In honor of Tim Russert

[Phil Hansen Forever]

After leaving Buffalo/Rochester in the late 70's to join the Air Force, I have always had a Bills bumper sticker on my vehicle. I used to have a Bills flag that few out front of my house, but some kids stole it a couple of years ago, and burned it in the middle of the street!

 

My desk has a Bills mug, that is used as my pen/pencil holder. I have my bills helmet pic on my cell phone wallpaper, and of course both my wife and I sport bumper stickers (she is from Iowa, but is now a dedicated Bills fan too) and license plate holders. We are always seen around town with our Bills sweatshirts, tee shirts and midweight coats. It really drives the Vikings fans crazy. They can't understand my obsession. Vikings fans are so fickle, when they lose, the highways are litered with those little car window Vikings flags, while I continue to sport mine with pride; no matter how bad their season is.

 

All during my Air Force days, my friends could never understand my passion. Sure they had their favorite teams too, but not the passion. We Bills fans are a hardy bunch. We endured the 2-14 seasons back to back, and still have pride. We lost four straight super bowls and still we wave our flags. I remember coming back to see my parents who moved down to Elmira while in the service. My wife and drove down to see them, then up to Rochester to pick up 25+ pounds of Zweigels White Hots (something I crave), and then over to Buffalo for wings and Ted's. I couldn't get over the amount of businesses that displayed Bills flags and signs of support. There will literally hundreds of examples to view, and made me feel proud. You can't find that kind of support in Denver, LA, San Francisco, San Diego or even here in Minneapolis. The only towns I've seen with that kind of support are Greenbay and Dallas, but Buffalo is tiny compared to them.

 

I certainly miss the food and people, but not the economy. I always thought they should have annexed off NYC and created a separate district, much like Washington D.C., leaving the rest of the state to make money, not to bail out the island.

 

Unless the Bills leave, I will always wear my shirts, fly my flag and drive around with my bumper stickers. I certainly hope they never leave, and like Tim Russert said at the end of his shows (only during the fall season) Go BILLS!

[Corp000085]

Well, first and foremost, i have my voice. Anyone who comes into contact with me knows a few things about me. #1 is that i'm from buffalo and i'm a bills and sabres fan.

 

At work, I have a Bills hat and Buffalo, NY mug on display. Since i work in an elementary school, i have come to the Halloween party as a hockey player in my hasek jersey. I also have a motorola razr. It's from verizon, so i had to hack it, but i was able to get a startup and shutdown gif, a picture for the outside window, and a background, all buffalo sabres themed.

 

At home, i've got myself a pretty decent mancave, a bills flag that i hang on sundays during football season, and sabres car flags. I've got a bills back license plate frame, and a full sabres plate in the front and sabres frame. I'm always getting notes left on my car for GO BILLS or sabres or whatever. Fayetteville is a huge military town and there's quite a few WNY soldiers stationed at ft bragg.

 

I even had a bunch of people from work calling on friday when TR died, cause everyone knows he's a good guy, everyone knows he loves his family, everyone knows he's a political giant, and everyone knows he loves the buffalo bills. I've explained countless times to people this weekend "see what i was talking about? All that buffalo this and buffalo that. It wasn't just me. It's a mentality." I think most understand now what i've been talking about since we moved here in 2003.