The News’ Bob DiCesare warned the Bills not to take a quarterback with the 13th pick in the 2004 NFL draft. The Bills listened — but took one instead at No. 22. Wide Receiver Lee Evans was taken 13th and, against the wishes of DiCesare, J.P. Losman was taken with the 22nd overall pick. Since Losman was drafted, the Bills have had nine starting quarterbacks, including Losman.
April 22, 2004: 13th pick wrong spot to find QB
“The Bills will get a shot at nothing better than the third quarterback in Saturday’s draft, with Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger or Philip Rivers, if not all of them, sure to be gone. One quarterback — one — in the last 17 years has met expectations after being, at best, the third quarterback picked in the first round. That was in ’99, when Minnesota struck gold at No. 11 with Daunte Culpepper, one pick before Chicago fanned on Cade McNown.”
Hopes were high for the Bills playoff chances in Cleveland as some Buffalonians spent part of the last week of the 1980s lined up for a chance to make the tripn down Lake Erie.
Many Bills fans will look at the smiling faces in the photo below with some measure of pain, remembering Ronnie Harmon’s dropped end zone pass as the end of the Bills’ hopes for that season.
The best, as they say, was yet to come.
from The Buffalo News (Buffalo Stories archives)
Bills fans brave cold for tickets
When 25,000 tickets to the Bills-Browns playoff game in Cleveland went on sale Saturday, Bills fans were lined up to grab seats.
But officials of Ticketron, which is sole distributor for the tickets besides the Browns, said the clash next Saturday in the 80,080-seat Municipal Stadium is not a sellout yet.
As of today, all the $32 and $21 seats, which include the infamous “Dawg Pound” section behind the end zone at the open end of the stadium, have been sold. Some tickets in the $25 and $29 range still are available.
Van Miller, the Voice of the Bills (Buffalo Stories archives)
BUFFALO, NY – Bills games were big doings in the late 80s and early 90s, but they were always big doing in my house. Among my earliest memories of listening to the radio is sitting in our 1977 Mercury Monarch with mustard colored nugahyde seats, listening to Van Miller describe Joe Cribbs run with the ball. It was only a 5 minute drive from our South Buffalo home to Grandma Coyle’s South Buffalo home, where watching my grandfather watch the game was more fun for me, hearing him curse about Joe Ferguson.
Fast forward a few years, when the Bills actually started winning, and my dad would have his 5 brothers over to watch the game. Football for me became an endless walk to the fridge for another beer for someone.
I remember the excitment, I remember the cheering, I remember getting Bills clothes for Christmas every year, and being able to wear them to school on the “Bills Spirit Fridays” before games days and weeks later.
But the actual games themselves all blend together for me before I started working in sports radio. That’s true with only one exception: The Houston Comeback Game. I remember that I was alone in the living room listening to the game on the awful stereo my dad got for free somewhere. No screaming uncles looking for beers. No one swearing when the team was getting killed. Just me… a high school sophomore, Van Miller, and that cruddy stereo.
I was already taping most of the things I listened to on the radio, but I didn’t tape the game for some reason… Maybe because they were losing early, and then I got caught up in the comeback… I don’t know. But I did tape it the next day, when they played back the second half and OT. And here it is, 20 years later.
In Part One, WGR’s Art Wander introduces a collage of highlights, and then the second half of action with Van Miller, Marc Stout, and Greg Brown at the score 28-3 Oilers. (The audio is low quality so that Bills fans reliving the glory days don’t shut down my website.)
In Part two, the second half continues with Van Miller, Marc Stout, and Greg Brown… After overtime and the comeback complete, Paula Green does the news, and then briefly hear John Otto gush about the Bills. Its my favorite part! (The audio is low quality so that Bills fans reliving the glory days don’t shut down my website.)
I’ve been listening to this and thinking a loy about it, and realizing that a few months after taping this, I started working at WBEN. Then soon producing the Bills games on the radio, and covering media day at the stadium. The starting at WBEN in someways seems like only yesterday. That memory of sitting in my living room listening to this game seems like a a book I’ve read, but not something I actually lived.
By Steve Cichon
