It’s always hard to say goodbye to a job that you love, especially when it’s under unfortunate circumstances. The Buffalo Bills organization and their many fans throughout Western New York were saddened to find out a couple of weeks ago that longtime Bills radio announcer John Murphy would be stepping away from the play-by-play position after 35 years in the radio booth. Murphy spent 16 years as a color analyst and 19 years as the play-by-play announcer, but he continues to recover from a stroke that he suffered on January 1st 2023.
For the veteran broadcaster, the reality set in that it was time to step aside.
“I’m disappointed,” said the 67-year-old Murphy during a phone conversation last week with Barrett Sports Media. “I’m nearing the end anyway, but you’d like to go out on your own terms and finish the way you want to finish and I’m not able to do that. It’s disappointing but by the same token, there’s no way I can do the games talking the way I currently talk so I think it makes sense.”
Not long after the announcement, there were people, including former players Stevie Johnson, Alex Van Pelt and Ryan Fitzpatrick, who reached out to “Murph” to share their feelings about him. Murphy also heard from so many fans and that was overwhelming to him to find out just how much he meant to “Bills Mafia.”
“It meant everything really,” said Murphy who was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2019. “I guess I never appreciated the fact that the fans were paying that much attention. You do this for so long and your kind of alone with the four or five who are on the air and honestly you don’t think anybody is listening. It’s pretty important, I guess, to people and that makes it fun, and it makes it gratifying for me.”
From a personal standpoint, Murphy was extremely important to me when I was a student at Buffalo State College (now Buffalo State University) from 1985 to 1989. Nobody in my family had ever been in broadcasting but it was my dream to do it and every young broadcaster needs a mentor. I’m proud to say that Murphy was one of them during my college years always willing to talk to me when I would see him at games that I covered for WBNY, my college radio station.
Words cannot describe what this man meant to me and my career.
We shared a lot of good times back then, especially when he hosted a sports talk show on WBEN and I would be a frequent phone caller “Peter from Porter Hall at Buff State”. I can’t tell you how many times I would call in to the trivia contest and the prize always included tickets to a local sporting event and a bucket of chicken wings from “Rooties”, a popular restaurant in the Buffalo area back then.
To this day, it has been an honor and a privilege to call him a friend and to be able to stay in touch.
For Bills fans, it was an honor and a privilege to have a true professional like Murphy in the broadcast booth. As the color analyst, he worked with legendary Bills play-by-play voice Van Miller from 1984 to 1989 and then again from 1994 to 2003.
“Van was great,” said Murphy. “I learned so much about not getting in the way of the play-by-play announcer and letting him have his time and enough time to set up the play and to finish the play. It was great to see him do that, and I learned a lot. I learned almost everything from Van as far as the right way to do things. He will never be matched as far as I’m concerned with the play-by-play job he did here.”
Following Miller’s retirement, Murphy slid over to assume the duties as the play-by-play voice in 2004. It’s never easy to replace a legend, but that’s what Murphy did, and he was well prepared for the task at hand.
“I had huge shoes to fill,” said Murphy. “I feel like, 19 years later, I’m still working on filling them. I don’t think I ever matched what he did and the way he painted the words. It was a great education and a great way to learn how to do it the right way.”
Miller was the Bills’ play-by-play voice through the glory years of going to four straight Super Bowls following the 1990 through 1993 seasons. After Murphy took over as the “Voice of the Bills,” the great moments were few and far between. In fact, the Bills suffered through a 17-year absence from postseason play, an era of futility that ended in 2016.
After a long wait, Murphy was finally the voice of a Bills team that was making Buffalo sports fans talking proud again and giving them a reason to shout.
“We had a rough go,” said Murphy. “I was the voice of the playoff drought. To break through that threshold and to get in the playoffs each of the last five years now has made all the difference in the world. It’s a different game when the team is a contender and the Bills have been contenders for five years now so that’s been good and good to see.”
A native of Lancaster, New York and a graduate of Syracuse University, Murphy was able to spend his final seasons with the team calling some incredible moments, many of them that brought Bills fans out of their seats at Highmark Stadium but also a few that ended their seasons before being able to get back to a Super Bowl.
There are a couple of moments that stand out.
“There was Taron Johnson’s interception against Baltimore (AFC divisional playoff 2021) in the playoffs which he ran back 101 yards for a touchdown,” recalled Murphy. “That was an incredible play.”
That was a great moment but there was also a sad moment that he will always remember.
“The game that sickened me the most was the loss at Kansas City that went back and forth with Mahomes and Josh Allen,” said Murphy of the classic 2022 AFC Divisional Playoff game won by the Chiefs in overtime 42-36.
“With 13 seconds to go, Josh had the lead, and they gave up the lead and lost to Kansas City. That was a bitter loss, but it was really a fun game to work.”
As Murphy steps away from the booth, Chris Brown is expected to be named the new radio voice of the Bills. In Murphy’s absence, Brown finished up the 2022 season and did play-by-play for the entire 2023 season.
Murphy, who had to replace a legend in Van Miller, believes that Brown is the right man to fill his shoes.
“I’m happy for him,” said Murphy. “Chris has a great understanding of the way things work in the league and the way players are acquired and signed and he does his homework too. I think he’s great and will do a great job.”
While Murphy has stepped away from the play-by-play duties, he still hopes to be a part of the Bills’ gameday broadcasts. If his speech improves by September, the plan is for Murphy to provide one or two-minute features on the pre-game show.
“I hope so,” said Murphy. “That remains to be seen but I’m hoping that’s the way it goes.”
And so is everyone in Western New York that has been accustomed to hearing Murphy on the broadcasts for so many years. Aside from the continued excitement about the Bills being a perennial playoff team, Murphy shares in the excitement of the organization and the fans about the new stadium that is currently under construction.
Without an agreement for a new home in the Buffalo area, there was a good chance that the Bills would have been forced to relocate to another market.
“You drive by there and you can sense that this is real and this is happening and the Bills are here to stay,” said Murphy. “It’s very exciting and very exciting to see that the Bills are implanted in Western New York for years to come now.”
I mean no disrespect to so many other radio play-by-play announcers in the NFL, but I have to admit something. Whether it was my time at SirusXM NFL Radio or my current run at Infinity Sports Network (formerly CBS Sports Radio), I always looked forward to working on an NFL Sunday, Thursday or Monday and using John Murphy’s play-by-play calls on my updates. As long as the Bills won, I always used his highlights. I’ll miss those calls (but not the ones when the Bills beat the Jets) and so will Bills fans.
Here’s hoping for his health to continue to get better and that he could still be a part of the Bills broadcasts in some small way going forward.
