This Bud's for you, Buffalo!
Titans owners Bud Adams gave the Bills the business Sunday, while sitting in his press box. The commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, was present at this game, but that doesn’t stop Bud from sharing his point of view.
Bud Adams gives the Bills the ol’ middle finger salute. You can hear the crowd show its appreciation for Adams’ gesture. And that got me to thinking – I don’t know a damn thing about this old redneck. So after weeks of research, clicking my mouse nearly four times, here’s what I found on Wikipedia. God bless people with time on their hands to save me from ever opening a book!
Some interesting Bud Adams, Jr. facts:
- He’s the NFL’s senior owner in time with his team, beating out – appropriately enough – Bills owner Ralph Wilson.
- He’s a co-founder of the AFL, eventually moving his team from Houston to Nashville. By the way, both AFL co-founders, Adams and Lamar Hunt, eventually moved their team out of Texas. From what I gather, they hate the toast.
- He once tried to buy the NFL’s Chicago Cardinals. I can’t picture the Cardinals’ owner Bill Bidwill flipping anyone off. He’d try to, then accidentally give them the pinkie or the thumb.
- Fought the NFL for the rights to sign Heisman RB Billy Cannon out of LSU. He was the top pick in both the AFL and NFL drafts, and Cannon’s signing with Houston gave the AFL legitimacy.
- Adams even gave God the middle finger once, when he moved the Oilers into the Astrodome, becoming the first team to play indoors.
Adams’ team and the Buffalo Bills have quite amount of history. In 1993, Bills backup QB Frank Reich led his team to an historic comeback after being down 35-6 to the Oilers. Buffalo went on a 35-3 second-half run, and went on to make more history, by losing a fourth Super Bowl in a row.
And when you re-watch this video of Bud Adams, notice that he’s standing over Frank Wycheck’s retired number. Wycheck was the tight end that threw the lateral to Kevin Dyson in the 1999 “Music City Miracle,” beating the Bills in the ’99 AFC playoffs. That amazing (and controversial) play allowed the Titans to go on to come up a yard short against the Rams in the Super Bowl.
Adams’s gesture might be unsportsmanlike and ungentlemanly, and it might have angered many in the press. But the Titans came out on top, with a 41-17 beatdown over Buffalo.
So eff ‘em.
Follow David Gonos on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidgonos
Follow us on Twtter: http://twtter.com/OPENFantasy