A Bills fan takes a step back and reflects

[The Dean]

You're not depressed that we didn't win a SB? I find that hard to believe if you're a true Bills fan. I read your posts with high regard, but I have to disagree with this one. I am not "depressed" to the point that it affects my everyday life, but it definitely affects my life regarding football. The culture of our team would be different if we had just one. Yessir

 

 

I don't choose to look at those years as a negative. I think that would be a really disturbing decision to make. Sure I was bummed out after they lost the SB, or a playoff game (or any game, really). But I prefer to measure the thrills in winning as many games as they did. Let's make no mistake about it; these years were full of winning. The losses seem magnified because they were in the most important game, and also because there were so few of them.

 

Would I love for the Bills to have just one SB win? You bet your ass. But I'd also prefer they be 0-5 in the big one than 0-4.

[CodeMonkey]

Would I love for the Bills to have just one SB win? You bet your ass. But I'd also prefer they be 0-5 in the big one than 0-4.

I have to agree with you there, Dean-O.

[I hate the Bills !]

I think a new owner even if he/she keeps the team in Buffalo would be a breath of fresh air. Ralph's leadership is old and stale.

 

I give Chan Gailey credit , he is weeding out the bad players and trying to build a team. If he get rid of Whitner, Kelsey, Maybin, McCargo, C. Green, and Kawika I think he could be elected mayor in Buffalo !

[CodeMonkey]

I give Chan Gailey credit , he is weeding out the bad players and trying to build a team. If he get rid of Whitner, Kelsey, Maybin, McCargo, C. Green, and Kawika I think he could be elected mayor in Buffalo !

That may make you feel better. But if the canned players aren't replaced with better ones that just makes you a bigger loser than the FO before you.

Edited September 29, 2010 by CodeMonkey

[NewEra]

I don't choose to look at those years as a negative. I think that would be a really disturbing decision to make. Sure I was bummed out after they lost the SB, or a playoff game (or any game, really). But I prefer to measure the thrills in winning as many games as they did. Let's make no mistake about it; these years were full of winning. The losses seem magnified because they were in the most important game, and also because there were so few of them.

 

Would I love for the Bills to have just one SB win? You bet your ass. But I'd also prefer they be 0-5 in the big one than 0-4.

 

I agree with everything you said.

 

While I have amazing memories from those years, there will always be a grey cloud floating in that sunny sky of great memories. Does te grey cloud make the sunny sky go away? No, but the grey cloud is there. It will always be there.

Edited September 29, 2010 by NewEra

[34-78-83]

I have been reading this forum and other Bills sites for a few years now and have recently decided to post some thoughts of my own.

I have been a Bills fan since I was old enough to understand the game, which has been since the early to mid 70’s. You see I was born and raised in the greater Buffalo area so I really had no choice, I was steeped in the Bills for all of my formative years, my parents, friends, friend’s parents, and everyone I knew were Bills fans and we all lived and died with the Bills. I like to say that the scar tissue on my heart has scar tissue on it from being let down so many times. I moved away from Western New York in the early 90’s living in places like North Carolina, Washington, and Baltimore. I have spent a sports fan’s lifetime dealing with the ridicule, the look of pity when someone finds out that I am a Bills fan, the “Wide Right” knuckleheads, and all the rest.

Over the past few years (read last 10 years) I have been getting progressively less tolerant of the product I was seeing, I was getting more and more fed up with the fact the I was spending the money on the NFL Sunday ticket so I could watch break down after break down, buying the hats and the jerseys, and the T’s only to find myself looking in my closet trying to decide if it was worth the ridicule I knew was coming if I wore that stuff out in public… (See, there is a down side to moving away from Buffalo.)

All of this got me to thinking long and hard about my Fan status with the Bills…how many times do you touch the pretty orange flame???

After much consideration I have come to the conclusion that what I am seeing today is no different than what I have been seeing my whole life.

Let me explain.

Since 1960 the Bills are 354-397-8. They have always been a sub 500 team, even when they are good and make it to the postseason they are still a sub 500 team (14-15 in post season play)

In team history (50 years) they have only had 22 seasons of 500 or better… and 12 of those were in the Levy era where we lost playoff game after playoff game and super bowl after super bowl…arguably the hardest time to be a Bills fan. And I do not see any evidence that the owner wants to change anything

Ralph Wilson and the Bills reminds me of the store in town that has been there for years and everyone wonders how the owner stays in business, no set business hours, little to no stock on the shelves, place hasn’t been cleaned in years, it seems the owner puts in just enough work to keep the doors open and little else. And he is happy to live that life.

So now I have taken a step back, I am still a Bills fan, just not like I used to be. I won’t buy the swag, I don’t get the Sunday ticket anymore, and I will only go to a game if I win a ticket. The Bills are actually playing here in Baltimore this year…my friend has offered me his extra ticket… I am still not sure if I will go or not. If I do I won’t wear any of my gear, I may have embraced my new Bills fan attitude of quiet desperation, but I still don’t feel like hearing it from a stadium full of Ravens fans.

I will close with a quote from the Book Sh*t My Dad Says.

“No, I'm not a pessimist. At some point the world sh*ts on everybody. Pretending it ain't sh*t makes you an idiot, not an optimist."

 

What team were you watching????

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

What you have just documented are eleven years of unprecedented success. One that chooses to put a negative spin on that is in serious need of some medication, IMO. Sure they didn't win the SB in those years. Every team but one "doesn't win the SB" in every year. Should the fans of all the other teams be despondent?

 

I empathized with your thoughts, until you decided we should somehow be depressed or embarrassed by that streak under Levy.

 

 

Beyond this, the team was entertaining to watch, created incredible moments in football history and had a realistic chance to win every week. The team was competitive and made plays that were exciting to watch with epic games, shootouts, blowouts big plays and legendary careers in the making. This went on for a decade and in my 25 years of fanhood was the easiest time to be a fan.

 

 

 

If he get rid of Whitner, Kelsey, Maybin, McCargo, C. Green, and Kawika I think he could be elected mayor in Buffalo !

 

 

Would he then be able to get the Key to the City back form TO?

[Chappy444]

I knew when I typed the line about the Levy era being a tough time to be a fan I was going to catch some flack. I am a Bills fan as well…so I know how tender that nerve is for most of us.

But, that statement was not the thrust of my post. That statement was intended to be descriptor used to help illustrate my larger point. For those of you that didn’t opt for the Regents diploma let me give you a synopsis (that’s a fancy word for summary) of my post in general.

 

I was making a statement about the Bills organization as a whole (over the entire team history) and looking at what I believe to be a culture of loosing that really has not changed much since 1960

I was drawing a straight line from 1960 to now and stating that the line falls below average, except for a small bump that creeps above 500 for a brief period. And yes I stated that bump was a hard time to be a fan…and then explained that comment in a couple of following post. In most any other endeavor (except baseball) a trend of any kind that is below average would be considered a failure. And I am not going to sit here and say that 4 grand failures (face it, a super bowl loss is by definition a failure) makes the rest of the failure OK. Add to that the fact that since those failures nothing has been done to improve anything and you have another failure.

 

Now, I love the Bills. Always have, and god help me, always will. But I am not going to lie to myself and say “look, look…we had a great run 10 or 12 years ago. We are awesome” the fact is that we are not awesome…at best we are mediocre and at worst we suck…really bad. And as I said in my OP with the current owner I do not see any sign of that changing.

There is a poll in the USA Today sports sections that has 32% of respondents picking the bills to go 0-16 this year followed by the Panthers 26%, Lions 21%, Browns 17%, and 49ers 5%. Personally I put us at 3-13 this year. We have a tough schedule. I hope for 8-8 but… BTW, how bad is your team when your biggest hope for them every year is 8-8?

 

To bowery4 who said

“ahhh just another poster bashing the Bills. Not welcome in my book. That's the easy route. Optimism is hard work buddy.”

I have optimism…I just said I hope the Bills go 8-8 this year….

 

To Vinny4sum who said

This thread is like the country today…"it's too hard to be a Bills fan, they don't win all the time." You are more than welcome to choose another team and see how that works out for the next 20 years.

The fact is that the Bills historically don’t win more than half the time… and if our country had the same historical record as the Bills we would look more like Haiti than the current US. Why should I choose another team? Why can’t I just expect more from the team I have?

 

To eastrochbillsfan who said

“It's like hanging on to your wife that you once loved but things just aren't the same anymore. Do you live unhappily or just get the divorce? Sounds like its time to move on to me.”

Um… like the Bills, I love my wife because of her faults and quirks…not in spite of them, quitting is easy, working towards making things better is the hard part…and like my OP stated…the part that the Bills organization doesn’t seem willing to do.

 

To 34-78-83 who said

What team were you watching????

I was watching the one that is 354-397-8 lifetime. The one that went 55-79-5 in the 60’s, 51-91-1 in the 70’s, 69-83-0 in the 80’s, 103-57-0 in the 90’s, and 66-94-0 in 00’s. 1 decade out of 5 with a winning record. If we could do it once why can’t we do it again? I don’t know if I have 30 or 40 years left to wait for another winning decade

 

And to Bob in STL who said

“…and it goes beyond the W-L record”

I say "Then why do we keep score?"

[BMWR100RT]

Chappy....I hear you. My Mom just passed and was only 72 years old. She loved our Bills. It made me sad going through her stuff and seeing her "Whammy Miami" T-shirt, and all the other crazy gear she had colleced and pinned her hopes on, and to realize her football dream would never come true. The last ten years of her life were tough ones to be a fan. As her health failed and she watched more and more TV, I used to tease her about watching "Dancing with the Stars" and other crap like that. She would say "Unlike the Bills, sometimes I pick a winner".

 

It always made me laugh that we shared the same miserable Sunday together 70 miles apart, and then we could talk on the phone about what we saw. But the last bunch a years there hasn't been much to cheer about. The last game I went to with here was the Raiders game we came back in two years ago to go 4 or 5 and 1. My mom told me on the way out that we had no business being in htat game and we were outplayed in every facet. She knew football.

 

She died with a level of uncertainty that frankly was unfair to her support as a fan. All I can say is.......When ralph gets to meet her I hope she kicks his feeble ass.

 

Me, I'm still glued to the set on sunday. I do DVR the games and watch them in delay. I've found you can watch a game in about an hour and a half. When I start at 2:30, I get part of my sunday back, and still get the same bad feeling the Bills gave me live. I go to Two bills drive and read the highlights, but I don't take my kids to games, and I don't drink the koolaid anymore. I'm not off the bandwagon, I'm more like skeetching trying to decide whether to let go or not. Some unforseen force prevents it.

 

I wish I could give you hope, but I'll just say you aren't alone.

 

Take Care

[Orton's Arm]

I have been reading this forum and other Bills sites for a few years now and have recently decided to post some thoughts of my own.

I have been a Bills fan since I was old enough to understand the game, which has been since the early to mid 70’s. You see I was born and raised in the greater Buffalo area so I really had no choice, I was steeped in the Bills for all of my formative years, my parents, friends, friend’s parents, and everyone I knew were Bills fans and we all lived and died with the Bills. I like to say that the scar tissue on my heart has scar tissue on it from being let down so many times. I moved away from Western New York in the early 90’s living in places like North Carolina, Washington, and Baltimore. I have spent a sports fan’s lifetime dealing with the ridicule, the look of pity when someone finds out that I am a Bills fan, the “Wide Right” knuckleheads, and all the rest.

Over the past few years (read last 10 years) I have been getting progressively less tolerant of the product I was seeing, I was getting more and more fed up with the fact the I was spending the money on the NFL Sunday ticket so I could watch break down after break down, buying the hats and the jerseys, and the T’s only to find myself looking in my closet trying to decide if it was worth the ridicule I knew was coming if I wore that stuff out in public… (See, there is a down side to moving away from Buffalo.)

All of this got me to thinking long and hard about my Fan status with the Bills…how many times do you touch the pretty orange flame???

After much consideration I have come to the conclusion that what I am seeing today is no different than what I have been seeing my whole life.

Let me explain.

Since 1960 the Bills are 354-397-8. They have always been a sub 500 team, even when they are good and make it to the postseason they are still a sub 500 team (14-15 in post season play)

In team history (50 years) they have only had 22 seasons of 500 or better… and 12 of those were in the Levy era where we lost playoff game after playoff game and super bowl after super bowl…arguably the hardest time to be a Bills fan. And I do not see any evidence that the owner wants to change anything

Ralph Wilson and the Bills reminds me of the store in town that has been there for years and everyone wonders how the owner stays in business, no set business hours, little to no stock on the shelves, place hasn’t been cleaned in years, it seems the owner puts in just enough work to keep the doors open and little else. And he is happy to live that life.

So now I have taken a step back, I am still a Bills fan, just not like I used to be. I won’t buy the swag, I don’t get the Sunday ticket anymore, and I will only go to a game if I win a ticket. The Bills are actually playing here in Baltimore this year…my friend has offered me his extra ticket… I am still not sure if I will go or not. If I do I won’t wear any of my gear, I may have embraced my new Bills fan attitude of quiet desperation, but I still don’t feel like hearing it from a stadium full of Ravens fans.

I will close with a quote from the Book Sh*t My Dad Says.

“No, I'm not a pessimist. At some point the world sh*ts on everybody. Pretending it ain't sh*t makes you an idiot, not an optimist."

I agree with most of what you've written in your well-expressed post. However, an average playoff team as as many losses as wins, so any playoff record over .500 is above-average.

 

Just to add to what you've written, I came across a Wikipedia article listing NFL postseason droughts.

 

The Bills and Lions are tied for the longest active postseason drought.

 

The Bills have the fifth-longest playoff game victory drought.

 

The Bills are tied for first with five other teams for the longest wait before their first Super Bowl Championship. That's a 44 year wait!

 

The Bills have the third-longest active drought for division title.

[Thurman#1]

who gives a crap about the Browns?

 

 

Nobody. Except Browns fans. Because they are a worse and less interesting team, which was his point.

 

 

 

as for my comment aobut the playoff losses... i was refering to this:

1988 Lost Conference Championship

1989 Lost Divisional Playoffs

1990 Lost Superbowl

1991 Lost Superbowl

1992 Lost Superbowl

1993 Lost Superbowl

1994 Didn't Make Playoffs

1995 Lost Divisional Playoffs

1996 Lost Wild Card Playoffs

1997 Didn't Make Playoffs

1998 Lost Wild Card Playoffs

1999 Lost Wild Card Playoffs

so...i stand by my statement of watching them "loose playoff after playoff and superbowl after superbowl."

 

 

Well, yeah, if you leave out the wins, the losses do look overwhelming. If you think about it, that's not exactly surprising.

 

 

I hear you. Your OP was heartfelt and I identify.

 

But when you say you're backing off, I lose a lot of my sympathy. Ralph Wilson has always tried to be a good owner. He has not been good, unfortunately, at picking GMs, and that has been his fatal flaw, the reason that the Bills have been bad more often than good. How sad was it that the best he ever had couldn't be just a bit more diplomatic with Ralph's daughter. He'd still be here, and we'd be one of the great franchises.

 

Right now, it looks like there's a decent chance that he finally brought in a good GM (though we thought so with Donahoe, too). This isn't the time to back away. This is the time to hope for the future. They even secured their likely future by bringing in Whaley.

 

I'll second that. I think we can all agree the Polian-Kelly years were the greatest and yet ended in heartache.

 

 

 

The second-greatest. The greatest was before most of our time, but that doesn't mean it should be ignored.

[8-8 Forever?]

Very nice homily. Of course I'm not sure what the fu** you are talking about when you say the Bills "lost playoff game after playoff game" in the 12 years under Levy?? While you were living around the east coast, I went to every home playoff game during that era and of course watched every road playoff game during that era. For the record: From 1986 through 1997, the the Bills went 10-3 in playoff games, (including going 9-1 at home) and 0-4 in the 4 consecutive Super Bowls, for a total Levy era playoff record of 10-7-0. That equals out to .588 winning percentage for all playoff games the Bills played in with Marv as their head coach.

 

Please go back and check the Cleveland Browns' playoff record from 1965 thru today. (1964 was their last NFL Championship season.) I would wager that almost every one of those die hard "Dog Pound" Brownies fans would kill for an overall .588 playoff record over any 12 year period since 1964, and oh by the way, the Browns Super Bowl record still stands at 0-0. Amazing, but that proud franchise has never even made it into one Super Bowl.

 

Finally, when you say that the 12 years watching Levy coach the likes of Kelly, Thomas, Smith, Reed, Hull, Tasker, Bennett, Talley, Reich, Metzelaers, House Ballard, Wolford, Lofton and the rest who made up those great teams, was arguably the hardest time to be a Bills fan, you are talking out of your a**.

 

For those of us who are true die hard Bills fans, they were obviously the very best of times! If you were to whimpy to stand tall and defend those great teams despite losing all 4 of those SB's in a row, then yes, you are a shi*** pessimist. As if any franchise is ever going to play if 4 consecutive SB's again. That is something I am proud to have been a fan of, and always will.

Ah, another buffalo guy living in the past... pretty soon he'll be bringing up the fact that buffalo hosted the world's fair in f ing 1900. and that frank lloyd wright built one house in buffalo. geez, give me a break, the bills and b lo, rightly or wrongly have made themselves by their own actions to a large degree the laughingstock of the league and the country.. so stuff the historical pride crap bills and buffalo and show me some results.

[Marv's Neighbor]

Nicely said. And if that line doesn't sum up the last 10 years in Buffalo then nothing does.

Maybe instead of TALKING PROUD we should be TALKING SH*T!

[JohnC]

To your point, other than the Kelly-Bruce years, my Bills memories are the suckass late 60s-early 70s Bills, mediocre 70s, a very brief Knox Bills, horrible early-mids 80s, and now the 11 year drought 00s Bills. The realist in me knows we are as far away from the playoffs as we have ever been and no amount of kool-aid is gonna change that.

 

Chuck Knox was one of the best head coaches the Bills have had. The owner showed his appreciation by refusing to give a market rate contract for the HC who turned a very dismal team into a very competitive team. Knox also became frustrated working within the franchise's financial restrictions. Chuck Knox was very relieved to get away from the second-rate owner and organization.

[The Dean]

Chuck Knox was one of the best head coaches the Bills have had. The owner showed his appreciation by refusing to give a market rate contract for the HC who turned a very dismal team into a very competitive team. Knox also became frustrated working within the franchise's financial restrictions. Chuck Knox was very relieved to get away from the second-rate owner and organization.

 

 

Actually, at the time I wasn't against replacing Ground Chuck. He turned a miserable organization into a real NFL football team. With that said, his teams always seem to top out fairly soon. There was no overdrive in the playoffs for Knox' teams.

 

Now I did not like their choice for replacement. Kay Stephenson? Give me a break already. That was simply a horrible move.

[JohnC]

Actually, at the time I wasn't against replacing Ground Chuck. He turned a miserable organization into a real NFL football team. With that said, his teams always seem to top out fairly soon. There was no overdrive in the playoffs for Knox' teams.

 

Now I did not like their choice for replacement. Kay Stephenson? Give me a break already. That was simply a horrible move.

 

What the comparison between Chuck Knox and Kay Stephenson clearly demonstrates is that there is a major difference and impact between competent and mediocre HCs. During the Knox era he had a major say on player personnel. Now, the GM has a greater influence on the direction and staffing of the team.

 

Ralph Wilson's dark shadow of incompetence has driven out the quality people, such as Polian, Butler/A.J. Smith and Knox, who have had success in an organization not know for success. He replaced them with cheaper hacks who have little desire to buck the archaic system.

 

Your observations on Knox having an ability to rather quickly bring a down trodden organization to a level of respectability and then plateau is very astute. But isn't that better than being a systemically losing and irrelevant franchise?

[The Dean]

 

 

Your observations on Knox having an ability to rather quickly bring a down trodden organization to a level of respectability and then plateau is very astute. But isn't that better than being a systemically losing and irrelevant franchise?

 

 

Who you calling a stute?

 

When they got rid of Chuck I was hoping for a replacement like Hank Stram.

[billsfreak]

Chuck Knox was one of the best head coaches the Bills have had. The owner showed his appreciation by refusing to give a market rate contract for the HC who turned a very dismal team into a very competitive team. Knox also became frustrated working within the franchise's financial restrictions. Chuck Knox was very relieved to get away from the second-rate owner and organization.

Agreed, and he is the only proven winner that Ralph has opened his wallet for, and then couldn't keep him because Knox was tired of the ownership after only what, 4 seasons?

[HARCO186]

I have been reading this forum and other Bills sites for a few years now and have recently decided to post some thoughts of my own.

I have been a Bills fan since I was old enough to understand the game, which has been since the early to mid 70’s. You see I was born and raised in the greater Buffalo area so I really had no choice, I was steeped in the Bills for all of my formative years, my parents, friends, friend’s parents, and everyone I knew were Bills fans and we all lived and died with the Bills. I like to say that the scar tissue on my heart has scar tissue on it from being let down so many times. I moved away from Western New York in the early 90’s living in places like North Carolina, Washington, and Baltimore. I have spent a sports fan’s lifetime dealing with the ridicule, the look of pity when someone finds out that I am a Bills fan, the “Wide Right” knuckleheads, and all the rest.

Over the past few years (read last 10 years) I have been getting progressively less tolerant of the product I was seeing, I was getting more and more fed up with the fact the I was spending the money on the NFL Sunday ticket so I could watch break down after break down, buying the hats and the jerseys, and the T’s only to find myself looking in my closet trying to decide if it was worth the ridicule I knew was coming if I wore that stuff out in public… (See, there is a down side to moving away from Buffalo.)

All of this got me to thinking long and hard about my Fan status with the Bills…how many times do you touch the pretty orange flame???

After much consideration I have come to the conclusion that what I am seeing today is no different than what I have been seeing my whole life.

Let me explain.

Since 1960 the Bills are 354-397-8. They have always been a sub 500 team, even when they are good and make it to the postseason they are still a sub 500 team (14-15 in post season play)

In team history (50 years) they have only had 22 seasons of 500 or better… and 12 of those were in the Levy era where we lost playoff game after playoff game and super bowl after super bowl…arguably the hardest time to be a Bills fan. And I do not see any evidence that the owner wants to change anything

Ralph Wilson and the Bills reminds me of the store in town that has been there for years and everyone wonders how the owner stays in business, no set business hours, little to no stock on the shelves, place hasn’t been cleaned in years, it seems the owner puts in just enough work to keep the doors open and little else. And he is happy to live that life.

So now I have taken a step back, I am still a Bills fan, just not like I used to be. I won’t buy the swag, I don’t get the Sunday ticket anymore, and I will only go to a game if I win a ticket. The Bills are actually playing here in Baltimore this year…my friend has offered me his extra ticket… I am still not sure if I will go or not. If I do I won’t wear any of my gear, I may have embraced my new Bills fan attitude of quiet desperation, but I still don’t feel like hearing it from a stadium full of Ravens fans.

I will close with a quote from the Book Sh*t My Dad Says.

“No, I'm not a pessimist. At some point the world sh*ts on everybody. Pretending it ain't sh*t makes you an idiot, not an optimist."

 

 

 

I feel it all depends were one lived at the time when Marv came in and took the Bills to the 4 super bowls. I was in the gulf on two of them and was reading the superbowl as the computer we had just shot out text messages. IT SUCKED THEN. It was very tough to be a Bills fan in a different city. Nobody knew that the Bills made history, and all we could say who else in the AFC can give the other teams a run? I do agree it was hard, and when Dallas killed us in a super bowl, it read as if Buffalo was playing better! When Buffalo had the biggest come back against Houston, most of us read that Houston destroyed us. Maybe, just maybe this is why we watch the game. Whether we win or lose, it's still entertainment. To me watching the Bills is like watching a bad accident. You know it's ugly but you still watch. The best part is we can still hope for better days and still BILLieve that things will get better. Buffalo is rated as one of the worst sports cities because of not just the Bills, but we just come up short. Better days will come out of it, or at least that is why we still watch right??????

[SuperKillerRobots]

I have been reading this forum and other Bills sites for a few years now and have recently decided to post some thoughts of my own.

I have been a Bills fan since I was old enough to understand the game, which has been since the early to mid 70’s. You see I was born and raised in the greater Buffalo area so I really had no choice, I was steeped in the Bills for all of my formative years, my parents, friends, friend’s parents, and everyone I knew were Bills fans and we all lived and died with the Bills. I like to say that the scar tissue on my heart has scar tissue on it from being let down so many times. I moved away from Western New York in the early 90’s living in places like North Carolina, Washington, and Baltimore. I have spent a sports fan’s lifetime dealing with the ridicule, the look of pity when someone finds out that I am a Bills fan, the “Wide Right” knuckleheads, and all the rest.

Over the past few years (read last 10 years) I have been getting progressively less tolerant of the product I was seeing, I was getting more and more fed up with the fact the I was spending the money on the NFL Sunday ticket so I could watch break down after break down, buying the hats and the jerseys, and the T’s only to find myself looking in my closet trying to decide if it was worth the ridicule I knew was coming if I wore that stuff out in public… (See, there is a down side to moving away from Buffalo.)

All of this got me to thinking long and hard about my Fan status with the Bills…how many times do you touch the pretty orange flame???

After much consideration I have come to the conclusion that what I am seeing today is no different than what I have been seeing my whole life.

Let me explain.

Since 1960 the Bills are 354-397-8. They have always been a sub 500 team, even when they are good and make it to the postseason they are still a sub 500 team (14-15 in post season play)

In team history (50 years) they have only had 22 seasons of 500 or better… and 12 of those were in the Levy era where we lost playoff game after playoff game and super bowl after super bowl…arguably the hardest time to be a Bills fan. And I do not see any evidence that the owner wants to change anything

Ralph Wilson and the Bills reminds me of the store in town that has been there for years and everyone wonders how the owner stays in business, no set business hours, little to no stock on the shelves, place hasn’t been cleaned in years, it seems the owner puts in just enough work to keep the doors open and little else. And he is happy to live that life.

So now I have taken a step back, I am still a Bills fan, just not like I used to be. I won’t buy the swag, I don’t get the Sunday ticket anymore, and I will only go to a game if I win a ticket. The Bills are actually playing here in Baltimore this year…my friend has offered me his extra ticket… I am still not sure if I will go or not. If I do I won’t wear any of my gear, I may have embraced my new Bills fan attitude of quiet desperation, but I still don’t feel like hearing it from a stadium full of Ravens fans.

I will close with a quote from the Book Sh*t My Dad Says.

“No, I'm not a pessimist. At some point the world sh*ts on everybody. Pretending it ain't sh*t makes you an idiot, not an optimist."

 

I hear what you're saying here, but I'm just not there yet. I'm still pretty optimistic about the Bills going forward and probably have another decade of whatever comes in me. The reason for that optimism I think, is that I started watching football during the late 80s, just when the Bills were getting good. I then had the pleasure of watching probably the best era of Bills football - with a dominant offense and big play defense. They were fun as hell to watch! At that point, after watching those games in the early 90s, I didn't understand that the Bills could even lose - it seemed like the Bills could will themselves into winning games and getting into the playoffs. It's kind of like how I look at Indy now - they're just a great team to watch and root for.

 

I think what's happened to me after all those years of watching those great teams is that it still hasn't hit me that they can be as bad as they are. I'm not saying I have a shrine to Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas in a closet in my house and still wear zubas outside the hosue, but it's hard for me to forget the good times and even harder for me to think that they won't come back.