December 1, 1974

The Buffalo Bills were finally getting good. They were coached by Lou Saban and they had the best running back in football - O.J. Simpson.

I was ten. John was eleven. We wanted the Bills to win every week. We loved watching O.J. run.

We absolutely begged my Dad to take us to a game.

He didn't want to.

Of course, I didn't know that at the time.

He was a great Dad.

He feigned interest.

Through the years I came to learn that he sort of hated football. He watched with the rest of us, of course, when the Bills went to 4 straight Super Bowls, but he didn't love it.

I think of that day in 1974.

I imagine how much he detested sitting in Orchard Park on a cold winter day with us.

And it had nothing to do with us, of course. He loved us, or we wouldn't have gone.

I only really remembered five things about the game.

1). O.J. went over 1,000 yards on the season.

2). Neither team scored a touchdown.

3). It snowed all through the 2nd half.

and

4). It sucked.

None of us had any fun.

Yet I forgot all about that until I started thinking about the Bills home pre-season game tomorrow.

I Googled the 1974 season and that's when I found the game.

The Bills beat the Colts 6 to 0.

The place was packed.

Then I thought about it some more.

Of course I had returned to the stadium about 30 more times through the years. I'm not sure if my brother ever has. I know for a fact that my Dad never went back.

A lot has happened in the nearly 40 years, huh?

Everyone's life moved forward.

Orenthal is in jail.

The Bills didn't win the big game.

and number five.

5). "Thanks for taking us," we said to Dad.

He just kept saying the same thing over and over as we cranked the heat up in the car and tried to get feeling back in our hands.

"Never again," he said.

And I remembered we laughed.

I swear to God...

I remember that.