With two weeks to go in the 2011 National Football League regular season Denver Broncos fans are aware that two wins punch the Broncos’ ticket into the playoffs. One win, in the right situation combining with losses by others, can do the same thing.
And the first of our remaining two opponents is Buffalo, in Buffalo.
I always like the idea of the Broncos playing the Buffalo Bills. Certainly, they are a tough opponent, playing before their usual rabid home crowd, so my feeling is not that they are any easier than anyone else.
I just like it anytime the Broncos play against an original American Football League team, one of the franchises that came into pro football at the same time as the Broncos.
But in actuality, Buffalo’s pro football history extends back a lot farther than that.
Buffalo had its first pro football franchise in the very first year of play for the NFL, 1920. They were called the Buffalo All-Americans, and they had a 9-1-1 record good enough for third in the league, even though no official standings were maintained for the 1920 season.
The championship was awarded to the Akron Pros in a league meeting in April of 1921. That first year was very rag-tag in terms of organization, and many of the clubs played games against local athletic clubs, any team they could find, really, so results and schedules were a mishmash.
The Buffalo All-Americans continued play through the 1923 season, then Buffalo was represented by the Bisons from in 1924 and 1925, then they became the Buffalo Rangers in 1926, back to the Bisons in 1927, no team at all in 1928, and then the Bisons had their final year of play in the original NFL in 1929, going 1-7-1.
That was right about the time when pro football was gaining stability, and the weaker franchises were consolidating with others, willingly or by financial force, or just being disbanded and fading away.
So Buffalo faded out of pro football until 1946, when the All America Football Conference was formed.
I realize that sounds like a college organization, with the league called a “conference,” but it was a four-year rival to the NFL.
The Buffalo franchise was the Bills, and one year they even played the Cleveland Browns for the league title. Losing to owner/coach Paul Brown and Hall of Fame quarterback Otto Graham.
In fact, the Browns completely dominated the AAFC, winning the league championship all four years, before the AAFC folded and the NFL took in three teams, the Baltimore Colts and San Francisco 49ers along with the perennial champion Browns.
The addition of the 49ers gave the NFL a West Coast rival for the Los Angeles Rams, but Buffalo was again left out in the cold.
By the way, the Browns showed that they and the AAFC were no fluke, as Cleveland won their NFL divisional title its first six straight years in the NFL, giving them 10 straight championship seasons spread over two leagues.
Anyway, the Bills were out, and it looked like for good, until Lamar Hunt came along with his desire to create another second pro football league, after having been rebuffed on his request for an NFL expansion team for Dallas on numerous occasions.
So the Bills were born, or reborn, or re-re-born, depending on how you count their previous incarnations, and this time they gave a face to pro football in Western New York.
In 1964 the Bills went 12-2 and won the league title over San Diego, repeating the feat the following year.
Their coach for those tremendous championship teams, Lou Saban, came to Denver on a 10-year contact to rebuild the Broncos—actually, to build from complete scratch—in 1967.
Saban was a very intense, competitive and combative coach and after five years of his project in Denver his frustration led him to resign, but by then he had created a level or respectability for pro football in Denver that had not existed previously.
Of course, all our readers know that Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy and Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly led the Bills to four straight AFC titles and Super Bowl appearances, and many readers will remember farther back to when Lou Saban—in his second Buffalo incarnation—had fine teams with O.J. Simpson and the offensive line known as The Electric Company.
But not many readers will remember all the way back.
And the thing about history is, it goes back all the way.
This was just a very quick look back with the reminder to all that our opponent Sunday has had a noble history with ups, downs, championships and failures.
And through it all—most recently, since the AFL’s beginnings in 1960—one man has owned the Buffalo Bills.
Ralph Wilson has had the team all that time, rejecting every possibility of moving his Bills to a different city, a bigger city. Ralph Wilson stayed the course, eventually watching his team go to four consecutive Super Bowls. He truly earned his spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The Bills and Buffalo and synonymous, and the Broncos and Bills will forever share a bond as AFL originals.
This is a nice matchup Saturday.
There is no rivalry like one that goes back to the day.
Tags: Buffalo Bills, Jim Saccomano
Christmas shopping made me miss the deadline last week so here it is early Bay…
SCORE PREDICTION:
BRONCOS 17
BILLS 10
Broncos Win : 21 – 17
This year I don’t think i will be part of Bay’s scoreboard, but someday..i will get on it
Well you definitely wont if you dont play!! lol crazy week in the NFL though colts winning, orton and the Chiefs beating Rodgers and the pack on an off day for their standards lol
I find it hilarious that Fitzpatrick hasnt won since getting paid… Or maybe once? Either way they paid him way to early lol make him work all year!!!
Den- 24
Buf- 16
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!
Same here to you strand…. enjoy reading yours and BFE’s blogs re: music.
Sorry to interupt you guys in mid convo lol
Den 24-3
Von get 5 sacks
DJ int sack
Doom 1 sack
Tebow 18-25 250 yds 2TD 50yds rushing
risky, if that happens you will see a slightly intoxicated man doing backflips across the field lol that would be amazing to see live!
in all fairness to Fitz……..I think the bill’s problems go way deeper than his play. I think they just got too full of themselves and forgot what got them there in the first place……….
kinda like our 6-0 start? lol
Denver – 27
Buffalo – 17
I agree 100% losing Jackson definitely hurt Fitz, but having said that they have looked like a completely different team…. The Bills get a lot of exposure where I live… There was a lot of Bills koolaid being consumed when they were 5-2 with winsover the Pats and overhyped Eagles.
Bills Offense – ranked 14th
Rush Offense – 13th
Pass Offense – 14th
Bills Defense – ranked 26th
Bills Pass Defense – 16th
Bills Rush Defense – 29th
My bad… Bills pass offense ranked 15th.
I admitted the sketch was funny but just wanted to point out that Christianity especially when an individual does it the right way is often made fun of than any other faith. Which I don’t appreciate. But thier job is to be funny, push the envelope, and talk about anything currently popular and have fun wit it.
KillerKod, Its all the same thing, wether you thank God or your lord and savior Jesus Christ. All the same thing. Some thank thier “Lord God” or “heavenly father” … it just depends on the relationship you feel with him and how you wanna personalize your thanks. Some say its over kill but i dont think it is. He is just giving his thanks. People act like he is forcing it down thier throats. Faith says give God thanks in all things. So he does, followed by his teammate, the 2 entities that help him play at the level he does.
BrianSchnieder, Its crazy, but I love the AFL Yellow and brown uniform. Whenever I play madden, I select it alot. Those vertical socks are awesome. Its such a unique Jersey and the more you see it the more it grows on you. Also just got that Old School feel and now that we play so old school with our ground and pound, that would be awesome to wear but I don’t think we will. We only did that year cuz of 50th anniversary or somethign like that. Plus im sure they woulda mentioned if we would by now.
TRB
nmbronco88,
September man as well I see. i was born 9/25/88
TRB
well i thought i was the youngest on here but i was born 7-8-87 guess we got a couple 88 guys on here
I also kinda dug the brown and yellow uni’s………..they were unique to say the least! lol
i have a feeling we will start having a huge increase in young fans due to tim tebow he is a guy that i think younger crowds will love.
why do people put up ridiculous game predictions?
DEN – 20
BUF – 13
champ gets 7 picks
dj has 22 tackles
miller gets 11.4 sacks
and optimus gets 300 yards receiving
the only thing i like about the brown and yellow uniforms was that we wore them when we beat the pats two years ago.
ill one up you champ gets 8 picks lmao
Probably Millerqbkiller. Wouldn’t shock me. And possibly an influx of female fans too lol.
But um … even we aren’t the youngest. Doc is … but he rarely gets on anymore. used to alot like a year ago. I believe he goes by cdudbronco these days. I could be mistaking. Back then he was like 16, should be like 17 now.
TRB
true trb i didnt think about the amount of ladies that our gushing over tebow and what he is doing right now
Maybe we shoulda worn it agaisnt the pats last sunday to get some of that mojo back from 2 years ago lol
How do you get 11.4 sacks? .4 to you, .4 to someone else and .2 Dennis Allen for a great play call? lol
i think von needs to put that club on his fist to good use and whack that damn ball out when he is sacking fitz.
Bills are gonna be good next year. Thier hot start was no fluke. They have the potential and now they will get another to pick to make thier team even better since they keep losing. Man … last year was the first year in top 10 in a long time, we darn near had our pick of the litter. Twas fun. This year we maybe in the 20s lol. TRB
Doom hasnt had a chance to sack like he did in his sack king year. He had this doule over hand tackle he always did on QBs from the back that almost always forced a fumble. These days his only sacks have come head on. Needs to fine a way behind em for his imfamous strip sack.
TRB
im trying to groom my 4 year old into a denver fan she has showed little intrest so far though. she would rather listen to justin bieber. damn lol
doom has came on strong as of late though i think he has like 7 or 8 sacks already and he didnt start the season to good.
lol miller………
I have an 8 month old and she sits in my arms and watches the games with me. She’ll come to learn that daddy time on sundays means broncos football. she’ll be getting her own jersey soon enough. lol
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/sports/denver-sackmasters-dumervil-and-miller
TRB, I am seriously laughing out loud!
.2 to Allen for a great play call?!!!!! That was funnier than the SNL skit where Prater is being thanked! Great stuff
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!
ya feel you there killerkod thats funny i have an 8 month old as well.
well she will be 8 months on christmas day so close enough
Lol sndvl … DCords don’t get enough love lol.
http://youtu.be/VX73rtcm9lg
Awesome. He picked up Quinton Carter and forgot about Doom and BAM Brady goes down with the cleanest, text book wrap em up tackle I have ever seen. His eyes were too focused on the sack … Brady wasn’t paying attention, he coulda literally yanked the ball out of his hand lol. Propbs to Brady for standing back up right after that lol. TRB
I have a soon to be 24 year old wife I am trying to groom into a Broncos fan….its working out about as well as miller’s 4 yr old!
Kod – Yes- specifying “Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” is a very definitive statement. The term “God” is generic and can refer to any God, any religion.
When Tebow specifies; he makes reference to a specific Jesus that distinguishes him from some Catholicism, Mormonism, JWs, prosperity theology, and many other belief ‘isms.’ It further identifies Tebow with a belief system held in common by Baptists, some Methodist, Presbyterians, some Catholics, Church of Christ, Pentecostals, Bible Churches, Evangelical Free,…..
What Strand likes to refer to as ‘Christianity is not a religion’ is that the Christian faith does not specify behaviors to obtain favor with God. Rather, it is the proper understanding of who Jesus is – and what he did – and resting in/ having confidence in that reality for me – (Jesus as Lord does require obedience but it is obedience founded on a love relationship as opposed to fear and domination.)
When a person realizes the body of guilt and shame, that we all live, with was put on Jesus Christ – never to be reapplied – it is a foundation of a love relationship.
This is a quick sketch on some ‘Biblical Pearls’. These are not being made available for the sake arguing or persuasion. Hopefully, all I am giving is a little clarity.
Thank you Strand for inviting me into the conversation. Unfortunately I will be out much of the day.
Merry Christmas from Daddy and his family!!!
I hate the Brown uniforms – because I love the Orange and the Blue and Orange so much!!! I think we have the best uniforms in the league.
I thought the SNL sketch was useless and boring. Maybe I’m too old to understand modern humor – IDK? Funny??? And TRB is correct – if such was done using the names ‘Allah’ and Mohammed – the whole production crew, producers, and actors would need to be apologizing and figuring out ways to get off some ‘hit’ lists.
I was born 11/3/63 – have a wife of 25 1/2years – seven daughters a six sons ranging from 23 months to 22 years. I have 17 chickens/ 3 rabbits/ and a dog. LOL
Strand – it never registered with me that you are a builder? I started my building career all over Jefferson County. I used to work with Wood Brother Homes in the early eighties.
damn daddy you got some kids wow i thought having 2 girls was tuff. thats awsome you have a big family.
you put the daddy in daddybronc. lol
I have a total of 4 kids, 2 boys 17 and 11, and 2 girls 13 and 1 1/2.
Family is great but I now know where grey hair comes from………. The 13 year old girl
omg dont tell me that i have 2 girls and im not looking forward to those teen years. lol
One word…………. drama!
She tries her hardest to suck up and has her sweet moments too but the drama and hormones makes things crazy at times