Buffalo Bills fans need not be reminded how their favorite football team fared in their four-consecutive Super Bowl appearances. But this Sunday, as part of the pregame TV coverage by CBS, producers will alter history and portray the Bills as winners, in order to foster a new sense of respect for one of pro football's most resilient lineups.
While CBS producers would not give away the story line, they revealed that several alumni - including former coach Marv Levy and players Jim Kelly, Steve Tasker, Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith - will take part in a revisionist history of their Super Bowl runs.
Like an ESPN documentary that debuted last fall, CBS intends with their pregame segment to celebrate a Buffalo Bills team that many say deserve respect for what no other team has done in Super Bowl history: come back from a loss and return to the big game the following season, three more times.
"Yeah, the Buffalo Bills lost, but when they came back (after Super Bowl XXV in 1991) the city treated them as if they'd won," said CBS Super Bowl Today producer Drew Kaliski. "To see Scott Norwood up there saying 'I've never felt this much love ever,' I think it's a real tribute to the City of Buffalo."
A CBS crew visiting the city stopped unannounced at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park and found an ideal setting for a fictional display of four Vince Lombardi Trophies: the USS Little Rock.
"To us, when we heard about it, it was a tremendous opportunity for marketing," said the park's executive director, Colonel (Ret.) Pat Cunningham.
Four crew members on hand, Cunningham explained, were recruited to wear Super Bowl t-shirts as part of a scene. They added their own flair, holding up four fingers each to mark the supposed four Super Bowl wins as part of the segment.
"They did take the t-shirts back," said Cunningham with a laugh. "They didn't let them keep 'em."
Kaliski said pregame broadcast planning was still not finalized but the Bills segment is expected to run some time between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday during CBS pregame coverage.
