by Adam Lazarus
Within seconds of the opening kickoff, it became clear that this Giants team would not produce another thrilling upset by the Bay. Four and a half minutes into the game, San Francisco completed an eighty-yard touchdown drive.
By the first snap of the second period, the 49ers scored again, and when Ricky Watters added his third rushing touchdown of the half, late in the second period, the Giants trailed 23-0. The field goal New York kicked just before halftime proved to be meaningless. The Giants were manhandled in the second half, as three more rushing touchdowns (including Watters’ fourth and fifth of the day) gave the 49ers a dominating 44-3 victory.
“Some of the guys were saying, ‘Man these guys are good,’” safety Greg Jackson said. “I was so mad. I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to slap some of those guys. I think a lot of the young guys weren’t used to that kind of competition. They were shellshocked, scared. Some of them probably thought we were beat right from the start.”
As bad as the Giants defense played—six touchdowns, 413 yards allowed, 79 percent pass-completion percentage—the offense was worse. The running game—which helped the Giants control the clock for more than thirty-five minutes in their playoff victory against Minnesota—managed just forty-one yards on nineteen carries. With their Pro Bowl running back, Rodney Hampton, gaining just twelve yards on seven carries, the Giants offense sustained only one drive of any length. New York converted just two of twelve third-down situations.
“Maybe the key to the game was the coin toss,” Dan Reeves said. “They got the ball and it was 7-0. We were never able to play ball control. We were never able to get our running game going. We had to play catch-up all day. We didn’t execute and they kicked our butts physically.”
Phil Simms had a rough afternoon too. Without the team’s clutch receiving duo of Mark Ingram (free agency) and Stephen Baker (released during preseason), Simms completed less than half of his passes and tossed two interceptions. It wouldn’t become official for more than a year, but the crushing loss to San Francisco turned out to be his last NFL game.
“They were just way too good for us,” Simms said. “If we could have kept some drives alive, we might have been able to hang in there. We tried but we just weren’t good enough.”
Another Giants Super Bowl hero joined Simms in ending his career on this sourest of notes. Within minutes of leaving the field after the worst defensive performance in team history, Lawrence Taylor addressed a group of reporters.
“I think it’s time for me to retire,” he said. “I’ve done everything I can do. I’ve been to Super Bowls. I’ve been to playoffs. I’ve done things that other people haven’t been able to do in this game before. After 13 years, it’s time for me to go,” Taylor said that day.
After playing the entire season on a surgically repaired Achilles tendon, the Giants re-signed him for the 1993 season. They didn’t want him to join Bill Parcells and the New England Patriots.
“I’m fortunate the Giants allowed me to come back and be on the ground floor of something big. In the years to come, I can always say I was there when this team started to make its rise to the top.”
Seven hours before Lawrence Taylor, Phil Simms, and the Giants dynasty of the 1980s bid farewell to the National Football League, the Buffalo Bills sprinted out of the tunnel at Rich Stadium. They too had a rematch with an old foe from January 1991’s conference championship Sunday. The Los Angeles Raiders came to town for the AFC divisional playoff round.
Unlike their Super Bowl XXV opponent, the Buffalo Bills did not stray off course following the epic showdown in Tampa on January 27, 1991. They opened the 1991 regular season on a roll, winning five straight, on their way to a fourth-consecutive AFC East title.
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 missed field goals and botched extra point in the game against Los Angeles were the reasons sudden death was necessary.) Two more unsuccessful attempts in the season finale helped Detroit defeat the Bills 17-14.
He connected on all three attempts during the playoff win against the Chiefs, including a clutch forty-seven-yarder. And the one time he was called upon in the AFC Championship Game against Denver, Norwood delivered. The kick sailed through and Buffalo hung on to win 10-7.
“I didn’t have any doubts that I was going to make my kick. I was hoping to get the opportunity to come through for my teammat
es,” Norwood said.
In the postgame press conference, Marv Levy wasn’t nearly as modest on his kicker’s behalf.
“Any Norwood questions, guys?” Levy sarcastically asked the press. “He deserves some credit for what was done. I hate to see him catch a lot of crap when it goes against him and then have you just shrug your shoulders when he’s done something meaningful.”
The meaningful kick earned Buffalo another Lamar Hunt Trophy, awarded to the champion of the American Football Conference. But for a second straight season, the Bills would not supplement the Rich Stadium display case with a Lombardi Trophy.
Washington pummeled the Bills in Super Bowl XXVI, 37-24. A costly unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty against Andre Reed (he slammed his helmet on the ground after an incompletion) and Thurman Thomas’ infamous misplacing of his helmet were as much an embarrassment as the 24-0 deficit they faced in the third period.
The resilience of a franchise that overcame so much just to get to their first Super Bowl, continued to shine the next season. Three losses in the final five games of the 1992 regular season kept Buffalo from claiming another division title.
To return to a third-straight Super Bowl, they would have to do so as a wild-card team. Minutes into their opening-round home playoff game against Houston, there was little hope of that happening. Without Jim Kelly (sprained knee) and Cornelius Bennett (hamstring) heading up their respective units, the Bills fell behind 35-3. Thurman Thomas’ reinjuring of his hip pointer early in the third quarter seemed to signal the end of Buffalo’s season.
Inconceivably, however, the Bills came back. Replacing Kelly was backup Frank Reich. The former University of Maryland quarterback had already engineered the greatest comeback in the history of college football: in November 1984, his Terrapins trailed Miami 31-0 at halftime, then scored six touchdowns to win 42-40. Reich repeated the miracle eight years later.
“[Bills third-string quarterback Gale Gilbert] came up to me and told me what I needed to hear,” said Reich. “He said, ‘Hey, you did it in college, and there’s no reason why you can’t do it here.’”
The Bills scored five touchdowns in the span of twenty-one minutes to stun the Oilers with a 41-38 overtime victory. On the momentum of that historic win, Buffalo cruised through the remainder of the AFC playoffs, only to be pounded in Super Bowl XXVII by Dallas, 52-17.
Again, the Bills did not give up. And, as luck would have it, the first half of the 1993 regular season even afforded the Bills a special opportunity for redemption. In Week One, they crushed New England 38-14, spoiling Bill Parcells’ Patriots debut. Nine weeks later, the Bills again bested Parcells and their AFC East rival.
In between those two victories over the head coach who narrowly defeated the Bills in Super Bowl XXV, Marv Levy’s squad won five of six games. Three of those wins came against the Cowboys, Redskins, and Giants, the franchises to which Buffalo had lost Super Bowls in each of the three previous Januaries.
“We know nobody wants us to win,” Jim Kelly said during that season. “We know nobody wants to see us go back to the Super Bowl again. Everybody is sick of us. And you know what? We love it.”
The Bills went on to reclaim the AFC East crown later that year, earning a first-round bye and another playoff showdown with the Los Angeles Raiders.
“The last time was an embarrassment,” said Raiders perennial Pro Bowl receiver Tim Brown. “I think a lot of the guys are looking forward to going up there and making up for it.”
Despite losing to the Raiders at Rich Stadium earlier that season, the Bills were still favored by seven points. The wild-card Raiders had qualified for the playoffs only by edging out Denver 33-30 in overtime on the final Sunday of the regular season. A Raiders’ victory amid huge obstacles—sub-zero temperatures and a raucous Buffalo crowd—was a tall order.
Fortunately for Los Angeles, under center that day was a gutsy, battle-hardened veteran who had once quarterbacked a touchdown underdog to a postseason victory over the favored Buffalo Bills: Jeff Hostetler.
Dan Reeves needed roughly a month to decide Phil Simms, not Hostetler, was the right choice for the job of starting Giants quarterback. Both men were free agents during the spring of 1993, and the Giants chose to sign Simms to a two-year $5.05 million deal in March. They did not re-sign Hostetler.
“It’s an end to one stage of my life and the beginning of something else,” he said. “I want a team that I think wants me, that respects the abilities I have, a team that wants to win. There are a lot of them out there.”
One such team actually shared the exact same address as the Giants. The New York Jets showed a great deal of interest in signing Hostetler. Instead of jumping at that opportunity to remain in town and show the Giants the mistake they made, Hostetler inked a blockbuster deal with the Los Angeles Raiders: three years, $8 million. The day he was introduced as member of the Raiders, Hostetler heard words never uttered during his nine-year tenure in New York.
“This was the guy we wanted,” said Steve Ortmayer, the Raiders’ director of operations. “This was our first choice, the guy we went after.”
Changing out a flat tire on the car that drove him from the airport to his workout for team officials showcased his versatility. But the Raiders courted Hostetler for his proven record as quarterback.
“He runs very well, takes few sacks and has a 70 percent winning percentage as a starter,” owner Al Davis said.
The cross-country move liberated Hostetler. His multimillion-dollar salary proved they had faith in him, and he didn’t have to worry about being promised playing time only to sit on the sidelines, waiting, begging for a chance to perform. In the Raiders’ pass-oriented offense, Hostetler had considerable input and impact on the team’s destiny, far more than he ever had in New York.
His first pass as a Raider, in Week One against Minnesota, went for a seventeen-yard touchdown to Tim Brown. Hostetler completed thirteen of his next fourteen attempts as the Raiders cruised to victory over the defending NFC East Champion Vikings.
“It is still a team game, I am only one part,” he said. “They played back, so we could not go long. We just took what they gave us. I felt I was able to see the whole field today. Our offensive line did a great job of giving me time.”
Hostetler’s Raiders finished the 1993 season 10-6. Playing through a slew of injuries (swelling of both knees, sprained right ankle, bruised throwing shoulder and ribs), he racked up 3,242 yards passing. Seven days after a concussion knocked him out in a loss at Green Bay, Hostetler returned to start the regular season finale against Denver. The finest passing day of his career—twenty-five of forty-one, 310 yards, three touchdowns—sparked a seventeen-point second-half comeback. Los Angeles’ 33-30 overtime victory clinched a home playoff game for the Raiders.
A week later, again versus the Broncos on a Wild Card Sunday, Hostetler threw three more touchdowns in the Raiders’ 42-24 victory. Hostetler benefited that season from a tremendous corps of wide receivers—along with Tim Brown, the Raiders sported two of the league’s fastest players, Raghib “Rocket” Ismail and the aptly named former Olympic sprinter, James Jett. But the addition of Hostetler turned Los Angeles into a winner.
“People can talk all they want about the receivers, but to me, Jeff’s the reason for the Raiders’ success,” noted Broncos offensive coordinator Jim Fassel, who witnessed Hostetler combine for 868 yards and eight touchdowns in three victories that season against Denver. “They finally have not only a guy who can throw but one who can move.”
As the Giants quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator in the two years after the Super Bowl XXV victory, Fassel knew his skills as well as anyone. He also knew that in order to be a success, in addition to a good running game, capable receivers, and a solid offensive line, Jeff Hostetler needed a change of scenery.
“I went to talk to him, and I could see it in his eyes,” Fassel said after the Raiders’ playoff victory. “I don’t think he ever could have gotten that look in New York. His
team, no questions asked. Even if Phil had gone instead of Jeff, there would still have been Phil’s ghost. A bad game or two, people would’ve said they should’ve kept Phil. Who knows what that would’ve done? Chemistry is something you never can predict.”
The wild-card victory advanced Los Angeles to the AFC divisional round and set up Hostetler’s personal rematch with Buffalo. This time, however, instead of balmy west Florida weather, Hostetler would face the Bills on a much different stage.
As much as the Bills stout defense—still anchored by Bruce Smith, Darryl Talley, and Cornelius Bennett—and a thoroughly partisan crowd, Hostetler would have to contend with frigid temperatures and sixteen-mile-per-hour winds. Throwing the football was going to be extremely difficult.
“You’ve just got to go out there and play,” receiver Don Beebe said. “Marv Levy says it all the time that championship teams have got to play in all the elements.”
The forecast was so bad that, on game day, nearly one-quarter of the tickets went unused. Nevertheless, more than sixty thousand Bills fans roared when, early in the second period, the Bills scored to take a 6-3 lead. A pair of touchdowns by running back Napoleon McCallum gave Los Angeles a 17-6 edge, but Jim Kelly then marched Buffalo seventy-six yards in the final two minutes of the quarter. Thurman Thomas’ eight-yard touchdown run cut the deficit and the Bills headed into halftime behind 17-13.
“It was very important,” said Smith, who sacked Hostetler twice, although neither came in the end zone and produced a safety. “It was probably the most important drive in the game. There’s a tremendous difference being down four points as opposed to 11 points. That motivated us to come out in the second half and achieve the things we did.”
The first-half offensive malaise—the weather contributed to Buffalo totaling just 102 yards—did not carry over to the third quarter. Kelly tossed a touchdown to retake command of the game. Napoleon McCallum’s fumble on the ensuing Raider drive produced three more points by way of a short field goal.
