Did the Bills Super Bowl run in the 1990's really influence your love of the Bills?

[Nuncha]

Nope....loved them long before the glory years.

 

My Grandpa's name was Bill.  My Dad's name was.  They were both from Buffalo (both were bigtime Bills fans), and are my "Buffalo Bills".  Who else could I possibly cheer for?

Edited March 30, 2022 by Azucho98

[HOUSE]

1 minute ago, Azucho98 said:

Nope....loved them long before the glory years.

 

My Grandpa's name was Bill.  My Dad's name was Bill.  They were both from Buffalo, and are my "Buffalo Bills".  Who else could I possibly cheer for?

 

The Jills

[Nuncha]

1 minute ago, HOUSE said:

 

The Jills

Are they back? lol

[SoCal Deek]

Nope......those years were already deep into my fanhood.  If you didn't live through some of those late 1960's teams, you missed a real mess. 

[Alfredo]

1 hour ago, eee1776 said:

I am old and those 4 years put me into therapy. LOL It never stops.  Wide Right, Music City Mistake, 13 sec, Still love my Bills, its a like love- hate relationship with your wife. There is hope, light at the end on the tunnel . 

 

As I remarked to my brother at the time, the 13-second game was a sort of mandatory initiation into Bills fandom for younger fans (including Josh Allen) who had not yet experienced a truly agonizing playoff loss. Now that we're all initiated .....

[LeGOATski]

Probably not. Half my family is from Buffalo and the other half is from New England. If the team success was reversed in the early 90s, I may have turned out a Pats fan. 🤢

[716to540]

No. My "fanship" for the Bills started about 15 years before the super bowl years.

[Spiderweb]

3 hours ago, Rc2catch said:

I actually disliked the Super Bowl Bills teams. I wasn’t a Kelly or Reed fan. I liked the defense but I wasn’t really a bills fan. I cheered for Atlanta back then as a kid. Loved Andre Rison and Jamal Anderson with the dirty bird. I joined the buffalo fan base after. Lol I’m dumb enough to become a fan after everyone jumped off the bandwagon. So this is all really new for me as a fan actually winning divisions and being a favorite. 

Ahem, Jamal Anderson and Andre Rison both pale in comparison to Thurman Thomas and Andrew Reed. No contest what so ever... So many forgot how great they were, or simply are too young to have witnessed their greatness.

[TheBrownBear]

I'm 43, born and raised in Buffalo, and we had season tickets from 1988-1995 (when I moved to California).  I'm basically in the sweet spot for the OP.  Obviously, I'm obsessed with the Bills and have been since they announced Kelly would be coming to Buffalo after the USFL dissolved.  I had tons of opportunities to meet the big 90's stars, tossed a football around with Andre Reed on the Rich Stadium turf and even appeared in a commercial where Jim Kelly picks me up and lifts me in the air, etc.  So, it's hard for me to say either way, but I'd have to think that the team being so good in my formative years has influenced the intensity of my love for the team.  For instance, I'm a hockey fan, but never had the same level of interest in the Sabres (don't get me wrong, I've always followed them and was insanely excited when the LaFontaine trade was announced, loved Mogilny, Pat, Andreychuk, Housley, etc), probably because they were mediocre in comparison to the Bills at that time.

[phypon]

Cool topic, OP!

 

For me, I'm 47.  I started learning about football and watching in my teens.  I didn't attach fandom to any team at that point.  I remember watching some games the year before the SB runs with a buddy of mine.  The Bills were exciting and electrifying.  I remember my buddy saying, "this is a good team, they're good".  I started focusing on them more.  What really hooked me was the greatest comeback in NFL history.  The never give up attitude those Bills' team had, that underdog mentality, the hard working pick yourself back up and dust yourself off aspect of the the team hooked me.  I've been a loyal fan ever since.  I'm from RI, so not someone that is homegrown.  The fans of Buffalo, how the players at first snub the city only to embrace it, it's special and even though I'm not a Buffalonian, I'm proud to be a part of the the mafia.  The fans have been just as much of a motivating factor for me to remain loyal and love my Bills as the myriad of players that have come and gone throughout the years.  Thank you to all of my fellow mafiosos!

[Chandler#81]

4 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

I think this question is probably best suited for the those in the mid 30's to late 40's age group but certainly anyone can answer.

 

I grew up in the 80's and started really understanding and loving football right as the Bills started their Super Bowl run.  First memories of watching the Bills was Harmon's drop and then Kelly's pick to Clay Matthews.  My friend tells me if the Bills weren't that good, I probably would have followed another team.  Them being so good attached me to them because kids like to cheer for good teams.  

I disagreed.  My whole family is from Buffalo and football was just our household.  I'm positive that I would have been just as diehard if they were bad....like if my childhood was the Mularkey/Williams/Jauron years instead of Levy. 

 

If the Bills had nothing in their history like the Browns and Lions....would your fandom be as strong?  Without those great 90's teams...would your interest be less today?

What was your interest level during the drought?

Then clarify it’s a ‘kiddie table topic’ in the title. 
No, to answer the question. The ‘64 team did. ‘90’s teams were good. They weren’t great.

[BullBuchanan]

The '91 AFC Championship game against the Raiders was my first game. I mostly remember everyone being very excited and how cold I was. We had a big Super Bowl party and everyone was happy. My Bills fandom was formed and cemented during those years before I knew how to tie my shoelaces.

4 minutes ago, Chandler#81 said:

Then clarify it’s a ‘kiddie table topic’ in the title. 
No, to answer the question. The ‘64 team did. ‘90’s teams were good. They weren’t great.

[BigBuff423]

I moved around quite a bit as kid with my family originally being from CNY and my father and stepmother staying in that area until 2002. So, when I finally came back to CNY as a 13 year old to stay, that's when the Bills really started hitting their stride in the late 80's. By 1990 and entering Jr. High School, they were dynamic and I was hooked. 

 

The fact that I could watch most of their games on the local NBC station, back when NBC carried the AFC games ( I HATED the black-out rule!!!), the color and design of the uniforms, and the fact that they were actually good and fun to watch, all played a part in birthing my fandom. 

 

During the drought years I was very invested because I was in my late teens to mid twenties and still riding high on those 4 consecutive Super Bowl runs, replaying so many moments over and over of what "could have" been....I still remember watching the live Draft when Whitner was taken 8th overall and being pissed and then realizing as much as I loved Marv for a coach, he couldn't be a GM. Also, Russ being a joke and incompetent in a similar role but not really having a GM only making the pain worse. Eventually, I made peace with the fact that they were just going to be bad and I decided to not let my Sundays be ruined and started a family which put it in perspective....

 

Now, with the revelation of Josh Allen - all the years of pain are starting to subside with some clear trauma still attached - and I don't just "hope" the Bills will be good or mediocre, but absolutely KNOW that if Josh stays healthy, the Bills are a contender and at times, a favorite in nearly every game. It's surreal, but so wonderful as a fan to survive the terrible two decades and see the team as it is today...

[Bills1961]

some of us watched them clear the farm to build Rich Stadium, babysat for Bills Player Ed Rutkowski before he was County Exec and were above legal age for the greatest comeback.  We endured the seasons leading to OJ, then the cheered to no avail through the 70's and grumbled about how it really messed up traffic on game day. No matter which of the 5 states I have lived in I have continued to cheer on my team, often alone.  I hang my Bills flag on my door here in New England and always say Go Bills!  No one circles the wagons like those of us who qualify for AARP

 

[Royale with Cheese]

26 minutes ago, Chandler#81 said:

Then clarify it’s a ‘kiddie table topic’ in the title. 
No, to answer the question. The ‘64 team did. ‘90’s teams were good. They weren’t great.

There are people alive who can remember the ‘64 Bills?  

[larrym]

as a little kid i remember flashes of oj simpson on the tv.  I really became a fan when they lost to the chargers in 80.  But those 90s team really have a special place.  It was magical.  Something i really wish i took the time to appreciate.  This team with 17 feels like that but better.  Jim had thurman and a running game that wasn't an afterthought.  Josh does what he does without a HOF running back.  I hope he runs less.  I hope he starts to slide more.  I cringe every time he runs.  He makes it special like the 90s teams.  They didn't influence my love for the team as much as they set a bar.

[DieHardBillsFan]

I would say that there is a chance I might not have been as strong of a fan if the team played like they did in the 2000s in the 90s too. I know I didn't waiver at all during the drought, but without the 90s, would that have been the case?

 

This is a fair question. I know I would be a fan regardless, but may have taken a bit more to another sport. I was a baseball fan before I knew of the greatness of being a Bills fan. Right now I feel all other sports be damned, its Bills and NFL 365 days of the year. I would say that I would still be a Bills fan but may have followed baseball more if the Bills weren't good in the 90s. Keeping an open mind.

[Buffalosouth]

Nope, but I did get to hear a lot of Bills jokes as a kid... never slapped anyone over it though.

[0017]

I became a Bills fan 2 years before their first Super Bowl, but I was about 12 years old, and i could’ve moved to a different team (I grew up in California) but the 4 Super Bowls solidified my love for the Bills for sure! And the heartbreak has been no-stop since!! But I wouldn’t change it for anything 😁

[cwater10]

The Super Bowl runs of the 90's were what I THOUGHT I had spent the early decades of my life waiting for while cheering the Bills through some tough years and then some almost glory years.  I started watching in the mid late 60's and the Bills became hard wired into my DNA by 1972 when Saban came back to town.  With the "new stadium" 1.0 in 1973 and OJ's 2003 yard oddysey, I believed being a Bills fan was living the good life.  And then of course, it wasn't any more, but still loved me some Bills.  The Chuck Knox years were some of my favorite, maybe still my favorite years.  

 

By the time the 90's Super Bowl runs started, I was on into my 30's and  the guys I had season tickets with had been joking for years that we would probably have to rattle the sides of our wheelchairs by the time we ever got to see The Bills play in a Super Bowl.  And then it happened... habitually?  Those years were great.  We thought it was our moment.  And it wasn't to be, but I was long hooked by then.  The drought never pushed me away.  And it couldn't have even if it was still a thing.  

 

So now here comes this kind of shocking wave of success in recent years.  It kind of feels like playing with house money.  4 years into the Allen era, I would say this is likely the most entertaining, fun and likable team of all.  My house really is now full of wheelchairs, lol.  Hoping me and my old season ticket buddies were visionaries.  I want to rattle that wheelchair THIS year and then a few more times just because.  We all deserve a few bonus rounds.

Edited March 30, 2022 by cwater10