An Echo of Norwood

If I had to compare my life to a sports teams success and unsuccess, I would be right at home with choosing my very own team, the Buffalo Bills. In my 26 years of being a fan, I have seen them at their best and seen them at their worst. Just like a life like most people. There are ups and downs, but where theirs varies from normal life, is all of the 'almosts.' If the Bills were a Horseshoes or a Projectile Vomiting Team, they would be the frickin' longest running champs that had ever graced our planet. Unfortunately, in football, 1 point will beat you every time… Again, and again. The reason I say the Bills mirror my life is simple… I have had more disappointments in my life than I have successes, BUT when I had or have successes, they are huge, BUT those successes will always fall short of GREAT. They are GOOD, but not great. This situation is usually due to some late monkey wrench or munson that I carelessly miss or just some act of the Gods that comes out of nowhere to ruin the moment. (I'm not being a drama queen here. I take part responsibility for many of my ALMOSTS in my life.)

With that said, I sat down for Monday Night Football last night as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. For the first time in 13 years the freakin' Buffalo Bills were hosting MNF!!!! And who against, the most hated team of mine and most Bill fans: The Dallas Cowgirls. This was the team that basically wiped their ass with us two years in a row in the biggest most watched football game in the world—The Super Bowl.

Note 1 – Success, but Not Good Enough Example 132: The year after losing the 2nd Super Bowl to them, the Bills played them in the first game of the season. The Bills won it. I believe it was 28-14. The season after that…. Won again, but apparently we just couldn't beat them in the big game.

So, the Bills… Well they've sucked for a very long time. In fact, they have sucked ass well since another one of their ALMOST MOMENTS that again goes down in Infamy as one of their 7 games that made NFL history of BIGGEST CHOKE: The Music City Miracle. For anyone that doesn't know: The Bills were playing the Titans in the Wild Card Game. Doug Flutie drove down with seconds left of the game to score and put the Bills ahead. It looked as if they were going to advance to the Semis. It should have been a sure thing and what happens: On the ensuing kickoff, the Titans with an erray of backward laterals went all the way down the field with no time left, scored and won. The Titans went on to lose the Super Bowl by 1 yard.

OK, the Bills suck ass. I was expecting a massacre against the undefeated Cowgirls, but I would watch it being a loyal fan. Over the years, I had become numb to the many Bill losses, what was another? Then something happened. Tony Romo threw 5 picks and fumbled one for a whopping 6 turnovers. The Bills scored two TD's from the interceptions. They then ran a kick off back and held Dallas in a defensive bombardment and I am sitting there with 9 minutes left in the game, saying, this win may change the momentum of the Bills' season and would be huge for Buffalo fans all over the country. It may have been as big a win since the greatest Bills game ever played when they came back from being twenty eight down to the Oilers in the playoffs the year they went on to face the Redskins and LOSE.


Then…. The Buffalo Bill Munson began to take its evil shape. The echo of the Scott Norwood wide right field goal that would have given the Bills one ring of the four
consecutive Super Bowls we went to, began to take its evil shape as well. The kick that had it gone through, may have given the Bills the confidence in the big game to win the 3 after.

Tony Romo, who had not done a damn thing for almost 53 minutes of the game, managed to put together a 9 out of 11 with no interception drive to score off of an Edwards interception. Then minutes later go on a rampage again only to score with 20 seconds left in the game. The Cowboys had no timeouts left and had to score a two point conversion to tie the game. Terrell Owens then was stripped of the ball and the two point conversion failed, leaving the Bills ahead. ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS RECOVER THE INEVITABLE ONSIDE KICK and the game would be over. The Bills biggest win in years would again go down as one of the most exciting games in MNF history.

The Special Teams, who had not made a mistake all night, would screw the world on that play.

The Cowboys got the onside kick. Then Romo threw an incomplete putting the clock down to thirteen seconds. Right after that on that play, a five yarder. Then WHAT!!!! Another almost ten yarder. A 52 yard field goal would be the fate of the Bills win with 1 second left. The kicker's longest was 47 yards. He split the uprights, but WAIT!!!! Jauron, Buffalo's coach, called a timeout at the last second. The Cowgirls would have to kick it again…. Unlike Scott Norwood--- He split the uprights again. Game Over. I cut the TV off mid air on that game winning field goal. It was an easy prediction being a Bills fan. It may have been the most upset I've been since that Norwood kick. I have never cried over a football game but that one time. I almost did again on this occasion. I lied in bed for an hour thinking about yet another 'classic Bills performance.' I wondered how they could have been in so much control for most of the game only to somehow lose?

Then I thought of the many opportunities I made the wrong decision on and how many great things I was on my way to doing only to have the slightest hang up change the course of my life. Then it all of sudden was easy to understand…. The Bills and I were the poster boys for the famous Marlon Brando saying in 'On the Waterfront', "We could have been a contender." It is a fuckin' travesty.

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