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John Boccacino: Hello, and welcome back to the Cuse Conversations podcast. My name is John Boccacino, the communications specialist in Syracuse University's Office of Alumni Engagement. I'm also a 2003 graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, with a degree in broadcast journalism. I am so glad you found our podcast. Hi folks, today on the Cuse Conversations alumni podcast, we are pleased to bring on the long-time radio voice of the Buffalo Bills. His name is John Murphy, a Class of 1978 graduate from Newhouse, had a broadcast journalism degree.

John Boccacino: He has worked for the Buffalo Bills for more than three decades. He's unfortunately seen more than his fair share of lean times, but the Bills are back. As Chris Berman would say, "They're circling the wagons." 13 and three, the number two seed in the AFC playoffs coming up. John, it's got to be quite the exciting around One Bills Drive for this Buffalo Bills squad. How can you describe it?

John Murphy: Yeah, it is exciting. There's no question about that. I'm trying to myself get used to the new era of Bills football. This is the third time in the last four years the Bills have been in the playoffs. There was a 17-year playoffs drought that preceded that. It almost was like, "Okay, there go the NFL playoffs. Of course, we're not in it." Now, three of the last four years the Bills are in it, and this time they're not just in it, I think they are serious contenders to go deep in the playoffs and challenge for a Super Bowl. That's how good their season has been. So, it's amazing, I'm still getting used to this new era of Bills football.

John Boccacino: How have you seen things change with the organization, with the games, and with the fans with regards to expectations? It almost seems like now fans expect the team to win, but that wasn't always the case.

John Murphy: Yeah, and I think that ... well, let me ... the expectation of fans is very much still a work in progress, I think, because as I said, 17 years that preceded this last four years were really bleak. A lot of five, six, seven win seasons, and fans, I think, expected ... hoped to have a competitive team but didn't really have high expectations for the Bills. It used to drive me crazy to hear fans talk about well, same old Bills. And I would kind of challenge them and say, "What do you mean by that?"

John Murphy: And they would articulate it. They would say, "Well, the Bills find a way to lose." And that's all gone now, and I think it's in the process of still being erased from our memories. One of the things, John, that I really enjoyed about the 2020 season is that there's a whole new generation of Bills fans that are finding the Buffalo Bills now. And that makes sense. My own sons ... I have a 32-year-old son and 29 year old that they grew up following the Bills, loving the Bills, went to a lot of games, but they never were rewarded with a good team during that time when they were really Bills fans. They were born at the tail end of the Super Bowl run, essentially.

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John Murphy: And when they started being aware of the Buffalo Bills they just weren't that good. But fans of that era, from the age of ... well, from younger teenagers to maybe age 35, this is the first taste they've had of a really successful Bills team, and I really enjoy seeing them respond to it and adopt it and putting their own stamp on the way the Bills are playing this year. I think that's maybe the best thing about the way Buffalo has played is they've grown a whole new generation of fans and a whole new generation of support among the fan base. And it's important to do that for the future of the franchise, but it's really fun to see that happening too. So, that's what I was saying is maybe the best thing about this Bills team this year.

John Boccacino: No, you're right, and obviously expectations have been sky high. I think Josh Allen has ... If you had told me before the season started that Josh was going to complete almost 70 percent of his passes, the Bills would have more touchdowns and punts on the season. I mean, there are so many remarkable stats, but this has been so unfortunate where fans have not been able to watch the games in person due to the pandemic. What has it been like for you to be a broadcaster, calling games in the stadium without fans, knowing how raucous Bills stadium can be?

John Murphy: It's been sad, I'll be honest with you. I'm looking at a schedule here, but going way back to September they had a good, solid win against the Rams, who I thought were a pretty good team, and it turns out they weren't that good. But a good, solid win against the Rams, and they were competitive against Kansas City. They beat New England. They were tormentors for the last couple of decades. They beat Seattle, a playoff team and a Super Bowl contender, at home. They beat Pittsburgh on a Sunday night game. They've had so many good games at home this year, and almost four or five times this year I'd walk out and say, "I can't believe nobody saw that game." The Bills fans weren't here to see it. And in a sports sense, and certainly not in a real life sense, but in a sports sense, it was a tragedy, I thought, that Bills fans didn't see that.

John Murphy: It's weird to do games without fans. I really enjoy having real live games, which we have for the home games because there's a real live football game going on out there that we can call. But the road games, we have not traveled all year. We decided, and most ... I think almost every NFL team has done the same thing for the road games, we go right back to Bills stadium, we have a video feed, three different huge monitors with the video feed of the Bills at whomever, at New England, at Denver, whomever, and we call the game off TV. Which is different, it's not as much fun and you miss a lot, but that's the best we can do.

John Murphy: So, there's been a lot of adjustment to both home and road games. I really welcome, even though it's only 6700 fans or so, I just welcome to have real, live people in the stands. I don't know how much noise they can make. They'll be hard pressed to make the noise that 73,000 people can make in that place, but I think it's going to be a good experience for everybody who is there, and I really look forward to having that this coming weekend.

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John Boccacino: We took so many things for granted before the pandemic, and not the least of which was the ability to go to football games and cheer on your favorite team. I've had season tickets forever with the Bills, going on 17 years, and there is something special about the family that gets cultivated by being at the stadium and the tailgating. Now granted, we can't tailgate on Saturday, we have to be very safe, and I respect that. It's great that we're at least getting to have fans in the stadium. What can you say about what you've experienced with the Bills Mafia and Bills fans? And being a broadcaster obviously you see it from a different perspective, but you mentioned earlier the passion. Just how passionate are the fans for which you're calling these games?

John Murphy: Yeah, I'm going to get to that. First, I want to thank you for being a season ticket holder for 17 years. That's admirable, especially since they haven't been the greatest years. One more thing I want to say about this coming Saturday and the setup for this Saturday and basically the hoops that fans like you are jumping through to get to go to the game, I really salute that. And I've found it interesting reading about the governor's take about that, saying how we're going to use this as a model for maybe reopening Broadway shows and reopening concerts. We may be setting the template. It seems like it's working great here in Orchard Park. We're still a couple of days away from kickoff, but it seems like everybody's handling it well and going through the testing well. And I hope that he's right, I hope that they can open up other aspects of American culture. And maybe this would be a model for doing that.

John Murphy: Now, you asked about Bills Mafia, Bills fans. It's been ... I'll tell you what, and I've been doing play by play, I think this is the 17th season, and when I got the job, when my predecessor Van Miller retired after the 1993 season, there were no guarantees. Nothing was guaranteed to me or anybody else, so I was a candidate for the job. And there was about a ... maybe only six-week timeframe between when Van officially called his last game and the Bills named me. During that six weeks, it blew me away how much people really care, Bills fans really care. I know virtually all the 31 other NFL broadcasters, and I think we're in a unique position here in Buffalo. I don't know that ... And I love these guys but I don't know if the fans in Miami really care who does the Dolphins games. And the guy who does it, Jimmy Cefalo, is great and he's a friend of mine, but ... And the same thing goes for New England, Bob Socci, another friend of mine, an Auburn native.

John Murphy: I don't know if New England Patriots really give a damn who the play-by-play guy is. That six-week period before I got named to the job, I heard so many people saying, "We hope you get it. We really want you to get it." And that's ... 17 years ago, that really kind of blew me away. It was like, "Wow, these fans care about this team. They care about who's calling the game."

John Murphy: And that's kind of a ... You feel like you're entrusted with something when you know the fans care that much, when they give a damn about who's doing the games. That really blew me away, and it's been nothing but made stronger over

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17 years. You're not everybody's favorite. I'm okay with that, but I think fans sort of identify you with the team after a while, and maybe they like what you're doing and they support you. I'm just an adjunct to the real heroes, the real play makers here, and those are the players. I'm just a tack-on guy. But to be associated with that and get the benefit of that kind of feeling from fans has really been a great part of the job and one that I guess I didn't realize that existed. And I think it's unique to Buffalo, to be honest with you.

John Boccacino: There's a trust that you mentioned, where fans are trusting you to bring them the action and just to bring it unfiltered, to describe what's happening. How do you try to fulfill and live up to that trust? What would you say is your broadcasting style that meets those high standards?

John Murphy: Well, that's a good question. I always try to do a broadcast play by play for the Bills, or for anything I've done, try to put myself in the viewer's position or the listener's position. What do they need from me? What are they looking for? And for Bills broadcasts, I often think about if we're doing a game and Bills fans who really care are watching the game on TV, I get that, but I also like to think that there's some guy driving down the New York State freeway, had to drop his daughter off at college at Syracuse, driving back and forth to Buffalo, and he wishes he was watching the game and he can't. He really wants to know what's going on. And I sort of envision what does that guy need to hear? What do I need to tell him of what's going on?

John Murphy: And you've got to make it fun and entertaining, but I guess that informative aspect of it. Make sure that he knows the score. Give the score too often, maybe, than not often enough so that people aren't ... I've done it myself, pounding the dashboard saying, "What's the score? Give me the score?" I don't want anybody doing that when they listen to a Bills game. I'm sure some do. But I try to think of what the listeners are looking for. Are they looking for fun and color and excitement? Yeah. But mostly they're looking for an explanation and my take on what just happened. I'm a reporter, essentially. Maybe more so than some other play-by-play guys, but that's sort of the approach that I take.

John Boccacino: I know there was an article I read, John, that was talking about your style and they described it like listening ... like you're sitting next to a long-time friend who has both a contagious enthusiasm and an encyclopedic knowledge of the Buffalo Bills. I'm sure there're articles that have been written to the contrary, but to hear the praise like that, what does that make you feel, when, again, that whole ... You're almost like a historian for the Bills because they expect you to recount what happened the last time the Bills played the Colts, the snow game in 2017, and the last time the Bills had a home playoff game. There's such a responsibility. How do you try to live up to that aspect of it, where again you're almost like a historian for the franchise?

John Murphy: Yeah, that's what happens when you do it for a while, right? I mean, you've been around for so long that you're naturally good at it. And look, I think that's

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... One of the things, as I mentioned a minute ago, I try to provide listeners with what they might be looking for or what they might not get from a network broadcast, radio or TV. And one of the things we can do is provide perspective and yeah, I mean you're right about the Colts this week, the last time the Colts were here was that crazy snow game when it was hard to see yard lines. And we'll reference that on Sunday for the game. I've thought about it a lot this week. We provide perspective, and it's sort of a shared perspective that we know most of our fans, 99% of our fans, are Bills fans.

John Murphy: And we all remember what happened in this game and that game, and we know what happened in four Super Bowls and we know who missed this field goal, and we have that shared background. And that gives us an edge, I think, over network announcers, radio or TV. We have sort of a shared sense of experience. I don't know, I don't call myself a fan. I know I'm a fan of the Bills fans, if that makes sense. I want to see Bills fans happy. I want to see them rewarded for their devotion and their loyalty to the team. But I guess that comes across. Do I root for the Bills? No, I try not to. I try to be honest and objective and root for the Bills fans. I want all those fans, 73,000 in the stands and however many outside the stadium, I want them to be happy and feel rewarded for their loyalty.

John Boccacino: I know there's probably no such thing as an average week, but how would you describe the preparation that goes into getting ready to call a game?

John Murphy: There's a lot. I've adapted over the years. You and I were talking before we started this interview about how much busier I might be this week, and to be honest I try not to be any busier this week than I was in November when they were playing Seattle. I mean, you have a routine. When I worked at the CBS affiliate here in Buffalo a few years ago, the news anchor, a friend of mine, Jackie Walker, said, "How much time do you put in to get ready for those games?" And she was pressing me on it, she's a good reporter. And so I sat down with a paper and a pen and figured out it's about 20, 25 hours a week, aside from whatever other job I have, to get ready. And a lot of it is watching video. I've watched a couple Colts games this week. I hope to watch a few more.

John Murphy: A lot of it is doing notes. I'll probably put all my notes together tomorrow for the Saturday game and try to set up a format for the pre-game discussion that I'll have with the caller man, Steve Tasker. A lot of it is familiarizing myself with the storylines for the Bills and their opponents, in this case the Colts. The video helps, watching ... and there's so much ... I mean, the video is so helpful and I don't think I have a trick memory or anything but if I watch the Colts a couple of times and you know how to watch ... and I don't need to know every offensive lineman's name and number, but I need to know every receiver's name and number. And if you watch them a couple times, it sort of comes to me. I think anybody would do that.

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John Murphy: So, I guess it's 20 to 25 hours. This was a few years ago when I sat down to figure it out. But it's mostly watching video, making notes for pre-game discussion, and just sort of having a handle on the issues. Like, what are the Bills issues going into this week? The Bills have some injuries to wide receiver this particular week, so who might play and what could they do and who would they miss? And the same thing for their opponents, typically, the Colts. What's their injury list look like? What are their issues? How did they play last week? Who's playing strong for them? Who's not playing as well as they can. You sort of familiarize yourself and immerse yourself in the matchup as much as you can during the course of a week.

John Boccacino: We talked earlier, John, about how great it is for Bills fans to be back in the playoffs. It's the third time in four years. After that NFL record 17-year playoff drought the Bills are back and one of the teams to content with. You've seen a lot of experiences and a lot of game moments during your broadcasting career. You've been fortunate to have some awesome games and some not-so-great games to get to be behind the mic to call. What stands out to you as some of those most memorable moments in your broadcasting career?

John Murphy: Yeah, that's always a tough one for me. Before I was play by play, I worked with Van Miller. I was doing caller on the broadcast. I'll never forget the playoff loss. It was a loss in Cleveland, a wild card playoff loss to the Cleveland Browns. The Bills had it won on a touchdown pass to Ronnie Harmon in the end zone that he could not handle. He dropped it, and it was just on the cusp. I mean, the very next year the Bills went to the ... I think it was the next year, right, the first of their four straight Super Bowls. That's how good they were and that's how close they were to being a great playoff team. And Ronnie Harmon just dropped that ball. I'll never forget that.

John Murphy: And the old Cleveland stadium was kind of a memorable place and a fun place to work. Yeah, I mean there have been an awful lot of games ... In a weird way, the 2017 season, the Bills went to Miami for the finale and won the game and Kyle Williams, the defensive lineman, scored a touchdown. They needed to win but they didn't control their destiny. They had to win and have things happen. So we finished up the game and I was trying to monitor and now watch the end, really. It was couple of minutes later and the Bills ... the end of the Baltimore Ravens game against the Bengals. And if the Ravens had won, the Bills would not have made the playoffs. And we're watching it ... after we signed off, it was like five minutes after our game ended, and all of a sudden the Bengals score a late touchdown, last-minute touchdown, last play of the game touchdown, to knock off the Ravens and put the Bills in the playoffs.

John Murphy: And there was ... and we're watching it from a radio booth in Miami and the Dolphins broadcaster, the aforementioned Jimmy Cefalo and a couple of other guys, were rooting for us. They came in and watched the last few minutes with us. These guys from the Dolphins, a couple of them former Dolphins players, Cefalo and others, were out there rooting for the Bills. I thought, "That's pretty

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cool." But they just really were pulling for us. And when Andy Dalton completed that pass and the Bengals won it on the last play, our booth erupted. Even though we weren't on the air, it erupted. And Cefalo and the Dolphins broadcaster seemed just as happy as we were. That was a memorable moment, which wasn't really connected to a broadcast. It was unbelievable that it happened that way. There have been a lot of memorable moments. Some of them losses. As I said, the Browns loss at the end of the season, the playoff loss. But those might be the top two, I think.

John Boccacino: It was great, too, after Dalton's TE pass to Tyler Boyd, the Bills fans made donations to Andy Dalton's charity for thanking them for ending the playoff drought and getting Buffalo in the playoffs. It goes to show the generosity of Bills fans out there.

John Murphy: Yeah.

John Boccacino: Now John, we talk about being fortunate and taking things for granted. You seem very humble and very in the moment with your position. There's not that many jobs that are out there to do radio play by play. Do you ever pinch yourself and think, "I cannot believe that a guy from western New York has one of these 32 radio play by play jobs." Oh, and by the way, doing it for a team that is near where you grew up.

John Murphy: Yeah, I'm lucky. Yeah, I pinch myself on that all the time. I've just been lucky, falling into jobs in 1984, the color man then, Stan Baron, got really sick and passed away the next February, and the season had already begun. We were one week into it and they needed somebody, and I was the nearest bystander doing news at WBEN radio, and they tapped me on the shoulder and said, "All right, you've got to fill in." I was like, "I've never done that before." And I filled in, worked with Van Miller in '85 and that was the start of broadcasting Bills football. It's luck. It's being prepared. I think it's ... I try to stay up to date on what's going on. I'm kind of an old-fashioned broadcaster. I hand draw my own spotting boards and everything. But it's mostly luck. I'll be honest with you, it's mostly luck and yeah, I pinch myself all the time. Look how lucky you are. Look how lucky you've been over the years.

John Boccacino: Who inspired you to get into broadcasting?

John Murphy: Ooh, that's a tough one. I mean, I grew up around here and the guy I worked with, Van Miller, was an inspiration. I grew up watching him do sports and listening to ... actually, listening to Niagara University basketball. He called the games of the great Hall of Fam-er Calvin Murphy, which I was a huge fan of. And listened to Van do Niagara basketball, and then Buffalo Braves basketball, and I think he was an inspiration. He didn't know it at the time. I think after I worked with him 16, 17 years he probably knew it. So yeah, he might have been the greatest inspiration and the greatest influence on my career, to be honest with you.

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John Murphy: Van used to ... We all do it, keep a notebook, keep track of what's going on in the game. And every once in a while, he's have a guest in the booth or somebody would stop in and he would turn his notebook around and on the back of it, and he was already prepared ... I don't know if I should say this but he wrote down it's all bullshit. And he'd turn around and say what's really going on. I mean, he didn't take himself too seriously, didn't take the broadcast that seriously. And he wanted the guests, whoever it was at that time, yeah, we're having fun here. We're doing a radio broadcast. We're not splitting atoms. And that sort of approach kind of stayed with me. I don't do it, I don't say it's all bullshit, but I know not to take it too seriously. It's a game.

John Boccacino: You mentioned again the surreal feeling when you took over for Van Miller, someone you had been working with quite closely for more than a decade. Van was a living legend. Van was a voice that Bills fans came to rely upon. And you talked earlier about the trust of the fans and getting their trust when it comes to broadcasting. How hard was it to step in and take over for the living legend known as Van Miller?

John Murphy: I deliberately didn't think about that too much, because I think I would have been intimidated, to be honest. I said, "Well, I've been on this broadcast for 17 years, I kind of know the drill, I know what's expected." I was there in Canton, Ohio when he was awarded the Pete Rozelle award for broadcasting. He's basically a Hall of Fame-er there, he's a Hall of Fam-er ... I think ... the last I counted, or he counted, he was in six or seven Halls of Fame. So I didn't deliberately think of that, I just thought well, you know you have a good background, you know what's expected. Van has kind of shown you a path, and I though about that, not trying to copy him but to do your own thing, but just about what's expected. If I would have sat down and said, "Oh my goodness, I'm succeeding this Hall of Fam-er," I think I would have caved. I don't think I would have been able to do it.

John Boccacino: Well, there's a lot of pressure, obviously, associated with that, but you've done a great job of meeting those expectations. I do want to take a stroll down memory lane to Syracuse University here on the alumni podcast. What attracted you to Newhouse and Syracuse in the first place?

John Murphy: Yeah, I mean broadcasting. I was always a fan, even as a kid, of broadcasting, sports and otherwise. When I went there in 1974 I was interested in, and I still am interested in, journalism. And that was the Watergate era and journalists were big deals and I think held in high esteem. Maybe less so now. But yeah, that was it, just the chance to go to that school and to learn journalism, broadcast journalism. I didn't think of it in terms of sports back then.

John Murphy: I just thought, "Yeah, I'd like to be a radio..." I mean, used to think ... to be honest with you, John, I used to think ... this probably shows a lack of ambition, but I think, "Man, I just want a job where I can wake up in the morning and read the paper, have a cup of coffee." And when you're working in a newsroom,

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that's sort of required. That's how I kind of got started. I really liked the reporting and really like journalism and love the broadcast aspect of it. I did a little radio work in my hometown in Lockport as a high school student. But that's really what I was looking for, and Syracuse fulfilled that.

John Boccacino: When you think back on your experiences with your professors, whether it's with WJPZ, the radio station, is there one lesson or one bit of advice that has served you so well from then that really is relevant and applicable now?

John Murphy: Yeah, I did a little work at WJPZ and did newscasts at WJPZ. Obviously, it was centuries ago now, it was a different place. But one thing ... I don't know if you've heard the name, Rick Wright ... Roosevelt, Rick Wright was a broadcast professor. You're laughing because you've heard the stories, right?

John Boccacino: I mean, listen, we all try to be major market talent when it comes to being with Rick Wright and his classes. He's a legend. He still is to this day.

John Murphy: He used to say all time in class, and he taught radio classes mostly, "You've got to sell it, folks. You've got to sell it." And that kind of stuck with me. He's right. It's one thing to have the facts right or have the broadcast right. But you've got to sell it. You've got to get people to buy in, by saying, "Hey, listen to this. Come along with me." And of anything that anybody said. Great professors, in Newhouse and out of Newhouse as well. But Rick Wright and maybe Dr. Andrews, Dr. Earnest Andrews, he was kind of a television news guy who showed us the ropes. We'd produce a television newscast ... I'm sure they do it now still ... but we'd do one every Friday, and it was ... He knew the nuts and bolts of it. He got that message across.

John Boccacino: What are some of your favorite memories? And it can be academic. It can be a sports activity, sports event, but what really stands out as your favorite moments from your time on The Hill?

John Murphy: A lot of good moments in Varsity, eating cheap wings and drinking five dollar pitchers of Budweiser. Those were good moments. I went to games at Manley. Manley was an amazing place, which I'm sure doesn't resonate with most of your audience. But Manley Field House to watch basketball, with the dirt floor and the hardwood laid on top of the dirt, and the place would get dusty and dirty. It was a unique experience, and it was a fun experience. Manley Field House would have been [inaudible 00:24:43]. I saw ... well, it had to be 1975, going into '76, but they had a Democratic presidential candidate had a debate at Manley Field House. There was amazing talent there. I don't think the eventual winner, Jimmy Carter, was there. But there were ... Morris Udall and just a bunch of Democrats who were thinking about running for president. It was really an interesting afternoon, Saturday afternoon. That was so long ago, but those would be some of my favorite memories at SU, I think.

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John Boccacino: I know there's a lot of people that try to come to Newhouse and want to be sports broadcasters. It clearly takes a lot of hard work, dedication, passion. Like any field, you have to be passionate about what you want to do. What kind of advice, John, do you give to someone who is either starting off in this industry or is going to Syracuse to study this craft when it comes to trying to follow in the footsteps of being a sports broadcaster?

John Murphy: It's so different now, the landscape and the profession has changed, but I think probably what hasn't changed is you've got to be ready to work and not make money and you've got to like what you're doing or you won't be able to work without getting much money. I left Syracuse and went to law school at University of Buffalo for less than a year, and hated it. But I started working at a radio station soon after in Niagara Falls ... and I'm not looking for sympathy here, but my pay was $75.00 a week and a tank of gas for my Toyota Corolla. And I tended bar to try to make ends meet, and I made it. It was good. I made it in terms of surviving.

John Murphy: But I learned a ton at WJJL. And I worked there for less than a year. I learned a ton about writing for broadcast, delivering a broadcast, what goes in to getting a newscast ready. That's what I was doing. And then I went to a couple of other small stations. I guess I've never really been motivated by money, which is probably a fault. But if you're motivated by money you probably don't want to get into this business, because when you start out you probably ... unless you're supernaturally talented you won't make a ton of money. You've got to be ready to work, and you've got to really like the work or you won't be able to do it without making money, I think.

John Boccacino: Well, John, valuable bits of advice there for our listeners, for the alumni of the current students that are taking a listen to our podcast. John, of course, does a podcast as well, Sullivan's Pro Football Kickoff podcast, in addition to his duties in the radio play by play voice for the Buffalo Bills. John, I'd be remiss ... and I can imagine you might give me an answer I would like, but how far do you think this Bills team can go? I have to go back to the 2020 season, now we're in 2021, but the playoff game on Saturday, hopes are sky high. What are your expectations for this team in the post-season?

John Murphy: You don't have to apologize for being a fan, John. It's good to be a fan.

John Boccacino: And I'm glad you say that, because ... not to cut you off, but I find that there's ... we need things to get excited about.

John Murphy: I agree.

John Boccacino: My wife and I have been chatting, this is the most excited ... besides being a playoff game, just getting to watch the team in action, in person, it's the simple things again we took for granted because of the pandemic.

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John Murphy: Yeah, I see your point. We need some good things, that's for sure. But look, this team, the last ... it's almost two months now but at least six weeks since the bye, they've played better, really better, than anybody in the NFL, including the Kansas City Chiefs. They're scoring points, their defense has improved. They're making big plays. Josh, he's playing great, and he's doing it now ... his numbers aren't spectacular against the Dolphins or the week before against the Patriots, he's kind of thinking through games and deciding what he has to do to win games, as opposed to just getting by on arm strength or his athleticism.

John Murphy: It's really fun to watch. Look, they could go all the way. I'll say it, I don't know if they will, but they can, they can go to a Super Bowl and maybe win a Super Bowl because over the last six weeks, maybe almost two months, nobody's played better in the NFL, not by my account.

John Boccacino: I know the Bills Mafia faithful in our audience will love to hear that. But regardless, John, however they perform we know we'll get great calls on the games from yourself with Buffalo Bills radio network. Steve Tasker and Sal Capaccio, a fellow Orange alum, great voices to bring on the broadcast week in and week out. John, it's really been a pleasure getting to sit down and talk with you. I appreciate all your advice, and we wish you nothing but the best.

John Murphy: Thanks, John. Great to talk with you. Thank you.

John Boccacino: Thanks for checking out the latest installment of the Cuse Conversations podcast. You can find our podcast on all of your major podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Spotify. You can also find our podcast at alumni.syr.edu/cuseconversations and anchor.fm/cuseconversations. My name is John Boccacino signing off for the Cuse Conversations podcast.

John Murphy Podcast (Completed 01/08/21) Page 11 of 11 Transcript by Rev.com