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Did anyone become a Bills fan later on in life or convert from another team?


Another Fan

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I've never lived in Buffalo or even anywhere close. I've lived in the Western US most of my life. My dad is from Buffalo so I inherited the fandom.

 

I was probably 15 or 16 when I thought "You know, maybe I shouldn't just be a Bills fan only because of my dad. Maybe I should try to follow another team."

 

So I looked at images of all the football helmets and decided that Tampa Bay had fairly cool helmets, so I started following them.

 

Didn't last long. Tampa was even worse than the Bills and only won a few games that year (must have been 2006). I learned they were the losingest team in NFL history. Jumped back to the Bills. I had a soft spot for Tampa for a couple years but by now that's completely gone. Couldn't care less about them now.

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19 hours ago, Smitty75 said:

New fan here, i’m from France so It’s complicated to find a attachement with a specific team.

I started following the NFL in 2011, i watched a ton of different teams but i never found the one who made me want to stick with them.

I’m a Raptors fan in the NBA, the fact that the Bills is the most popular team in Toronto, the Bills Mafia, and the snow bowl are the 3 reasons who made me decided to be a fan. ?

You are coming in a good time

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Sort of. I grew up in a family of Bills fans and spent my childhood going to training camp in Rochester and watched their games on TV with the family all the time, but Tampa Bay was my favorite team growing up. After I moved away, I basically used the Bills as a way to maintain a strong connection with my family and cousins and stuff and eventually Buffalo became my favorite team. I still watch Tampa a good amount and root for them as long as they aren't playing the Bills, but the Bills are the team that I make sure I don't miss any games for.

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I followed Josh Allen here. Now I own a Bills hat and a JA jersey. Used to be a luke warm Broncos fan. Wasn't hard to switch allegiance because Buffalo is an easy team to root for. Now I want to visit western NY!  

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14 hours ago, Gugny said:

 

I wasn't a real football fan as a kid.  When I was about 10 (1981), I liked the Steelers.  Back then ,where I live, most kids either liked the Steelers or the Cowboys.

 

When I got to high school, my best friend was a big football fan and his team was the Broncos. I loosely latched onto the Browns, just because they were rivals and I was playfully going against my buddy.

 

When the Bills played the Giants in the Super Bowl, I was in the Navy.  I was at a shipmate's house to watch the game.  I figured that was the best time to finally pick a team, since both teams were NY teams (kind of).  I told my friends that I was flipping a quarter - heads, I root for the Bills; tails, I root for the Giants.  And whichever team I ended up with, I'd stay with for the rest of my life.

 

It landed heads.  And here I am decades later.

You could have deferred. ?

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Just now, Dopey said:

You could have deferred. ?

 

Ha!

 

Sometimes I think about what it would have been like had the coin landed on tails.  Three Super Bowls.  A three-hour commute, instead of 5.5 hours.

 

But everything happens for a reason.  Being a Bills fan has brought me good times and even better friends.  I'm glad it landed on heads.

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1 hour ago, MJS said:

Interesting. That's pretty surprising.

 

1 hour ago, Happy Gilmore said:

 

This is interesting.  Most people ran away from the Bills when the team collapsed and started wandering through the desert in the 2000's.  In fact, the younger to mid aged people I have met over the past several years, who have hailed from upstate NY, are typically Patriot fans.

My dad is a huge Bills fan. And weird enough a cowboys fan too, so it might of had to do with not wanting to cheer for the same team. I also really enjoyed that flashy Atlanta Falcon team, loved the black uniforms and all the flashy players. I also tend to go for the underdog teams. I’ve always followed the Bills and will always be a fan though. I just couldn’t get behind the Super Bowl teams. Too young to understand what they were 

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No I was born and raised in Buffalo...my best friend was a Raiders fan growing up so that 51-3 beatdown in the AFC Championship game was bragging rights for a long time...I still bust his chops to this day about it, haha

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My dad was a football fan, but didn’t really have a favorite team.  We moved a few times as I was growing up so we would just watch whatever games were on. After college I settled in the Utica area in 1979, and one of my new coworkers who became a good friend was originally from Fredonia and was a lifetime Bills fan.  He was the one who got me started watching and rooting for the Bills. 

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It was the only NFL team on TV. The Giants came on later on NBC but CBS covered the Bills where I'm from in upstate NY. My dad never liked pro sports but I did. I watched my first game as a kid in 1989. Watched them ever since.

 

No longer live in upstate NY but there is no way in Hell I'm rooting for another team. Ohhhhh I've been tempted. The spirit is strong but the flesh is weak but I overcame my temptation. Praise the Lord! Testify! j/k

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26 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

We have a good number of Wyo fans who came in with Josh Allen.

You guys probably have no idea, but I would say that the Bills are likely the second most popular NFL team (after the broncos) in our tiny (by population) state. My entire family converted to Bills fans and we've got a big family. There's tons of such cases. Josh is a big deal for the whole state of Wyoming. And I think Wyoming fans see parallels between Wyoming and Buffalo so it makes Buffalo an easy team to root for for us. 

 

When I bought my Josh Allen jersey the manager of the store said I was lucky to get one and that they could not keep them stocked. They sell immediately. Bills are popular here! 

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Living in South Carolina in the seventies, I grew up a Steelers "fan".  Casually pulled for Boomer Esiason's Bengals in the late eighties until I watched the Bills-Browns playoff game in 1989.

 

Many of you probably remember that that hard fought game in which the Browns dodged a late bullet to hang on and advance... but man, did the Bills impress me.  That team was so much fun to watch and little did I know what excitement lay ahead.

 

I jumped on the bandwagon just in time as the 1990 season was a total blast and the beginning of the Super Bowl run.  I've been an addict ever since.

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On ‎2‎/‎27‎/‎2020 at 3:32 PM, TPS said:

Grew up in SoCal a Rams fan. Moved to Buffalo in 1990 (for a job), the start of their Super Bowl run. Easy to become a fan, then Rams moved to St. Louis, so I never looked back. Love the city, the team, and the people. 

Now that's something you don't see too often.  Usually it's the other way around :D.  What kind of job did you move to Buffalo for? 

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It wasn’t until the 3rd grade that I knew I was hooked. Is that later in life? This was mid 60’s. My dad pulled out the newly arrived season tickets at the dinner table, and we went thru the schedule to see who would join him in the other seat for each game. I almost went over the table at my sister when she said she got the Raiders. We had 4 seats the next year. 

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On 2/27/2020 at 1:28 PM, Rc2catch said:

In my younger years I was an Atlanta Falcons fan. Loved Jeff George and Andre Rison and Jamal Anderson and the “dirty bird” 

I later converted to a Tennessee Titans fan with McNair and Jevon Kearse. I always followed the Bills but I’m one of the few who didn’t actually like the Super Bowl teams. 
I was never a big fan of Thurman or Kelly although I did like some of the other players. 
After the Super Bowl runs ended and the team blew up I became a much more dedicated fan. 


So, most likely you will be onto another team in a few years.

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I started out as a fan of the Baltimore Colts, when they moved to Indianapolis I started following the Steelers. The Steel Curtain, Franco, Swann etc were cool to root for for a few years. Eventually I got bored with them and rooted for the Chargers for a few years. Became a Saints fan after that and they're still my favorite NFC team.

 

Became a Bills fan in the early 80's when I was in my mid 20's and have been a fan through good and mostly bad since.

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