What made you a Bills fan?

[Another Fan]

Super Bowl 25.  I just turned 7 but I remember my dad rooting for the Bills because he liked the city of Buffalo a lot as well as Buffaloians.   He ironically isn’t or wasn’t a big football fan.  

 

So primarily cause of him.  

 

 

[The Jokeman]

I grew up in Buffalo but won't lie as a kid/teenager was a Raiders fan as have a cousin (through marriage) that played with them. Toss in was a big fan of Marcus Allen with his closeness to OJ Simpson. Yet after the 51-3 whiplashing by the Bills I changed sides.

Edited June 1 by The Jokeman

[dock581]

My Dad was  what was known as a country family doctor in the old days. He was born in Florida to German immigrant parents  but grew up in Springville then went to Canisius and UB med school. He was thoroughly Buffalo blooded but worked day and night and didn’t spend much time with his kids but one day in the fall of 1948 said we’re going to a football game in Buffalo. As a 12 year old country bumpkin I knew next to nothing about football but when we got to the old rockpile with thousands of screaming fans watching the Bills take on Otto Graham and the mighty Cleveland Browns I was hooked! Of course, we lost but by perpetually waiting till next year even my grandkids who are young adults who grew up in Patriot country are avid fans. The disease is contagious!

[Kaenon]

I was born in Buffalo.

[dock581]

3 minutes ago, dock581 said:

My Dad was  what was known as a country family doctor in the old days. He was born in Florida to German immigrant parents  but grew up in Springville then went to Canisius and UB med school. He was thoroughly Buffalo blooded but worked day and night and didn’t spend much time with his kids but one day in the fall of 1948 said we’re going to a football game in Buffalo. As a 12 year old country bumpkin I knew next to nothing about football but when we got to the old rockpile with thousands of screaming fans watching the Bills take on Otto Graham and the mighty Cleveland Browns I was hooked! Of course, we lost but by perpetually waiting till next year even my grandkids who are young adults who grew up in Patriot country are avid fans. The disease is contagious!

Actually , I misspoke ,After 76 years it clearly must be genetically determined and incurable!

[Gman10]

Man, pardon my ignorance but was OJ really that good?

[Haslett_Stomp]

When I was 9 years old, my dad took a job in Buffalo and moved the family from the Dallas area to OP.  It was the summer of 1974.  Roger Staubach lived near our neighborhood in Dallas so I was naturally a Cowboys fan, however they quickly became my 2nd favorite team that year and remained so until they screwed over Tom Landry.  Our house was near Freeman's Pond and if the wind was blowing just right we could hear the announcer from Rich Stadium on Sunday afternoons while playing catch in the back yard.  My dad and I would listen to Van Miller on the radio to follow the home games, there was none better.

Edited May 31 by Haslett_Stomp

[Gregg]

3 minutes ago, Gman10 said:

Man, pardon my ignorance but was OJ really that good?

 

Yes.

[US Egg]

Ralph Wilson

[NoHuddleKelly12]

3 hours ago, Pine Barrens Mafia said:

Was born into it. Who in their right mind would choose it?

 

👋 I can blame my overly enthusiastic/optimistic years of youth for choosing the Bills despite growing up in Western Pa Steeler country--specifically as a kid our town was right next door to East Brady, and upon entering this sleepy hollow type vale, you would drive right past this larger than life sign: 👇

 

 

That sparked my curiosity about Jim Kelly right around the same time that I was starting to get interested in football in general, so it was literally as inexplicably simple as that to become a rabid fan! Following Kelly's career morphed into a die-hard love of everything Bills/Buffalo, and made me shunned on the school bus. Best day ever was the Monday morning ride following the Bills' thrashing of the Steelers 52-34 in September 1991 (Kelly threw 6 TDS, 4 to Beebe "Steeler Killer" alone, with the Steelers radio guys exclaiming Kelly was just out there playing catch against his grandmother at DB), and you could've heard a pin drop amongst my normally chatty friends--I wish I could say I took the high road and didn't rub it in, but of course you know that wouldn't be accurate. 

 

Is it sad that all it took was seeing a billboard all those years ago, to become a fan of a team that inflicts so much pain on its fans with still no Super Bowls? I say no it's not--I've gotten to meet some great people over the years over our shared fandom, be on this cool message board with all of yinz guys and gals, and know that once we do land the big one, it will mean all that much more than for some chump flavor of the month bandwagon franchise, imho.  

[Ethan in Cleveland]

18 minutes ago, Gman10 said:

Man, pardon my ignorance but was OJ really that good?

You can argue there has never been a RB in league history before or after with his combination of size, speed, and vision. There were bigger and faster running backs and those that had longer careers, but I would argue that there has never been any player that was so elite in all three of these qualities. Additionally he was a fantastic receiver out of the backfield. 

 

His 1973 rushing season is still the best rushing season ever. His 143 yards/game is 10 yards/game more than the second closest. That is insane and is one of those records that will never be broken.

[NoHuddleKelly12]

2 hours ago, Gregg said:

Born on Long Island. Dad was a Jets fan who had season tickets. Started taking me to the games when I was a little kid back in the Shea days. OJ was my favorite player and that is how I became a Bills fan. Good thing OJ was on the Bills otherwise I probably would have grown up a Jets fan (BARF!)

Just out of curiosity, was your dad cool with you becoming a fan of a hated divisional rival? Luckily I guess for me, no one in my immediate family was a football fan, so I didn't step on any close family member's toes by turning my back on the hometown Steelers. 

Edited May 31 by NoHuddleKelly12

[ChiGoose]

Growing up in Rochester. 
 

Ironically, ended up the only Bills fan in the house. Parents are Browns fans from before the merger, which rubbed off on my younger brother. 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Born in Tonawanda in 1970 but Grew up in Lockport. So basically I was born into being a fan. First real experience with Bills was 1980. Ferguson, Cribbs, Butler, Lewis, that great defense and the We're Talking Proud song.  I didn't understand the futility of the 1970s especially with the Dolphins. At the time college football was still the wishbone which I hated watching and there was no local good college football. So I gravitated towards NFL. Along woth the Bills, I loved the Montana 49ers and the AFC West version of the Seahwaks years before I ever moved west. 

Even after moving away from western NY the fandom never faded. Tried to get back almost every year for a game and traveled to multiple away games. 

Now that college football has modernized I enjoy watching college more than most NFL games. And that is not political or anything like that. I just have so little interest in watching bad QB play on terrible teams. So it will always be Bills and Sabres for me. That said if Bills left Buffalo I'd likely just stop watching NFL and get more woodworking done on Sundays.

[Alphadawg7]

Pulling chicks.

[Gregg]

30 minutes ago, NoHuddleKelly12 said:

Just out of curiosity, was your dad cool with you becoming a fan of a hated divisional rival? Luckily I guess for me, no one in my immediate family was a football fan, so I didn't step on any close family member's toes by turning my back on the hometown Steelers. 

 

He was. 

[Alphadawg7]

Real reason was my dad was a die hard Niners fan and we always had a fun rivalry and competitive nature, so I was always a fan to teams that were a rival like Rams for example.  
 

And back then Chris Berman picked Niners vs Buffalo for 20 straight years to be in the Super Bowl, and as a kid Chris Berman was NFL football.  So I always thought there was like this Niners connection.  
 

Then, when I was a kid, my grandfather for the heck of it bought a Buffalo and put it in the corral with our cattle and thought that was the coolest thing I had ever seen.  And this happened at a time when I was just starting to get old enough to understand football more and it’s when the Bills got Kelly, Bruce, etc.  

 

Became an instant fan and soon after the Bills became the most exciting offense I had ever seen and was a die hard fan ever since.  Shortly after they would make their SB runs and even with all that heartbreak it just never left me,  was a die hard fan for life. 

[HOUSE]

I lived in Buffalo back in the 60s and there was only ONE NFL team soooo

I was screwed 

[Bills fan since 87]

My fanatacism started in, you guessed it, the strike season on 1987.  I was 11 and grew up in a Giants household/area in the Adirondacks (at that time).  I remember people making fun of the Bills and it made me dislike the Giants and Jets, so I hopped on board as we made a playoff push that season; ultimately coming up just short.

 

Still, it wasn't until the next season the roots really took hold.  I remember crying after we lost to the Bengals in the AFC championship, back then next season felt eons away.

 

Even at that young age I knew right then and there, as my tears dried, that I was on board for life.

 

Fast forward 36 years and my dad is more a Bills fan than a Giants fan now, my undying loyalty to my team over the years converted him; and now that I live in Rochester its a way we stay connected.

 

Now, if we can win just one while we can enjoy it together.

 

Go Bills!

 

 

[The Jokeman]

1 hour ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

You can argue there has never been a RB in league history before or after with his combination of size, speed, and vision. There were bigger and faster running backs and those that had longer careers, but I would argue that there has never been any player that was so elite in all three of these qualities. Additionally he was a fantastic receiver out of the backfield. 

 

His 1973 rushing season is still the best rushing season ever. His 143 yards/game is 10 yards/game more than the second closest. That is insane and is one of those records that will never be broken.

Watching highlights the closest guy to OJ's combination of size/speed in my opinion was Bo Jackson.