat the performance against another tough running team like the Raiders? Certainly not, most handicappers insisted. Even The Buffalo News predicted a 20-14 loss.

And then, as the home opener commenced in front of a sold out Ralph Wilson Stadium, and Oakland jumped out to a 21-3 halftime lead, most people– even the most loyal fans, if they were to be honest– had to be thinking the Chiefs game really was a fluke.

“Same old Bills. Get our hopes up just to dash them. We’ll be 1-1, and the Patriots are coming next week.”

Well, at least that’s what I was thinking, hard as I tried to stay hopeful.

But then the second half started and a football game broke out. Bills fans began to wonder where the real Bills had been hiding in the first half, and who were those imposters spotting the Raiders 18 points? The team that took the field in the second half came out with a vengeance, scored 21 unanswered points, and then got into a barn burner of a shootout that reminded those of us who are old enough to remember, of a Monday night game in 1974 when the Bills beat the Raiders at home, after exchanging touchdowns twice in the final minute of the game. Read the rest of this entry →

The Steve Bartman foul ball is just one of many unlucky moments for the Chicago Cubs and their fans.

Today is Friday, the 13th, a date that superstitious people believe is unlucky.

With that in mind, here is a list of the 13 most unlucky teams in professional sports.

These are teams that have not won championships in the past few decades, have suffered numerous devastating losses, and fan bases that believe that their team is cursed.

13. Phoenix Suns (NBA)
The Suns have more regular season wins than any other NBA franchise without an NBA championship, as there have 19 seasons where the team won at least 50 games, three of those of at least 60 wins, and been to the NBA Finals twice, only to lose both times.

Suns fans believe the reason for their bad luck stems for the 1969 NBA Draft where the Suns and Milwaukee Bucks were up for the number one pick, which would be decided by a coin flip.

The winner of the coin toss would get the #1 pick and would select Lew Alcindor, now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Suns executive Jerry Colangelo called “heads”, but the coin landed “tails” and the Bucks won the rights for the #1 pick and of course picked Alcindor, who led Milwaukee to a NBA title just two years later.

12. Philadelphia Eagles (NFL)
The Eagles have gone over a half a century without a NFL title, their last championship coming in 1960.

Most of the Eagles’ heartbreak has come in the 21st century as the team has made five appearances in the NFC Championship Game, only winning once in 2004, where they advance to Super Bowl XXXIX and lost to the New England Patriots 24-21.

Philadelphia also appeared in Super Bowl XV but lost to the Oakland Raiders and lost the famous “Fog Bowl” to the Chicago Bears in a loss that many Eagle fans feel cost them another appearance in the Super Bowl. Read the rest of this entry →

At 6-foot-3 and 250 pounds, Cookie Gilchrist was bigger than most defensive players of his era.

Unless you are a long-time follower of the Buffalo Bills or a fan of the old AFL, you probably aren’t familiar with the name of Cookie Gilchrist. However, Gilchrist, who passed away earlier this week at the age of 75, was one of the early stars of the AFL and one of the few football greats never to play in college.

Though signing high school players was against NFL rules, Cleveland Browns Coach Paul Brown was given a special exemption by Commissioner Bert Bell to give Gilchrist a tryout following his senior year at Har-Brack High School in Pennsylvania.

Gilchrist left during training camp when he was not guaranteed a roster position. Had he ended up with the Browns, he might have eventually been paired with Jim Brown and perhaps formed one of the most devastating backfields in football history.

Instead, Gilchrist spent two years in the Ontario Rugby Football Union before moving to the Canadian Football League in 1956.

Gilchrist played for three different teams during six seasons in the CFL, but at each stop he was a standout and key performer. He was a five-time All-Star as a fullback and in 1958 rushed for 1,254 yards. He also played defense and was an All-Star linebacker in 1960.

During his CFL career, Gilchrist rushed for 4,911 yards, caught passes for 1,068 yards and intercepted 12 passes.

He joined the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League for the third season of the league in 1962 and the 6-foot-3, 250 pound fullback immediately became one of the top stars in the league.

Larger than most of the defensive players who were trying to tackle him, in 1962 Gilchrist became the first player in AFL history to rush for more than 1,000 yards as he gained 1,096 yards with 13 rushing touchdowns. He also kicked for the Bills that season and finished second in the league with 128 points. Read the rest of this entry →

Neither Chan Gailey or Ryan Fitzpatrick was the first choice of Buffalo fans, but they could end up being the right fits.

Here in Buffalo, Monday morning quarterbacking has become the dominant sport, since what happens on the gridiron and on the ice isn’t close to what it used to be in this town. The big fear, especially where the Bills are concerned, is that it won’t be like that again.

I define “Monday morning quarterbacking” broadly for purposes of this discussion, to include prescribing and second guessing personnel decisions as well as game day decisions. Once the woebegone era of Dick Jauron finally ended, there was a flurry of wishful speculation about somehow acquiring a marquis coach and a marquis quarterback. When the dust all settled and we had Chan Gailey as our coach and nobody new as our quarterback, the “nabobs of negativism,” to quote Spiro Agnew, were burning up the airwaves and the blogosphere.

How quickly things change. Today I saw a tweet that said, “Remember when we wanted Mike Shanahan as a coach and Donovan McNabb as our quarterback?”

And there you have it. When a crisis comes, we humans are always inclined to fight the last war, whether it is literal war, or the symbolic kind waged in arenas. Truth is, if we were to analyze the success rate of big name coaches or players reborn or recycled in new venues, especially when the new assignment is a losing franchise, it is more bust than boom. Even the big Tuna, Bill Parcells couldn’t match his New England success in Dallas and couldn’t match his lesser Dallas success in Miami.

The problem—or opportunity, depending on how you see it—is, that most of the best coaches in the NFL come up through the coordinator ranks. More often than not they have been the understudy to a great coach, but not always. Read the rest of this entry →

Is it still too early to decide if Chan Gailey is the right man to turn around the Bills?

One thing about Chan Gailey in Buffalo is certain. Paradox. Irony. He’s definitely playing against type. Think of the three great former Bills coaches: Saban, Knox, and Levy. They were articulate, sophisticated, all business.

Enter Chan Gailey, strong Texan-Southern accent, informal, grandfatherly, stumbles over his words not infrequently. When he sits down at a post-game press conference and tells you how badly he feels for his players because they tried so hard, you definitely get the grandfatherly feeling.

We Yankees (as in anyone who isn’t from the South or Texas/Oklahoma) tend to discount people with a southern accent. We write off the folksy informality as not smart or at least not serious.

And of course we Bills fans had our hopes of getting a high profile coach fed by Bills owner Ralph Wilson offering $10 million to Mike Shanahan, and were completely let down in the anti-climax of Gailey’s hiring.

But now that we’ve had sufficient exposure to Chan Gailey, what’s the verdict? Is he our coach because the price was right for Wilson, still perceived as a cheapskate despite the lip service paid to winning? Or is Gailey truly the right man for the terrible job of coaching the Buffalo Bills back to respectability?

I reserve the right to adjust or reverse my position at the end of the season, but for now, I’m arguing the latter. Read the rest of this entry →