Frank Reich THE COMEBACK KINGS The temperature hovered just above freezing on January 3 1993 The Buffalo Bills hosted the Houston Oilers It was a National Football League NFL Wild Card playoff Despite the cold the Oilers were red-hot They built a 28 3 halftime lead Buffalo’s star quarterback quarterback was Jim Kelly But he was injured The Bills had to settle for backup Frank Reich In the locker room defensive coordinator Walt Corey ripped into his players I can’t repeat the words he said after the game but the more I talked the louder I got The thing that bothered me was their approach approach To me they looked timid 9
Early in the third quarter Houston’s lead stretched to 35 3 The radio announcer crowed The lights are on here at Rich Stadium but you might as well turn them off this one is over Many fans agreed They streamed through the exits But they were wrong Buffalo took advantage of a short kickoff It scored a touchdown Then it confounded Houston with an onside kick It scored again A short Houston punt led to a third touchdown Then the Bills grabbed an interception Shortly after they pounded the ball into the end zone They had scored 28 points in less than 7 minutes Fans went crazy Some who had left early came rushing back to the stadium They soon had even more to scream about Reich threw his fourth touchdown pass Less than three minutes remained Buffalo now led 38 35 Houston tied the score with a field goal The game went into overtime It didn’t last long The Bills took advantage of an interception and a penalty They moved to the Oilers 20-yard line Steve Christie nailed the game-winning field goal The game remains the greatest comeback in NFL history Steve left Kicker Steve Christie 10
GRIDIRON GREATS TURNING TO THE WILD WEST The team asked fans for name suggestions in 1946 The winner was the famous showman Buffalo Bill Cody However the team did not connect to its namesake Instead the franchise built its image around the American bison Bison are often called buffalo The Bills logo is a buffalo So is the team mascot Billy Buffalo wears a jersey sporting BB Buffalo Bill remains well-known for his own connection to buffalo He was an accomplished hunter He claimed to have killed more than 4,000 buffalo in 1867 68 11
