The EASIEST Game of Marv Levy's CAREER | Steelers @ Bills (1986)

During the 1986 NFL season, the Buffalo Bills defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 16-12 in what turned out to be Marv Levy's coaching debut with the team. And as it turns out, despite being the head coach, Levy did no coaching whatsoever, doing significantly less than even the bare minimum from that standpoint. This is the story of what has to be, considering how little Levy had to do in order to get the win, the easiest game of Marv Levy's storied Hall of Fame career
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Members of the 1986 Bills:
John Kidd
Scott Norwood
Jim Kelly
Frank Reich
Steve Freeman
Kevin Williams
Rod Hill
Charles Romes
Ron Pitts
Greg Bell
Derrick Burroughs
Ronnie Harmon
Gary Wilkins
Carl Byrum
Rodney Bellinger
Mark Kelso
Robb Riddick
Ricky Moore
Martin Bayless
Dwight Drane
Bruce King
Ray Bentley
Jim Ritcher
Guy Frazier
Tony Furjanic
Eugene Marve
Darryl Talley
Lucius Sanford
George Cumby
Leonard Burton
Mark Traynowicz
Justin Cross
Tim Vogler
Kent Hull
Mark Catano
Jerry Boyarsky
Joe Devlin
Dale Hellestrae
Ken Jones
Will Wolford
Don Smith
Mike Hamby
Fred Smerlas
Bruce Smith
Dean Prater
Jerry Butler
Eric Richardson
Andre Reed
Don Kern
Chris Burkett
Jimmy Teal
Butch Rolle
Pete Metzelaars
Steve Tasker
Walter Broughton
Sean McNanie
Hal Garner
Hank Bullough (coach)
Marv Levy (coach)
Ralph Wilson (owner)

[@brettpatterson404]

Marv Levy and Bud Grant Both won multiple Grey Cups and both lost 4 Super Bowls, and both are still alive today.

[@tygrkhat4087]

Bud's a tough old guy. When the Vikings were playing outdoors while the new digs were being built, he was honored at a late season game with sub-freezing temperatures; Bud came out in shirtsleeves.

[@chadwickwhite6107]

@@tygrkhat4087 Marv Levy was just as TOUGH as Bud Grant. He KEPT the Buffalo Bills HAPPILY WINNING. The Vikings DID go to 4 Super Bowls but NOT in a ROW. Marv Levy is the ONLY coach who GOT THERE 4 STRAIGHT times. AMAZING coach, AMAZING human being.

[@pullt]

"We keep beating ourselves, but we're getting better at it.". An underrated quote.

[@omalley5196]

Agreed I'm a life long Bills fan and I never heard that quote. I think it should be used much more often.

[@mrmajikjr]

"We couldn't block or catch a pass... but we made up for it by not tackling."

[@eugenedenbrook322]

😆

[@1973169]

@@mrmajikjr "What we'd like is a neutral site, as we've shown we can't win at home or on the road." 🤣

[@sirmang9032]

Marv Levy was really good at one thing in his tenure with the Bills. Despite one spat in the locker room with the Bickering Bills as they were called...he was able to get all of those personalities in check, keep them all happy, and continue to have them all play at a high level for the majority of his coaching tenure in Buffalo. Marv deserves a ton of credit for managing the locker room personalities as, as talented as those Bills teams were, some coaches would have completely lost the room.

[@xp8969]

He's in the Hall of Fame for a reason 🦬 #BillsMafia

[@67marlins81]

Good point. I guess we could say he was like Shula in that he kept control of his players.

[@alvinlee2968]

any dude that can handle two knuckleheads like Thomas and Kelly arguing over who was the "Michael Jordan" of the team heading into a Super Bowl has some leadership skills. They still had their balls served up to them on a McDonald's to-go breakfast styrofoam tray, but that wasn't Levy's fault..... entirely.

[@sirmang9032]

@@alvinlee2968 I'll only give Levy fault for SB XXV. A better gameplan or even halftime adjustments and keeping the stars out of the bars the night before and the Bills beat the Giants. Instead, when Thurman Thomas is doing whatever he wants, the Bills were stuck with Jim Kelly throwing the ball all over the yard which wasn't working on that day. Those other 3 Super Bowls the NFC was just a vastly better conference.

[@danevertt3210]

@@sirmang9032 whoa whoa…….Thomas had almost 200 all purpose yards that game. He was almost Super Bowl MVP on the losing team. I’m not sure what you’re trying to say but Thurman was fantastic that game

[@tygrkhat4087]

Actually, Levy did some coaching prior to that game; he revamped how the team practiced. Bullough was old school and practices were very physical, the players had nothing left for Sunday. Levy lightened practices, so for the Pittsburgh game, they were less beaten up. It shows the kind of coach Levy was. After taking over, he was 2-7 in 1986. In 87, the Bills were 7-8; 1-2 in strike games; and in 88, they went 12-4. How was that done? When Levy took over the Bills, he already had Kelly, Reed, Kent Hull, and Jim Ritcher on the offense; and Bruce Smith, Fred Smerlas and Darryl Talley on the defense. Then Levy, Bill Polian and a great scouting staff brought in the rest of the pieces that led the Bills to four Super Bowls. Until Sean McDermott beat the Jets 21-12 on opening day 2017, Marv Levy was the only Bills' head coach to win his first game as coach. As best I can tell, Marv Levy is the only coach in the four major sports to be hired as a head coach or manager off the street in the middle of a season. Fred Smerlas said of one difference between Hank Bullough and Marv Levy was that you kept a dictionary in your locker to see if the words Bullough used actually existed, then to look up the meanings of the words Levy used.

[@omalley5196]

Well that's all fine and dandy but he said no film study and no play calling and he definitely made his point. Sure he didn't get hired and sit at home for 5 days and literally do nothing until game day. Yes he did a bit but for his point levy did far less then he ever did before or after.

[@danevertt3210]

@@omalley5196 I think you missed the point as to why he did nothing for this game……

[@CZECHMATE650]

I loved Marv Levy as the Bills head coach! A few players said "on Sunday our coach becomes a general & we're the soldiers"

[@omalley5196]

You tell so many stories that are completely unknown. Props to you and your channel for that. I'm a life long Bills fan and only knew marv was hired mid-season nothing about the lack of prep. I was only 6 then but still I never heard that mentioned. Well done bro.

[@markbrian7179]

Going into the fourth quarter, I can guarantee You that the Bill's fans didn't think this game was easy.

[@hezamachine]

The game actually came down to the last play with Rodney Bellinger intercepting Mark Malone.

[@bigcock8900]

You should make a 39.6 mug, I’d definitely buy one

[@momentary7600]

The Taoist approach is not getting in the way. You let things happen. In Levy’s case it made a lot of sense, since it sounds like the previous coach was too hands on, as evidenced by Pulit’s quote.

[@levikatriel]

Ed Khayat tried to do a similar thing by having his rookie quarterback call all of the plays even though Reaves constantly asked for help. Official Jaguar Gator 9 made a video about it.

[@toddbiesel4288]

Marv Levy's Buffalo debut was the coaching equivalent to just spiking the ball into the ground on every play.

[@jerryjanik480]

Is a Buffalo Bills fan who is born in 1986 for half of my life it was Marv Levy and Jim Kelly the head coach and the quarterback it was a great time to be a Bills fan when I was a child are finally coming back at it when I'm an adult times coming back

[@nasetvideos]

Great video--Loved how you laid this story out and explain everything with such detail. Enjoy the Sunday games today! Look forward to your recap of all the games on Twitch tonight following the SNF game

[@orbyfan]

Maybe all coaches should adopt Marv's methods; how different from the overcoaching that's all too common.

[@chadwickwhite6107]

THIS was the FIRST day of GREATNESS in Buffalo Bills HISTORY that we had had in YEARS. Marv Levy is the GREATEST COACH in NFL HISTORY. PERIOD. He is the ONLY coach I would EVER want to play for. The Pittsburgh Steelers should have just SPIKED the football into the ground on EVERY single OFFENSIVE play that day.

[@CTubeMan]

This unofficial Official Jaguar Gator 9 historian will remind everyone you made similar videos about the following: 1. How the Patriots hired a complete outsider to be their interim coach in 1972 when they hired Phil Bengtson away from the Chargers. 2. How Tom Landry and the Cowboys did the opposite of taking the Giants seriously before their game in 1977, and went on to win in a blowout.

[@NillyNilly546]

He treated the Players with respect and let them go out there and get the chip that's been on their shoulders all season, blowing off major steam, pretty smart.

[@richardadams4928]

Well, that was the MARK MALONE Steelers. Still, well done....

[@67marlins81]

Maybe, but I can remember one announcer saying that Malone's statistics in his first few years were better than Bradshaw's first few years. Let's not be too harsh on Malone.....he really had an older, weakening team around him.

[@MrKevinEaddy]

Dude I found your channel by chance… Keep the good content coming..

[@mrmoose6619]

For those wondering, please do not confuse the 1983 Chicago Blitz who were one of the better USFL teams and the 1984 Chicago Blitz, who stunk. They were pretty much the 1983 Arizona Wranglers, who were a bottom feeder in the USFL... the owner of the Blitz in 1983 was from Phoenix and wanted to own the local USFL franchise and managed to swap with the owner of the Wranglers. Levy reportedly thought going in he would be the coach of the 1983 Blitz squad going into the season. This in its own right would be an interesting topic to explore... As we know, Levy took over a terrible team (the former Wranglers) and actually won one more game than the previous year's Wranglers. The Blitz were also a ward of the league, which didn't help matters. Levy did an admirable job in Chicago, considering what he had.

[@hezamachine]

Will Wolford said in an interview that the Bills tanked the game in Tampa because most veterans despised head coach Hank Bullough and they knew that losing the game would get him fired.

[@hezamachine]

The first player that Marv Levy claimed off waivers for the Buffalo Bills was Steve Tasker on November 8, 1986. It was the day before his Bills coaching debut.

[@billtooke6642]

Go Bills

[@percys8774]

Another great video. It's kind of brilliant to let a mid-season hire coach just have a week off to do nothing but organizational activities. Like you said, usually the interim coach is the offense or defense coordinator, so why not just let those guys handle the gameplan and play calls. It's a show of logical humility for a new coach to realize that he's not some God who is going to step in with some master gameplan to save the day. Especially for a mid-season hire, which pretty much always means a team has some unsolvable problems for that year. And like the players said, it treats them like grown men, professional athletes who don't need to be micromanaged, and it acknowledges that they already know most of what they need to do as players and much of the success of the game just comes down to how they execute as athletes on the field. There's even been instances of player-coaches in the NFL back in the day. It's no wonder that Levy got off on the right foot with his players right away, and there's some intangible benefit to that which can't really be quantified.

[@CTubeMan]

I’m going to split this into multiple posts. From the standpoint of coaching Marv Levy didn’t do anything, but the Bills won. However, considering everything else he had to do that week I’d hardly say it was his easiest week. It’s almost like what Conan O’Brien said about the three months between his last Late Night show and first Tonight Show. Even though he wasn’t taping any shows he said he hadn’t worked harder in his life.

[@chadwickwhite6107]

Marv Levy DIDN'T DO ANYTHING?! He is the MOST INSPIRATIONAL COACH in NFL history. He MADE his players WANT to PLAY FOR HIM. Vince Lombardi did that to a certain extent but NOT to the degree of Marv Levy. He BELIEVED in his players, made them believe in THEMSELVES and he had 100% COMPLETE TRUST in his players and they had the SAME for HIM. HE was WITHOUT a DOUBT the Captain Kirk of NFL coaches.

[@jessesarmiento1433]

As a lifelong Steelers fan, Thanks for reminding me of this crappy game

[@danielschmude]

There was actually another team in 1986 that hired someone from outside their organization to take over as head coach in the middle of the season. It was the Colts, who hired Ron Meyer to be their head coach for the last 3 games.

[@67marlins81]

Give Levy credit for honesty after the game, huh?

[@thebourg]

Holy crap I was at that game! I was 8 years old at the time and I remember the only reason we went was because it was my brother's birthday and ge was a Steelers fan. I knew literally nothing about either team at the time. Also traveling from Pittsburgh to Buffalo is not "out East" its more North. It's barely East of Pittsburgh lol

[@hezamachine]

What was he going to do? Marv was brought in the middle of the season. The team was out of playoff contention. He used the coaching staff that was there. The advantage of him coming in the middle of the season he got to evaluate the players and coaches. From there he figured who was staying and who was leaving the team.

[@marcus813]

With all that organizational stuff and coming in from basically the outside midseason, I can see why he did so little. He still might be the most important hire to date for the club during its NFL era, though.

[@scottconner7930]

35 Years Ago

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

Merci.

[@CTubeMan]

Marv Levy coached his first team for five years. He had his only winning season in his fourth year. He got fired after the next year. He then became head coach of an AFC East team. That team would eventually dominate the East and win multiple AFC Championships. He’s the last coach who would do that.

[@RichV20]

Sounds like Bill Belichick's resume

[@michaell874]

Marv Levy was a great coach, but when he had Jim Kelly as his QB, Kelly was sort of an Offensive coach on the field in the way that he led that team and the defense with Bruce Smith, Talley, Conlan, etc was so good that there was not much for him to do for four years but to cheerlead and complain to the refs from the sidelines.

[@hezamachine]

The game actually came down to the last play with Rodney Bellinger intercepting Mark Malone.

[@maverickhunter24]

Levy was an Al's coach that explains my soft spot for him.

[@diaz5292]

Ya but Marv didn't have to wear a Hawaiian t-shirt, sit on the bench with his feet up on a table, while smoking a cigar during the game. Call me old fashioned, but that sent the wrong signal...lol

[@chriswells506]

I wonder if the Bills had lost that day if you would have made a video about Levy losing a game that he had nothing to do with?

[@MrSharper802]

Levy is overrated. If he coached at all in SB XXV and told Kelly to stop throwing the ball the Bills beat the Giants. Thurman was unstoppable. Levy cost us the SB victory.

[@redmustangredmustang]

Marv Levy is 96.

[@jasonwilkins4864]

How would be against the Steelers!

[@anthonyrisola6144]

I'm not too sure but I think Levy did absolutely nothing in this game. I could be wrong but...

[@chrisrobinson8339]

How did Marv get away with no blame for losing those Superbowls?

[@xp8969]

Give us some credit, we won 4 AFC Championships in a row, not just 3 over Marv's career #BillsMafia

[@tygrkhat4087]

Because to a man; every Bills player and coach from those teams say "we" lost those games; not one person is to blame.

[@RichV20]

He did get his fair share of the blame. He was outcoached by Parcells & Belichick in a game the Bills should've won on paper.

[@chrisrobinson8339]

@@xp8969 true

[@scottfarmer8758]

I'm a Bills fan and I think that Marv Levy was an overrated Head Coach. Look at the teams the Bills had in the early 90s. That team was loaded at every position and any coach could have won with those teams. But the fact that Levy couldn't win a Super Bowl with that talent shows how overrated he really was.

[@scottfarmer8758]

@@matthewdaley746 I agree. The only one they had a chance of winning was the first one against the Giants, but Levy allowed his players to party all week and they weren't prepared to play. Bill Parcells had his players ready and it showed.

[@johnbrowntheprophet]

@@matthewdaley746 - They were beating the Cowboys at halftime during their second Super Bowl against Dallas.

[@scottfarmer8758]

@@matthewdaley746 I know it's crazy that Thurman Thomas got only 15 carries in that game! But on the final drive Thurman almost won the game for us when he took and handoff at the 19 yard line on 3rd and 1. The play resulted in a 22 yard gain but Thurman could have taken it all the way if Everson Walls didn't make that incredible open field tackle. If Thurman had broken that tackle he would have scored the game winning TD and saved Scott Norwood a lifetime of ridicule.

[@scottfarmer8758]

@@matthewdaley746 I don't blame Scott Norwood for the loss because it shouldn't have come down to that. The one thing everyone seems to ignore is when the Bills stopped the Giants on 3rd down with 2:33 left in the game the Bills allowed 13 seconds to tick off the clock before calling a timeout. 13 seconds! If the Bills had those extra 13 seconds Jim Kelly could have ran another play and gotten Norwood closer.

[@ronaldj.granieri5355]

@@scottfarmer8758 I'm pretty tired of the "Levy let them party and they lost" trope. in SB XV, the Raiders partied all week in New Orleans and won, and everyone praised Tom Flores for being more relaxed than Dick Vermeil, who kept the Eagles on a tight leash. One can criticize many aspects of Levy's management of the Super Bowls, just as one can criticize Jim Kelly for throwing too much early in SB XXV or Thurman Thomas for losing his helmet in SB XXVI and going into a funk after his fumbles in SB XXVIII and Pete Metzelaars for slipping and causing Kelly to throw an interception when the Bills were up 7-0 and driving in SB XXVII or Don Beebe for dropping a Frank Reich pass in the end zone when the score in that game was still 14-7 or... well, you get the picture. Levy kept his teams together and focused enough to keep coming back; that's a great coaching accomplishment. Compare that to Mike Ditka, for example, who took a team to the Super Bowl then proceeded to coach it into the ground for the next six years where they lost a bunch of home playoff games.