Scott Pitoniak

Many of the 3,420 fans who squeezed through the turnstiles of the old ballpark at 500 Norton Street on August 3, 1958 figured that day’s game might be legendary.

This “let’s have some fun” journey from unpaid intern to Rochester Red Wings Hall of Famer began 36 Januarys ago with a trip through the yellow pages.

It bears remembering that before making more winning shots this year than any golfer on the planet, Scottie Scheffler was making an unplanned trip to the hospital for a hand injury that could have ended his career.

Josh Allen long ago passed the eye-test for greatness by leaping linebackers in a single bound and rifling touchdown spirals through doll-house-sized windows.

The cavernous stadium known at various times as Rich, Ralph Wilson, New Era, and Highmark will launch its swan song season Sunday night in one of the most anticipated openers in Buffalo Bills history.

Not long after watching Derrick Henry rumble 46 yards to give the Baltimore Ravens a seemingly insurmountable 15-point, fourth quarter lead over the Buffalo Bills Sunday night, I muted the television and dozed off in my recliner.

The dream was to play for his hometown team; to stay down in the bayou and follow in the cleat steps of Louisiana State University’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels.

Leo Lyons was smitten with football the instant he snuck onto a Rochester sandlot (against his parents’ wishes) as a 14-year-old in 1906 and played in his first pick-up game.

His decision caught many by surprise. Months later, it continues to be debated on talk radio, basketball podcasts, and internet forums.

Neither the Wizards of Odds in Vegas nor the football sages across America anticipated the changing of the guard (and the quarterback) that’s taken place this fall in the National Football League.