By Budd Bailey, Buffalo Sports Page Columnist

No. 79: April 29, 1980 – The Bills trade a first-round draft choice in 1980 (Jacob Green) to Seattle for a first-round draft choice in 1980 (Jim Ritcher), and a third-round draft choice in 1980 (John Schmeding).

There’s always talk when a trade is completed about winners and losers. Here’s a case where both teams made out quite nicely.

Buffalo traded down with Seattle, and the Seahawks snapped up Jacob Green in the first round. Green lasted 12 years with the team, playing in 180 games. Green had 97.5 sacks in a Seattle uniform, and made two Pro Bowls. The Seahawks had to be happy about that side of the swap.

But the Bills did fine too. Jim Ritcher was the nation’s best college center, but needed to bulk up a bit for the pros. Ritcher did that, and moved to guard. It took him three years to take a starting job, but he didn’t give it up for 11 years. Ritcher also played in two Pro Bowls. John Schmeding was on injured reserve as a rookie throughout 1980 and retired in training camp in 1981.

(Follow Budd on Twitter @WDX2BB)

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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