Don Shula

[Stoner]

I never hated the guy. More like feared and respected.

The face is just seared into the brains of Bills fans of a certain age. How it tortured us and then how we delighted in torturing it.

My dad used to get so mad during Bills Dolphins games. "He's got the refs in his pocket!"

Good times.

Thanks for the memories, Don.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

I'm on a media fast from terrible news of COVID and mass shootings and helicopter crashes ...

Did something happen to Don?

I hated the *fish* and wanted the Bills to *squish the fish* everytime, but always respected Don as a learned man of the game.  Anyone that can coach an NFL team to a perfect record trough a regular season and playoff deserves our respect, I think.

 

Edited May 4, 2020 by New Scotland (NS)
all these years later and I still can't type very goodly ...

[SABRES 0311]

57 minutes ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

I'm on a media fast from terrible news of COVID and mass shootings and helicopter crashes ...

Did something happen to Don?

I hated the *fish* and wanted the Bills to *squish the fish* everytime, but always respected Don as a learned man of the game.  Anyone that can coach an NFL team to a perfect record trough a regular season and playoff deserves our respect, I think.

 

He died.

[Neo]

Before there was Belicheck and his smug surliness, before there was Johnson and his outsized Texas celebrity, before there was Parcells and his condescending hubris, there was Shula.  Arms folded across his chest, hands on his hips, he presided over teams that stood in our way.  Often, the obstacle was their fifty being better than our fifty.  Occasionally, the obstacle was their one being better than our one.

Don Shula went to Canton as Noll and Landry did, granite faced stoics.  They walked the sidelines with little animation.  Their faces live in my memory like Rushmore busts.  There were no sneers or shouts.  There were no thrown clipboards.  There were only leaders of men.

I wonder, from time to time, how we would have known men of that era had there been 24/7/365 multi-media non-stop quotes, quips and film.  There wasn’t.  And so, I know them as quiet Field Marshalls, masters of the gladiators of my youth.  They are who I believed they were, not who they revealed themselves to be.  I was a boy.  They are Titans.

Edited May 5, 2020 by Neo

[mphs mike]

13 hours ago, Neo said:

Before there was Belicheck and his smug surliness, before there was Johnson and his outsized Texas celebrity, before there was Parcells and his condescending hubris, there was Shula.  Arms folded across his chest, hands on his hips, he presided over teams that stood in our way.  Often, the obstacle was their fifty being better than our fifty.  Occasionally, the obstacle was their one being better than our one.

Don Shula went to Canton as Noll and Landry did, granite faced stoics.  They walked the sidelines with little animation.  Their faces live in my memory like Rushmore busts.  There were no sneers or shouts.  There were no thrown clipboards.  There were only leaders of men.

I wonder, from time to time, how we would have known men of that era had there been 24/7/365 multi-media non-stop quotes, quips and film.  There wasn’t.  And so, I know them as quiet Field Marshalls, masters of the gladiators of my youth.  They are who I believed they were, not who they revealed themselves to be.  I was a boy.  They are Titans.

The first Bills game I attended was against the fish in '69 at the Rockpile. I was 8 and the Bills won. Then they went "0 for the 70's" and I was a college grad before they beat the fish again 

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, mphs mike said:

The first Bills game I attended was against the fish in '69 at the Rockpile. I was 8 and the Bills won. Then they went "0 for the 70's" and I was a college grad before they beat the fish again 

You graduated college by 19?  Impressive.

[inkman]

I hated his big fat ugly nose. That is all. Carry on.  

 

Never bothered me coaching as the Bills were whopping them pretty good when I really started following football. 

[FogBat]

Who was the last opponent Shula faced? The Bills. He lost that game and called it a career.

[mphs mike]

2 hours ago, Taro T said:

You graduated college by 19?  Impressive.

Should have read student, not grad.

It was a long time with much heartbreak, especially 72

[Tondas]

20 hours ago, Crosschecking said:

Who was the last opponent Shula faced? The Bills. He lost that game and called it a career.

Another coach that was out of a job after losing to a Buffalo team.  Usually, it's the Sabres.  We must hold the record of getting rid of coaches after losing to us.  I wonder if they keep that statistic?