Found this on a Bills message board Thank You Jack!

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/story/660131.html

Former teammates fondly remembered Jack Kemp on Sunday as a great leader of the Buffalo Bills’ American Football League championship teams of the 1960s. “What made Jack a powerful leader was Jack had chutzpah,” said Bills great and running back Cookie Gilchrist. “He was Jack Kemp. He was cocky as hell. There is nothing he couldn’t do.

Jack was one of a kind. Jack came in with the confidence of a winner, and we won.” “The thing I admire most about him I think was his honesty,” said cornerback Booker Edgerson. “He didn’t bite his tongue too often. He said what he had to say. He did it with dignity and without trying to hurt people’s feelings. … He was an outstanding leader and a great spokesman for our team.” Kemp died Saturday at his home in Maryland after a battle with cancer. He was 73. While he is known best across most of the country for being a national political figure, many Americans don’t realize what a great football career he enjoyed. Kemp was the starting quarterback in five of the 10 AFL championship games from 1960 to ‘69. He ended his career as the AFL’s all-time leader in pass attempts (3,055), completions (1,428) and passing yards (21,130). He was the all-league quarterback twice (in 1960 and ‘65), the league Most Valuable Player once (in ‘65), and he was an all-star seven seasons.

His career record as a starter was 65-37-3. “Under dire circumstances in the clutch, he was always able to pull the right play out,” recalled Bills linebacker Harry Jacobs. “I remember one game at War Memorial Stadium when Daryle Lamonica and Jack were vying for the quarterback position. Daryle had started and they pulled Daryle and put Jack in. The crowd just booed Jack. On his first play, he threw a touchdown to Charley Ferguson, and everybody turned to cheering him.”

Kemp was considered too short coming out of high school to play big-time college football so he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he became Little All-American. He was drafted by Detroit of the NFL in 1957 and had stints with the Lions, Steelers, Giants and 49ers but played only four games. Kemp was on the New York Giants’ roster for the famous 1958 NFL title game — dubbed the “Greatest Game Ever Played” — but did not suit up. When the AFL formed, he joined the Chargers franchise and led it to the league championship game in both 1960 and ‘61. He suffered a broken finger early in the 1962 season, and the Chargers tried to sneak him through waivers for a week with the intention of bringing him back onto the roster. The Bills claimed him.

Kemp led the Bills to a playoff berth in 1963, and the team became a juggernaut in ‘64, going 12-2 and defeating the Chargers, 20-7, for the AFL title. Kemp had a strong arm. He led the AFL in yards per attempt in 1964 and still has two of the four longest completions in Bills history. His accuracy was not as much of an asset as his arm strength. He tended to run hot and cold with his accuracy. “I remember his first play when he came to Buffalo,” said receiver Elbert Dubenion. “Al Dorow had been the quarterback prior to Jack, and Al threw the ball so soft I could line up about 10 yards off and cradle the ball.

The first time Jack took a snap I lined up the same distance and he stepped back and zoomed the ball. That ball hit me in the chin and bounced away.” “When he first came to Buffalo, I had trouble catching the ball real bad,” Dubenion said. “But he stuck with me and told me how to run the patterns. And he told me the thing is having confidence.” “Jack was the first quarterback that really was into weights,” said retired Bills trainer Ed Abramoski. “He was a track guy and threw the javelin. He saw how the track guys would work weights. That was unheard of in football because they said you’ll become muscle bound and won’t be able to throw; he could throw that ball 70, 75 yards.” Kemp, who played at 6-foot-1 and 201 pounds, also was a fine athlete, with good mobility. “He had a lot of escapability,” said Abramoski. “He’d get away from a lot of people when they’d rush him. He’d juke them. I’d always kid him. He’d make that big figure eight [going backward] to get away from a rusher and he’d get the pass away. He could throw the ball a country mile. He’d throw the ball 40 yards and it’d be a 5-yard gain, but it was better than a 25-yard loss.”

Kemp scored 40 rushing touchdowns in his career, third most in U.S. pro football history, only behind Hall of Famers Otto Graham (45) and Steve Young (43). “He was tougher than he looked,” Dubenion said. “A lot of people didn’t think Jack was tough but Jack was tougher than Cookie. He’d fake a handoff and put his head down and bowl a guy over.” “He had a lot of gumption,” Jacobs said. “He loved to take the football in when it was down there near the goal line, and he was very good at it.” The 1965 season arguably was Kemp’s finest. The Bills lost both starting receivers, Dubenion and Glenn Bass, to injury four games into the year. They had to employ a two-tight end offense and play ball control.

Kemp was league MVP even though the Bills ranked seventh out of eight teams in passing yards. “When we went to San Diego for the second championship in 1965, the San Diego Chargers were the most prolific scoring team in all of pro football,” Jacobs said. “We shut them out, 23-0. One of the reasons the defense was able to hold them to nothing was because of the Kemp-led offense. They were out on the football field for so long. It was a team effort.”

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/story/660131.html

http://www.vegasinsider.com/nfl/odds/las-vegas/

SERIOUSLY!!?!?!

The Season is still months away. Although, I must say…it does seem to be an upgrade…

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4141175

NEW YORK — The NFL will stage 16 games this season to honor the American Football League, which turns 50 in 2010.

In announcing the 16 matchups Tuesday, the NFL said the eight original AFL teams will wear historic uniforms.

Eleven legacy games will be matchups among those original AFL teams: Buffalo; New England; San Diego; Denver; Oakland; Tennessee; Kansas City; and the New York Jets.

The Chargers actually began life in Los Angeles in 1960, while the Titans were the Houston Oilers and the Chiefs were the Dallas Texans. The Jets were known as the New York Titans back then.

The first legacy game is during the preseason, when Buffalo plays Tennessee in the Hall of Fame game Aug. 8 in Canton, Ohio.

On the first Monday night of the regular season, a doubleheader will feature Buffalo at New England, followed by San Diego at Oakland.

Buffalo is at Tennessee and Kansas City at Oakland on Nov. 15.

On Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26, Oakland visits the Cowboys. Three days later, Miami is at Buffalo.

Game-worn jerseys and signed memorabilia will be auctioned off throughout the season, with money raised going to the NFL Player Care Foundation.

Found this on a Bills message board

Thank You Jack!

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/story/660131.html

Former teammates fondly remembered Jack Kemp on Sunday as a great leader of the Buffalo Bills’ American Football League championship teams of the 1960s.

“What made Jack a powerful leader was Jack had chutzpah,” said Bills great and running back Cookie Gilchrist. “He was Jack Kemp. He was cocky as hell. There is nothing he couldn’t do. … Jack was one of a kind. Jack came in with the confidence of a winner, and we won.”

“The thing I admire most about him I think was his honesty,” said cornerback Booker Edgerson. “He didn’t bite his tongue too often. He said what he had to say. He did it with dignity and without trying to hurt people’s feelings. … He was an outstanding leader and a great spokesman for our team.”

Kemp died Saturday at his home in Maryland after a battle with cancer. He was 73.

While he is known best across most of the country for being a national political figure, many Americans don’t realize what a great football career he enjoyed.

Kemp was the starting quarterback in five of the 10 AFL championship games from 1960 to ‘69. He ended his career as the AFL’s all-time leader in pass attempts (3,055), completions (1,428) and passing yards (21,130).

He was the all-league quarterback twice (in 1960 and ‘65), the league Most Valuable Player once (in ‘65), and he was an all-star seven seasons. His career record as a starter was 65-37-3.

“Under dire circumstances in the clutch, he was always able to pull the right play out,” recalled Bills linebacker Harry Jacobs. “I remember one game at War Memorial Stadium when Daryle Lamonica and Jack were vying for the quarterback position. Daryle had started and they pulled Daryle and put Jack in. The crowd just booed Jack. On his first play, he threw a touchdown to Charley Ferguson, and everybody turned to cheering him.”

Kemp was considered too short coming out of high school to play big-time college football so he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he became Little All-American. He was drafted by Detroit of the NFL in 1957 and had stints with the Lions, Steelers, Giants and 49ers but played only four games. Kemp was on the New York Giants’ roster for the famous 1958 NFL title game — dubbed the “Greatest Game Ever Played” — but did not suit up.

When the AFL formed, he joined the Chargers franchise and led it to the league championship game in both 1960 and ‘61. He suffered a broken finger early in the 1962 season, and the Chargers tried to sneak him through waivers for a week with the intention of bringing him back onto the roster. The Bills claimed him.

Kemp led the Bills to a playoff berth in 1963, and the team became a juggernaut in ‘64, going 12-2 and defeating the Chargers, 20-7, for the AFL title.

Kemp had a strong arm. He led the AFL in yards per attempt in 1964 and still has two of the four longest completions in Bills history. His accuracy was not as much of an asset as his arm strength. He tended to run hot and cold with his accuracy.

“I remember his first play when he came to Buffalo,” said receiver Elbert Dubenion. “Al Dorow had been the quarterback prior to Jack, and Al threw the ball so soft I could line up about 10 yards off and cradle the ball. The first time Jack took a snap I lined up the same distance and he stepped back and zoomed the ball. That ball hit me in the chin and bounced away.”

“When he first came to Buffalo, I had trouble catching the ball real bad,” Dubenion said. “But he stuck with me and told me how to run the patterns. And he told me the thing is having confidence.”

“Jack was the first quarterback that really was into weights,” said retired Bills trainer Ed Abramoski. “He was a track guy and threw the javelin. He saw how the track guys would work weights. That was unheard of in football because they said you’ll become muscle bound and won’t be able to throw; he could throw that ball 70, 75 yards.”

Kemp, who played at 6-foot-1 and 201 pounds, also was a fine athlete, with good mobility.

“He had a lot of escapability,” said Abramoski. “He’d get away from a lot of people when they’d rush him. He’d juke them. I’d always kid him. He’d make that big figure eight [going backward] to get away from a rusher and he’d get the pass away. He could throw the ball a country mile. He’d throw the ball 40 yards and it’d be a 5-yard gain, but it was better than a 25-yard loss.”

Kemp scored 40 rushing touchdowns in his career, third most in U.S. pro football history, only behind Hall of Famers Otto Graham (45) and Steve Young (43).

“He was tougher than he looked,” Dubenion said. “A lot of people didn’t think Jack was tough but Jack was tougher than Cookie. He’d fake a handoff and put his head down and bowl a guy over.”

“He had a lot of gumption,” Jacobs said. “He loved to take the football in when it was down there near the goal line, and he was very good at it.”

The 1965 season arguably was Kemp’s finest. The Bills lost both starting receivers, Dubenion and Glenn Bass, to injury four games into the year. They had to employ a two-tight end offense and play ball control. Kemp was league MVP even though the Bills ranked seventh out of eight teams in passing yards.

“When we went to San Diego for the second championship in 1965, the San Diego Chargers were the most prolific scoring team in all of pro football,” Jacobs said. “We shut them out, 23-0. One of the reasons the defense was able to hold them to nothing was because of the Kemp-led offense. They were out on the football field for so long. It was a team effort.”

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/story/660131.html

Posted by ESPN.com’s Tim Graham

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The scene was typical for a teenage boy and his father.

Together in a van on a long drive, the father began to preach a little. In this particular case, he really was a preacher. With nowhere to escape, his son stared out the window and looked for anything amid the passing landscape to distract him from the lecture.

Only this wasn’t some mundane interlude. The teen wasn’t ignoring the speech or rolling his eyes. He was absorbing every word. The tears welled.

“It was a very pivotal time for me in my life,” Buffalo Bills rookie defensive end Aaron Maybin said of the intimate talk he had four years ago with his father.

	NFL.com Video
	Aaron Maybin talks about what he will bring to the table as a member of the Buffalo Bills.

Maybin was 17 and on his way to Penn State for a Nike camp. College football recruiters from across the country had begun to notice his athletic ability. He had the size, the speed, the explosiveness that made them slobber. He was on the verge of landing a full scholarship to practically any college in the East.

“Everything was really starting to come together,” he said.

Michael Maybin reminded Aaron of what they had endured, shared some painful regrets. Aaron’s mother died while delivering his little sister. He was 6.

Michael Maybin was the 12th of 14 children and the son of a steelworker. Nobody in the family earned a college degree. He attended Penn State for a while but didn’t finish. That kept him from being the provider he wanted to be.

“Before we both knew it we both were looking out the window, trying not to make eye contact with each other because we were both crying,” Aaron Maybin said. “He spent a lot of time relaying how badly he wanted to see his son be successful.

“That was a time when he allowed himself to be vulnerable and express to me how much he really loved me. We expressed to each other what our feelings were. We both put it out on the table how important it was for us to see that moment happen for us the right way.”

One day after his father’s seminal speech, Aaron Maybin was incandescent at that Nike camp. Penn State coach Joe Paterno offered him a scholarship that opened the door for all sorts of glorious possibilities.

The tears returned Saturday. Aaron Maybin’s dream of being in the NFL came true.

The Bills drafted him 11th overall. He left Penn State a year early, but he’s looking at a contract that will pay him around $4 million a year and about $14 million in guarantees.

“This whole thing is mind-blowing,” said Michael Maybin, a fire inspector and associate minister at Transformation Church of Jesus Christ in Baltimore. “He went into a press conference at his school as Aaron Maybin, a defensive end heading to Penn State and walked out a corporation.”

The Bills gladly will pay Aaron Maybin Inc. for sack services rendered.

They struggled last year with Pro Bowl defensive end Aaron Schobel sidelined by a foot injury. They recorded 28 sacks. Only three teams — the Kansas City Chiefs, Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals — had fewer.

Maybin, meanwhile, was a pass-rushing thunder clap for Penn State.

He went into the season as the backup to Maurice Evans, who was coming of a sensational sophomore season of 21.5 tackles for losses and 12.5 sacks. But marijuana possession forced Paterno to suspend Evans for three games.

Aaron Maybin DE Buffalo Bills 2008 STATS TACK SOLO SACK FF 49 30 12 1

Maybin stepped in and led the Big Ten with 12 sacks and 20 tackles for losses. He was an All-American. Evans finished with three sacks. He also entered the draft a year early but wasn’t selected. The New York Giants signed Evans as a rookie free agent.

The biggest question about Maybin is whether one great season is enough to project NFL success.

“I don’t feel like you can be a one-year wonder in that conference,” said LaVar Arrington, Maybin’s mentor. Arrington was a star Penn State linebacker and three-time Pro Bowler for the Washington Redskins.

“He made it fun to watch games. He just has a knack for getting to the ball carrier, getting to the quarterback. He has a knack for knocking the ball out. We joke a lot: ‘What’s the difference between my game and your game?’ He’ll say ‘Well, I know how to get the ball out. You tried to knock [quarterbacks] out, and if the ball came out you’d get it. I get the ball out.’”

But Michael Maybin admitted there were internal misgivings about Aaron’s decision to turn pro early.

“There were so many dynamics going on [Saturday], the feelings of insecurity, wondering whether or not we made the right move,” Michael Maybin said.

“When Aaron’s face popped up on the TV screen when the Bills called him, it was euphoric. The feeling was surreal.”

Aaron Maybin, his cell phone pressed to his left ear, bowed his head and cried.

His head was swimming in emotions. He thought of his mother.

The last time he saw Connie Maybin, he kissed her goodbye and his father whisked her to the delivery room. Aaron blissfully went back to his toys with the expectation of meeting his new sister in a couple days. Instead, Michael Maybin had to come home and explain something no child should have to hear.

Connie died while giving birth. The baby was stillborn, but they were able to revive her. But his mother was gone.

“I think about her every day,” Aaron Maybin said. “I try to live my life in a way I feel she would be proud. There are a lot of things she wanted me to accomplish in my life.”

He never craved support. With his mother-in-law’s blessing, Michael Maybin soon remarried. The former Violette Grant, a British missionary who had visited Michael’s church, became Aaron’s mother in every sense.

“Even as a father, there’s a certain hug you can only get from a mother,” Michael Maybin said. “There’s a certain kiss that you can only get from a mother.

“Because I think he didn’t lack in that area, God sent us someone who was sensitive enough to step into that very difficult position and be able to cause some healing to take place and be able to nurture the boy that we know into the man that he has become.”

Aaron Maybin was a middle-schooler in Ellicott City, Md., when he met Arrington at a community event staged by Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. Arrington and Maybin hit it off.

“I have a picture from that day,” Arrington said. “We’re both making muscles. My arm was way bigger than his. He was a little string bean.”

Aaron Maybin was expressing himself through art at the time. He loved to paint and draw, and some would say he’s better with a brush or pencil in his hands than he is at planting quarterbacks. When he was 11, he painted a 50×40-foot mural on the side of a St. Paul Street building as part of a neighborhood revitalization project.

Michael Maybin called Aaron “a busy child,” so much so that he underwent a battery of tests that determined he had borderline attention-deficit disorder.

“These days they call that having a motor,” Michael Maybin said. “We just tried to channel his energies in areas that he showed interest.”

Athletics eventually took over, but sports never superseded schoolwork. In the winter of his sophomore year, he brought home a D. Michael Maybin yanked his son off the wrestling team even though he was projected to do well in upcoming tournaments.

“We don’t do Ds,” Michael Maybin said. “The message of academics being very important has been reinforced all throughout his career. College was nothing different.

“My job was to keep these size 13s squarely implanted in his backside every time he did something he wasn’t supposed to do.”

What size shoe does Aaron wear these days?

“Well, he’s got 15s now,” his father replied.

Do the 15s ever trump the 13s?

“No,” Michael Maybin said. “Because I’m still daddy.”

Arrington tracked Aaron Maybin’s career through high school, watching him become Mount Hebron’s first Division I prospect in 33 years, and later at Penn State.

Maybin now is a client. He signed up with Arrington’s company, LEAP Management, which handles marketing and myriad financial services for pro athletes and entertainers. Arrington sat in on interviews when the Maybins were choosing an agent.

“I think that you guys are going to be writing some pretty awesome stories about Aaron Maybin in the future,” Arrington told reporters Sunday at the Bills facility. “The more individuals get to know him, it’ll be very hard not to love him. I think the community will love him.”

In speaking with those close to Aaron Maybin, it becomes apparent they’re struck by how grounded he is more than how well he buries quarterbacks.

Character problems have been a recurring theme for the Bills since the season ended. It’s easy to see how their front office would sit down with Aaron Maybin and walk away feeling refreshed.

“I have always tried to carry myself as mature because of the situations I’ve been in,” Aaron Maybin said. “But I’m still a first-year guy. There’s a lot of things I have yet to see and experience that will be a surprise when the time comes.

“All that I expect out of myself is to work as hard as I possibly can and do everything it is that my coaching staff and my teammates require of me. With the skills that I bring to the table, I think that if I can do that, everything will fall into place because I feel my best will be more than good enough.”

The C.B.B.B. will hold it’s 3rd Annual Draft Party at the Lazy Parrot.

Please let me know if you would like to get together with your fellow Bills Backers on Day 1 of the 2009 NFL Draft. We can cheer or groan the Bills’ moves as well as discuss the T.O. situation.

Just saw this on NFL.com.

T.O., Manning could headline Bills-Colts Toronto game
Posted: News | Vic Carucci | Tags: Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts, Peyton Manning, Terrell Owens

The Buffalo Bills added a major drawing card for their series of games in Toronto by signing Terrell Owens. Now, the NFL could take a big step toward doing the same by lining up an attractive opponent for this year’s game.

Peyton Manning’s Indianapolis Colts are the NFL’s leading choice to be the Bills’ opponent, according to a league source.

An announcement could come during the March 22-25 owners’ meetings in Dana Point, Calif.

The NFL, and especially Toronto promoters paying $74 million over five years for five Bills regular-season and three preseason games at Rogers Centre, were disappointed last year by sluggish ticket sales for a preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers and especially for a regular-season game against the Miami Dolphins.

The hope is that the addition of Owens, who appeared on a major Toronto sports radio show after his March 7 signing, will help change that. And the league believes a marquee player such as Manning will spark more interest among Toronto fans paying as much as $200-plus for a ticket.

Before and after the Dolphins’ 16-3 victory, many Bills fans complained about the retractable roof on the Rogers Centre being closed and taking away home-field advantage for the cold-weather game played on Dec. 7. Similar complaints are likely to be heard again if, as expected, the roof remains closed for a Bills-Colts game, which also is expected to be played in December so as to not conflict with the Canadian Football League season.

The Colts play their home games in Lucas Oil Stadium, which also has a retractable roof.

– Vic Carruci

Commentary /By Larry Felser

With Bills choking, Owens easy to digest

It seems that the reaction to the signing of Terrell Owens by the Bills depends upon where you’re sitting.

If you’re sitting in Buffalo, chances are you are for it, in one degree or another. If you’re sitting elsewhere and operating a keyboard, the response is the customary one when discussing Owens: “He’s a distraction—selfish— a disruption in the locker room,” etc.

My reaction to the out-of-town media reaction is:How do you know? You’ve been ignoring the Bills since 1999 and rightly so. They haven’t mattered since then. They haven’t done anything else since the end of the 2008 season to change that. Right now there is no team in the NFL that needs a distraction more than Buffalo.

You have to look at the Bills as if they were a ravenously hungry man stepping into a steak house and ordering a large New York strip. The man is so famished he swallows a piece of his steak so big it has no chance of navigating his windpipe. Suddenly he is waving his arms and trying to shout “I’m choking!”

Suddenly a man from a nearby table wearing a newly issued No. 81 jersey is by his side, announcing “I know the Heimlich maneuver. I can help you.”

The victim recognizes his would-be rescuer as T. O. Does he respond with “You’re a distraction and a clubhouse lawyer, beat it!”?My guess is that the guy takes help anywhere he can get it.

Let’s get this straight. Owens is not a criminal. There is nothing in the penal code about felonious egomania or arrogance in the first degree. The NFL hasn’t identified him as a juicer. Nor have the Bills vowed to employ him until death do them part. His contract is for one year.

This team has few options. It sounds as if they are about to discard the best offensive lineman they have had since their Super Bowl days, left tackle Jason Peters, whom they should have tied up for the next five or six years. They don’t have a left guard. They may or may not have a center. They don’t have a tight end. They need a pass rusher. Now they may be bidding bye-bye to Peters.

Buffalo’s entire football operation is a mess.

The best way to build a team, according to most expert opinions, is through the college draft. Yet the Bills haven’t had a top-of-the-line draft since 2001. Last year they took cornerback Leodis McKelvin with the 11th selection in the first round. No argument there. But the second and third rounds are vital. No. 2 was wide receiver James Hardy, who gave scant evidence that he will develop into a keeper. No. 3 was pass rusher Chris Ellis, who, other than physically, never showed up.

Last season they hit with defensive tackle Marcus Stroud in a trade but their judgment on free agents has been a hit-or-miss proposition. In 2007 they threw many millions at three free-agent offensive linemen. Once they reached the critical red zone they couldn’t block a driveway. Two of them have been cut and the third, Langston Walker, has been just another guy.

This year they brought in two proven veterans, running back Fred Taylor and wide receiver Laveranues Coles, for visits. They would have helped the Bills but that is what they turned out to be, visitors. After digesting their beef-on-wecks, they left town and signed with other teams. In the ultimate insult Coles joined the Cincinnati Bengals, the lost legion of the NFL, after rejecting the Bills.