From: riacmt@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Carol Miller-Tutzauer)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro
Subject: ATTN Bills fans and others re: column on Bills comeback
Date: 7 Jan 93 01:55:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

Below is an excellent column that ran in the Buffalo paper today.  Whether you
are a Bills fan, or a fan of another team, I thought many of you would enjoy
the following account of the most historic comeback in football history.  

******************************************************************************

Comeback a Reminder of Why We Love Game -- by Jerry Sullivan, Buffalo News
---------------------------------------

Three days later, you're still turning it over in your head, like some rare
and unexplainable treasure.  Even now, you're not quite certain it was all
real.  You want to be transported back in time, to Rich Stadium, and
experience it again for the first time.

It all happened so fast.  How could anyone properly savor it?  Can you
remember how the crowd sounded in the middle of the third quarter, when
everyone began to sense the possibility?  When did you start to believe?  On
Beebe's touchdown?  The onsides kick?  The Henry Jones interception?

Every once in a while, sport rises above its own hype and manufactured drama
to remind us why we care so much about these games in the first place.  It
blesses us with the Bills vs. Houston, and a comeback that fans in Buffalo
will be talking about as long as they have hearts and voices to summon the
memory.  

Years from now, people will remember what they were doing when the Bills
staged the greatest comeback in football history.  Some will recall being
there in the stadium, and just as many others will forget that they weren't.

I was in the press box when the Bills scored to make it 35-17.  Sensing that
something remarkable might be taking place, I decided to head into the
stands -- to "plug in," as Darryl Talley describes it -- and sit among those
people with the energy to help make it happen.

The events were so sudden, and so dramatic, you barely had time to absorb
them.  The game was climbing toward unvisited planes of emotion, and whisking
70,000 or more Bills fans along for the ride.

Everyone seemed to be standing.  After all, who would sit for such a thing? 
Gary and Ralph and the rest of the fans in the Back of section B5 were
standing on their seats with their backs against the wall, cheering every move
by the Bills while wearing euphoric and dispelieving expressions on their
faces.

Frank Reich hit Andre Reed for a touchdown, making it 35-24, and now there was
almost a sense of inevitability about it.  Of course, just half an hour
earlier everyone had been making private concessions.  After five glorious
seasons, this Bills era was coming to an embarrassing halt.  But now, in their
collective, defiant voice, the Bills fans told the world their team would not
go so easily.

It has been a tough year for the "12th Man."  AFter listening to the crowd's
booing, Jim Kelly said the Bills were playing for themselves.  Crowd
misbehavior became a major civic issue.  When the Houston game didn't sell out
in time for the blackout to be lifted, it was said the fans were abandoning
their team.

How silly that seemed when the Bills mounted their comback.  Never have the
fans been so much a part of a victory.  Sure, a few of the fickle ones bolted
for the parking lot and the beer chest at halftime, but no one who was present
for the comeback could ever question the vast core of fans who support the
team.

When the Bills cut it to 35-31, my friend Gary in B5 pulled off his cap and
saluted the team he's cheered through good times and bad for a quarter
century.  "I don't care what happens in this football game now," he said. 
"They've made me and this city proud forever."

I even suffered a lapse of objectivity and started screaming at that point. 
It wasn't really the team I was cheering, it was the sport itself -- and the
sheer wonder of the moment.

It was almost anticlimactic when the Bills won in overtime.  After Steve
Christie's field goal, there was a small burst of exultation and some chanting
for Frank Reich, but the fans seemed to lack any energy for celebration. 
They'd expended every ounce of it willing their team to the greatest comeback
in history.

A few weeks ago, someone suggested that Bills fans had become spoiled by
success, and there probably was some truth to that.  But on Sunday, the
players were reminded that the great majority of you fans are always there for
them when it matters most.

This game was your reward.

[end of article: Buffalo News, Wednesday, January 6, 1993, p. D1, column 1]

---------

I just had to take the time to post this wonderful column.  I, too, was at
that game, around the 40th yard line in nose-bleed section (N).  Jerry
Sullivan captured the essence of those moments perfectly.  Nobody sat during
the entire second half.  By the time the score was 35-31, many were chanting
that the ultimate outcome didn't matter anymore, that this never-say-die
effort was worth the entire season if not the team's entire history of
seasons.  When the Bills defense held Houston to a field goal on their final
drive, I screamed what I knew was my last scream, for I knew that my vocal
chords had finally been stressed beyond what nature had ever intended. 
Overtime.  The flip of the coin came; Houston would get 1st possession.  "My
God," I thought.  "After all this, we may lose."  But I turned my attention to
the field, and the Bills' special teamers again lifted their arms to the
crowd.  Perhaps if they could find it in themselves to fight yet one more
impossible battle, I too could manage a moderate shout.  When Warren Moon
seemed to misread his receiver, passing slightly inside the pattern and
missing a wide-open sure reception near the sidelines, Nate Odomes just stood
there and took the gift.  The next few seconds seemed like an eternity.  What
was Nate doing?  All around us were whispering, "Just fall on the ball; don't
run; just fall on it."  Nate seemed endlessly to zig and zag, but finally --
thankfully -- he was brought down.  And, yes, the Bills still had possession
of the ball.  Nate hadn't fumbled in his adrenaline-pumped attempt to make a
final last run.  

I stood there uttering out-loud:  "Kick it, Kick it now.  Be done with it." 
The fellow next to me said, "Yes, I don't think I can hang in much longer." 
The Bills moved the ball a bit closer, and on third down, Steve Christie
placed the ball perfectly between the uprights.  Everyone in our section felt
emotionally and physically exhausted.  All we could do was hug each other
gently and utter "Un-BILL-ievable."

What a game.  The best in my memory since I lived in New Orleans and the
Saints' Dempsey kicked a record-setting 64-yard field goal to give New Orleans
a win in the last few seconds of the game.

Indeed.  Sometimes the sport rises above all its hype!  Good column!  Great
game.

Later,

Carol
Go Bills!