BOOK REVIEW: Former coach runs down Bills’ greatest hits

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Aside from supporters of the Washington Generals, Buffalo Bills are as forlorn a lot as there is in the sports world.

But unlike the Harlem Globetrotters’ longtime adversaries, the Bills have on occasion been the giver of defeat rather than just the recipient.

Those good times are the focus of a new book written by former coach Marv Levy, who engineered many of the franchise’s biggest victories. In “Game Changers,” he and co-author Jeff Miller chronicle dozens of the team’s best moments, offering long-suffering fans temporary respite from yet another lost season.

The book is broken down into chapters that highlight offense, defense, special teams and game-winning plays, with brief narratives complemented by box scores from those games and profiles of the influential players involved in those games.

As one would expect, much of the book discusses the team’s glory years of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Most Bills fans will beam upon recalling the Bills’ 34-31 win over San Francisco in 1992, the NFL’s only game to date in which neither team punted. And no true Bills fans even need explanation for the game described under the header “Kelly Keeper Squishes Fish.”

But the book also takes a look further back to the team’s early years and AFL championship campaigns of 1964 and 1965. Even fans such as this reviewer who never got to see Jack Kemp play quarterback will smile when reading about his pigskin prominence.

Included are trivia tidbits of which even some die-hard fans not might be aware. Kemp’s middle finger was broken just before he came to the Bills from San Diego, and doctors fused it according to the shape of a football; he never could bend it fully for the rest of his life. And uniform No. 31 — which was used by a caricature on one of the Bills’ early logos — wasn’t worn except for one game until 1990, when owner Ralph Wilson assured the trainers that no such ban on the number existed (James Williams was issued the number at that point).

And the book doesn’t neglect the bad times, staying true to its premise of chronicling the greatest plays in Bills history, not just those that were made by the Bills. Wide Right, Music City Miracle and the horrific 2-14 campaigns of the 1980s get their mention (as fans might expect, only two plays from the current decade even warranted mention: the Sam Adams interception return against the Patriots in 2003, and last season’s Brian Moorman-to-Ryan Denney touchdown pass against the Seahawks).

The book makes a few punctuation and grammatical errors, including two gaffes that simply should not make it into a book devoted to the Bills: The city was misspelled “Bufflao” at one point, and Jim Kelly was misnamed as “Joe” in one tale. Levy’s breezy prose — “the Oilers quelled our mirth” — somewhat offset these errors, but they unfortunately stuck out in what otherwise was a quality read.

Almost as fun as recollecting the big-time plays and players is the nostalgia involved with pouring through old photos and detailing the sideline clothing over the years (suits and crew cuts in the 1960s, bell bottoms in the 1970s, knee-high striped socks and Afros in the 1980s, Zubaz sweatpants in the 1990s).

A few of these tales called for more information, but the book nonetheless is entertaining. Bills fans are dearly in need of pick-me-up as this season limps to its merciful conclusion, and “Game Changers” is just the thing to charge their spirits, at least for one afternoon.

Contact Paul Lane at 693-1000, ext. 116.



IF YOU READ

• WHAT: “Game Changers: The Greatest Plays in Buffalo Bills Football History”

• BY: Marv Levy and Jeff Miller

• DETAILS: Published by Triumph Books, 154 pages

• GRADE: B

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