George
Saimes was arguably the best safety to strap on a Buffalo Bills helmet.
In fact George Saimes was named to the American Football League's all-time
defensive team. Originally drafted in the sixth round by both the Kansas
City Chiefs of the AFL and the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL back in 1962.
He was an all-American running back at Michigan State and was drafted as
a running back. Saimes signed with the Chiefs and was traded a year later
to the Bills who needed a back up for Cookie Gilchrist. Saimes played the
first two games for the Bills on offense that season until he was switched
to safety in the third game where he made his first career interception
against of all teams, the Chiefs.
"I got killed. I wasn't big enough or fast enough to play offense in the pros," Saimes said in retrospect of his short lived career as a running back.
He was a mainstay on the Bills defense until 1970 when he was released by coach John Rauch. He was picked up by his old coach Lou Saban and played three more years for Saban in Denver. When his career was over, he moved directly into scouting. He worked for the BLESTO scouting combine, spent two years with Tampa Bay, then joined the Washington Redskins in 1984 where he was made director of college scouting in 1990. He is now working with the new NFL franchise in Houston.
"I don't think I ever played a bad game for Buffalo," Saimes said. "I'm not saying I played great, but I never played a bad one. I was pretty consistent, but the plays I made weren't exciting to the average fan."
In 1964 Saimes started a streak of playing in five straight AFL Pro Bowl games. He would finish his Buffalo career with 22 interceptions.
Saimes downplayed his achievements and deferred his success to the fact that he played with great players.
"We could play a lot of man-to-man and do some things that other teams couldn't do," he said. "The key was that we had a good front four and we had two excellent cornerbacks. Booker Edgerson was a great cover guy and Butch Byrd was very physical. That combination of having those cornerbacks who you knew you could depend on, and that front four that put pressure on the quarterback, that was a big key. Those corners could have played for any team in the NFL."
One could make the same statement about George Saimes.
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