By CHUCK POLLOCK, Wellsville Sun Senior Sports Columnist
It’s flattering in its own way, though my answer is always the same.
Folks who know I’ve been covering the Bills for over 50 years invariably ask, “Why haven’t you written a book?”
Short answer, because I have no desire.
I’m a columnist and enjoy writing between 700 and1,000 words about timely subjects on a daily basis… the idea of spending weeks (months) laboring over a single subject I find abhorrent.
Truth be told, as a verbal guy, I much prefer doing radio guest shots and podcasts.
There’s another issue too.
Over the years, dozens of writers have covered the Bills for various print and broadcast outlets and produced their own written assessments of the team.
On my home book shelf, containing over 90 printed offerings on myriad subjects — it’s topped by three footballs, two from Super Bowls and one from team owner Terry Pegula celebrating my birthday — are 10 such creations written by friends who requested I write a review, which I always do.
ALPHABETICALLY, by author, they are:
“Tale of the Tape” by late Bills trainer Eddie Abramoski as told to Buffalo News writer Milt Northrup;
Where Would You Rather Be Than Right Here, Right Now? by Hall of Fame Coach Marv Levy;
Game Changers, by Levy and Jeff Miller;
Then Levy Said to Kelly, by Jim Gehman;
Relentless Volumes I and II, by Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Bills beat writer;
The Complete Illustrated History of the Buffalo Bills, Maiorana;
Rockin’ the Rockpile, Miller;
Bills’ Football Vault, the First 50 Years; Scott Pitoniak former Rochester Democrat Chronicle sports writer
My Life on a Special Team; by former Bill Steve Tasker and Pitoniak
THE POINT IS, there are plenty of printed tributes to the Bills history and I never felt another was necessary.
Across the room on a two-shelf stand is my reference collection. It contains every Bills media guide since I started covering the team in 1973 until the organization opted for an online version in 2020. Also on those shelves are the annual National Football League’s Record and Fact Books, almost indispensable sources of information and background.
Naturally, there are endless family photos many of them shot in our favorite spot, York Beach, Maine.
There are also three mementoes of a totally personal nature: There’s a special newspaper page we beat writers worked up on center Kent Hull, our favorite Bill, by far, who was unequalled in cooperation with the media; the Russ Jandoli Memorial Award of Excellence from St. Bonaventure and the Bob Vetrone Award for Outstanding Contributions in Media from the Atlantic 10.
TWO OTHER treasures also hang in my office.
One is a 26-by-20-inch painting of an 8-year-olds impression of the Bills’ logo. It has a modernistic Jackson Pollock look but the colors are right and you know what it is even through the eyes of my granddaughter. Every time Quinn sees it, she beams with pride.
The other item is my favorite, sitting on a wall by itself.
It’s a gift from my late sister, a lighted rendering of the Titanic as it strikes the iceberg at 22 1/2 knots — engines reversed — at 11:40 p.m. April 14, 1912 near Cape Race, Newfoundland.
Elaine knew or my fascination with that tragedy so she also supplied me with two excellent books and a box with all manner of replicated logs, photos and other memorabilia.
It’s the perfect exclamation point on my office wall and I’m proud of it.
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun and Olean Star senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
