This Day in Buffalo Sports History: Thanks for everything
March 9, 1994 -- It's tough to keep a great team together for a long time these days. Ask Jim Ritcher.
The veteran offensive lineman of the Buffalo Bills was released on this day. Vic Carucci of The News had the story:
Always the optimist, Jim Ritcher first thought that the telephone call Wednesday from Buffalo Bills general manager John Butler to his Raleigh, N.C., home was to inform him that the team wanted to start talking about his return next season.
"I was sort of excited," Ritcher said. "Then John and Coach (Marv) Levy got on the phone and said that, because of the salary cap, they wouldn't be bringing me back this year."
And with that, the longest playing career in Bills history came to an end.
The four-time defending AFC champions continued the process of purging their roster of players they feel are too expensive to keep under the NFL's salary cap by informing Ritcher, a free agent, that they would not attempt to re-sign him.
Although free-agent salaries don't count against the cap while such players are unsigned, the Bills concluded that they didn't have room for a 35-year-old guard who earned $675,000 last season and was projected to remain in the backup role he assumed late in 1993.
"We deeply regret not being able to re-sign Jim," Levy said. "But the salary cap limitations have made it impossible for us to keep him in our plans."
"Even though it wasn't what I wanted to hear, I appreciated them being honest about it instead of letting me go on with the hope that maybe I would be back and not pursue something with another team," said Ritcher, who has played more games (222) than any player in Bills history.
--- Budd Bailey
