The Buffalo News has been covering since the team's inception.
As a new season kicks off, here are a few highlights plucked from 65 years of coverage.
1960 − Dave Girbert was a promising halfback who competed for a spot on the Bills' first American Football League team.
Girbert, a , came to training camp in East Aurora with small dreams of becoming a Buffalo Bill, and bigger dreams of being a Presbyterian minister.
Despite his good attitude and reading habits − "Half the battle is mental attitude... I know when I read a book like James Allen's 'As a Man Thinketh,' it really gives me a lift'" − he did not make the team. He did, however, live a long life as a minister, according to .
1971 − A decade later, News columnist Bob Curran wrote about an inevitable training camp tradition: getting nixed. "We tell them between breakfast and the first workout of the day," said Bob Celeri, the Bills' chief scout. "This gives them the chance to pack."
The news arrived exactly the same way, like a subpoena, to all jilted players. Hearing "Coach Celeri would like to see you in his office" was akin to failing to receive a rose on reality television. "How do they take the news? Some cry. Some get mad and say, 'To hell with you and the Bills,'" Curran wrote. One player jumped out a window to avoid the messenger. "He made himself hard to find but, of course, he got the bad news eventually."
1990 − Fans had high expectations and critics had doubts for coach Marv Levy during the 1990 training camp. Had the team "reached a peak under Levy and is now into a period of decline?"
"At least our fans expect to win instead of expecting to lose," Levy said. "There was a time when they'd say, 'I know we'll lose. We'll blow it late in the game.' "
The Bills went on that season to compete in their first Super Bowl − and they almost won. Then, um, late in the game... a kick went a bit .
2018 − Quarterback Josh Allen's first training camp in 2018 was "calculated." It almost sounded Buddhist. No rushing. Just patience.
"There will still be growing pains," coach Sean McDermott said. "You can see the arm talent. You can see the special type of player he could become. But there is a lot of room for growth between where we are now and where he needs to get to."
Sometimes, .
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