Buffalo Bills Trivia
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8correct to beat the crowd
This Buffalo Bills trivia quiz has 184 free questions with answers and runs from Ralph Wilson's 1959 telegram to Lamar Hunt through the new Highmark Stadium that opened in 2026. It covers the AFL championships with Jack Kemp and Cookie Gilchrist, O.J. Simpson's 2,003-yard season behind the Electric Company, and the Marv Levy era: Jim Kelly's K-Gun, Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith, Andre Reed, four straight AFC titles and four straight Super Bowl losses, starting with Scott Norwood's 47-yarder that went wide right. Then come the modern chapters - Frank Reich's 32-point Comeback, the Music City Miracle, the 17-year playoff drought that Sean McDermott ended, Josh Allen from a Firebaugh cotton farm to NFL MVP, the 13-seconds heartbreak in Kansas City, Damar Hamlin's recovery, the Pegulas, Bills Mafia and its tables. Roughly a third of the questions are easy warm-ups for casual fans; the rest are for people who still cannot talk about the Home Run Throwback. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the primary sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 184 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Ralph Wilson and the seven other original AFL owners became known by what nickname for taking on the NFL?
The Foolish Club
The Foolish Club lost money for years taking on the NFL, yet none of its eight teams ever folded, and all of them joined the older league in 1970.
Q 02Bills quarterback Josh Allen married which actress and singer in May 2025?
Hailee Steinfeld
Hailee Steinfeld, an Oscar nominee for True Grit, married Allen in California on May 31, 2025; he had proposed the previous November, midway through his MVP season.
Q 03The Bills lost the 1966 AFL title game and missed which event?
The first Super Bowl
The first Super Bowl went to Kansas City instead: the Chiefs beat Buffalo, the AFL champions of 1964 and 1965, by 31-7 and met Green Bay two weeks later.
Q 04In 1959, Ralph Wilson sent Lamar Hunt a telegram reading what?
'Count me in with Buffalo'
'Count me in with Buffalo' was not his first pick: Wilson tried to put his team in Miami, but the Orange Bowl was closed to him and he was turned down.
Q 05Ralph Wilson was a minority owner of which NFL team when he decided to join the AFL?
Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions: Wilson grew up in Detroit and bought a minority share of the team; as Bills owner he later lent the struggling Raiders $400,000 so the AFL kept all eight clubs.
Q 06Which Bills star did Lou Saban put on waivers in 1964 for walking off the field, until Jack Kemp intervened?
Cookie Gilchrist
Cookie Gilchrist took himself out of a game because the plays weren't being called for him; Kemp talked the coach round, and the waivers were cancelled once Gilchrist apologized.
Q 07In the snow at Shea Stadium in 1973, O.J. Simpson became the NFL's first 2,000-yard rusher against whom?
Jets
New York Jets: Simpson needed 61 yards in the season finale to pass Jim Brown's record of 1,863, ran for 200, and finished a 14-game season with 2,003.
Q 08O.J. Simpson won the Heisman Trophy in 1968 playing for which college?
USC
USC's star arrived as the first pick of the 1969 draft, yet coach John Rauch refused to build an offense around one back; Simpson only took off after Rauch left.
Q 09Scott Norwood's missed 47-yard field goal at the end of Super Bowl XXV is remembered by which two-word name?
Wide Right
Wide Right was Al Michaels's call on ABC as the kick sailed past the upright; the Giants won 20-19, the first of four straight Super Bowl defeats for Buffalo.
Q 10Who was named MVP of Super Bowl XXV for the Giants against the Bills?
Ottis Anderson
Ottis Anderson carried 21 times for 102 yards and a touchdown as the Giants kept the ball for more than 40 minutes, leaving Buffalo's fast offense on the sideline.
Q 11Which jersey number did the Bills retire in honor of Jim Kelly?
12
No. 12 was the first number the Bills ever retired, an honor for a quarterback who had spurned them for two seasons to play in a rival league.
Q 12What deficit did the Bills overcome to beat the Oilers 41-38 in 'The Comeback' of January 1993?
35-3
Buffalo trailed 35-3 early in the third quarter, then scored 35 unanswered points and won 41-38 in overtime on a Steve Christie field goal, a 32-point rally.
Q 13Which backup quarterback led The Comeback after Jim Kelly was hurt?
Frank Reich
Frank Reich replaced the injured Jim Kelly and threw four touchdown passes in the second half, including three to Andre Reed, to rally Buffalo past Houston 41-38; he later coached the Colts.
Q 21Steve Tasker earned seven Pro Bowl selections primarily in what role?
Special teams
Special teams: Tasker, a 5-foot-9 receiver who caught only 51 passes in his career, covered punts and kickoffs so well that he was voted MVP of the 1993 Pro Bowl.
Q 22In the 2000 'Music City Miracle', who threw the cross-field lateral that Kevin Dyson ran 75 yards for a touchdown?
Frank Wycheck
Frank Wycheck took Lorenzo Neal's handoff on the kickoff and threw across the field to Dyson, seconds after Buffalo's go-ahead field goal; the Titans won 22-16.
Q 23Which quarterback did Wade Phillips controversially start over Doug Flutie in the Music City Miracle game?
Rob Johnson
Q 14Jim Kelly was drafted by the Bills in 1983 but instead spent two seasons with which USFL team?
Houston Gamblers
Houston Gamblers: Kelly threw 83 touchdown passes in two run-and-shoot seasons there, and joined Buffalo only when the USFL folded, just before the 1986 season.
Q 15Which future Hall of Famer went 13 picks after Jim Kelly in the quarterback-rich first round of 1983?
Dan Marino
Dan Marino went 27th, the last of six first-round quarterbacks; his Dolphins then met Kelly's Bills in three playoff games between 1990 and 1995 and lost them all.
Q 16Before Buffalo, Marv Levy won two Grey Cups as head coach of which CFL team?
Montreal Alouettes
Montreal Alouettes: Levy's last title there came in the 1977 'Staples Game', when his players fired staples into their cleats for grip on an icy field and won 41-6.
Q 17Thurman Thomas led the NFL four straight years in what?
Yards from scrimmage
Yards from scrimmage: Buffalo's no-huddle used Thomas as a receiver as well as a runner, and in his 1991 MVP season he added 631 yards on 62 catches to 1,407 on the ground.
Q 18Where did Thurman Thomas normally leave the helmet he could not find at the start of Super Bowl XXVI?
On the 34-yard line
On the 34-yard line, matching his jersey number, was his pre-game spot; the helmet was reportedly moved for the anthem stage, and he missed Buffalo's first two plays.
Q 19Whose NFL career sack record did Bruce Smith break in 2003?
Reggie White
Reggie White's 198 fell in December 2003, when Smith, 40 and playing for Washington, threw the Giants' Jesse Palmer for a loss; 171 of his 200 sacks came as a Bill.
Q 20Andre Reed, a fourth-round pick in 1985, played college football at which small Pennsylvania school?
Kutztown
Kutztown, a Division II school, later named its stadium after Reed, who left Buffalo with a club-record 941 catches.
Phillips benched Doug Flutie, 10-5 as the 1999 starter, for Rob Johnson in the wild-card game at Tennessee after Johnson had won the meaningless regular-season finale.
Q 24Which Cardinals receiver outjumped three Bills to catch the last-second 'Hail Murray' in November 2020?
DeAndre Hopkins
DeAndre Hopkins came down with Kyler Murray's 43-yard heave in the final seconds, half a minute after Josh Allen had put Buffalo ahead 30-26; Arizona won 32-30.
Q 25Sean McDermott came to Buffalo in 2017 after six seasons as defensive coordinator of which team?
Carolina Panthers
Carolina Panthers: McDermott ran the defense there for six seasons, and four months after hiring him the Bills made Panthers executive Brandon Beane their general manager.
Q 26Where did Josh Allen play college football before the Bills drafted him seventh overall in 2018?
Wyoming
Allen started for Wyoming in 2016 and 2017, throwing 44 touchdown passes over those two seasons after transferring from a California junior college; the Bills traded up to take him seventh in 2018.
Q 27Who caught the overtime touchdown that beat the Bills in the '13 seconds' playoff game in January 2022?
Travis Kelce
Travis Kelce's 8-yard catch ended it 42-36 before Josh Allen touched the ball in overtime, and the NFL rewrote its playoff overtime rules that offseason.
Q 28Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during a January 2023 Monday Night game against whom?
Cincinnati Bengals
Cincinnati Bengals receiver Tee Higgins was the man Hamlin tackled before collapsing; medics restored his heartbeat on the field, the game was cancelled, and he later returned to play.
Q 29Terry Pegula, who bought the Bills in 2014, made his fortune in what industry?
Natural gas
Natural gas: Pegula's drilling company tapped the Marcellus Shale, and in 2010 he sold most of it to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 billion, then bought the Sabres and, in 2014, the Bills.
Q 30Which former Toronto Raptors star joined Tracy McGrady and Jozy Altidore in buying a minority stake in the Bills in 2024?
Vince Carter
Vince Carter was one of ten limited partners the NFL approved in December 2024, several of them with ties to Toronto, a market the Bills draw on; Terry Pegula kept control.