TORONTO (AP) -If Jim Kelly had his way, the Miami Dolphins would always have to deal with wintry conditions when they traveled to play the Buffalo Bills.
That’s why Kelly, who quarterbacked the Bills to four consecutive Super Bowl defeats, isn’t happy that the Bills won’t have the cold weather to help them when they face archrival Miami under the roof at Toronto’s Rogers Centre this weekend.
Kelly and former Dolphins rival Dan Marino were in Toronto on Wednesday to host a series of Ontario high school bowl games and promote the first regular-season game of the “Bills in Toronto” series, an eight-game, $78 million agreement that runs through the 2012 season.
Kelly, a four-time Pro Bowler and Hall of Famer, said the long-standing rivalry between the Bills and Dolphins means Miami’s visit is often the biggest date on Buffalo’s home schedule.
me up here, it was a little bittersweet because we wanted the Dolphins to come up when they were enjoying that 70-, 80-degree weather down there and come up to Buffalo where there’s a little snow on the ground and have that advantage.”
While they hold a comfortable edge in the series, the Dolphins are just 2-7 in Buffalo after Dec. 1, including two playoff defeats.
Marino, a fellow Hall of Famer and nine-time Pro Bowler, remembers all too well the misery of playing in Buffalo’s cold weather.
“I could have been to some Super Bowls if it wasn’t for Jim Kelly and some of the teams the Bills had over those years,” Marino said. “There were some tough times. Probably one of the toughest places to play in the league was Rich Stadium (now Ralph Wilson Stadium). Weather conditions, crowd noise, all those things go into effect. When you look at this game this week, that’s going to have to be a little bit of an advantage for the Dolphins because they’re not going to be in that same atmosphere.”
Kelly plans to bring former teammates Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith north to Toronto on Sunday, hoping to inspire the struggling Bills (6-6), losers of five of their last six games. Kelly said he understands why Bills owner Ralph Wilson agreed to let the game against Miami (7-5) be shifted to Toronto.
fans would travel to come up here and watch this game,” he said. “It’s a big game. To be honest with you, for Canadians, this is the best game on our schedule they could have picked.”
The Toronto series has sparked questions of whether the Bills might relocate to Toronto permanently, with aging owner Wilson, now 90, eager to sort out his team’s future.
Kelly, who is trying to line up an ownership bid, said he supports Toronto’s efforts for a team, but wants the Bills to remain in Buffalo.
“I don’t think the team is going anywhere, to be honest with you,” Kelly said. “As long as I have anything to do with it, they’re going to stay in Western New York.”
“If there’s an opportunity for Toronto to get another franchise I’m all for it because what are they, the fourth-largest city in North America? They definitely could support a team,” Kelly said. “But then you have to look at the Canadian league and the (CFL’s Toronto) Argonauts and what they’ve done and what they’ve meant to this city, too. You never want to push somebody out, but there’s no doubt that this city definitely could support an NFL franchise, just not the Buffalo Bills.”
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