Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team playing in the AFC East and coming from Orchard Park, Buffalo, New York. The name originates from a public election in 1946. James F. Dyson was one of the people proposing the name Bills and won $500 when his proposal was chosen. Other names among the 4500 suggestions were “Bullets”, “Nickels” and “Blue Devils”.
The Buffalo Bills were one of the founder members of the American Football League (AFL). In a league that was dominated by offensive team, the Bills were a very good defensive team. In 1964, the defense had their all-time record, only allowing their opponents 300 running attempts during the whole season. They only allowed a total of 914 running yards or about 65 yards a game which is still a record in the National Football League today. In this very year, the Buffalo Bills were the only team to win 13 games and won the title in the AFL. In 1965 they were able to repeat their success and also played the title game. Although they lost the title game, they were the only AFL team that reached the final in 4 consecutive seasons (1963 to 1966). In the 1969 NFL drafts, the Bills were able to draft O.J. Simpson who had a huge influence on the team during the 1970s.
After the union of the American Football League (AFL) and the National Football League (NFL), the Bills were not very successful until coach Lou Saban returned to the franchise in 1972 and brought them back to the top of the league. 1973 was a year of many changes for the Buffalo Bills, Joe Ferguson became the new Quarterback, they started to play in a new stadium and O.J. Simpson had a season with 2000 running yards which made him the most valuable player of the National Football League. This year was the first positive season and the first time the Bills reached the play-offs in the NFL. The rest of the 1970s didn’t have many heights, in 1977 O.J. Simpson was traded to the San Francisco 49ers and Chuck Know became the new coach.
In 1983, the Buffalo Bills drafted quarterback Jim Kelly, who first played for the Houston Gamblers in the new United States Football League (USFL). Only after the comedown of the USFL, Kim Kelly started to play for the Buffalo Bills. With him and running back Thurman Thomas, who joined the franchise in 1988, the team started to approach the top of the league. With their so-called “K-Gun” offense, they played the Super Bowl in 1991 and also the following three years. To this day, the Buffalo Bills are the only team to reach the Super Bowl four times in a row and it’s really fun to watch Buffalo Bills games. The downside was that the team lost all four Super Bowls.
|