Super Bowl Shuffle

For starters, I am a die-hard, life long fan of the Buffalo Bills. I realize that first sentence is already making some of you laugh, or maybe just smile a bit. If that is the case it's probably because you are a Bills fan as well. Or maybe you enjoy watching your friends endure the mental torment that we suffer through every Fall when the NFL returns to punish Buffalo Nation. Said pain was inflicted with a great deal of passion & fury again with the onset of the 2009 season. September 14, 2009 will be yet another day that will go down in history as a dark day in Western New York, as well as the surrounding areas in the Bills viewing market.

For any of you who watch football and don't know by now, the Bills let another lead slip away in the waning seconds of game 1 vs the hated division rival New England Patriots. Forget that they went into the game having lost 11 straight to the Pats, and I believe 16 of the last 17 games vs New England, this loss especially hurt because the Bills had a 24-13 lead on the road, with five and a half minutes left on the clock. I think I may have been the only person at Thirsty's bar that wasn't chanting "Its All Over" with five to play. I should have known right then and there that impending doom was on the horizon.

Tom "Friggin'" Brady just had to pull his usual late game heroics and throw 2 touchdown passes in the last 3 minutes. Of course it didn't help that the Bills kick returner, Leodis McKelvin, had a complete brain fart and forgot to secure the ball on a kick-off after Brady's 1st touchdown. Buffalo had the damn lead! They didn't need the four extra yards he tried to gain, with five hungry tacklers grabbing for the ball. And much to the despair for all of us fans, out popped the ball. You could audibly hear the gasps as McKelvin put the "pill" on the carpet, leading to the Pats eventual game winning touchdown.

Now I'm not a religious guy at all, but all I could do was look up to the sky and mutter: "What is this, sarcasm?"

Believe it or not, the pain isn't just isolated to the four Super Bowl losses in the 1990's. Although it was tough to watch those crushing defeats, those seasons were actually a great deal of fun. They might not have won the "Big One", but the Bills were an excellent team back then. All of the Hall-of-Famers that have been getting inducted in recent years are proof of that.

The gut wrenching frustration from the most recent loss to the Patriots was just another reminder of a victory being snatched away. It brought back the memories of the "Music City Miracle", when the Tennessee Titans returned a kick-off with 20 seconds to go to knock the Bills out of the playoffs. Incidentally, that was the last playoff appearance for Buffalo. Yup. It's been 10 friggin' years since a once proud Bills franchise has been in the post season. And after last years 5-1 start, which also ended in a disappointing 7-9 record, Bills fans again can't help but feel pessimistic about the '09 season.

The Law of Averages states that this trend has to reverse itself at some point, doesn't it? If not, I guess I'll just have to rely on my current weekend diet of Pabst Blue Ribbon and vodka to get me through the Winter.

The old saying in the sports world claims that "No-one circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills!!" That may have been true at one point in time. I just hope there's plenty of water in Western New York to put out the fire that began smoldering in Buffalo after their week 1 loss. I hate to say it but, there's always next year. But don't worry about me and my fellow Bills fans. We'll congregate again this weekend with the same pessimism and enthusiasm as we always do. Hopefully the hangover on Monday will be more tollerable than this week's.

I guess that's enough venting on my part. I actually feel better already. PBR me ASAP and GO BILLS!