Ugh! Why the hell am I about to write this? Why? Well, I saw a post on twitter saying that it is going to be 20 years on 1/27/11 since that awful day. I know some of my readers probably don’t remember that day as clear as I do, because of the age discrepancies (I’m 31), but it will go down as probably the most traumatic day of my childhood…and I’m serious, too.
Anyways, I had just turned 11 and I really can’t recall my mood heading into Super Bowl XXV. It’s strange, because I remember how I felt about the other Super Bowls prior to kick off (Redskins were going to kill us, had a good feeling about SBXXVII and didn’t the following year because of the previous SB). If you placed a gun to my head, I think I was confident because we had beaten the Giants a month earlier, in a game that Jim Kelly got knocked out of in the first half. I don’t remember Super Bowl week all that much, besides the Bills players surrounding Downtown Julie Brown and how our school held a pep rally for the team in our gym. I even remember the teachers telling us that if the Bills won, we would have Monday off. Why the hell would we get a day off because of a Bills win? Probably because the school would have burned down after the riots.
It’s weird, because I watched the Super Bowl at my uncle’s house, who I really didn’t see that much of. Just very random is the best way I can tell you about watching the game from his couch. Anyways, here’s what I remember:
1) I remember Whitney Houston singing the national anthem.
2) If Jim Kelly would have been able to put more air under his 61-yard completion to James Lofton, it would have went for six.
3) Who is going to win Bud Bowl III?
4) The 9 minute drive by the Giants=being in a Chinese torture chamber.
5) Did Mark fricken Ingram just break 3 tackles?
6) Wow, Thurman Thomas just gave the Bills the lead. I just loved the way he bounced off of Myron Guyton.
Frankly, the stuff I mentioned was kind of a blur. However, I do remember the final drive. Now, when it comes to crunch time and being a Bills fan in 2011, my mentality resembles something along the lines of watching a Nicholas Cage movie, and knowing that the movie was going to bomb at the end. When I was 11, I didn’t have those fears. I felt really confident that we we would win that game. I remember…Keith McKellar’s shoe string catch. I remember Thurman Thomas breaking off a 20-yard run. I remember Jim Kelly scrambling for 8 yards.
Then came the field goal attempt.
I couldn’t bare to watch it. I was a nervous wreck and decided to go into a dark room and just pray. I think I said like a “Our Father, please lot scott make this kick” or something along those lines. About a minute or two into my prayer, I decided to leave the dark room. It was kind of like being a soldier and you were about to leap out of an armour truck to go into battle, without seeing anything, because it was pitch black in the truck.
So, I open the door and I remember seeing the expression on my aunt’s face, as if she had seen a ghost. Then, my uncle, was ranting and raving about how the game was fixed (Trust me, when you are from the old country, all American sports are fixed) Next thing I know, I look up at the screen and the Giants players are celebrating, while some of the Bills players were sitting on the field in disappointment, and one 11-year old was balling his eyes out! I cried for like years it seemed like. It was traumatic. It was a moment that I will always remember. It was death. It really was the start of knowing that everytime you thought the Bills were going to pull a game out, impending doom was on the horizon. I mean, take your pick: McKelvin would fumble the kickoff, Stevie Johnson would drop the football, Kevin Dyson would take it all the way and Chris Drury and Daniel Briere would leave town (opps, wrong sport).
The Bright Spot
So, I think it’s easy to say that my first Bills Super Bowl experience was a nightmare, like I’m sure it was for everyone else. Now, the one positive that I will take out of the situation, and I have to admit, it may be the proudest I have ever been during a Buffalo sports moment, was the rally in downtown Buffalo after the game. Sure, we lost, but there were no losers at this rally.
“We want Scott, We want Scott, We want Scott!”
It is a moment that will never, ever happen again in any sports town. In a world where we vilify a player for making a mistake, Norwood would have been dead as fried chicken. Philly would have burned his house down. New York City would have revoked his subway pass. Chicago would have deep dished his ass. Buffalo would have defaced his lawn (Wait, we did that to a player already) LA…well, LA wouldn’t have given a crap.
Maybe if it were a player like Tom Brady, it would be alright, but this was a kicker. Sure, Norwood was a pro bowl caliber kicker in his prime, but he’s just a kicker. For the fans of Buffalo to give him such a warm reception is just unheard of. Anyways, I’ve told every New Yorker or any other sports fan, that it was a proud moment for Buffalo and it would never be duplicated. It told me that we are a very caring and forgiving city. It really does get me emotional when I think of that rally. If you are ever down on the city of Buffalo, just watch that clip and you’ll get that gushy feeling of pride.
Down the road
Now, six years later…I was 17, and Jim Kelly had just retired, and really, the Bills were not considered to be a Super Bowl contender. Playoffs? Sure. Super Bowl? Not so much. Now, I was just going through my dad’s video cassettes (Probably looking for porn home videos) and I came across a blank tape. I popped it in, and wouldn’t you know it, it was Super Bowl XXV. Now at the time, I obviously had a better football mind because I was older. I still followed the team like I do today. Now, instead of pressing stop on the VCR and setting the tape on fire or throw it out the window, I did the unthinkable…I watched the whole game. Not just once, not just twice, no…I’d say about 30 times in a 3 month span. Yes, 30 fricken times!
I don’t know what it was? Maybe, I love torturing myself? Maybe, I wanted to relive the Super Bowl rush? Maybe, I acted like a jilted lover, who was calling his ex-girlfriend on the phone and then hanging up. Whatever the case may be, after watching the game, I felt totally different about it than I did in 1990. You see, the memories I shared with you are what I recalled at being an 11-year old. Now, I’m going to tell you what I remember from that Super Bowl after watching it as an adult (Well, almost an adult).
1) It wasn’t Norwood’s fault.
2) Marv Levy should have told Jim Kelly to stop passing the ball, because the Giants had only two down lineman. I always laugh when Kelly would talk about how the Bills only had the ball for 19 minutes. Um, someone may want to tell Jim that running the no-huddle offense usually means you’re not going to have the ball that long. Maybe, if you handed the ball off to Thurman more, you would have stayed on the field much longer.
3) The Giants QB must have really worked that stress ball exercise during the week. How on earth didn’t Bruce Smith strip the ball from him on the safety?
4) When the Bills had the ball With a 12-3 lead, Andre Reed had a Pierre Garcon type of drop on 3rd down, killing a drive that would have knocked out the Giants if the Bills had scored.
5) Mark Ingram’s 3rd and 12 catch for a first down, makes my f#$ken skin crawl. I don’t think he makes that play 99 other times.
6) Learn how to tackle!?
7) Marv Levy had an expression on his face (It’s about at the 4:30 mark) that I will never forget when Norwood missed the field goal. It was as if he saw his puppy die in front of him.
8) For the first split second of the kick, it looked like it was going to go straight through, but it hooked.
Yes, that’s about all I can muster up. It saddens me, because if you talk to anyone outside of Buffalo and mention Super Bowl XXV, they will automatically talk about how Scott Norwood missed the field goal, but in all reality, it shouldn’t have come down to that play. The Bills lost this game on so many levels. There had to be at least 10 plays from that football game, that even if the Bills made one of those plays, they win before Norwood attempts
a field goal. Hell, if they made those 10 plays, we are rioting in the city of Buffalo by the end of the 3rd quarter. Very sad.
In closing, it’s been f#cken awful a lot of fun going down memory lane. When I think back to that game, it obviously makes me feel very sad and disappointed. However, there is a part of me that relishes the moment…the moment that the Buffalo Bills were awesome. I feel bad for Buffalonians who are between the ages of 14-24, who don’t remember those teams. You think the town was in a frenzy after the lockout for the Sabres? Please. That pales in comparison. That era, made those Sabres teams look like the Bills of today when it comes to excitement. It was electric. It was a magical run. I can’t describe how incredible it was. Hell, the Bills would lead the news on Sundays. It didn’t matter if the president had just lost the election. Even the back-up QB and kicker had their own TV shows. It was insane! Hopefully, one day, we will get back that excitement. I assure you, if we make it to the Super Bowl and win it, I’m coming home to tip over a police car.
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