Marv Levy, the former Buffalo Bills coach and general manager, has a new book out that he wrote with NFL researcher and author Jeff Miller of Springville, "Game Changers: The Greatest Plays in Buffalo Bills Football History" (Triumph Books, $24.95).

This is a book for die-hard Bills fans who want to jog their memories. The publisher's notes state that Miller is a member of the professional football researchers association, which explains the approach of "Game Changers," a book that is more a triumph of research than of storytelling.

If you are looking for reflections by an NFL elder on what it was like coaching a team to four straight Super Bowls, you have come to the wrong place. (However, Levy did write that book, in 2004. His football memoir is titled "Where Would You Rather Be?")

But if you're in the market for capsule recaps of some of the Bills' greatest moments, whether from the era of Jack Kemp, Joe Ferguson, Jim Kelly or Doug Flutie, this one is a keeper. It would be of particular use to younger fans who have no idea that Ahmad Rashad played football before he went into broadcasting, or that there was an O.J. Simpson understudy named Preston Ridlehuber who threw a famous halfback option pass that beat the Patriots in 1969.

If play-by-play highlights are not your cup of Gatorade, the mini-profiles of former players that are sprinkled throughout the book are worth dipping into.

For example, there is the story of how Joe DeLamielleure's Hall of Fame career with the Bills almost ended before it began. When the All-American lineman from Michigan State was drafted in 1973, an abnormality was detected on his EKG during a physical exam. He was taken to the Cleveland Clinic and doctors there gave him a clean bill of health, much to the relief of the Bills.

Also from the Did You Know? file:

Jack Kemp used an unconventional grip on the football, placing the laces beneath his thumb.

Talented but injury-prone running back Greg Bell was sometimes derided as Tinker Bell. His career in Buffalo did not last long.

The hard-hitting linebacker Mike Stratton, a perennial AFL All-Star in the 1960s, was a tight end and defensive end at the University of Tennessee.

Curiously, the profile of Simpson includes a paragraph on his post-football acting career, but nothing about a certain highway chase or some high-profile criminal trials in which he was involved. If you're going to mention "The Naked Gun," shouldn't Nicole Brown Simpson get some ink?

The heart of "Game Changers" is found in the two- to three-page recaps of some of the team's glory days.

For example, there was the Bills' second straight AFC championship, after the 1991 season, when they advanced to the Super Bowl by edging John Elway and the Denver Broncos, 10-7. Carlton Bailey, a linebacker, plucked a batted Elway pass out of the air and returned it for a touchdown.

AFL-era fans will remember the 1964 league championship game in which Stratton laid a vicious hit on San Diego Chargers running back Keith Lincoln, who suffered fractured ribs. The Bills went on to a 20-7 win.

Another Simpson, safety Bill Simpson, made a dramatic interception of a Richard Todd pass to seal the Bills' 1981 wild-card playoff victory over the New York Jets. It was the team's first postseason win in 16 years.

Levy, speaking by phone last week from his home in Chicago, said that co-writing the book was educational for him.

"[In some games] I knew we had come back and won, but I didn't recall exactly how far we came back from," he said. "And we are known for making the greatest comeback in NFL history [against the Houston Oilers in January 1993]. It exceeded one by the Lions over the 49ers many years before, but [I also realized that] we had the third-greatest comeback in NFL history," a 37-35 win over Indianapolis in September 1997.

"Game Changers" doesn't shrink from recalling some dramatic low points as well, such as Scott Norwood's wide-right kick in Super Bowl XXV against the New York Giants, or the wild-card playoff loss to Tennessee that ended with the lateral play known as the Music City Miracle.

Levy said he came up with a formula for dealing with the setbacks.

"After the games it's devastating. For a week to 10 days, you mourn. But you've got to come back, you can't lie in a fetal position and whimper," he said. "[Our teams in the Super Bowl years] came back pretty quickly, which is why we were able to get back there."

This year's Bills, of course, have known some hard times. Plenty of fans have been calling for the team to fire head coach Dick Jauron. Levy thinks pushing the panic button is not a good idea. His advice?

"Stay the course, don't start junking your offense and your defense unless it really needs it," he said. "You get better if you keep repeating what you do."

What about the claims that Jauron's soft-spoken style doesn't motivate today's NFL players? Levy doesn't buy it.

"Vince Lombardi was a very vocal coach, and very successful," Levy said. "I contrast him to Tom Landry [of Dallas], who was very quiet and also very successful. Bill Cowher [of Pittsburgh] was very animated, and his teams were winners. Tony Dungy [of Indianapolis] was laid back, and he was a very good coach.

"What motivates a player is knowing that he's well-taught. Players are hungering to get better. You can't light a fire under a guy who doesn't have that hunger."

Levy, 84, has satisfied his own appetite for the game by writing this book. Until this year, he also did TV and radio work in Chicago for Bears broadcasts.

But he has other things on his plate. He recently finished writing his first novel, which he will be shopping to publishers — a thriller about a sportswriter who is harboring a dark secret. He also gives about 20 motivational speeches a year. He and his wife, Fran, are on a sightseeing tour of Italy this week.

When Joe Gibbs was in his first stint as coach of the Washington Redskins, legend had it that Gibbs put in such long hours at the office that he wasn't aware of who was president of the United States. Levy didn't go quite to that extreme when he was coaching.

"As I've said before, I put in the long hours, but I never worked a day in my life," Levy said. "I really enjoyed it."

Levy, who earned a master's degree in English history at Harvard University, always knew who the president was, too. "Maybe even the vice president. But there were some things I missed," he admitted. "The culture of the '70s and '80s — that passed me by completely. Woodstock? I didn't know what it was. I've learned more about Woodstock in the past year than I ever knew before."