The dual nature of being a Bills fan of my age

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

I find myself conflicted as a Bills fan. On one hand, I see this team's made impressive strides in the right direction, and am somewhat happy with what I see. This is my older, more reasoned side. On the other hand, I am furious by what I saw yesterday. How can one team have such a putrid offense for SO long? How is that even possible in today's NFL? It boggles the mind, to be sure. That's my desperately dwindling youthful side speaking there.

 

Anyone else conflicted like this?

Edited December 22, 2014 by joesixpack

[Nervous Guy]

I find myself conflicted as a Bills fan. On one hand, I see this team's made impressive strides in the right direction, and am somewhat happy with what I see. This is my older, more reasoned side. On the other hand, I am furious by what I saw yesterday. How can one team have such a putrid offense for SO long? How is that even possible in today's NFL? It boggles the mind, to be sure.

 

Anyone else conflicted like this?

yeah...me, 75% reasoned 25% furious and frustrated...can't run the ball, failed screens, failed protection schemes...sigh....I long for the days I used to be nervous, those were good times, In the end, I just rack'em up and wait for next year with an optimistic heart.

[plenzmd1]

I am actually getting worse as i age(52)...just the opposite as you LOL.This Simmons column spelled it out perfectly. http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons%2F020204

 

The fear(irrational as it may be) that I will be in the ground before this team wins a Championship makes every stupid decision, screwed up play, bad call etc just send me through the roof. I dont want no stinking continuity ...i want freaking wins against 2-12 teams!

 

I am getting to be that guy I said i would never be...the one that is no fun to watch a game with. That sucks

[Georgia Bill]

I am actually getting worse as i age(52)...just the opposite as you LOL.This Simmons column spelled it out perfectly. http://espn.go.com/e...=simmons/020204

 

The fear(irrational as it may be) that I will be in the ground before this team wins a Championship makes every stupid decision, screwed up play, bad call etc just send me through the roof. I dont want no stinking continuity ...i want freaking wins against 2-12 teams!

 

I am getting to be that guy I said i would never be...the one that is no fun to watch a game with. That sucks

At 56, I'm conflicted. After 45 years cheering for this team, I too want a championship in my lifetime. I keep getting optimistic about us getting better, but then keep getting disappointed. Part of me says I've been foolish investing so much of my time and emotion in this. The other part can't stop watching, and hoping. Even during games I'm schizophrenic - euphoric with each great play, but spending much of my time braced for the next improbable disappointment. As Springsteen said in The River: "Is a dream a lie, that don't come true, or is it something worse?".

[rumblefish]

after all these years my heart doesn't want to believe what my eyes see, so "conflicted" yes, but not to the point of being" consumed"

anymore

 

after all it's just a game, right?

[Luxy312]

While I haven't breached the 5-0 yet, I've been a Bills fan for almost 40 years. I'm conflicted, but in a different sense. I watch a defense that has kept the team in the game MOST of the time. If we had an even mediocre offense, we would be in the playoffs no question. Quite unbelievably, this defense is actually better than what it was last year. The problem is that we haven't been able to put a top-10 offense on the field since Doug Flutie in 1998. My conflict now is with that. The defense can't get much better than it already is. They can however, get older. That's what we're going to start to see, and it's sad. I guess I'm desperately optimistic that somehow things will change. The offense though has become a predictable mess. They will play to the level of their competition and find a way to win games they shouldn't and lose games that they have no business losing. It's this "middling" approach that will leave them a 0.500 team and on the outside looking in. I won't watch the Patriots game next week because it's a waste of time. I can spend it doing something more fruitful, like taking down Christmas ornaments. It's too bad, but it's where we are.

[May Day 10]

Im beaten down at this point. I watch the games, but dont get too down after losses. Im so used to them. I actually think it is funny at this point and laugh sometimes during their worst losses. They invent so many ways to botch things up I could author a book.

 

So I guess Im detached a bit. I gave up my Browns and Packers tickets because I thought it was obvious this team didn't have it.

 

I remember when I took wins and losses so personally. My week's mood would depend on the Bills' result in large part. I miss being engaged by this team like that.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

You know, as i reflect on the topic i realize one thing about ME has changed. This team, this game, used to be my life. It just isn't any more. I can't possibly bring myself to be so emotionally invested in any one thing. I enjoy the wins, but I no longer truly grieve the losses. It's just not worth it. Maybe that's why I look at this season as a success. Because, in the end, for the first time in more than a decade this team was something resembling relevant in December.

 

Maybe next year is the year. Maybe it isn't. One thing I do know, however, is I'll be watching the games with the same level of interest as this year. That is to say, sort of interested.

[hondo in seattle]

I am actually getting worse as i age(52)...just the opposite as you LOL.This Simmons column spelled it out perfectly. http://espn.go.com/e...=simmons/020204

 

The fear(irrational as it may be) that I will be in the ground before this team wins a Championship makes every stupid decision, screwed up play, bad call etc just send me through the roof. I dont want no stinking continuity ...i want freaking wins against 2-12 teams!

 

I am getting to be that guy I said i would never be...the one that is no fun to watch a game with. That sucks

 

The last time I was in Buffalo I saw a sweatshirt reading "Just one before I die" and instantly bought it as it perfectly captured my feelings on this subject. I wore that shirt yesterday and wanted to burn it by the end of the game.

 

I'm 55. With 32 teams in the NFL, the probability is the Bills will win one SB by the time I'm 87 (about the average life expectancy for a male in the US).

 

But then probability says the Bills should have won a SB by now. They have not. And probability says the Bills should have won about half their games since their inception. They have not. The Bills have a tendency to confound probability in an unhappy way.

 

Intellectually when you reflect on the careers of guys like Bill Belicheck (who was fired by the Browns), you have to realize that coaching staffs need time to mature and do their work. Emotionally however, under the circumstances, I get impatient. For example, I want Hackett fired now. I'm tired of waiting.

 

P.S. Your fear is not irrational at all.

Edited December 22, 2014 by hondo in seattle

[Gordio]

Im beaten down at this point. I watch the games, but dont get too down after losses. Im so used to them. I actually think it is funny at this point and laugh sometimes during their worst losses. They invent so many ways to botch things up I could author a book.

 

So I guess Im detached a bit. I gave up my Browns and Packers tickets because I thought it was obvious this team didn't have it.

 

I remember when I took wins and losses so personally. My week's mood would depend on the Bills' result in large part. I miss being engaged by this team like that.

 

This is exactly how I feel. I wasn't even really disappointed yesterday. Until we get a bona fide big league gunslinger under center this team will continue to spin it's wheels. Sad but true. I also gave up my Browns & Chief tickets. If it wasn't for my 11 year old son who loves going to the games I would probably give up my season tickets next year. F*ck this team. Hopefully with Pegula in charge things will change.

[GG]

Given my age, I witnessed three winning regimes - Knox, Polian/Levy & Butler/Levy/Phillips. You can argue that Butler/Phillips were a retool of the Polian/Levy foundation.

 

Doesn't matter for the main point though, because Knox & Levy came in after horrendous teams. And both of them coached losers when they first got here. Yet there was something about the way that the '78 Bills finished that you knew something good was coming. Same thing with the end to '86 after Bullough was canned.

 

I don't know if I'm more jaded now, but I don't have the same feeling about this team.

 

Granted we were fooled before with some of Jauron's & Mularkey's strong finishes. But there's very little optimism carrying over to next year.

[DrDawkinstein]

My girlfriend made me this. Last year.

 

And I plan to have it engraved on my grave stone.

 

 

[MarkAF43]

I too thought I was at that point with the wins being nice but the losses not stinging as much, but yesterdays loss stings. I think it stings most because I want this team to not lose games they're supposed to win.I want it for the guys like Kyle Williams who deserve to be on a winner, and leaves it all on the field every single week. I want this team and the fans to know what it's like to look at the schedule and go oh hey 2-12 team, that's a win, not wellll maybe it is but maybe we will lose. Last night after the game, I went with the wife to finish Christmas shopping and got over the loss pretty quick at that point. Made me again realize there is so much more to life than football games.

[PolishDave]

You know, as i reflect on the topic i realize one thing about ME has changed. This team, this game, used to be my life. It just isn't any more. I can't possibly bring myself to be so emotionally invested in any one thing. I enjoy the wins, but I no longer truly grieve the losses. It's just not worth it. Maybe that's why I look at this season as a success. Because, in the end, for the first time in more than a decade this team was something resembling relevant in December.

 

Maybe next year is the year. Maybe it isn't. One thing I do know, however, is I'll be watching the games with the same level of interest as this year. That is to say, sort of interested.

I think what you are experiencing is the normal evolution of a fan.

[John Gianelli]

I've been following the Bills since 1963, and it hasn't gotten any better. For crying out loud, I snapped at my mother yesterday after Orton's second interception, and she's 90 years old. Does that make any sense?

 

When I was spending a mission year in Peru in 1991-92, a few months after Wide Right, the country was being terrorized by the Sendero Luminoso, a radical group trying to overthrow the government. They used kidnapping, assassination, shakedowns, etc. and would blow up the power lines to throw Lima into chaos. One night I was driving back from a dangerous shantytown, during a blackout, and got lost. Two men with ski masks, dressed in black, stepped in front of the car and motioned me to stop. I figured this was it, these were the terrorists, and they were going to kill me, or at least steal the car, in which case the pastor would kill me. Turns out they were special police forces, guarding police headquarters. Unbeknownst to me I was driving the wrong way down a one-way street right toward the police h.q., and they thought I was a terrorist! The last thing I thought after I'd stopped the car and they cautiously approached, guns drawn, motioning me to roll down my window, was "God, I only wanted to see Buffalo win one Super Bowl before I died."

 

I know, that's sick.

 

But if we could just win one Super Bowl...

[All_Pro_Bills]

As a life-long fan yesterday's result didn't surprise me. I expected the Bills to disappoint us in some way one more time, in order to maximize our overall anguish, before the end of the season and this was it. Flopping against a 2 win team, a team that has played better and won the last two at home but still a 2 win team with nothing much to play for against a team that is supposed to be 'fighting' for a playoff spot. But given that I emotionally wrote them off after the back-to-back losses to Kansas City and Miami I didn't get too excited. After falling to 5-5 and looking ahead at the December schedule I figured they were finished,

 

And now its 15 seasons and counting. 15 seasons! Its almost like you need to make a conscious effort to be that bad to miss the playoffs for that long a period. So onto another off season of optimism as the search for the answer continues.

 

My only hope is new ownership 'gets it right' and makes the necessary changes.

[DrDawkinstein]

Given my age, I witnessed three winning regimes - Knox, Polian/Levy & Butler/Levy/Phillips. You can argue that Butler/Phillips were a retool of the Polian/Levy foundation.

 

Doesn't matter for the main point though, because Knox & Levy came in after horrendous teams. And both of them coached losers when they first got here. Yet there was something about the way that the '78 Bills finished that you knew something good was coming. Same thing with the end to '86 after Bullough was canned.

 

I don't know if I'm more jaded now, but I don't have the same feeling about this team.

 

Granted we were fooled before with some of Jauron's & Mularkey's strong finishes. But there's very little optimism carrying over to next year.

 

The first 24 hours after having our season slammed closed are always the toughest. But I cant agree that there is little to be optimistic about for next year.

 

We're 2-3 players (a couple of OL and a QB) away from being a very strong team. We've been on an upswing and have our best record in 10 years. We have a #1 defense that carried this team and can continue to do so as the FO fixes the couple of holes that remain.

 

Im not jumping with joy today by any means, but for the first time in more than a few years Im not ashamed of this team at the end of the year.

[rumblefish]

Mama, God rest her soul, used to say "Hope for the best, but accept the worst" as the years have gone by and being a life long Bills fan,

 

it's becoming clear Mama who was not sports fan, may have hit the nail squarely on the head so with that "acceptance" is the key

[plenzmd1]

I don't know if I'm more jaded now, but I don't have the same feeling about this team.

 

Granted we were fooled before with some of Jauron's & Mularkey's strong finishes. But there's very little optimism carrying over to next year.

 

I have only felt good about the next year one time in the last 15 years...and that was in Chans first year. That 4-4 finish, with the Stevie drop in Pittsburgh...I was sure we were on our way.

 

Thats why i hate this continuity thing with these coaches....we can all see Marone just does not have it. I don't get continuity for continuity sake. I mean i can look at this team and say we got damn lucky to beat all 4 NFC teams....and that we are closer to being a 4 win team then 10 win team.....

 

So again, no dual nature for this old man....i hate the direction we are going right now

Edited December 22, 2014 by plenzmd1

[tonyd19]

I am preaching to myself here, but we all really need to remember today...The Buffalo Bills for as much as we love them, will never love us back. The can't . Football can't love you back. Do not put the Bills ahead of your family time etc. Basic stuff we can all forget at times I know.

 

The most frustrating thing for me is the complete inconsistency. The last ten years we have a great offense 2003 and a terrible defense. Then a terrible offense (with basically the same players) and a great defense in 2004. Then....both sides are terrible for about a decade, but some parts make strides. For example, the defense is average, but the line is really strong, or the offense is bad, but the run game is really good. Like last year, we had on of the top run offenses in the league, and this year (with the same players) can't and many times don't try to run the ball consistently. I do not understand it. It seems like Murphy's Law every year.