Bills Alumni Spotlight: Mike Montler

By Jim Gehman, buffalobills.com
December 9, 2003

Montler stayed put and became a vital member of the "Electric Company," the offensive line that blocked for O.J. Simpson as he rushed for an NFL single-season record of 2,003 yards.

Mike Montler learned to expect the unexpected. Division rivals never make trades with each other, right? Wrong. In 1973, Buffalo acquired Montler, linebacker Jim Cheyunski and defensive lineman Halvor Hagen from the Patriots for linebackers Edgar Chandler, Jeff Lyman and running back Wayne Patrick.

After starting in 51 games at offensive guard or tackle over four seasons for New England, Montler thought he’d continue to play one of those same positions for the Bills. Wrong again.

"At the time, Buffalo did not even have a left tackle. I thought it was automatic to move me to that left tackle spot," said Montler. "When I did get to Buffalo, the equipment man handed me my jersey and it was a 50s number. This was a little bizarre because I had never played center before in my life. I said, ‘What’s going on here with this? I think you made a mistake.’ He said, ‘No, the coaching staff told me that you’re to have a 50’s number.’ Back then, they really adhered to the numbering system of 50’s being a center, 60’s for guards and 70’s for tackles. So then they informed me that I was going to be a center which didn’t make me real happy.

"It basically amounted to someone gambling with my career. Other than the fact that they were not happy with their current center because he had a tendency to get hurt too often. I’d watch Bruce Jarvis on film and I’d say, ‘My God, this guy is a great center! What’s going on? You’ve got a 29-year-old backing up a 23-year-old? That doesn’t bode well for a guy like myself.’ They just said, ‘Hang in there.’ Back then, you were much more disciplined. You didn’t question authority. Eventually he got banged up a couple times and I went in. When he came back they said, ‘Never mind.’"

Montler stayed put and became a vital member of the "Electric Company," the offensive line that blocked for O.J. Simpson as he rushed for an NFL single-season record of 2,003 yards. He felt that setting the record was a group effort.

"They were a pretty smart group of people on the entire offense, so they absorbed a lot of changes in blocking assignments. Paul Seymour was our tight end, and that was like having another offensive tackle on the line of scrimmage. Jimmy Braxton, nobody can give enough credit to him, he was our blocking back. He weighed about 250-something and he was like having a pulling guard in the backfield. Jim Ringo was our offensive line coach, and he’s the best position coach I ever experienced. He did great things with the team. He put us all in positions where we didn’t have to do something that we weren’t very good at. I’ll tell you, it was virtually easy under that system, because nobody expected us to pass. They were coming up on the line of scrimmage all the time and we still managed to get Juice through into the secondary."

When Simpson and the Bills broke Jim Brown’s record in the season finale against the Jets in New York, even the post-game interview was a team effort.

"It was really an exciting moment. After the game, Juice was leaving the field and the network guys came down and wanted to do an interview with him. He said, ‘Yeah, great.’ It was set up in a boiler room. There wasn’t a whole lot of room in there, there were low-hanging pipes and things of that nature. Juice said, ‘Well, let me get my boys, the offensive line.’ They said they didn’t have room for that and Juice told them, ‘If you don’t room for that, I can’t do the interview.’ They said, ‘We’ll make room for them,’" Montler said. "There wasn’t a whole lot of room in there, but that was just the attitude of the entire team, the offense in particular. What made it click so much was O.J. was to the point that well, yeah, here’s my glory, but he just flat wasn’t going to do the interview unless we were there."

Montler became more of an offensive threat himself in ‘76. During a 34-13 loss to San Diego, the eight-year veteran had his first and last reception, a six-yard pass from Gary Marangi. Granted, it was by accident, but considering that the Bills were losing their seventh straight game en route to a 2-12 record, what did it hurt?

"I don’t know what in the heck was going on, but the ball was batted in the air and somehow I caught it. I ran to the outside and it was amazing. I looked down the field and there was all kind of room and I said, ‘Aw, man. This is fantastic!’ I took about four steps and then all of a sudden, they started converging from every direction. What looked like an open lane was now all of a sudden quite congested. There was a defensive back, as I recall, that was coming up on me, and I said, ‘Well, I’m going to make this guy pay for getting in my way,’" laughed Montler. "He ducked and hit me around the kneecap and just decked me. I said, ‘I don’t want to run the ball any more.’ What looked like a lot of glory got messy real quick."

Things also got messy for Montler shortly before the ‘77 training camp opened. The veteran approached Jim Ringo, who had replaced Lou Saban as head coach after five games the previous season, and wanted to discuss a two-year contract extension.

"Since he was an old center and I was about 33 years old at that time, I thought he would understand my concern. We weren’t even talking money, I just wanted another two years. I’d never been hurt, never missed any games, never caused any trouble. I told Ringo I was concerned if it didn’t go well and he got fired, I would be a 34-year-old center and a new coach would come in and the first thing he’d say is ‘we’ve got to get rid of these old guys.’ I just wanted a little assurance. I thought Ringo would say, ‘Sure, Mike. I understand. I’ve been there before.’ Instead he said, ‘You’re playing here or you aren’t playing anywhere.’ So I just told him ‘I retire.’ Then later in training camp, he ended up trading me to Denver. I never figured that would happen, and then Denver winds up going to the Super Bowl. Outside of getting caught up in politics, I loved playing in Buffalo. The fans, the people. You just couldn’t get a better atmosphere for football than what they have in Buffalo."

Living in Grand Junction, Colo., with his wife, Suzy, Montler is retired from NationsWay Transport, a commercial trucking company. They have two adult sons: Brandon, an Air Force major, stationed in Albuquerque, NM.; and Bonner, a junior high school teacher in San Diego; and a granddaughter.

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