Night Owl Cards

A few weeks ago, I resolved to do something about my Bills collection. I have been a fan of the Buffalo Bills since the mid-1980s, back when the team was 2-14 and touted Vince Ferragamo as their starting quarterback. Even before that, I remember making trips to Buffalo and reading about Joe Ferguson, Jerry Butler, Joe Cribbs and Fred Smerlas. Later, during the late 1980s and the team's return to prominence, I covered the Bills as a sports reporter just starting out. The Bills have been my closest connection to professional sports for virtually my entire life, and I've basically ignored them when it comes to collecting cards. That ain't right. So I set out to acquire SOME Bills cards. I have no interest in full-blown football card collecting. I just want a modest amount so when the card police come to my door and say, "What's your favorite football team? May I see your cards, sir?", I will have something to show them. I was able to acquire some q...

Happy Thanksgiving all. I hope you're treating your stomach well. Since this holiday is an ode to carbohydrates, I am watching my intake while still trying not to take all the fun out of the day. Mostly I am redirecting my interests from food toward football, something that I have only watched out of duty over the last few Thanksgivings. But today I am really trying to pretend to care about the Lions and the Redskins and ... well, hell, nothing on earth will get me to care about the two teams in the last game. As I've said before, I used to be a very big football fan. It was very easy to be a football fan in Buffalo in the late '80s/early '90s, what with all the playoffs and Super Bowls. And then things got easier when I started covering Bills games. In fact, I just dug out the first article I ever wrote about the Bills. I wrote it on Oct. 30, 1988 at the first NFL game I ever covered. I was six months out of college and the Bills were playing the Packers. Gree...