Your Bills-Patriots Open Thread: 'You Already Gave Them The &%$@#^* Game'

I'm standing outside the visitor's locker room at old Foxboro Stadium, a barely heated cement structure situated just beyond one of the end zones in the former home of the New England Patriots.


It is Nov. 29, 1998, and Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe has just tossed the ball to a wide-open Ben Coates for a game-winning touchdown with no time left on the clock.

The score is not stunning, but inevitable. The shocks have already occurred -- a ruling that New England's Shawn Jefferson caught a fourth-down pass in-bounds and beyond the first-down marker, despite clear replay evidence to the contrary (which led to a sideline huddle during which Andre Reed famously claimed one official said to another, "Just give it to him"), followed by a pass-interference call against Henry Jones on a Hail Mary lob into the end zone that put the ball at Buffalo's 1-yard line with no time remaining.

Coates and the rest of New England's offense is still celebrating in the far end zone when Buffalo's players, coaches and support staff run by and into the locker room as a rather vicious crowd celebrates a victory that seemed impossible a few moments before -- and would have been, if not for Bledsoe's remarkable ability to shake off a dislocated pinkie on his throwing hand, as well as the aforementioned calls.

I am annoyed, not because the Bills lost. I'm an Objective Journalist, after all. But the nearly complete game story and column saved on my laptop in the press box, detailing Flutie's triumphant return to New England, where he has brought Buffalo back from a two-touchdown deficit, which need only to have a couple quotes plugged in before transmitting back to my newspaper, are now wholly irrelevant.

And here comes the referee, who has come to notify the Bills that, even though the clock indicates that the game is over, the rules require the Patriots, who lead 23-21, to attempt an extra-point conversion. The game is not over, even though it is.

The ref pounds on the steel door until one of the team's civilian employees answers, then fetches Wade Phillips.

Phillips, in his first season after succeeding Marv Levy as Buffalo's head coach, appears in the doorway, his face red, his eyes wide. The official says something I can't make out from 10 feet away, since the crowd is drunkenly bellowing and he is facing away from me.

Phillips' response, however, is quite clear and to the point.

"You already gave them the fucking game," Phillips says,  "You might as well give them the fucking extra point, too."

And he slams the door in the ref's face.

The official stands there for a moment, then runs back to the other end of the field, where the Patriots line up for the conversion. With no defense opposing them, their holder flips the ball to kicker Adam Vinatieri, who trots in for a two-point conversion, finalizing the score at 25-21.

The four-point margin would not have been a big deal, except that the most common point spread was New England by three-and-a-half. So, if you had bet on the Bills, they still would have covered if Vinatieri had kicked for one. But Phillips' acquiescence made you a loser. Unless you were a writer who needed a great quote to hook a reworked column upon (even if it needed to be edited for a family newspaper).

I still believe the level of animosity Phillips endured during his three seasons as head coach -- which, it should be noted, produced a 29-19 regular-season record and the franchise's two most recent playoff appearances -- had a lot to do with his role in the bad beat absorbed by Buffalo fans who like to make Sundays a little more interesting with a friendly wager.

Such a painful loss in New England, where the Bills visit this afternoon, would be a welcome relief these days (See? There was a hint of timeliness to all this, after all). Phillips and Buffalo rebounded to win four of their last five games, finish 10-6 and earn a wild-card berth.

At 3-5, talking about such a turnaround by these Bills feels pretty silly. Especially in light of New England's 52-28 gutting of the Bills on Sept. 30. So I am not going to do it.

You can relive the "Just Give It To Him" game -- along with other highlights from the '98 season -- here, courtesy of the Internet.

Please share your memories of the days when having a horrible coach meant finishing at least .500 and losing two road playoff games by a touchdown or less, or your thoughts on what happens in Foxborough today, in the comments below.