I said, "I didn't know you were a Redskins fan." "Yea, my team is really stinking things up," he says. He sighs. I sigh. "Yea, my team too." "Oh, who are you rooting for?", says my friend, John. "The Bills" I state with a scowl. John then starts to chuckle. It was kind of infectious so I start chuckling too. "What the hell are you laughing about," I say. He says, "Suddenly, I'm not so depressed about my team. Things could be worse." I come back with "I could say the same thing about your team, John."
For the rest of the season, we kept bantering back and forth about which team is in worse shape. The thing that was so amazing is how similar the 2 teams resembled each other last year. I saw John this past weekend and our eyes locked. He walks over and says "We have a preseason game coming up." "Yup, I'd hate to be in your shoes right now."
The banter begins again. I just love this time of the year. Even when my team was stinking it up last year, I was still able to find some way to get some enjoyment out of the season. I recon that John felt the same way. Of course the many Blue Lights that both John and I drank probably had something to do with it. We also played a lot of horse shoes and throughout the summer months, he'd have his winning moments and so did I. Neither of us could say that we had the upper hand. John and I will surely have a good season of football. As for, this weekend, we got a chance to play one quick game of horse shoes before it got dark. John scored the first point and then says, "Lets just play to eleven." "OK, you do realize that you brought up shortening the game after you have a one point lead?" "Of course," he says. "I knew you wouldn't back away from a challenge." "Humph," says I.
I beat John 11 to 1 and told him "That is what you call a sign of things to come." We walk back into the bar and John buys me a drink. Loser always buys the drink. We never bet on the game. It's just a sort of unspoken acknowledgment between two friends. Life is good. And I have this ridiculously optimistic outlook on the upcoming season for my Bills team.
That's it. This is a true story, at least what I can remember of it between Blue Lights.