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On August the 3rd, 1925, in the heart of the roaring 20s
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Marv Levy was born. And I'm just going to take this moment
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to wax poetic about truly an American icon. He's not just the head coach of the Buffalo Bills
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he is so much more first of all anybody that reaches triple digits a salute right i mean
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triple digits is no joke triple digits is legit triple digits you have seen some things
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when you look at those last two numbers of your birth year they match up with today's numbers or
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the day that you turned 100. And then you turn back the clock
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and you think about how the first two numbers are different than the first two numbers today
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and just what that means. What was 1925 like compared to 2025
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Think about the things that Marv Levy or anybody that's turned 100 has seen
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The Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, World War II, the 50s, the space race
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disco, the 80s, the 90s, cable television, streaming, the internet, microwaves, self-driving
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cars, and now commercial space flight, AI. Think about how far Marv Levy has come. In 1925
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there wasn an NFL or what we we would consider the NFL was basically like two teams that would survive it the Packers the Bears the Giants and a bunch of teams that would never last
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And think about today and where the game is. He almost has lived the length of the league
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He also has had this amazing career and life where, as a head coach
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he went to four consecutive Super Bowls. Nobody's ever done that. He's a Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach
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He's a guy who also won multiple CFL titles in the Canadian Football League
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back in the 70s, okay? He's a guy that went to get his master's degree in English from Harvard
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It's not like online courses back then. This guy had to get on campus at Harvard and earn a master's in English
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and on top of it, enlisted to become part of the Air Force during World War II
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in what was the Army Air Corps, the predecessor to the Air Force
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That's right. Marble Evey is so old, he wanted to become part of the Air Force
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before the Air Force. This man is an American hero. This man is one of the most accomplished people
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in football history, both football-wise and off the field. And the fact that he's still with us is incredible
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He is still completely coherent. He is with it. He speaks eloquently about football, about the Bills, about life
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This man should be heralded every chance that we get. And I just think that today when he reaches 100 there should not only be a focus on boy was he a great head coach but what a great American he has been
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And let me also just add this. No other coach could have led a team
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to four Super Bowls, all of which were crushing defeats, okay? sorry Bills fans I'm going to go under the hood for a moment here and really pick this thing apart
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number one we all know the first Super Bowl loss Super Bowl 25 to the New York Giants they were
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heavy favorites and losing the Scott Norwood wide right kick hard to come back off of that you're
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there you're at the precipice and the kick goes wide right when you're a heavy favorite somehow
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Now they rebound and have another excellent season in 1991. You have now reached the summit again
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You have gotten through to the Super Bowl. And now you have some experience
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Not only do you lose, but you get your absolute butts handed to you
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by one of the great teams of the 1900s. Yes, I'm telling you the 1991 Washington football team
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is one of the greats in NFL history. Go down the list. the offensive numbers that they set
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the blowouts that they had in the playoffs, this team had absolutely everything
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Okay? So now you have your butts handed to you, and Thurma Thomas somehow loses his helmet early in this game
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Now, in 1992, you have to try to rebound after two devastating losses
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and you do it. And in 92, okay, you have to come back and do it as a wild card
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because the Dolphins win the division. And somehow the Bills do it, okay
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And this is where Jim Kelly gets injured and Frank Reich is in. There a backup quarterback in the wildcard game against the Oilers You trail by 31 points And somehow some way you get through that you go on the road in the divisional round and in the AFC championship game in Miami
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and you somehow get back there. And when you get back there, Jim Kelly's not 100%
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and you are now facing, again, one of the greatest teams in NFL history in the 1992 Dallas Cowboys
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who put 52 points on you. How can you possibly keep coming back from all of that
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And then in 1993, when everybody doesn't want to see you back in the Super Bowl again, you somehow get there
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You get back to the Super Bowl. You face the Cowboys again and have a lead at halftime
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And it all evaporates in the second half and you lose yet again
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and Marv Levy was the guy that had all these little proclamations
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wordplay slogans for that team to keep focused and keep locked in
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When you have hotheads like Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith, Andre Reid, go down the list, Daryl Talley, there were plenty of moments
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that that team could have frayed. It wasn't just talent, and Marv kept them together and focused
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Marv kept bickering and kept it as much as he could in-house
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Contract bickering, unhappiness. He kept a lot of that tight, and when it happened
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he found a way to get that player, like Bruce Smith, who was unhappy with his contract, once again locked in
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Marv was the guy that basically was able to convince Jim Kelly to stay
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because Jim didn't want anything to do with the city of Buffalo
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Marv was a genius in getting them to refocus. And because they lost four Super Bowls
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he is not given the proper credit that he deserves. He is thankfully in the Pro Football Hall of Fame
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There's no way that team gets to four Super Bowls without Marv Levy
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Marv is an American hero, and I salute him
