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Back from the Holy Land!!!
What a great time. I got out there Thursday evening and just relaxed before hitting Canton on Friday.
After a stop at the Stables (no longer owned by Chris Spielman), it was on to the Big Orange Juicer. I couldn't believe all the Bills fans there...had to be 70-30 Bills-everyone else. It was beautiful.
I noticed how small our corner was for momentos of HOF players was.....guess that'll have to change soon
Talked to a guy who was on the sidelines at the Kelly-Marino game...turns out when Ruben was playing waterboy, he was giving Thurman something special.....beer. No wonder the Thurmanator was in a dancing mood.
The next day, Helmet Guy and I got down to the stadium and the lots were full quickly so we paid $5 to park and walked up.....They said that helmets weren't allowed in the stadium yet we saw a few there. If we had parked closer, maybe we could have gone back for it. As we showed up, Pete Metzelaars was heading down the stairs to the special invite brunch and Fred Smerlas (the guy is STILL an animal, BTW) was close behind. When we got there, a couple that we had sat with in 1999 were there and we reminisced a bit about Billy Shaw's reception that we all scored invites to back then.
Boomer seemed to love the fact that the VAST majority of fans there were Bills fans and Tom Jackson and Mark Malone seemed impressed from what I could tell.
Loved the Deacon Jones speech...he was on fire. It was quite comical how George Allen's son mentioned that BRUCE was OK when the crowd brought his name up after the Senator said that Deacon was the best ever DE.
John Madden had a few nice points but rambled too much....but that IS his style. Dave Casper was well-spoken, I thought...quite a contrast.
Stallworth's son had one of the lines of the day when he mentioned that he was once asked who his favorite football player of all time was and he replied with "Lynn Swann." He changed his answer.
I didn't catch much of Hampton's speech as Pinto Guy came over to visit at that time. We had a nice visit and he's been trying to stay out of the little tiff that broke our sites apart....but some of the posts about it have brought him a few laughs. It was great seeing him and Scotty and Friday is gonna be fun
Marv's speech was great but the memorable part was when he told Thurman to look it up after saying the word "enigmatic." I guess Thurm will never live it down the questions he always asked in meetings. I hope Marv is Thurman's presenter in a few years.
I was surprised Jim was able to deliver his speech and be heard...we were loud during a lot of it. There was too much to go into everything but some of the high points were when he remarked about Frank Reich...he drew a lot of cheers....BRUCE...he had to correct the Senator's comment about BRUCE being "OK" and apologized to Deacon.....Hunter....I'm certain 70% of us in attendance had a few tears in our eyes.
After it was all over, we met Phil Hansen briefly and Helmet Guy tried to talk him into coming back....but no go. He did mention he knew about us in Section 122....i think that's a good thing.... It was great meeting him.
After a stop at the Stables (no longer owned by Chris Spielman), it was on to the Big Orange Juicer. I couldn't believe all the Bills fans there...had to be 70-30 Bills-everyone else. It was beautiful.
I noticed how small our corner was for momentos of HOF players was.....guess that'll have to change soon
Talked to a guy who was on the sidelines at the Kelly-Marino game...turns out when Ruben was playing waterboy, he was giving Thurman something special.....beer. No wonder the Thurmanator was in a dancing mood.
The next day, Helmet Guy and I got down to the stadium and the lots were full quickly so we paid $5 to park and walked up.....They said that helmets weren't allowed in the stadium yet we saw a few there. If we had parked closer, maybe we could have gone back for it. As we showed up, Pete Metzelaars was heading down the stairs to the special invite brunch and Fred Smerlas (the guy is STILL an animal, BTW) was close behind. When we got there, a couple that we had sat with in 1999 were there and we reminisced a bit about Billy Shaw's reception that we all scored invites to back then.
Boomer seemed to love the fact that the VAST majority of fans there were Bills fans and Tom Jackson and Mark Malone seemed impressed from what I could tell.
Loved the Deacon Jones speech...he was on fire. It was quite comical how George Allen's son mentioned that BRUCE was OK when the crowd brought his name up after the Senator said that Deacon was the best ever DE.
John Madden had a few nice points but rambled too much....but that IS his style. Dave Casper was well-spoken, I thought...quite a contrast.
Stallworth's son had one of the lines of the day when he mentioned that he was once asked who his favorite football player of all time was and he replied with "Lynn Swann." He changed his answer.
I didn't catch much of Hampton's speech as Pinto Guy came over to visit at that time. We had a nice visit and he's been trying to stay out of the little tiff that broke our sites apart....but some of the posts about it have brought him a few laughs. It was great seeing him and Scotty and Friday is gonna be fun
Marv's speech was great but the memorable part was when he told Thurman to look it up after saying the word "enigmatic." I guess Thurm will never live it down the questions he always asked in meetings. I hope Marv is Thurman's presenter in a few years.
I was surprised Jim was able to deliver his speech and be heard...we were loud during a lot of it. There was too much to go into everything but some of the high points were when he remarked about Frank Reich...he drew a lot of cheers....BRUCE...he had to correct the Senator's comment about BRUCE being "OK" and apologized to Deacon.....Hunter....I'm certain 70% of us in attendance had a few tears in our eyes.
After it was all over, we met Phil Hansen briefly and Helmet Guy tried to talk him into coming back....but no go. He did mention he knew about us in Section 122....i think that's a good thing....
It was great meeting him.
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