Super Bowl Monday_ From the Persian Gulf to the Shores of West Florida - Adam Lazarus [132]
Returning to his seat, Levy leaned back and looked out the window.
“I recalled a poem that was in a slim volume of English poetry that my mother had given me way back when I had joined the Army Air Corps during World War II,” Levy said years later. “It was by an unknown British poet in the 15th century about a Scottish warrior. It went just four lines”:
Fight on, my men, Sir Andrew said.
A little I’m hurt, but not yet slain.
I’ll just lie down and bleed awhile.
Then I’ll rise and fight again.
The plane eventually touched down at the Greater Buffalo International Airport, where the team embarked on its final obligation of the 1990 season. Although no players really wanted to attend, the city had organized a rally to thank them for a great season. None of the players or coaches aboard the team buses knew what to expect.
Trailing behind ten police cars and beneath two helicopters, the team buses traveled across New York State Route 33, then reached Niagara Square, the center of downtown Buffalo. At city hall, the buses parked, and players and coaches took the stage. Before them, thirty thousand fans stood in subfreezing temperatures cheering, “Thank You Bills, Thank You Bills.” The rally, scheduled for 3 p.m., was just about to commence when a new chant—“We Want Scott, We Want Scott”—started then billowed into a full-fledged deafening roar. Encouraged by his teammates, the modest Scott Norwood reluctantly walked to the podium.
“I’ve got to tell you that we’re struggling with this right now,” he said, fighting back tears. “I know I’ve never felt more loved than this right now. We all realize the sun’s going to come up tomorrow, and we’re going to start preparing this football team.”
“The reception that he got from the fans was indicative of how they feel toward him and how much football they know,” Bill Polian said. “They knew exactly what had taken place. And they knew that Scott did his best, and that’s all he could do. That’s all you can ask of any athlete. It’s just unfortunate that people who don’t know football as well as those fans have cast him as some sort of a goat because it’s easy to do.”
The master of ceremonies, Buffalo’s Chamber of Commerce President Kevin Keeley, eventually began the scheduled portion of the rally, which included several local dignitaries addressing the crowd. From the Bills, owner Ralph Wilson, James Lofton, and Mark Kelso spoke, along with Marv Levy, who—as he had to his team a day earlier—told the crowd that not a single loser resided in Buffalo. The sea of Bills fans erupted.
“[We] get back to New Jersey,” Giants cornerback Everson Walls later said, “and no one wants to foot the bill for a parade. Then I look on TV, and I see the Buffalo Bills got a freakin’ parade. Come on, man! That was so disappointing, extremely disappointing.”
New York Governor Mario Cuomo also took the stage. Earlier that week, Cuomo dodged the obvious question about which team he would cheer for. And although Cuomo’s office later sent a telegram to Giants Stadium that read, “It was a great game between two great teams and you are deserving champions. Congratulations!” he appeared on stage at the Bills’ rally at Niagara Square.
“They have made the entire state proud by their performance this year,” Cuomo declared. “They showed more class, more character coming up one point short than most teams show in victory”
Those words didn’t rile up the crowd nearly as much as his wardrobe: underneath his overcoat, the governor sported a sweatshirt that read “Buffalo Bills: Champion Super Bowl XXVI, Minnesota in 1992.”
“It was off the charts, yelling and screaming,” Carlton Bailey said twenty years later. “What more can you say about Buffalo? They understand and support their football team. It’s in their nature. It’s in their blood. It was outstanding. You would have thought that we won the Super Bowl.”
[1]At the time, a fourteen-man committee of sportswriters voted