No sports? Talker has you covered (Part II, the Bills, the Jills and love triangles)

No sports? Talker has you covered (Part II, the Bills, the Jills and love triangles)

Football signed by Buffalo Jills at St. John Fisher College, Zebb’s in Loehman’s Plaza and The Otter Lodge on Monroe Avenue [From David Kramer’s collection]

In recent days, we’ve learned of a spate of sports cancellations and postponements: NCAA basketball tournaments, the NBA, the NHL, the MSL and MLB spring training.

The only good news is that the XFL also cancelled its regular season. As seen in Waiting for the XFL to be the Ex-XFL, this spring football league is a blight on the sports calendar

Feb 8, 2020 (left) Bob Page, at Jeremiah’s Tavern on Monroe Avenue; (far right) Non-spectators at the inauguration of the XFL at Jeremiah’s. From Waiting for the XFL to be the Ex-XFL

Initially — mercifully for its misbegotten fans —  Sunday’s game in Seattle was scheduled to be played without spectators. Given the paltry attendance at many XFL games, an empty stadium would be little different. Apparently, the XFL is committed to playing a full season in 2021. Don’t bother.

With live sports on the sidelines, now is the time to relive Talker sports-blasts-from-the past.

SEE Part I: No sports? Talker has you covered (Part I, Major and Minor League baseball)

SEE PART III: No sports? Talker has you covered. (Part III, Sports Less Traveled)

SEE PART IV: No sports? Talker has you covered. (Part IV, Conclusion: college and high school baseball, basketball and football; amateur baseball, football and softball)

Bonding over our favorite team, the Buffalo Bills, Bill has been my good friend for decades. Our friendship blossomed in the early 1990’s when — escaping harsh western New York winters — we took four consecutive junkets to balmy climes. Vivid memories of the four year Super Bowl run Always at our side was Bill’s vivacious wife Jill. Before every game, the three of us tailgated in the stadium parking lot.

A while back, however, Bill’s business fortunes faltered and marital discord was one consequence. Bill’s personality changed from affable and extroverted to gloomy and sullen. Bill and Jill tried changing quarterbacks several times but to no avail.

(left) 1972 NFL Rushing Leaders, ®Topps; (center and right) PRO SET*NFL COLLECTIBLE, ©1989 National Football League [David Kramer’s collection] From Returning to the fold: better to have loved and lost

Eventually there was a legal separation. During that time, Jill and I grew closer. She complained that Bill was cheap and demanding. We occasionally met at bars in Brighton. Love has found a way! Buffalo Jills coming to the Otter to sign “Jack the Ball” Saturday the 23rd, 6-9pm Occasionally, Jill asked me to tattoo her body. The divorce became messy and emotionally traumatic. I decided it was time to move on from Jill.

Many years ago when living in Rhode Island, I dated a girl, Pat, whose favorite team was the New England Patriots. We bonded over the Patriots. Unlike the Bills who left me four times at the altar, the Pats gave me ring after ring.

Back in Rochester, after moving on from Jill, I chanced upon Pat on a Patriots online fan page.  Our love rekindled — though long distance — as we shared pictures of ourselves in Patriot gear.  I officially became a fan of the New England Patriots, eagerly anticipating a Super Bowl win in 2019. Why I am rooting for the Patriots and If the Patriots win the Super Bowl, credit Talker

January, 1997. Pat in Narragansett, Rhode Rhode Island. From If the Patriots win the Super Bowl, credit Talker

But it was not to be with Pat.  I realized my hearty lay elsewhere. At Jeremiah’s Tavern on Monroe Avenue, I re-united with Bill, now a changed man, back to his old upbeat self. Watching the Bills fall short and recalling the most famous “blacked out” game, The Comeback, January 3rd, 1993 We re-bonded over memories of the great 1993 playoff comeback win against the Houston Oilers. I returned to the fold. Returning to the fold: better to have loved and lost I am happy.

1990 – 1993 

Vivid memories of the four year Super Bowl run

ESPN’s “Four Falls of Buffalo” and “Vivid memories of the four year Super Bowl run” and still jilted by the Bills

2016  

Love has found a way! Buffalo Jills coming to the Otter to sign “Jack the Ball,” Saturday the 23rd, 6-9pm

“Bring back the Jills:” Cheerleaders deserve their stage

No Jills; no playoffs for the Bills

2018

Despite the lifting of the curse, Peterman and the Jill-less Bills drop the ball.

Bills make the playoffs without the Jills; remembering Jacksonville vs. Buffalo in ’96

The Jills ball as talisman thwarted; the curse is back.

Why I am rooting for the Patriots

2019 

If the Patriots win the Super Bowl, credit Talker

Returning to the fold: better to have loved and lost

2020 

Watching the Bills fall short and recalling the most famous “blacked out” game, The Comeback, January 3rd, 1993

SEE ALSO 

No sports? Talker has you covered (Part I, Major and Minor League baseball)

About The Author

dkramer3@naz.edu

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle  blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C  ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones.  So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.

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