The Buffalo Bills beat the Los Angeles Rams 42 years ago in the "Curtain Call Game." Bills fans have rarely been that happy about a regular-season win at home.
The game comes to mind because the Rams are Super Bowl champs for the first time in their LA iteration. (Angelenos tend to dismiss the title won by the St. Louis Rams.) As it happens, LA’s version of the Rams reached the Super Bowl for the first time in 1979, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The following season, the Bills played the Steelers and Rams in consecutive home games. We told you in 2020 about Buffalo’s victory against Pittsburgh in 1980’s "Talking Proud Game." Two weeks later, the Bills welcomed the Rams. This was a big deal because Bills coach Chuck Knox had come from the Rams, and he made no secret how much this game meant to him.
People are also reading…
“The man wanted this one in the worst way,” Bills guard Reggie McKenzie said.
The Bills nearly lost it in the worst way. Nick Mike-Mayer missed a pair of 38-yard field goals. Knox lost uncharacteristic gambles on a pair of fourth downs — first at the Rams’ 1, when Roosevelt Leaks fumbled, and then at the Rams’ 8, when Joe Cribbs got stuffed. The Bills could produce no points on offense in regulation, their only score coming on safety Steve Freeman’s 47-yard interception return.
Then, amid rain and fog, Mike-Mayer kicked the 30-yard winner in OT: Bills 10, Rams 7. Fans cheered wildly as the Bills left the field while the "Talking Proud" jingle played. And then an unusual thing happened: The fans refused to leave.
Roughly half of the 77,133 fans stayed in the stands, beseeching their Bills for an encore. Sure enough, a bunch of Bills did return — and they formed an impromptu, high-kicking chorus line with the Buffalo Jills cheerleaders. Think of it as a Bills Mafia moment long before that name came to be.
Nose tackle Fred Smerlas was among the Bills who boogied in the gloaming. He said later that the team was in the locker room, overwrought with emotion, when word came that so many of the fans were still rocking the house.
“You hear the chanting, the ranting and raving outside, asking us for a curtain call,” Smerlas said then. “We were really connected to the crowd. Buffalo fans have always been very into football and close to the team. It’s a football-oriented town, and when they wanted us out there, we gave them what they wanted. We were dancing. Doing the high kicking. It was unbelievable.”
Mike-Mayer was the first player to stroll down the ramp and make his way back onto the field. Then came a dozen more, led by McKenzie. Smerlas carried linebacker Jim Haslett over his shoulder. The Bills congregated at the 50 and stood shoulder to shoulder with the Jills, who wore red tuxedos. They all danced like the Rockettes, happily wagging index fingers in the air while wearing Cheshire-cat grins.
Courier-Express columnist Phil Ranallo wrote: “None of the Bills could recall ever experiencing such crowd reaction after a football game — with the fans insisting that the players come back out on the field and take a bow.”
Rams quarterback Vince Ferragamo got knocked out of the game on a hit by Bills defensive end Ben Williams. The Buffalo defense held the Rams to just 34 net passing yards. And in OT, Bills quarterback Joe Ferguson scrambled and lofted a wobbly pass toward wide receiver Frank Lewis. Rams cornerback LeRoy Irvin lunged for the interception and got a hand on it, but Lewis yanked it back and spun free for a 30-yard gain. Mike-Mayer trotted out and kicked the game winner on the next play.
Knox had won five consecutive division titles with the Rams. Now he had beaten his old team. And he didn’t hide his emotion.
“This was about as much intensity as I have seen on a football field,” Knox said. “These guys wanted to win so bad it almost brought tears to my eyes. It was very satisfying because it was the Rams.
“A game like today, it was what football’s all about.”
