by Budd Bailey, Buffalo Sports Page

We are counting from 99 to 0 to determine who’s the best Buffalo athlete to wear each number.  It’s Buffalo Sports By The Numbers here on Buffalo Sports Page.

We’ll have a new number and athlete every day this summer.  Each story also includes reaction from the Buffalo Sports Page staff, and a way to catch up on numbers you’ve missed.

After every 10 numbers, a Sylvester & Peck On Sports podcast will feature Budd Bailey and the guys reacting to the selection.

#90

Phil Hansen, Bills. The defensive end was used to winning, playing on a pair of Division II national champions for North Dakota State. Then Hansen was drafted by the Bills in 1991, and contributed to three Super Bowl teams in Buffalo. He’s on the Wall of Fame at New Era Field. Others: Chris Kelsay, Bills; Ryan O’Reilly, Sabres; Clark Gillies, Sabres.

Paul Peck’s Digit Discussion:  Phil was the perfect complement to Bruce Smith on the Bills defensive line.  Effort, skill, talent.  He wasn’t the player Bruce was, but he was good enough to be a concern for offensive lines, while they still being concerned about how many people they needed to block #78.  Plus, Phil was one of the alltime good guys in Bills history.  He currently is a football official in Minnesota and the radio color analyst for North Dakota State football.

To catch up on any pick from 99 to 91, visit the Buffalo Sports By The Numbers section on the Buffalo Sports Page home page.

Budd, Paul & Kevin breakdown the picks from 99 to 90 on the Sylvester & Peck on Sports podcast:

Budd Bailey

Budd Bailey has been involved in almost every aspect of the local sports scene for the last 40 years. He worked for WEBR Radio, the Buffalo Sabres' public relations department and The Buffalo News during that time. In that time he covered virtually every aspect of the area's sports world, from high schools to the Bills and Sabres and everything in between. Along the way, Budd served as a play-by-play announcer for the Bisons, an analyst for the Stallions, and a talk-show host. He won the National Lacrosse League's Tom Borrelli Award as the media personality of the year in 2011, and was a finalist for that same award in 2017. Budd's seventh and eighth books, one on the Transcontinental Railroad and the other about Ichiro Suzuki, are scheduled to be released in the fall.

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