Why I hate, that I love the BIlls.

[drinkTHEkoolaid]

To put this in my perspective I'm about 30 years old. The last time the Bills made the playoffs was the previous millenium and right now we are worried about the world ending next month in the year 2012. If the Bills were undefeated right now it would be a sure sign the Mayans were right all along, but alas the Bills are right where they are comfortable so the world will trudge on.

 

Thats right the last time the Bills were in the playoffs was 13 years ago. It was 1999 and BIll Clinton was president. Seriously. Think about that. How much has the world changed since then? The only thing that remains constant is the Bills continual disappointment and heartbreak.

 

That's right heartbreak. I like many of you have been "born into" a Bills family here in WNY. I love the Bills, which is why I am upset right now with the state of the franchise. I remember being a kid, in December with lake effect snow storms sunday morning playing outside waiting for the "big Bills / dolphins game" and how much I hated the dolphins because bryan cox with his stupid neck roll made fun of the WNY area and how excited I was that obviously Miami was a warm weather team would be at a disadvantage because of the weather conditions.

 

I remember going to 4 straight super bowls as a kid in elementary school and the emotions that went along with it. I didn't realize how big of a deal that was at the time and I will never see it again in my life so I never got to truly appreciate it because I just thought that was the way things were supposed to be. I remember hating Jerry Jones' aerodynamic hair.

 

Fast forward to today. This team is incompetant. They are forever striving for a heroic late season march to medicority. This team is all but irrelevant in the national scene of the NFL and is often times forgotten and ignored because we don't matter.

 

We have an owner who, well, your guess is as good as mine since know one knows whats going on with him. Is he alive? what is his condition? what does he say about the current team ? is he holding anyone accountable? does he care? does he know what day it is? who is REALLY in charge and pulling the strings?

 

Don't even get me started on the future of this team. The Bills brass want more hundreads of millions of dollars of tax payer money but they wont even disclose what the plan is for the team once the 94 year old owner is no longer amongst us. This is a very troubling scenario. How can they expect us to continue to keep pumping money and energy into this team and becoming emotionally involved when they can't even tell us what the future holds or give us any reassurance that we will even have a team. Where is the love? How poorly run is this team. It would be like asking stock holders to invest in a company when you don't know who the CEO is or if they company will exist next year, but it's worse we are emotionally invested in this team. This team is run second rate.

 

Seriously what is this team doing. We are so outclassed at decision making its a joke. Case in point, our QB situation this year. what the hell are they thinking? we extend Ftiz, we then bring in vince young (who has a winning record in the NFL), keep thigpen and wildcat specialist brad smith. proceeed to cut vince young before he plays a single regular season snap. realize the wildcat wont work and have no purpose for brad smith, thigpen is terrible and has no business stepping foot on the field. The bills realize all this and trade, frigging trade and give up a draft pick for Tarvaris Jackson rambling about how they've liked him ever since the combine when he was drafted. Then bring him in and refuse to dress him ! wtf is going on. Fitz doesn't have it. this is a rudderless ship..... who is making the decisions? why is no one held accountable?

 

speaking of acountability, don't even get me started on our drafting blunders... and terrible weekly coaching decisions because this rant would never end.

 

I love this team, I buy merchandise, i look forward to sundays every fall to attend games, or block off typically a great fall day when I could be doing so much around the house but decide to sit inside for 4 hours and watch at home. I am emotionally invested in this team but i've hit my limit. My son said to me, "dad why do you like the bills so much, they suck." And he's right. I am not raising my son to be a Bills fan. He sees the frusteration it gives me, why would I want to put him through that.

 

I am loyal to this team, I love this team, but I hate where the team has been and currently is. We as fans deserve better.

 

There is going to be an entire "lost generation" of Bills fans. no one in the 5-20 year old range right now are going to become Bills fans. What have the BIlls done other than lose during this time period. How will the Bills secure their future fans to come back to them?

 

I'll probably still watch games on sunday's if I'm around but for the foreseeable future I am done going out of my way to ensure I find a way to watch them. Odds are there will be numerous blackouts to end the season and I won't mind.

 

As far as I am concerned nothing will change until we have stability at ownership, upper management is held accountable and the team gets on the right track with a competant coaching staff and a franchise QB, until then it will be more of the same. I love the team but realize it all starts with the owner and the culture that has been created. The team is either going to pack up and move to LA, toronto, etc... or we will have a new owner committed to re-energize the franchise and put a winner on the field. This 7-9 disappointment won't go on forever. But what if we all look back in 15 years at what used to formerly be the Buffalo Bills (currently the LA Bills) and look back at 7-9 with envy thinking these were the good ol' days. good god.

 

Here's to 13 years missing the playoffs.

[CodeMonkey]

My son said to me, "dad why do you like the bills so much, they suck." And he's right. I am not raising my son to be a Bills fan.

 

 

There is going to be an entire "lost generation" of Bills fans. no one in the 5-20 year old range right now are going to become Bills fans. What have the BIlls done other than lose during this time period. How will the Bills secure their future fans to come back to them?

I have 3 kids right in the middle of the 5-20 age range and they are all Bills fans. They watch the games with me, go to literally almost all of the open training camp sessions at SJF, and represent in school even on days like today where it would be easy (and maybe smart) to not wear any Bills gear. But they are not heavily emotionally invested in the team. The Bills have not been in the playoffs in their lifetimes, and they do not know what it feels like to have the Bills not suck and be a laughing stock. In some ways that is probably easier than the ones who saw the superbowl years, they know nothing else but sucking. They, like most Bills fans by now, expect them to lose most weeks. But they are very level headed about it.

 

Because of the way they look at the team, I expect they will be Bills fans for as long as the Bills remain in Buffalo. I truly hope though that their loyalty gets rewarded by at least one good (not sneaking in the backdoor of the playoffs, but actually good) Bills season before the Bills move away. I think they, as well as all kids that have stuck with the team despite having no reason to do so, deserve at least that much.

Edited November 26, 2012 by CodeMonkey

[Keukasmallies]

I agree with OP! So many who post here have come to the realization that the owner of a company bears final responsibility for the performance of the company. RW is responsible for the Buffalo Bills. Some owners are responsible because they are hands-on, some are responsible because they delegate decision-making authority to an administrator; but ALL owners are finally responsible. RW's company can't fail because there is enough league and endorsement $ to keep the enterprise afloat, nevertheless, he presides over a company that is incapable, as currently structured, of fielding a successful product.

 

Conclusion: Sell the team ASAP! If the new owner moves the team, so be it; the concept of the Buffalo Bills deserves better treatment that it gets at present.

Edited November 26, 2012 by Keukasmallies

[Stormin Norman]

How much does winning mean to fans?

 

My job relocated to Massachusetts in 2008. My daughter, eight years old at the time, was a true blue Bills fan.

 

Now, she talks about how good the Patriots are. I know she is surrounded by New England fans throughout her school, so being like her peers in this way is understandable. But I also know she's aware the Bills are a laughing stock around here. Laughing stock is perhaps giving the Bills too much credit.

 

I give her the "evil eye" every time she says something complimentary about the Patriots. We went to the Bills-Pats game here a few weeks ago, and her inner Buffalo came out as the Bills surged toward a (almost) win.

 

All she knows is the Buffalo Bills as losers. For me, I watch YouTube videos of the glory years to remember what it was like to have a good team with competent leadership.

[SoggyHog]

"We as fans deserve better."

 

 

 

WE AS FANS DESERVE BETTER!!!! Everyone who reads this thread should repost that exact phrase. We do deserve exactly that........BETTER!

[TheMadCap]

you people should be put in jail for child abuse forcing this clown show of a team on your kids for life!

[thewildrabbit]

My kids are all grown and have season tickets and attend most games, home and away. The difference between us is, I first bought my season tickets back in 88,and held them up to 95 and took them all to every game with me. So they were all indoctrinated by watching so many winning games in the late 80's, early 90's. We all went to every super bowl the Bills went to, Tampa, Minnesota, Pasadena, Atlanta so the love for the team is deeply ingrained.

 

I try and tell them to not support this owner at this time by buying season tickets because Ralph Wilson has a history of refusing to hire top people GM, HC as long as His stadium is filled. My kids refuse to listen, and I sorta can't blame them as they want to take their children to games just like their dad took them.

 

Buffalo Bills fans do deserve better! I only hope that the people that buy the team after Wilson passes build it into a winner so my children and grand children can experience that thrill of winning an AFC Championship in their own season seats just like I did.

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

It takes a lot of character to stick by a loser perpetually.

 

The obvious bottom line is the team needs a firey passionate, youth injection. Owner, GM and coaches are all old school, old fashioned and outmoded.

 

The foundation has been rebuilt, now time to get a coach and QB with a fire in the belly to get the team to the next level, personalities who not just prefer to win but abhor losing.

 

I hate losing and I belive it makes me much better at some things than I would be otherwise. Somehow I can still hate losing without hating the bills though, I guess that can be blamed on my buffalo childhood home.

 

Let's see what these lovable looses have in store for us next.

 

 

 

 

[CodeMonkey]

It takes a lot of character to stick by a loser perpetually.

I thought about this statement for a while and I came to the conclusion that I disagree.

To stand by a losing team during things like rebuild years takes character.

However, to stand by a perpetual losing franchise in my opinion, and no offense to anyone, in a lot of ways takes a losers mentality.

[Keukasmallies]

To stand by a loser is called enabling; the more we do it, the more we "tell" OBD everything is OK as far as we're concerned....

[philip316]

Right away, Bills fans do deserve better! I watched the Bills - Colts game and finally had to quit due to frustration! Why God, why do we insist on throwing the football when we have arguably the strongest running tandem in the NFL? CJ Spiller is averaging 6.6 yards per attempt from the line of scrimmage - in rare company with Jim Brown and Mercury Morris. Why does he only get 14 carries? He should get 20-25 carries and Fred should get 20! Fred was on pace to be league MVP last year before he broke his leg!

 

Gailey has a 33% winning percentage. Could it be because he wants to throw too much? How many times did we go in throw three passes in a row, then punt the ball? I lost count after halftime. Run the ball and play defense, that's how we need to win. Chan is going to be looking for a new job...

[kasper13]

What the heck are we supposed to do? Losers mentality. Fine, I'm a loser for being a Bills fan. I didn't know any better because I was born into it. I was a loser and was called worse in the mid 80's when I was a Bills fan and went to every game and got picked on in school for being a Bills fan when all the cool kids liked the Raiders and the Cowboys and some dbag liked the Dolphins and Dan Marino. He never got picked on. Then we got Jim Kelly and had a young Bruce Smith, Andre Reed and Darryl Talley, then we traded for Biscuit and drafted Thurman and damn we were good and I still went to every game and everyone else was suddenly back on the bandwagon and a Bills fan again but I knew better. I sat there as a kid when they were 2-14 and there were 20,000 people there. I enjoyed every single second of those glory years, I earned it. I got older, the glory days were over and have been for 13 years now.Still a Bills fan, always will be. I don't know anything else, I couldn't imagine being a fan of any other team. I don't want to. My choice, I earned it. If that makes me a loser, so be it. When, not if, they get back to being a winning team and make the playoffs some year, I'll enjoy every single second of it and I'll still know better because win or lose, I'm a loser Bills fan.

[benderbender]

Yeah the whole "It's going to be so sweet when we finally win it all" argument is starting to sound like wishful thinking. My ghost will be so stoked when it happens in 2143. Hopefully the family I'm haunting that far in the future will be Bills fans too.

[Texas Hots]

This is going to sound awful....but I really think that next year the drought ends...we just need to suck it up and deal with the rest of this crappy season. The defense is starting to play better and gel and with a few more editions, resign Byrd, we should be OK there. While I bet the starter at QB is named Fitzpatrick, I do think that Gaily will learn from his mistakes and run the CJ train more next year....We draft a QB....who I don't know...but we get better next year....I do think we can turn this crap around.

 

We all talk about turning in the fan card...enjoying the fall...but be honest....it will never happen. We might not be as vocal and even I have stopped watching when it is really bad....but we never turn our BACKs on the BUFFALO BILLS. We will at least get the scores, buy the Flutie Flakes, and support them in some manner. It does not make sense but it is what it is....GO BILLS

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

 

I thought about this statement for a while and I came to the conclusion that I disagree.

To stand by a losing team during things like rebuild years takes character.

However, to stand by a perpetual losing franchise in my opinion, and no offense to anyone, in a lot of ways takes a losers mentality.

 

I guess I see that, but I think a winner is confident enough to separate ones self from a hometown team you pull for because its part of where you came from. For me I am proud I grew up in buf, and proud I left for college, never to return except as a visitor, to pursue better opportunities and a more fulfilling life. But it takes heart to not write off the team when they stink. I take enjoyment in the winners on the team surrounded by inferior owners coaching, GMs, whatever and yet they still fight on.

 

Freddie fighting for those extra two yards, Stevie stripping the ball from the colts defender and recovering it, Kyle Williams just being a beast.

 

Ultimately these guys are paid entertainers providing a momentary distraction from real life. The outcome of their efforts results in a spectacle.

 

I have always said it must be the easiest team to be a fan of, the Steelers, with all the rings and trophies.

 

Me I'll pull for the Bills to break out of the rut, and someday they'll come through.