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This column could easily be a sappy love fest about Buffalo, impassioned and sometimes unhinged Bills fans, the blue-collar nature of the city, the wings, the tailgating, and the vibe in Western New York before a massive home game on Sunday.
But it’s not.
I’ll explain why.
In 2011, Yahoo! Sports columnist Les Carpenter painted a glorious picture of the simpler-times scene in Orchard Park before the Bills beat Tom Brady and the Patriots in a late-September battle of the unbeatens en route to the cover of Sports Illustrated. It came in a season when Buffalo’s rag-tag group of underdogs led by Ryan Fitzpatrick ultimately fizzled after a 3-0 start and finished 6-10.
For years, that was the de facto angle taken before essentially every important home Bills game. The team had been so irrelevant during the 2000s, those type of fluff pieces were sensible. They shined a light on local, small-market excitement surrounding a team that long resided in the NFL’s basement without any power.
And for as good as Carpenter’s piece was, and those written afterward, it felt like the meticulous tailgate imagery distracted from the actual football being played. No one really took those Bills teams that seriously. Cute story at the time? Sure.
But were any of those Bills teams genuine, deep-run-in-the-playoff contenders? Or Super Bowl contenders? Certainly not.
As the Bills played more respectable ball from 2014 through the Tyrod Taylor years that culminated with the snapping of the 17-year playoff drought on New Year’s Eve 2017, my uncle would occasionally remind that the Bills had become the Boise State of the NFL.
Remember those fun-to-root-for perennial collegiate underdogs, who from the early 2000s through the 2010s became a “small school” powerhouse and would get one bowl-game swing at a heavyweight program?
Heck, Boise State’s win over the Adrian Peterson-led Oklahoma Sooners…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2024-nfl-playoffs-why-this-bills-vs-chiefs-postseason-showdown-feels-different-for-buffalo-this-time-around/
Author : Chris Trapasso
Publish date : 2024-01-18 19:16:46
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