By Budd Bailey, Buffalo Sports Page Columnist

Tony Greene – Signed by the Bills in 1971

There’s little doubt who the best free safety of the 1970s was for the Bills. In fact, there’s hardly any competition.

Tony Greene came out of the University of Maryland, but went undrafted in 1971. The Bills added him as a long shot free agent. But he beat the odds and made the roster that season, although he stayed on special teams. A year later Greene won a job as a starting cornerback as the Bills started their climb to respectability under Lou Saban.

Buffalo moved Greene to free safety in 1973, and he found a home there. In 1974, Greene had nine interceptions and was an All-Pro to help the Bills reach the playoffs. The 5-foot-10 defensive back returned an interception 101 yards for a touchdown in 1976 against the Chiefs to set a team record. He ended up staying with the Bills through 1979.

The basics:

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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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