Smerlas, Haslett hoping these Bills can do what no other Buffalo team has

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After the Buffalo Bills scored with 13 seconds remaining to take the lead against Kansas City in that NFL playoff game three months ago, Fred Smerlas sprang from the couch the way he used to spring from his four-point stance the instant the ball was snapped.

“I jumped up and was dancing like a happy fool,’’ the five-time Bills Pro Bowl nose tackle recalled the other day from his suburban Boston home. “I’m figuring we’re going to the AFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl, and we’re taking no prisoners. We’re going to bring that Lombardi Trophy back to Buffalo and celebrate until the taps run dry.’’

But faster than you could say, “Wide Right” or “Music City Miracle,” ecstasy was pancaked by agony. Patrick Mahomes took the Chiefs 44 yards in just two plays to set up the game-tying field goal, then led Kansas City to the winning touchdown in overtime.

“Never, ever should have happened,’’ Smerlas said. “I still can’t believe it did.”

His best friend, and former Buffalo teammate, was just as gobsmacked and disappointed as he was.

“Sadly, things can get chaotic in the heat of the moment,’’ said Jim Haslett, the former Bills tackling machine linebacker who’s spent 34 years as a pro and college coach, including the last two seasons as a Tennessee Titans assistant. “I wasn’t on the sidelines in Kansas City, so I can’t say who was at fault, but no matter how long you’re in this game, you realize it really never is over until that final gun sounds. And if you don’t play smart and tough the entire way, the ending can be bitter.”

The good news is the Bills will get another crack at it this season, and they’ll do so as odds-on favorites to win it all. Thanks to quarterback Josh Allen, who might be the best player in the NFL, and an already top-ranked defense, bolstered by the addition of first-ballot Hall of Fame pass-rusher Von Miller, Buffalo is “Talkin’ Proud,” just like it was back in the early 1980s when Smerlas and Haslett were part of a team that appeared on the brink of greatness.

“I can see a lot of similarities,’’ said Smerlas, who will be signing autographs and trading tall tales with Haslett at the Sports Corner Memorabilia Show, Sunday morning from 11-11:30 at the RIT Inn & Conference Center. “Buffalo and Western New York are ga-ga over this team, just like they were back in our day.”

Like the current Bills, Smerlas and Haslett were part of a football renaissance following a long drought. They also were part of what just might be the most bountiful draft class in franchise history. Counting Smerlas and Haslett, the Bills selections in 1979 yielded seven quality starters: wide receiver Jerry Butler, offensive tackle Jon Borchardt, defensive tackle Ken Johnson, and safeties Rod Kush and Jeff Nixon. Tom Cousineau was Buffalo’s first overall pick that April, but his rights wound up being traded to Cleveland in exchange for the 1983 first-round pick used to draft Jim Kelly.

“We had a great coach in Chuck Knox, and a lot of offensive fire-power, with Fergy (quarterback Joe Feguson), wide receivers Jerry Butler and Frank Lewis, and running back Joe Cribbs,’’ Smerlas said of that team that blossomed in 1980 after winning just 10 of 46 games its previous four seasons.

“Fergy was in his prime; could throw the football through a brick wall from 60 yards away. Cribbs was a dual threat who could kill you running it and catching it. Toss in the offensive line and our defense, which was really, really good, and you had a team capable of beating anybody.”

That Bills surge couldn’t have come at a better time for a community that was battling double-digit unemployment after the closings of the steel mills. In hopes of boosting civic pride, the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce launched a feel-good campaign, featuring a jingle called “Talkin’ Proud” that wound up being played each time the Bills scored.

One of the finest moments occurred in the season opener on Sept. 17, 1980, when Buffalo beat the hated Miami Dolphins 17-7, snapping an NFL record 20-game losing streak in the series. When the game ended, thousands of people in the Rich Stadium crowd of 79,598 poured onto the field and tore down the goalposts.

“We’d only been there for one season, so we didn’t really comprehend the hatred for the Dolphins and why the fans were going crazy like that,’’ Haslett recalled. “We’re wondering, ‘What’s the big deal?’ We found out in a hurry.”

That victory would be the springboard to an 11-5 record and an AFC East title, though the season would end on a sour note, as Ferguson injured his ankle, severely affecting his play in a playoff loss to San Diego. Still, Smerlas, Haslett and Company were riding high. That year, Buffalo News sportswriter Mike Dodd came up with the clever nickname of the Bermuda Triangle for the trio of Smerlas, Haslett and linebacker Shane Nelson. Once it caught on, a poster was created with caricatures of the three Bills defenders stampeding off the page.

“We loved it,’’ recalled Haslett, who turned 66 in December and recently signed a contract to coach in the XFL. “We took pride in nobody running the ball on us, especially up the middle. We used to say, ‘You come into the triangle, you’re not getting out.’ I think it gave us and our defense an identity, a little extra incentive. We wanted to live up to that nickname.”

The next season, the Bills went 10-6 and beat the New York Jets in a wildcard game before suffering a close loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC divisional round. Sadly, the “Talkin’ Proud” era came to a crashing halt in 1982 as Cribbs staged a long contract holdout, and the Bills stumbled to a 4-5 record in a strike-shortened season. That off-season, Knox left to coach the Seattle Seahawks, greasing the skids for a slide that saw Buffalo become NFL basement dwellers with back-to-back 2-14 campaigns in 1984 and ‘85.

“We had it rolling there for a while,’’ said Smerlas, who began collecting his NFL pension after celebrating his 65^th birthday on April 8. “We were so close to reaching the top, and then we caught some bad breaks, with Fergy hurting his ankle, and us getting some costly penalties in the playoffs the following year. I really believe in my heart those teams were talented enough to win it all.”

There is, of course, a cautionary tale there — a history lesson germane to the present. The 2022 Bills roster is overflowing with talent. On paper and in the eyes of the Las Vegas oddsmakers, Buffalo is the team to beat. But as last season’s Bills learned, and as the Bills of the early 1980s and their Super Bowl counterparts of the 1990s learned, you better seize the day while you can because windows of opportunity can unexpectedly slam shut.

“You got to grab it while you can, and I think this team can,’’ Smerlas said. “With Miller, that defense should be even better, and I love Josh. He can out-throw you and out-run you. He’s a big beast who’s tough as nails and can knock your block off when you try to tackle him. They just got to stay healthy and catch some breaks.”

If they do, there might just be a party to end all parties, with celebrations lasting until the taps run dry.

Best-selling author and nationally honored journalist Scott Pitoniak is the Rochester Business Journal sports columnist.