Encounters with Bills Players

[Thurmal]

With the season as good as over (still hoping the Bills crush Miami at home and/or upset NE to rob them of home-field advantage), I figured I would start a thread that doesn't involve *****ing about EJ Manuel or deluding ourselves into resigning Jairus Byrd.

It would be cool to hear some stories about times you've met Bills players. Positive experiences are obviously awesome, but I want to hear the negative stuff too, of course. My story is pretty tame:

I met Ernie Warlick (who played LONG before my time) at a mall in Buffalo once when I was about 13. Got to shake his hand and, I'm not exaggerating here, his mitts were so big that during the shake, his fingers touched close to the middle of my forearm.

Your turn...

[Tiburon1724]

Well I didn't really "meet" him per se, but at the Hall of Fame game in Canton a few years back after the game, many people were lined up where the players have to exit the locker room to board the bus. Most had headphones on and just walked straight by. Marshawn came out and a few teens next to us had a Beast Mode sign. They yelled asking him to sign it. He grabbed it and took off back into the locker room. Quite a long time went by, we were starting to think he wasn't bringing it back, but eventually he did, with it autographed by him and whoever else was still in the locker room. Pretty cool, always liked the guy. My aunt met him once in Buffalo because she was in a car accident with him (no joke).

[Crisis]

John Fina spoke at my elementary school when I was really young (don't remember specific grade). There was a Q&A and I asked him what DE gave him the most trouble and he answered Anthony Pleasant.

When I was around five I met Jim Kelly while he was getting an MRI on his leg or knee. My dad is an engineer that works on them so I went to work with him that night and Jimbo was there. I don't remember much because of how young I was, just remember my dad going up to him and asking him how the leg was all casually which blew my five year old mind. I honestly don't remember anything else about that.

My friend growing up lived down the street from Mike Peca in Amherst.


My stories are all awful, haven't lived in Buffalo since I was a teenager and I have a **** memory.

[coastal]

Thread title sounds creepy in a Sandusky kinda way.

[pmoon6]

I met Kelly at a card show in Houston. I'm not into that kinda thing, but my boss was and he was from Buffalo as well. He had to go to his daughter's wedding, so I got the job of getting Jimbo to sign his miniature Bill's helmet and football. I saw a problem from the gitgo. He wanted Kelly's signature UNDER the Thurman Thomas one he already had. Sure enough, Kelly gave me some **** about it and then reluctantly signed. We also had to wait an extra 30 minutes in line because Jim was late and he was obviously hungover.

I met Warlick as well when he opened his burger franchise. I was still a kid, but like Thurmal said, huge hands.

[Novacane]

I ran the old mini golf and batting cages on Southwestern in Hamburg for one season. Doug Flutie and his wife came in to hit baseballs. She was better than him at baseball. Not that he was bad. She was just really good. He was nice and signed a personalized autograph for us.

A negative story. Back in the days when the Bills had training camp in Fredonia. My sister was at the bar Sunny's in Fredonia talking to Thurman Thomas. He put his hand on her leg and started running it up under her skirt up her thigh. When she told him to knock it off his response was don't you know who I am?

[Don't Panic]

Thread title sounds creepy in a Sandusky kinda way.

Ya had to take it there, coastal...

I've had a couple, but my dad's is the best (although its not a Bill so technically I'm breaking the rule).

I grew up in Williamsville and my dad blew out his ankle about 30 years ago so he was doing rehab at the Village Glen. Jerry Butler came in for rehab as well. My dad and he chatted it up a few times. My dad asked if he wouldn't mind if I came in to meet him during one of his rehab sessions. He was cool with it so one day my dad signed me out of school and I got to go there and chat with him about football for maybe 30 minutes or so. Great experience... Butler was a stand up guy and it made me realize that these guys on the field are just regular people in the end.

John Fina went to the University of Arizona a few years before I did. He came back to town in 94 or 95 and came in to the restaurant I worked at. I talked to him for a few minutes about the common bond (Buffalo/Tucson). Nothing groundbreaking there.

My dad went to Dallas right after the Super Bowl years. He was waiting for a table at a steak houset at the bar and accidentally bumped the guy sitting next to him as he sat down. He didn't realize who the guy was. He said the guy was really nice, apologized for it, and offered to buy him and his friend a drink. They talked for about 10 minutes until the hostess came and got my dad a table. Turns out it was Emmit Smith. The waitress had to tell my dad. My dad said he was one of the nicest guys he ever met in his life. And my dad has been a Bills fan since day one... plus this was in 95. I had a hard time disliking Emmit Smith after hearing his story.

[pmoon6]

I also have a great story about Ed Kelly's wife (I don't remember her name) Ed always came to the sportsbar I frequented to watch the games. So I sorta knew him. Anyway, the bar had a lounge type thing (Sofas and padded chairs) in front of the big screen that had the Bills' game.We were playing Seattle and this Seahawks' Fan comes in and sits in the lounge are with a Curt Warner jersey on (nobody sat there except Bills' Fans). Ed's wife was sitting on a couch with a broken leg and this guy was behind her. Jimbo gets hurt and the guy stands up and starts fist pumping and cheering. She stands up, broken leg and all and starts yelling at him and sticking her finger in his chest. "That's my family you're messing with" was one of the things she said. Well, I was at Ed's table back behind and we all stand up thinking the guy might do something. Ed is as big as Jim and was in about the same shape, he looked like he could have played as well. This guy would have gotten crushed. I don't know if he knew better or was just embarrassed because a woman dressed him down, but he turned round with a beet red face and slunk out of the bar. Too funny.

[pmoon6]

Ya had to take it there, coastal...

I've had a couple, but my dad's is the best (although its not a Bill so technically I'm breaking the rule).

I grew up in Williamsville and my dad blew out his ankle about 30 years ago so he was doing rehab at the Village Glen. Jerry Butler came in for rehab as well. My dad and he chatted it up a few times. My dad asked if he wouldn't mind if I came in to meet him during one of his rehab sessions. He was cool with it so one day my dad signed me out of school and I got to go there and chat with him about football for maybe 30 minutes or so. Great experience... Butler was a stand up guy and it made me realize that these guys on the field are just regular people in the end.

John Fina went to the University of Arizona a few years before I did. He came back to town in 94 or 95 and came in to the restaurant I worked at. I talked to him for a few minutes about the common bond (Buffalo/Tucson). Nothing groundbreaking there.

My dad went to Dallas right after the Super Bowl years. He was waiting for a table at a steak houset at the bar and accidentally bumped the guy sitting next to him as he sat down. He didn't realize who the guy was. He said the guy was really nice, apologized for it, and offered to buy him and his friend a drink. They talked for about 10 minutes until the hostess came and got my dad a table. Turns out it was Emmit Smith. The waitress had to tell my dad. My dad said he was one of the nicest guys he ever met in his life. And my dad has been a Bills fan since day one... plus this was in 95. I had a hard time disliking Emmit Smith after hearing his story.Great stuff. I never disliked Emmitt or Aikman. Michael Irvin is another story.

[TacklingDummy]

Back in 2001 I was at this gas station one time when this black dude came up to me...ahh...nevermind.

[YardRat]

Back in the day...

I did shots with Sherman White, and had a couple of beers with Reggie McKenzie.
Had to have Lou Piccone move his vet because he blocked me in.
Played racketball against Charles Romes.
Played HS B-Ball against Shane Conlan, if that counts for anything.

[YardRat]

I ran the old mini golf and batting cages on Southwestern in Hamburg for one season. Doug Flutie and his wife came in to hit baseballs. She was better than him at baseball. Not that he was bad. She was just really good. He was nice and signed a personalized autograph for us.

A negative story. Back in the days when the Bills had training camp in Fredonia. My sister was at the bar Sunny's in Fredonia talking to Thurman Thomas. He put his hand on her leg and started running it up under her skirt up her thigh. When she told him to knock it off his response was don't you know who I am?

Yeah, I've got a couple of second-hand stories about him that aren't too flattering.

[Meathead]

My sister was at the bar Sunny's in Fredonia talking to Thurman Thomas. He put his hand on her leg and started running it up under her skirt up her thigh. When she told him to knock it off his response was don't you know who I am?

he did that to me once too. but i just let him keep going

[Jeff1220]

When I was just turning seven, my parents made a special stop in Buffalo on our way back from visiting family in Michigan so I could get a chance to see some of my favorite players. It was just after training camp, and the Bills were practicing at the college next to the stadium. I waited outside their entrance to the stadium and got autographs as they were heading to the locker room, and heading back out to leave. Some of the guys that went a little above and beyond in spending a little time with me that day were Joe Ferguson, Fred Smerlas, Isaih Robinson, and Roland Hooks. Fergy took a picture with me next to his Jeep. While I was down near the tunnel getting the autographs and chatting, an older guy started talking to my mom and said something like, "That kid sure seems like he's having a good time." Then my mom explained my love for the Bills and how they made a special trip through Buffalo to surprise me as a sort of birthday present. After a few more pleasant words, the guy walked away and down toward me, and then signed my football. The older guy my mom was talking to turned out to be Chuck Knox.

[pmoon6]

I ran the old mini golf and batting cages on Southwestern in Hamburg for one season. Doug Flutie and his wife came in to hit baseballs. She was better than him at baseball. Not that he was bad. She was just really good. He was nice and signed a personalized autograph for us.

A negative story. Back in the days when the Bills had training camp in Fredonia. My sister was at the bar Sunny's in Fredonia talking to Thurman Thomas. He put his hand on her leg and started running it up under her skirt up her thigh. When she told him to knock it off his response was don't you know who I am?Sunny's! Now there's a blast from the past.

[pmoon6]

I know it's not Bills, but I left Buffalo at the beginning of '80 and moved to Houston. I delivered o.j and milk to the Oilers practice facility. Met Bum Phillips, Elvin Bethea, Robert Brazile and Curley Culp. I met Glanville later as well.

In the early '90's my wife worked with Reuna, Earl Campbell's wife. They became friendly and Reuna invited us to have lunch with she and Earl. Probably the best thrill of my life. I admired him as a player, but I didn't stumble all over myself. Just two couples talking. Very nice and laid back people. We talked about the Bills and Earls' opinion of us losing three Super Bowls was that it was down to coaching. He said with all the talent the Bills had, they shouldn't have lost to the Giants or the Redskins. Anyway, he is a great guy and nowhere near big headed. You could also tell the toll the NFL took on his body. Even though I came to dislike the Oilers team, Campbell will remain separate, at least for me. That's the difference between the media crap and the reality of the people themselves. You really don't know unless you are lucky enough to meet them in person.

[Squirtz]

I was at Roger Goddells Super Bowl party on The Friday before the Super Bowl in Dallas a few years back (steelers vs. packers). The girl I went with is from Pittsburgh and knew Ray Horton (secondary coach) at the time who got us tickets. We met him out front and he invited us to his table. We talked a lot of football and he was very candid with me. He told me he was meeting with the cardinals that night to do a preliminary Interview with the cardinals for their defensive coordinator position, which he ultimately got. He also said that they were all hoping that the bears would have won because they did not want to play the packers. He actually told me that he thought their chances of winning were slim.

Interestingly, I told him I was a bills fan and he laughed and said: "you know that on our team bus we have played that Stevie Johnson dropped pass almost every week since it happened to show how close we were to not being where we are today)

Overall a really cool guy and am awesome experience.

[DBrown77]

I was walking through Caesars Palace and saw Jason Peters playing craps. I said,"hey that's Jason Peters" and he looked at me....I kept walking....exciting story, isn't it?

[ServoBillieves]

Paul Posluszny bowled me over on a pitch play in High School, and used to support my sister's charity as a Bill after she passed. They hung out a few times. I recovered a fumble from Dorin Dickerson 2 years later.

As for the older players, a few months ago I was working parking (haaaaa) and a Cadillac pulls up. Living in Charlotte, it was the morning of the Bills/Panthers game and I had my Bills hat on. Guy rolls down the window and asks why he had to pay, I told him why, he graciously paid, and remarked "Man that takes balls to wear today... although I don't mind who wins, I played for both." I just kind of blankly stared at him, he said "Chris Draft, I gotta get to church."

If anyone watches Community, it was kind of like when Troy met LeVar Burton and just stared.

[Historian]

I bump into Booker Edgerson at Tops once and a while.

I've pretty much met every Bill who meant anything to the team at one point or another.

My best experience was meeting Bob Chandler.

Class guy.

Jeff Nixon a close second.

[DynaPaul]

Marv Levy. He gave us all a lecture as part of a Buffalo Bills fan weekend package a few years back when they played the Vikings at home.

[notacon]

Sunny's! Now there's a blast from the past.

It's Suny's.

[Mace]

This is kind of feeble but it's my only story. I tried madly to pick a fight with the Bills scab defensive linemen in the 80's at Mulligan's Brick Bar. I was drunkenly upset that they were all so tall and all had equally tall girlfriends (I an 6'3") and there wasn't a woman with them less than 6'5", and all they were doing was hanging out.

I was going to Canisius at the time, their football team was terrible, and I remembered football players in high school I wanted to beat up and never had a chance to. The Canisius players would not fight with me though I was incensed that my tuition was paying for such a bad team. I had this issue with football players. That, combined with ridiculously tall girlfriends and the fact that our scab team was worse than other scab teams, set me on them like a fly on poop. Though we were all bar brawlers, my friends kept pulling me away, and back I'd head toward them, the bouncers trying to calm me down (they were good bouncers and I was a regular at the time). I remember telling the one guy he sucked, looking into his chest because if I lifted my head I to see his face I would have fallen down, and his girlfriend, about 6'6" smirked at me.

I knew instinctively she could have beaten me up too at that moment, he told me to buzz off or something, I threw out an "oh yeah ?" and let my friends tug me away because I was on the edge of having the bejesus whaled out of me. I felt real bad the next day. They had to be tolerant on the level of saints not to have their gf's cuff me into a coma.

I also once bumped into Jim Kelly's wife at a coffee stand in the Galleria. I mean I actually bumped into her, turning around. She could have beaten me up too. I had my mom in her 80's there to back me up but we were unprepared so I let her off by apologizing to her with an "excuse me Mrs. Jim, er Mrs. Kelly." She grinned at me and her eyes twinkled with amusement. I almost fainted, my mom led me to a bench where I swooned. "Mom ! She knows Jim Kelly "....."probably knows him pretty well dear."

[Meathead]

lmao you are fkg insane dude

[coastal]

lmao you are fkg insane dude
$10 he still wears underoos.

[Mace]

$10 he still wears underoos.

Superman ones.

[Meathead]

powerpuff girls

[pmoon6]

It's Suny's.Thanks, those road trips always left me somewhat foggy. We were like Delta House back in those days.

[jamze132]

Lance ****ing Briggs got head-of-line priviledges at Disney World's "Star Tours" ride that my wife and I waited for almost an hour to get on. As soon as we got to the front, here comes Lance ****ing Briggs and his little entourage of mini-thugs to bump me.

**********.

[Historian]

Butch Rolle rented the apartment below me in the 80's, lol

[Homegrown]

Met Marcus Stroud during the time when the R Ryan "foot-fetish" thing broke in the media ...the dude was hillarious.

Met Doug Flutie (and his brother) .... he is very short.

[Mr. Pink]

It's Suny's.

I thought it was Scummy's?