The Buffalo Bills football season doesn’t begin until next Sunday, but quarterback J.P. Losman has already racked up one impressive win.

Losman’s new Buffalo Lives organization held its first event on a beautiful Saturday — a beautification and cleanup of four city neighborhoods that drew an estimated 1,100 enthusiastic volunteers.

In a three-hour blitz of good will, they hauled away hundreds of bags of trash. They cut down weeds and planted flowers, bushes and trees. All of it was done under the leadership of the Bills’ young quarterback, who drove from location to location, delivering rakes and trees in a red dump truck.

"This is awesome," Losman said. "I’m really happy with all the work we’re doing, but the message we’re sending is even more important. Buffalo is a great, beautiful city. We all need to take pride in it."

He still has much to prove as a National Football League quarterback, but to hear the volunteers tell it, he’s already the Joe Montana of neighborhood cleanups.

"If J.P. leads the Bills offense like he led this cleanup, they will win the Super Bowl," Mayor Byron W. Brown said. "I’ve taken part in various cleanups going back to 1989. I’ve never seen this kind of turnout."

"J.P. rolls up his sleeves and works, and he puts his money where his mouth is," said Bob Stotz, a supervisor with the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy. "He’s been planning this with us for weeks. The meetings have been at his house."

Stotz was with a group of 20 volunteers who planted trees, bushes and ornamental grasses in a vacant lot off Niagara Street, near the entrance to the Niagara Thruway.

"The stuff we’re planting today cost $3,600, and J.P. paid for it, no questions asked," Stotz said.

The four targeted neighborhoods were downtown Niagara Street, a large stretch of West Ferry Street, the intersection of Main and Ferry streets and a large stretch of Best Street on the city’s East Side.

Oswaldo Mestre, director of citizen services for the city, estimated that the volunteers, wearing black or green Buffalo Lives T-shirts, cleaned up about 80 city blocks within the four targeted areas. New flowers, bushes and trees were also planted at Broderick Park and at two monuments near City Hall.

On Best Street, an elderly woman approached a group of volunteers and asked if they could carry an old couch out of her backyard. About 50 volunteers paraded into the yard and cleaned it thoroughly.

"Praise God! Praise the Lord!" the woman said.

Anyone who wanted to pitch in and help was invited. Volunteers met at 9 a.m. outside City Hall, where T-shirts and work assignments were handed out. Yellow Laidlaw buses transported the volunteers to the neighborhoods and drove them back for a pizza party afterward.

There are a number of local groups that sponsor cleanup events on a regular basis, but having a celebrity like Losman involved is "a huge plus," said James Pavel, president of the not-for-profit group Keep Western New York Beautiful. "This kind of turnout for a first-time event is great," Pavel said.

Robert and Suzette Altieri drove in from their Clarence home to help out.

"We help with cleanups all the time, and we probably would have come whether J.P. was involved or not," said Robert Altieri, 52. "But he’s a catalyst. Having his name attached to something like this brings out a lot of people."

Altieri said he enjoyed seeing Losman energizing young people in their 20s to roll out of bed early on a Saturday morning to help the city.

"I came here for the cause, but seeing J.P. is an added bonus," said Jessica Brown, 26, of Buffalo, who arrived with her friend Caroline Szydlo, 24, of Amherst.

Losman said it was "a little nerve-racking" sponsoring such an event for the first time, not knowing how many people would show up. But he was gratified when people started arriving at City Hall in droves.

According to Mestre, Losman first approached Mayor Brown in July, saying he wanted to do something special to help the city. After that, Losman held several meetings at his home and went out for drives with Mestre, zeroing in on neighborhoods that the quarterback wanted to improve.

Losman has spoken with the city about sponsoring two such cleanups a year, and "the mayor is very enthusiastic about it," Mestre said.

Losman spent Saturday morning driving around in a dump truck, encouraging and thanking volunteers, helping to plant some trees and making sure things were getting done.

Among the volunteers were the mayor, City Housing Court Judge Henry Nowak, the Mayor’s Impact Team and at least six of Losman’s Bills teammates — Craig Nall, Josh Stamer, Brian Moorman, Peerless Price, Josh Reed and Coy Wire. A number of assistant coaches and team officials also took part.

About 150 city workers, mostly as volunteers, were involved, Brown said.

"Everywhere we went, it seemed like more and more people just pitched in and helped," said Chris Jenkins, director of media relations for the team.

Several members of the Mc- Kinley High School junior varsity football team wore their jerseys as they swept up a parking lot on West Ferry near Grant Street. The players said they probably would not have heard about the cleanup if Losman wasn’t involved.

"Our coach told us it would build our character," said Corey Smith, a lineman on the team. "He said we should go out and clean things up instead of messing things up."

Losman said he hopes Saturday’s event inspires city and suburban residents to do more good works on a daily basis.

"This is just the start. I hope people keep it up," Losman said. "Because tomorrow, some of these places are going to start getting dirty again."

dherbeck@buffnews.com