WIDE RIGHT

Jim Kelly, along with teammates Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed, gave the Buffalo Bills a highly potent offense in the late 1980s and well into the 1990s. Kelly's quick decisiveness and accuracy terrorized opposing defenses. In 11 seasons Kelly led the Bills to the playoffs eight times. In 17 playoff game appearances, including four consecutive Super Bowls, he passed for 3,863 yards and 21 touchdowns.⁵₃

ANOTHER KEY TO BUFFALO’S SUCCESS was future Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy. In 1987, Levy’s first full season with the Bills, the team had a competitive 7-8 record and remained in the playoff hunt throughout most of the season. The following year the team posted a 12-4 record and won the first of six AFC Eastern Division titles. With his high-powered, no-huddle offense, Levy went on to set a new standard for NFL coaches as he led his AFC championship Bills to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances.

The first was in 1991 in Tampa Bay. They faced another New York team, the downstate Giants and their fiery coach, Bill Parcells. The Giants used running backs Otis Anderson and Dave Meggett to keep the ball out of the Bills’ hands for huge chunks of the game. Despite this keep-away style, Buffalo led twice thanks in large part to the slashing ball carrying and timely pass catching of Thurman Thomas.
(Thomas is one of the elite all-purpose backs in football history and a member of the NFL’s 1990’s all-decade team. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007,⁵⁴ and Marv Levy presented his trophy.)

A field goal in the fourth quarter put the Giants ahead 20-19. But the Bills got one more chance to win. With a few seconds on the clock, Scott Norwood, Buffalo’s reliable kicker, stepped up to a 47-yard field goal attempt. The kick looked strong off Norwood’s foot, and with everyone in the stadium holding their collective breaths, the football sailed high, tantalizingly long, but to the dismay of Buffalo fans it faded wide right.

The heartbreaking Super Bowl loss to the Giants was the only close game, and the Bills best chance, in four straight years. Despite seven receptions by future Hall-of-Famer James Lofton in Super Bowl XXV1, the Bills lost to the Washington Redskins 37-24.⁵⁵ Then they had the misfortune to collide with the Dallas Cowboys at their strongest and were clobbered in 1993 and beaten decisively again in 1994. The Bills set two records in one stretch: four Super Bowl appearances in a row and four consecutive losses.

IT WAS A MIRACLE that the Bills ever got to the 1992 Super Bowl. In the AFC Wild Card game they trailed the Houston Oilers 35-3 early in the second half. Led by backup quarterback Frank Reich subbing for the injured Jim Kelly, the Bills began one of the supreme comebacks in NFL history. Favored by a quick touchdown followed by a successful onside kick, Reich coolly engineered drive after drive, including three touchdown passes to wide receiver Andre Reed. Incredibly, Buffalo scratched back to lead 38-35 with three minutes to play. An Oilers’ three-pointer tied the game in regulation. Capping what seemed impossible when they were down by 32 points, the Bills’ Steve Christie won the game in overtime with a 32-yard field goal.

FRANK REICH, who played at the University of Maryland behind future NFL quarterback star Boomer Esiason, did it all before. As a senior in 1984, he led the Terrapins to one of the most improbable comebacks in college football history.⁵⁶ Down 0-31 to the Miami Hurricanes, Reich orchestrated a 42-40 triumph. Nothing beats a little experience. (October 28, 1989: Ohio State, down 31-0 with 4:29 remaining in the second quarter, beats Minnesota, 41-37, tying (Maryland) the record for largest deficit overcome to win a game.)⁵⁷

AFTER A LONG ABSENCE, Marv Levy, in his eighties and fit, returned to the Bills in 2006 in a front-office position. It just didn’t seem right to see him out of football and living in Chicago. But in late 2007, he retired again. The Bills without Levy is like Buffalo without chicken wings or Niagara without the Falls.

SOURCES
53 Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.jsp?player_id=128, available as of 6/1/05
54 Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.jsp?player_id=253, available as of 8/5, 2007
55 Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.jsp?player_id=131, available as of 6/1/05
56 Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, http://www.profootballhof.com/history/decades/1990s/greatest_comeback.jsp, available as of 10/8/05/
57 Courtesy of the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame, http://www.collegefootball.org/news.php?id=718, available as of 10/3/05

(“Wide Right” was excerpted from Guts in the Clutch: 77 Legendary Triumphs, Heartbreaks and Wild Finishes in 12 Sports, with a Foreword by Drew Olson of ESPN. Amazon print and e-Book, Nook and Google e-Books.)

“The best compilation of sports stories I have read.” –David Houle, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer of documentaries on Hank Aaron and the Harlem Globetrotters