Super Bowl Monday_ From the Persian Gulf to the Shores of West Florida - Adam Lazarus [137]
An all-pro year from Jim Kelly (he paced the NFL in touchdown passes) was eclipsed only by his running back. Thurman Thomas led the AFC in rushing yards: had he not sat out the meaningless regular-season finale, he might have won the NFL rushing title. He was just as vital to the Bills’ passing attack, adding 631 yards on sixty-two receptions. Thirty-nine of the eighty-two first-place votes for league MVP went to Thomas; Kelly finished second with eighteen.
The Bills crushed Kansas City in the divisional round, then faced the Broncos in the AFC Championship Game.
As they had a year earlier, Buffalo turned in an incredible defensive effort, shutting out Denver through fifty-eight minutes. Pro Bowlers Darryl Talley and Cornelius Bennett, along with Bruce Smith—who missed most of the regular season with a knee injury—suffocated John Elway to the point where he was replaced late in the fourth quarter.
Elway not only couldn’t put points on the board, but his mistake yielded the game’s only touchdown. Bills lineman Jeff Wright swatted one of Elway’s pass attempts, which floated in the air until linebacker Carlton Bailey pulled in the football. Bailey rumbled toward the goal line, knocking over Elway on his way to the end zone.
The play broke a scoreless tie late in the third period. Buffalo hung on to win 10-7, clinching the Bills’ return trip to the world championship and giving Conway Bailey a second chance to see his son play in the Super Bowl.
Hours before the kickoff to Super Bowl XXV, Conway Bailey and the 260th Armored Division, Army Reserve Unit of Baltimore received new orders. They were to leave Saudi Arabia for a position twelve miles inside Iraq. As if marching further into enemy territory wasn’t bad enough for the unit’s ammunition technician, their destination was not within range of the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network: Bailey wouldn’t be able to hear his son’s team play that evening.
“When I was in Iraq, I thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, that would never come around again,” Bailey said.
Instead of watching or listening to the action, Conway had to wait until late Monday to hear the results of Buffalo’s 20-19 loss on a BBC broadcast. He saw a video replay of the game once he came back to the United States on April 16, 1991. And although he watched the Bills’ AFC Championship Game victory over Denver in his Baltimore home, Conway Bailey would be at Minneapolis’ Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome two weeks later to see, in person, the Bills battle Washington in the Super Bowl.
Against the Broncos, Bailey’s touchdown helped the Bills overcome a woeful offensive performance. The league MVP and the other four Pro Bowlers could manage only 213 yards of total offense against the AFC’s top-rated defense. And given the late touchdown Denver scored, Bailey’s interception alone was not enough to guarantee Buffalo’s berth in Super Bowl XXVI.
Midway through the final period, the Bills offense crossed midfield for just the second time, but the drive stalled at Denver’s twenty-seven. Head coach Marv Levy never hesitated in sending out the field-goal unit—even though gusting winds that day in Orchard Park, New York, had already caused Denver’s kicker, former all-pro David Treadwell, to miss three field goal attempts.
With 4:18 remaining, Scott Norwood lined up for a forty-four-yarder that would increase Buffalo’s lead to 10-0.
“I believe in my abilities. I’m a positive person,” Norwood said that day. “That’s why I’ve played seven years in the NFL.”
Norwood struggled in the season following his wide-right attempt that ended Super Bowl XXV. He missed five of his first ten attempts during the 1991 season. Norwood’s overtime game-winner against the Raiders in early December notwithstanding, he continued to struggle toward the end of the year. (His three