Bills publish killer list of all-time greats, minus the killer

By Anthony Bialy  |   Wednesday, May 06, 2009  |  Comments( 91 )

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It’s unsurprising that so few recent Buffalo Bills appear on the 50th season all-time team; after all, the regime responsible for the organization’s current state couldn’t even figure out when to release the list. By disclosing the all-time roster during a draft party for season ticket holders, it was of course overshadowed by said draft.

The franchise could have employed enough sense to reveal the lineup in May so fans could give it undivided attention, but not thinking things out has been a persistent recent organizational tendency. Regardless, there’s now an authoritative inventory of the team’s best ever competitors, listed here: http://www.channel1media.com/billsvoting/. Voters got it right, even though it would have been hard to screw up; it was a fairly easy job thanks to how many former Bills indisputably had to be included.

There isn’t much with which to argue; did anyone have a problem with Bruce Smith making the cut? Jim Kelly, Andre Reed, Billy Shaw, Mike Stratton, and the late Tom Sestak are all players who had to make the list because the list would be invalid if they didn’t. Marv Levy is coaching, of course. And leaving off Steve Tasker as the best special teams man in club history would have been like releasing a Biz Markie greatest hits album that didn’t include “Just A Friend"; thankfully, the selectors did their job.

Unsurprisingly, nearly all the honorees played in one of the club’s two total successful eras: with the exception of the occasional Joe DeLamielleure, most of the members competed on teams that won American championships of either the FC or FL variety. The best players led this squad to its brightest moments.

Can anyone justifiably feel left out? Jerry Butler was around for longer than James Lofton, but the latter’s sublime work in only four seasons as a Bill won him a spot. Conversely, Fred Smerlas’ dominance over 11 seasons beat out Ted Washington’s dominance over six, even though at his best the latter was controlling games on his own.

Howard Ballard, Reggie McKenzie, Will Wolford, and Joe Devlin all could have taken the offensive line spot nabbed by eternal Pro Bowler Ruben Brown; that’s especially true for Devlin, who seems like the type who would skin those who didn’t pick him. But Brown did offer his own brand of overrated steadiness for nine seasons.

List outcast Jim Haslett would have been a fun linebacker choice, especially considering there were four selected. But it’s hard to argue against Stratton, Darryl Talley, Cornelius Bennett, or Shane Conlan, who all got included. It’s too bad this team never ran a five-linebacker scheme.

The running back race wasn’t competitive despite selectors having two Hall of Famers from which to choose. O.J. Simpson was left off. Even though he arguably put together the best five consecutive years ever by a football player, much less rusher, he was undoubtedly hurt by the anti-double-murderer crowd. Thomas was less spectacular, but only by comparison; on top of that, he played well for longer, which makes it easy to justify including him over a superhumanly talented yet not-quite good and pleasant human being.

Other than that, it’s nice to see backfield bruisers on the list like George Saimes and Butch Byrd along with stalwart guardians such as Jim Ritcher and Kent Hull. Having them officially recognized as Buffalo legends makes for a great chance to recall both great footballers and teams of the past while using them as inspiration for the future.

Those who were fortunate enough to see the players in question compete get to enjoy memories suddenly brought to the forefront, and those who weren’t have a list of names to search for on Google and YouTube. Together, all backers can remember this team’s too-infrequent successes, which is the first step toward believing more could be coming during the future.

It’s fun to remember that this franchise has occasionally been good, with enough exceptional players to easily fill a starting lineup. In the meantime, Jason Peters hopefully isn’t too sore about being passed over for a line spot.
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CommentsComments: 91  |  Sign Up  View all comments
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No.1
8and8Forever		08:34 AM
05/06/2009
Simpson did turn out badly, however from purely football perspective, IMO Simpson was simply an unconscious player. Best combo...
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No.2
bILZrok		09:23 AM
05/06/2009
If Jason Peters had made the list, my guess is that he’d probably threaten to hold out until his new Eagles contract could be...
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No.3
ddd		09:58 AM
05/06/2009
I didn't really care about football until the Jim Ferguson-Joe Cribbs era so I never really paid attention to players prior to...
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