The Bills to honor their 50th anniversary team

The Buffalo Bills will hold a ceremony during halftime of Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to commemorate their 50th anniversary all-time team, which includes several players from their Super Bowl years. The ceremony is part of the franchise’s celebration of a half-century of football. Here is team:

Offense:

Quarterback Jim Kelly; running back Thurman Thomas; wide receivers Andre Reed, Eric Moulds and James Lofton; tight end Pete Metzelaars; offensive linemen Billy Shaw, Joe DeLamielleure, Ruben Brown, Kent Hull and Jim Ritcher; kicker Steve Christie.

Defense:

Defensive linemen Bruce Smith, Fred Smerlas and Sestak; linebackers Darryl Talley, Cornelius Bennett, Mike Stratton and Shane Conlan; defensive backs Butch Byrd, Nate Odomes, George Saimes and Henry Jones

Punter Brian Moorman and special teams man Tasker.

Marv Levy

I had written earlier in the Summer that the Bills should make a yearly turn back the clock day like they do for the Yankees. I guess this is the best they can do. It still should be a pretty cool scene at the stadium with all 26 players getting an introduction from former Bills play-by-play man Van Miller to run out of that tunnel.

I’m trying to remember who I voted for the All-Bills team in the Spring. Looking at the list now, I don’t think I voted for Shane Conlan. To be honest, I feel Conlan was overrated and was living off a reputation he got from Penn State (kind of like Poz). I’d of rather had Takeo Spikes on the team, whom I’m sure you could make the case Spikes didn’t belong, because he only played 4 years with the Bills. But Spikes was outstanding 2 of those years. If James Lofton can make it on the team for just being with the Bills for 3 years, so could Spikes who was better in his short time in Buffalo than Conlan was in his 6 years with the Bills.

And of course there is the OJ question. I mean we all know the Bills purposely only had 1 running back slot on the team, so fans could either vote for Thurman or OJ in the slot and not both. I never watched OJ play, but the dude had 2,000 yards in 1972 and it was only in 14 games. Of course the murders of two people, along with him getting sent to prison for stealing back his football cards didn’t help the matter. I voted for Thurman for the record.

Another player left off the nominee roster was Doug Flutie. Now I know, there was no way he could of beaten out Jim Kelly, but the Bills had fricken Frank Reigh as one of the quarterback nominees. Don’t get me wrong Frank was cool and all, but the dude was the back-up quarterback for god sake! I’m sure the Bills PR people didn’t want the Flutie Flake maniacs to come out of the woodwork and give Kelly a run for his money. Even though I don’t think that would of happened.

Didn’t watch much of the Bills during the 80’s, but I always heard Fred Smerlas was the man for the Bills. He better of have been, considering I voted for Ted Washington because he would eat up guards and centers for lunch. But Smerlas was a fan favorite, so I’m sure that was a factor in the voting.

Either way I hope the Bills look at this day and try and make some sort of a yearly throw back day and honor former players . The Yankees did one this year, and I know their history is like a bible in comparison to the Bills comic book. But the Yankees had a lot of role players like Jeff Nelson and Chad Curtis attend the ceremony. Who says the Bills can’t have Ted Washington and Kenneth Davis come back to Buffalo.