Buffalo Bills Suck Button, from Shea December 1981 Well, the NBC banner is far too large to scan, but the button isn't ; ) Glad you enjoyed the post. Sorry it was so long but if I thought about it some more there'd be even more stories. So, we're walking into Shea and this dude is yelling "Buffalo Bills SUCK buttons, only one dollar!!!" With a heavy emphasis on the word "SUCK". I buy one, and proudly wear it on my winter coat to the delight of my friends. Been with me ever since. So here, 30 plus years later, is the official "Buffalo Bills Suck Button" purchased ten minutes prior to Bruce Harper's historic fumble in 1981. I surely got my money's worth during all those dreadful Bills Super Bowl appearances, and all the Jets home games against the Bills I attended in the years that followed. My friends still ask "You still have the suck button?" Yes. Yes I do.
I LOVED your post. Thanks for posting the button!! I wonder if we can get TGG versions made up for the 2012 season.
Thanks Murell. I'd be thrilled if someone else has one of these. One day I'll have tell you my flying lawnmower story (it's buried here someplace) or the time my "rubber band" buddy lit his hair on fire trying to light a pipe, while in our seats huddled beneath an army blanket during a half-time at one of those Shea-games.
Great post. I remember Conrad Dobler having a lot of shit to say before the game too, probably pissed off about being benched. That button is the best!!
I agree with you on the most painful Jets loss of all time...and I've said so on this site many a time. The Jets loss to the Bills in the 1981 playoffs was the most painful loss for ME ever. I guess because it was the first time I had ever watched the Jets in a playoff game. And second, because of the way we battled back in that game only to lose in the very last second. It STILL hurts!
For me I still look back on that bills game w/ fondness, probably b/c that was my first year watching the team and I didn't go through the 70s but as tough of a loss as it was it was such a great year and that was such an exciting game I don't look back the way I do Cle '86, Pitt '04, Den '98, Pitt '10.
Any game collectors here have these games from 1981? wk 1 vs Buf wk 2 vs Cin wk 10 vs Bal wk 11 vs NE
Pitt game would top it if we do come all the way back in the second half we just about did if not for the clusterfuck inside the 10 where Shotty inexplicably called or at least was responsible for a draw play from the 1. I look back at the season with fondness, but that day was bitter. I thought we'd be the team to beat in '82, which eased the pain. Of course I was wrong about that... But, at least I did get the button from the Bills game ; ) '81 became a much better season once the early and mid 90's Jets played.
I would say the Cleveland 1986-87 playoff game was the worst for me, just by the way it went down and the stakes involved. I'd rank Denver 1998-99 as a close second because that was clearly the best Jet team since Super Bowl III and unlike any of these other games discussed I think was a sure bet to win the Super Bowl had they survived that game. Pittsburgh in 2004-05 and the AFC Championship game last year are right up there, the Mud Bowl too. For me the 1981 Buffalo game was a disappointing end after the big win to get in the playoffs, but it was the first time I'd seen us in the playoffs and it seemed like we were on the way up so it was tolerable.
I was at that game, Freemans' first 100 yard day, 8 or 9 sacks for the Sack Exchange, I think a 25-0 win.
Looking back, it seems crazy we played Seattle twice that season. Losing to them twice didn't help any, that's for sure. Why twice? Was that back when the two last place teams played home and home the next season? Maybe that's why. Who else remembers Tampa Bay being in the AFC one year, NFC the next - switching with Seattle so in their first two season they played everybody? Their schedule each year was one game against the other teams of their conference, not balanced by division. Somebody a bunch of messages ago related a Richard Todd story where Matt Robinson stopped by where Todd lived, hung out with him and sold vitamin products. Interesting to me because I would not have expected them to have a relationship years after the big Richard Todd/ Matt Robinson QB debate. For you young guys, Richard Todd broke his clavicle in uh oh, was it '78? '79? Anyway, an unknown Matt Robinson took over and had a few great games. I remember one great comeback win in Denver. Anyway, it became a big deal about who should play once Todd healed. There was plenty of support for Robinson, but he got dealt and really did nothing else after that. He was like a Kevin Maas (oh, you might be too young for that reference too ; ) Okay, here's a reference to use. Imagine if Jeremy Lin went back to being nothing next week.
That is why. Back when the AFC Central had four teams, the East and West had five, the 5th place teams played home and home. The Jets were 4-12 in 1980 and got the 5th place schedule, we also played Kansas City home-and-home in 1984 and 1988 for the same reason, San Diego in 1990. I remember it but never knew why. My first ever game was Tampa Bay at the Jets in 1976, a win, the Bucs were an AFC team that year and then they switched. By chance my next game was Seattle at the Jets in 1977, we got shut out 17-0. Todd's injury was early in 1978. Robinson actually won the job in the 1979 camp, then he hurt his thumb before the first game, never disclosed how, played the game and we lost in OT when he threw a duck INT deep in our own end. Walt Michaels was so pissed Robinson never saw the field again for us, ended up in Denver.
Back then the last place teams from the East and West in the AFC played each other twice and the Central teams once plus the last place teams from the NFC East and Central. That's why we played KC twice in '84 and '88 and why we played the Giants again in '88 after playing them in '87. The TB thing was before my time but they started in the AFC in '76 and Seatlle in the NFC before they switched the next season.
You can do a search and find many sites that offer DVDs of just about any game you want. The quality varies, and some miss a few minutes here or there. But it's possible to find them. I just recently ordered the wildcard game, it's the game I remember most clearly and I want to see it again. The rest of the games that year are somewhat of a blur other than the 16-15 victory over Miami (mostly just remember the finish) and the 28-3 beating of Green Bay on the last day.
I'm with you exactly on this one. Was my first year, and as painful as it was, the mid-80s and into the 90s and so on and so on was more painful. But as I read this thread and become more and more enthralled with the diffrerent perspectives and really start to understand how good that team was, how big a turnaround it had made from previous years........I am starting to feel like that was the most horrible loss to watch. But even if it never makes it to first all time for me, it's always been right up there.
I actually went to the Denver game, and you're right, that one is up there. Going into the house of the defending champions, seeing the VIkings get knocked off earlier in the day, KNOWING we would beat the Falcons............getting that punt blocked and recovering on the 1 and going on to take a 10-0 lead in the 3rd quarter - I was sure that they were winning that one. The excitement my buddy and I felt when they went up 10-0 is unexplainable - the way the stadium went quiet, the way the two of us were louder than our entire section, being so sure we were knocking off Elway and the champs.............that game was painful. Truly painful.
