‘That’s because the Bills are Buffalo. They’re the spirit of the city, and for many Buffalonians, a metaphor for it too. Buffalo’s boom times are long behind it, though the architectural marvels built by the money flowing through the Erie Canal speak to its former importance as an industrial hub. The city is generally depicted as hard on its luck, featuring in the news usually only when there’s a disaster, like the shooting of 10 Black people in 2022, or the more recent bus crash that killed five. But what that narrative misses is the story of a town that’s quietly been undergoing an economic and cultural revival thanks to significant public spending and committed local preservationists.’