Does any part of you miss the losing?

[Draconator]

Do I miss loosing? No

Would I miss dumb threads asking if I miss loosing? No. 

 

Just

 

No

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

2 minutes ago, Billsfan1972 said:

Teef missing the point again????  I'm for the Bills going 20-0 every year.  But yes TSW is pretty boring right now and little really to discuss.

 

I have plenty of other sites I can go to for content (Bills & otherwise).

 

Then please, by all means.

 

[Bongo]

I love this team and am so freaking proud that we finally have them. They are truly awesome.

 

If I was going to somehow miss the losing, I think it would be from the standpoint of the camaraderie it brings with other Bills fans; us against the world. Loyalty to the end. It’s easy to be a fan now. 

Edited September 21, 2022 by Bongo

[Greg S]

I was a kid in the 70's when the Bills mostly sucked. I remember the 1984 and 1985 seasons. The four Super Bowl losses highlighted by wide right. We had the pain of MCM. Then there was the drought. Most recently 13 seconds. I have had enough losing with this team to last a lifetime. Hopefully with Beane, McDermott, and Allen we get a Pats like dynasty run. But I just want to see one Super Bowl championship before I take a permanent dirt nap.

[Billsfan1972]

4 minutes ago, teef said:

i get what you're saying, but you're old enough to know boring is good.

I get it.....  Not happy that fourth quarters are inconsequential as thus affecting Josh's #'s😉, but when they're playing on Sunday at least they'll be other games on (and Minnesota vs. Philly was over too).

 

Boring as long as it isn't the old McD and 40 rushes a game & 160 yards passing if fine by me.

[ddaryl]

13 hours ago, Einstein said:

Before you immediately jump to answer "NO", realize that this question does not mean that you don't like winning.

 

I enjoy the Bills recent success and I root for a championship trophy. I have a man crush on Josh Allen that my colleagues find odd. That being said, part of me misses the drama of Flutie v Johnson, Bledsoe v Losman, the Fitzpatrick upward trajectory followed by the downward trajectory, top 10 pick draft talk, checking the playoff tiebreakers to find a 1 in 1,000 chance of making the tournament, etc. I wonder if the large swings in outcomes of the past created a dopamine response in my brain.

 

Does anyone else feel this way? Or perhaps I am in a party of one?

 

 

 

 

You are a masochist

[Straight Hucklebuck]

I don't miss anything about what the Bills became from Tom Donahoe on. 

 

With Tom Modrak running drafts from Florida, Jim Overdorf cutting players without the GM or Coach knowing, "promoting from within" or "cash to cap" strategy, picking through other team's backup or retired Quarterbacks to try and find your starting QB, hiring Coaches that just got fired somewhere else or were out of the league, having marketing guys acting as your GM, cancelling halftime ceremonies because there would be too much booing, having your GM say they would be asleep when Free Agency starts, always hand ringing when the next young player's contract was up, no more brokering deals with Toronto to make the Buffalo area "viable". 

 

The Bills were in the league in name only before 2017. 

 

 

[Bruffalo]

Gambling addicts get a bigger dopamine rush from the loss than the wins.

 

What I'm saying is you should stay away from slot machines. 

[extrahammer]

14 hours ago, Einstein said:

Before you immediately jump to answer "NO", realize that this question does not mean that you don't like winning.

 

I enjoy the Bills recent success and I root for a championship trophy. I have a man crush on Josh Allen that my colleagues find odd. That being said, part of me misses the drama of Flutie v Johnson, Bledsoe v Losman, the Fitzpatrick upward trajectory followed by the downward trajectory, top 10 pick draft talk, checking the playoff tiebreakers to find a 1 in 1,000 chance of making the tournament, etc. I wonder if the large swings in outcomes of the past created a dopamine response in my brain.

 

Does anyone else feel this way? Or perhaps I am in a party of one?

 

 

 

No! But I do still remember those days vividly, and it does make me appreciate this team all the more. This team is noticeably much different, the players, coaches, and front office, the vibe feels very upfront, simple, and collaborative.

 

The real Flutie v Johnson debate was as divisive as I've seen the fanbase, not sure if it was because the 90's era was coming to an end or a combination of things, but too many fans got too invested in Rob Johnson, and still do sometimes. I remember grown men getting way too caught up in the emotions of that debate. It's fun to poke fun at how we're lucky to not be in that position again since Josh Allen would obviously eat them both alive. 

 

Bledsoe v Losman wasn't nearly as bad, but your point is something my friend and I have talked about a lot recently: would you rather win by a large margin or a close, dramatic win? I think wins by a large margin are more fun, you really get to sit back, relax, and enjoy the team's performance even more. I think that's why this team has been so fun to watch, even in the blowouts, and why more people are jumping on the bandwagon. I want us to blowout everyone, easily, hands down, every time. 

 

However, it is cool to me to see the new variations and cliques of fans joining the bandwagon and having their different takes, it's all good to me. I've seen enough of the rough times to have learned to enjoy every bit of it. Not sure if most folks know this, but nostalgia is rooted in pain. The term 'nostalgia' derives from the Greek words nostos (return) and algos (pain). The literal meaning of nostalgia, then, is the suffering evoked by the desire to return to one's place of origin. The term was coined by the Swiss physician Johannes Hofer to capture the adverse symptoms displayed by Swiss mercenaries in the service of European monarchs. Hofer thought of nostalgia as ‘a cerebral disease’ and believed that is was caused by "the quite continuous vibration of animal spirits through those fibers of the middle brain in which impressed traces of ideas of the Fatherland still cling".

 

Symptoms of this disease, Hofer proposed, included obsessive thinking of home, bouts of weeping, anxiety, palpitations, anorexia and insomnia. 

 

I would agree with that based on my fandom over the team's evolution. 😂 Anyway, Go Bills!!!

 

[Bill from NYC]

13 hours ago, Einstein said:

Before you immediately jump to answer "NO", realize that this question does not mean that you don't like winning.

 

I enjoy the Bills recent success and I root for a championship trophy. I have a man crush on Josh Allen that my colleagues find odd. That being said, part of me misses the drama of Flutie v Johnson, Bledsoe v Losman, the Fitzpatrick upward trajectory followed by the downward trajectory, top 10 pick draft talk, checking the playoff tiebreakers to find a 1 in 1,000 chance of making the tournament, etc. I wonder if the large swings in outcomes of the past created a dopamine response in my brain.

 

Does anyone else feel this way? Or perhaps I am in a party of one?

 

 

I appreciate this question.  Admittedly, I had to ponder it for a bit in order to come up with a pertinent answer.

 

In a word no, I do not miss the losing. What I REALLY don't miss are the drafts. Our team in the drought was marked by silly, stupid, incompetent drafts. 

Now, was there anything that I liked about that dark era? In a way, yes.:

 

1) The friendships that I gained in Lot 1 Pole 5,  and right here on this board. MANY years ago, @SDS posted that he is a fan of Bills Fans more than he is a fan of the Bills. This was close to 20 years ago but I remember it well and concur.

 

2) I liked being different. As an out of town fan, being a Bills Fan became part of my identity. Cracks about wide right or the super bowl losses didn't bother me, or at least bothered me less than Music City, or Stevie Johnson's dropped pass (where he blamed God). Now, fair weather Bills Fans are popping up all over, which is good but still......we on TBD were in it for the long haul.  

 

3) My daughters are Bills Fans to this day. I think that because of this it helped me teach them not to quit. To not give up on your goals, and all 3 are quite successful. Being a Bills Fan might really have played some role in this.

 

4) I am also an Alabama Fan for my entire life. Did this help to ease the pain of the Bills constant losses and front office stupidity? Yes of course, but being a Bama Fan is just so easy. A 10-3 season, while possible, would shock the entire country. They don't understand what it is to suffer.

 

In closing, I am still somewhat stained by the losing. Deep down, I suspected that the Bills would blow that 13 second deal vs. the Chiefs, and I am 100% sure that I was not alone. I know that it was a defense mechanism but it worked. I didn't freak out after the game as mich as I would have say 12 years ago. Again, insanely poor drafts are my deepest leftover scars, even worse than the losses for some reason. 

 

I miss those days in that despite the hopelessness, they were good times. We truly appreciated wins. I also greedily miss the fact that I was younger.  That said, I will never miss the losing, or drafting Donte Whitner. 

 

Oh.....I don't know how winning a super bowl (which I plan on) will effect me, or all of TBD. Now THAT would make a good topic for a post, if not a psychological study LOL.

 

GO BILLS FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

[zevo]

15 hours ago, Einstein said:

Before you immediately jump to answer "NO", realize that this question does not mean that you don't like winning.

 

I enjoy the Bills recent success and I root for a championship trophy. I have a man crush on Josh Allen that my colleagues find odd. That being said, part of me misses the drama of Flutie v Johnson, Bledsoe v Losman, the Fitzpatrick upward trajectory followed by the downward trajectory, top 10 pick draft talk, checking the playoff tiebreakers to find a 1 in 1,000 chance of making the tournament, etc. I wonder if the large swings in outcomes of the past created a dopamine response in my brain.

 

Does anyone else feel this way? Or perhaps I am in a party of one?

 

 

Dude Wtf

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

No. 

 

I know what you're trying to say. A little part of me liked being the underdog. Maybe if the fanbase becomes insufferable like the Patriots after multiple championships I'll miss it, but I have close to 20 years of irrelevance to exorcise first.

[Big Turk]

I played sports my whole life growing up...I hated losing with a passion...so much so that as the captain of my soccer team growing up I kicked 5 players off the team who consistently used to come to practice and f**k around and not take it seriously...

 

I have no earthly idea how anyone could seriously ask this question. Clearly OP never played sports growing up or was probably like one of the 5 players I kicked off the team that could care less about winning.  

Edited September 21, 2022 by Big Turk

[BuffaloBaumer]

This is beyond ridiculous, make it stop

[Wayne Arnold]

15 hours ago, Einstein said:

Before you immediately jump to answer "NO", realize that this question does not mean that you don't like winning.

 

I enjoy the Bills recent success and I root for a championship trophy. I have a man crush on Josh Allen that my colleagues find odd. That being said, part of me misses the drama of Flutie v Johnson, Bledsoe v Losman, the Fitzpatrick upward trajectory followed by the downward trajectory, top 10 pick draft talk, checking the playoff tiebreakers to find a 1 in 1,000 chance of making the tournament, etc. I wonder if the large swings in outcomes of the past created a dopamine response in my brain.

 

Does anyone else feel this way? Or perhaps I am in a party of one?

 

I miss how cheap tickets were and not having to put up with bandwagon fans.

[Your Brown Eye]

1 hour ago, Billsfan1972 said:

Teef missing the point again????  I'm for the Bills going 20-0 every year.  But yes TSW is pretty boring right now and little really to discuss.

 

I have plenty of other sites I can go to for content (Bills & otherwise).

 

 

I'm sure there's a couple groups of teenage girls at the Galleria mall you can meet and join in on their gossip if you just need something to chat about....the rest of us will enjoy the Bills winning and "lack" of anything to discuss other than winning

[ColoradoBills]

[Ned Flanders]

WTF kind of question is this?!?!?!

[WhoTom]

Sounds a bit like gambler's addiction. If the odds are too much in the gambler's favor, he gets bored and stops. The odds need to be close to 50/50 in order to hold his interest.

 

Since I'm not a gambler, my answer is "No, I don't miss losing - not even one bit."

 

 

[Albany,n.y.]

No.  I don't miss the incompetence that plagued the team for many years.  Now in December I'm thinking Super Bowl.  Years ago I was hoping for more losses so that 1) The Bills would get a higher draft choice &/or 2) The bad management would get fired or quit.  Actually they went hand in hand-I didn't trust the management to draft the right players, so I was hoping they would be drafting so high it would be a no brainer who to pick.  Yet, team history showed that even with a top 5 pick the Bills would screw it up. The last 3 top 5 Bills draft choices all had one thing in common: When they were with the Bills they were lazy guys who didn't take their job seriously.  Watkins, Darius & M. Williams were all massive underachievers.  I blame the guys who drafted them more than the players themselves.  The players had character flaws that should have been evident pre-draft. Add to that the last 2 1st round QB picks before Josh: Trading up for JP Losman & then boxing themselves into a corner & drafting EJ Manuel as the top QB in a year that was among the worst ever QB classes.  

 

Beane showed me that with good management draft position really doesn't matter.  I learned that lesson in 2018 when I thought that by drafting 21 & 22 the Bills had guaranteed more years of QB hell.  When Beane moved from 21 to 7 and ended up with the best player in the draft, I learned that with a good GM you don't need to bottom out like I always thought the Bills had to do.  I still remember that even after the Bills moved up to 12 in 2018, I was resigned to a bad fate when the Jets moved from 6 to 3, guaranteeing them the chance at a franchise QB. Fortunately, the teams picking ahead of the Bills weren't managed very well (only 1 of the GMs from the 5 teams that drafted before 7 is still on the job) and we got lucky nobody ahead of pick 7 saw the potential the Bills did in Josh Allen.   

 

In summary, I prefer planning for Super Bowl Sunday in December than planning for the draft in December.  

Edited September 21, 2022 by Albany,n.y.