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The Subdued Celebration


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I've loved all of the videos and stories of how everybody got to celebrate the wildcard birth, I thought I'd share mine:

 

I left my house with about three minutes left in the Bills game to go to NYE dinner with my Mom, her boyfriend, two of their friends, and my girlfriend. We had reservations at a nice place on Hertel Ave in North Buffalo. A popular NYE spot with tremendous food.

 

My GF (converted fan and season ticket holder of this year) and I listened to the Bills hold on to defeat the Phins in the car ride over to the restaurant. We got inside and joined the rest of our party at the table. I tucked my phone into my jacket pocket, not wanting to be rude and knowing that any involvement of me watching the Bengals vs.  Ravens updates would surely result in cursing the outcome. 

 

Oddly enough, everybody at the table (VERY casual fans) asked what was happening. I whipped out my phone and began with the updates via the ESPN app. After five minutes of this (including the interception that was called back where I declared "its over"), the Bengals had finally found themselves at 4th and 12. Dejected, I gave the phone over to my girlfriend to show her the bad news and for her to keep the phone away from me for the rest of dinner.

 

Five seconds later, she smiles. She asks me politely to not freak out in front of everybody and hands me the phone back with the screen showing the Bengals Touchdown on the screen. I frantically look around the restaurant to see if anybody else knew. Nope. Nobody knows or seems to care. Except for one guy sitting on the other side of the room from me. As he looked up from his phone in disbelief he saw me with the same look and we just laughed. He raised his glass to me as I did to him.

 

It was so hard to contain myself. The news eventually spread around the restaurant that the Bills had made it. There were a few laughs and cheers, but nothing close to what I needed to get out.

 

I probably had too many scotches with dinner, but that's why we have Uber. It was a moment that I'll never forget. Go Bills.

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5 minutes ago, golfball323 said:

I've loved all of the videos and stories of how everybody got to celebrate the wildcard birth, I thought I'd share mine:

 

I left my house with about three minutes left in the Bills game to go to NYE dinner with my Mom, her boyfriend, two of their friends, and my girlfriend. We had reservations at a nice place on Hertel Ave in North Buffalo. A popular NYE spot with tremendous food.

 

My GF (converted fan and season ticket holder of this year) and I listened to the Bills hold on to defeat the Phins in the car ride over to the restaurant. We got inside and joined the rest of our party at the table. I tucked my phone into my jacket pocket, not wanting to be rude and knowing that any involvement of me watching the Bengals vs.  Ravens updates would surely result in cursing the outcome. 

 

Oddly enough, everybody at the table (VERY casual fans) asked what was happening. I whipped out my phone and began with the updates via the ESPN app. After five minutes of this (including the interception that was called back where I declared "its over"), the Bengals had finally found themselves at 4th and 12. Dejected, I gave the phone over to my girlfriend to show her the bad news and for her to keep the phone away from me for the rest of dinner.

 

Five seconds later, she smiles. She asks me politely to not freak out in front of everybody and hands me the phone back with the screen showing the Bengals Touchdown on the screen. I frantically look around the restaurant to see if anybody else knew. Nope. Nobody knows or seems to care. Except for one guy sitting on the other side of the room from me. As he looked up from his phone in disbelief he saw me with the same look and we just laughed. He raised his glass to me as I did to him.

 

It was so hard to contain myself. The news eventually spread around the restaurant that the Bills had made it. There were a few laughs and cheers, but nothing close to what I needed to get out.

 

I probably had too many scotches with dinner, but that's why we have Uber. It was a moment that I'll never forget. Go Bills.

 

Amazing self-control.  I don't know how I could have avoided jumping up and down and screaming.

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I was at a bar with my wife (life long fins fan) sitting at a small table. Most our friends were bellied up to the bar including one friend who is a Ravens fan. We both knew what was at stake, but neither of us really spoke about it after the late games started Sunday. The Bills and Ravens were side by side on the TVs above the bar so it was easy to follow the back and forth action. My team had just beaten my wife's team, but she knows well of drought, so she was hoping for the best for me. As we're watching the Bills chances ebb and flow during the remaining moments on the TV, I'm texting my friend in VA who's at NYE dinner with family and can't see the Ravens/Bengals outcome. When Dalton converted the 4th down play my wife said, I was just staring at the TV mouth open and in shock basically that for the first time in a long time the dominoes fell in Bills favor. Wife gave me a rub on the back and a kiss and told me congratulations.  I texted my friend in VA "The Bills are going back to the ******** playoffs!"  I think all I said to my wife was "I can't believe it." 

 

Only to have the moment ruined by an obnoxious Broncos fan in the back yell "Good! Goodbye Ravens!" Which immediately brought out Hulk rage from my Ravens friend. (I was pretty sure a Donnybrook was about to break out, but it didn't). All my friends at the bar (including Ravens fan) came up gave me a hug congratulated me, Happy New Year, etc... strange surreal and really understated feeling/reaction.

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2 hours ago, golfball323 said:

I've loved all of the videos and stories of how everybody got to celebrate the wildcard birth, I thought I'd share mine:

 

I left my house with about three minutes left in the Bills game to go to NYE dinner with my Mom, her boyfriend, two of their friends, and my girlfriend. We had reservations at a nice place on Hertel Ave in North Buffalo. A popular NYE spot with tremendous food.

 

My GF (converted fan and season ticket holder of this year) and I listened to the Bills hold on to defeat the Phins in the car ride over to the restaurant. We got inside and joined the rest of our party at the table. I tucked my phone into my jacket pocket, not wanting to be rude and knowing that any involvement of me watching the Bengals vs.  Ravens updates would surely result in cursing the outcome. 

 

Oddly enough, everybody at the table (VERY casual fans) asked what was happening. I whipped out my phone and began with the updates via the ESPN app. After five minutes of this (including the interception that was called back where I declared "its over"), the Bengals had finally found themselves at 4th and 12. Dejected, I gave the phone over to my girlfriend to show her the bad news and for her to keep the phone away from me for the rest of dinner.

 

Five seconds later, she smiles. She asks me politely to not freak out in front of everybody and hands me the phone back with the screen showing the Bengals Touchdown on the screen. I frantically look around the restaurant to see if anybody else knew. Nope. Nobody knows or seems to care. Except for one guy sitting on the other side of the room from me. As he looked up from his phone in disbelief he saw me with the same look and we just laughed. He raised his glass to me as I did to him.

 

It was so hard to contain myself. The news eventually spread around the restaurant that the Bills had made it. There were a few laughs and cheers, but nothing close to what I needed to get out.

 

I probably had too many scotches with dinner, but that's why we have Uber. It was a moment that I'll never forget. Go Bills.

 

No offense, but the crowd you were hanging with sounds booorrring.

 

Glad they let you have some scotches.

 

 

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