Marv Levy, Jim Kelly and Darryl Talley recount their experiences
Emmy and Golden Globe winner Alec Baldwin narrates
"'Fight on my men,' Sir Andrew said, 'a little I'm hurt, but not yet slain. I'll just lie down and bleed a while then I'll rise to fight again.'"
Those were the words, an excerpt from a poem about a Scottish warrior, that Buffalo Bills head coach Marv Levy recounted to his team following its loss in Super Bowl XXV. It would be their first of four Super Bowl losses, but the team kept fighting, hungry for a championship ring. America's Game: The Missing Rings - 1990 Buffalo Bills debuts Thursday, Oct. 2 at 10 p.m. ET in high definition exclusively on NFL Network.
America's Game: The Missing Rings - 1990 Buffalo Bills looks at the only team to play in four consecutive Super Bowls as told by Hall of Fame head coach Marv Levy, Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, and linebacker Darryl Talley, who never missed a game in 12 seasons with the Bills. America's Game: The Missing Rings - 1990 Buffalo Bills is narrated by Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor Alec Baldwin.
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The Missing Rings, the latest installment of the Emmy Award-winning America's Game series tells the stories behind the story of teams that did not win the Super Bowl. Each episode is a 60-minute documentary (available in high definition) featuring key members of the team telling their behind-the-scenes accounts. With classic NFL Films action combined with news clips and photos, highlights from team radio broadcasts, footage from inside team meeting rooms, sideline audio and other exclusive features, America's Game provides an epic and intimate portrait of extraordinary teams, in one groundbreaking series.
Below are excerpts from America's Game: The Missing Rings: 1990 Buffalo Bills:
Going to the Super Bowl:
"You're out there for one thing and one thing only: to win a Super Bowl. It's sad to say but we were never able to fulfill that part of our dream." -- Darryl Talley.
"There is a surreal sense about it. Is this really happening? Am I a part of this? Then you look at the players you've worked so hard with…there's a jubilation that you should savor." -- Marv Levy.
"This is the biggest game of my career and to know your country is at war, you've got all of that rushing through you, and then to say the least, Whitney Houston nailed the National Anthem. Then the planes flew overhead. If you didn't get goose bumps, then you aren't American. That was the most exciting thing to happen to me aside from the birth of my two kids. I still get goose bumps thinking about it." -- Talley.
"We would give up stupid plays. We missed tackles in that game and we usually didn't miss tackles. I missed one that I think was one of the most crucial plays of the game. I went right over the top of him (Jeff Hostetler). I take full responsibility for it. I wish I could take all of them back, but none more than that." -- Talley.
"It came down to everything I dreamt of as a little kid. Two minutes left in the game, the ball is in my hands and it's the Super Bowl ... I knew the confidence we had in our kicker. My goal was to get inside the 30 yard line." -- Jim Kelly.
"If there was any thought in my mind, believe it or not, was if he makes this shot, there are still four seconds left. What do we do?" -- Levy.
"Scotty was going to do his thing that was it." -- Talley.
"To this day, I still thought it went through. On the sidelines it looked like it went through." -- Kelly on Scott Norwood's wide right field goal attempt.
"Yes it hurt. I felt for the players. I felt for the city of Buffalo and for my family. My five brothers and mom and dad who helped me through my high school, college and NFL career. They were right there with me the whole time. I felt for them." -- Kelly.
"Very quiet locker room after the game as you can imagine." -- Talley.
"Don't worry about it. I missed tackles. The game should never have come down to that. We all had chances to make plays that would have made a difference." -- Talley on what he said to Norwood following the game.
Losing more than one Super Bowl:
"After we lost the second Super Bowl, I was on a call-in show and I had a fan on a call tell me, 'Coach, I can't take it anymore. I don't want to go back to the Super Bowl next year, it hurts too much ... I told him 'I appreciate your anguish, I share it, but I'm glad you're not on my team.'" -- Levy.
"I guess you could say we were (mad) at everyone because no one wanted us there. They just thought we'd lose." -- Talley.
"What do you do? Just lie in the fetal position and whimper or do you get up to fight another day?" -- Levy.
"We all had to take the blame. We had four bites at that apple, but never swallowed." -- Talley.
"People ask me if I'm crestfallen ... No. Do I wish we had won? Yes, all four, three of them, two of them even one of them. We wanted to win. We all acknowledged it. We can't change it." -- Levy.
"It's hard. It's agonizing. It eats at you. When you see a Super Bowl. When you go to one, you think 'we had four chances to win one of these and we didn't win one." -- Talley.
"You look at basketball, they play seven games. Baseball, seven games. We only get one shot." -- Talley.
"Some people play all of their lives and never get to go. We got to go four times. That's something special. I don't care what other people say about it. They can call me crazy, but I think, we are, in the grand scheme of things, one of the better teams ever amassed in the history of this game." -- Talley.
Being drafted by the Bills:
"Honestly I cried. I grew up in Pittsburgh. I rooted for the Steelers and as a teenager watched them go to all those Super Bowls. I wasn't even thinking about going to the Bills." -- Kelly.
Bickering Bills:
"There was bickering, but think about it. In your family, you bicker with your brothers and sisters, but you still love them." -- Talley.
Marv Levy:
"Marv never speaks just to talk. He speaks because he has something to get across. Everything he does has meaning to it." -- Kelly.
"He is a master of communication. If we had aliens on this planet, I bet Marv could sit down and talk to them." -- Talley.
"The resilience we had, the will to win that we had in our hearts came down to the one person we had getting us ready each and every week. That was Marv Levy." -- Kelly.
Darryl Talley:
"I played on a team full of stars on offense and stars on defense. Not everyone can be a star ... I feel like Rodney Dangerfield. I get no respect." -- Talley.
"Darryl is pure entertainment." -- Kelly.
"His leadership came primarily from his enthusiasm for the game." -- Levy.
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Jim Kelly:
"He's like Heathcliff, the cat that thinks he's a dog. He's a quarterback, but thinks he's a linebacker and he thinks he's just as tough as anyone out there." -- Talley.
"He looks like Fred Flintstone running, but he'd run head first, jump in a pile, do whatever it took." -- Talley.
"That comes from being raised in a family of six boys. I WAS the football plenty of times when I was a kid." -- Kelly on his fearlessness on the field.
Levy words of wisdom:
"When it's too tough for them, it's just right for us." -- Levy.
"One more river to cross." -- Levy on the Bills' mentality throughout the playoffs.
"'Fight on my men,' Sir Andrew said, 'a little I'm hurt, but not yet slain. I'll just lie down and bleed a while and tomorrow I'll rise to fight again.'" -- Levy.
Quick quotes ...
"Knock, Knock. Who's there? Owen. Owen Who? O and 8." -- Talley, on fan reaction to Bills before Levy took over.
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