A Lions fan's memories -- does this all sound familiar?

[Utah John]

My Lifelong Obsession With the Worst Team in the NFL - The Atlantic

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/detroit-lions-nfl-football-fan-defeat/675220/

 

Boy, when I was reading this, I kept thinking how it was just the same for Bills fans, but probably even worse, although the Bills never lost all their games in any season.  The Bills have had five islands of competence in an ocean of muck -- the mid 60s AFL champs, the 73-75 Saban v.2 plus OJ years (more like a shoal than an island since they made the playoffs only once and lost that game), the Chuck Knox years, the great mountain of success and sadness in the early 90s, and now.  Maybe 20 years, tops, of good play out of 62 or 63 years on the field.  

 

The Lions had the Packers who owned them.  The 60s Bills had the Chiefs, the 70s Bills had the Dolphins, the 70s Bills had the Steelers, and the late 90s-early 2000s had the Patriots.  Always a really dominant team that happened to be there whenever the Bills put together a decent team.  The current team has played about even with their nemesis, the Chiefs, in the regular season, but hasn't broken through in the playoffs (yet?).

 

The great writing in this article brought back memories.  Alberta was glued to the TV during the draft the day his son was born.  On the day our daughter was born, I was glued to the TV watching the Bills play the Dolphins, beating them to clinch the AFC East.  Both of us report our wives being irked by this.  

 

I will say this about all the losing seasons.  They do make the winning sweet.  But then again I'd guess the Patriot fans felt pretty sweet about winning and winning and winning, over and over.  They say hitting yourself in the head with a hammer makes you feel better when you stop, but I think never getting hit in the head in the first place is the way to go.

 

Go Bills!  THIS season is the "next year" as in "we'll get there next year."