Were there ever years you were disinterested in the Bills?

[SoMAn]

Always look forward to football season with my Bills. Can't say I've ever had a year in which apathy set it.

 

May be different for me than some others.  I never dedicate my free relaxation time to vegging out on the sofa with college ball, baseball, basketball, or hockey, so Bills' football is my guilty pleasure every fall.

 

When I was younger I enjoyed basketball and hockey, but I just can't go halfway into it.  It's all or nothing, so I don't bother at all. 

To me it's like a Netflix episodic series. You're either going to be committed to it 100% or eschew it altogether. No point is just watching 2 0r 3. 

 

Baseball? When we were kids, everyone watched the world series. There used to be afternoon world series games that we'd catch when we came home from school.  My hometown Braves won the world series a couple of years ago. I couldn't tell you a single player on that team. That's how much I GAF.

 

So, the short answer for me is that Bills' football season is for me like Christmas for kids. Always involved every year.

[transient]

As some have said, never disinterested, but after the McKelvin fumble ('nuff said) I gave myself permission to do other things on Sundays that didn't p!ss me off so much in the interest of preserving my mental health. I watched the games if there was nothing better to do, but I didn't plan my schedule around them. I maintained that approach until Allen's rookie season, and now Bills games take relative priority again.

[RobbRiddick]

Who are the Bills?

[ddaryl]

Nope, every single year there is a reason to be hopeful.. Now I did not watch full games at times during the drought because it was too painful knowing the outcome was prety much written in stone by halftime to often

[TBBills Fan]

3 hours ago, Another Fan said:

Or every year since you’ve become a fan it’s been the same amount of passion every year?

 

 

From 2001-2006 I did fall a bit of Bills fandom/following the team.  Largely a result of being in college those years and not really much stood out from the team.  Just in retrospect Drew Bledsoe from memory.  

 

For me it was that time as well. (2001-2003( I was 22, living in Vegas, the team wasn't great, games were on early, and I had a lot of distractions. 

 

Now I was still there and a fan, but where I was at in life, they didn't get the time and attention I gave before and after the 

[boater]

"Were there ever years you were disinterested in the Bills?"

 

During the back-to-back 2-14 seasons, 1984ish.

 

Hank Bullough and Kay Stephenson were two totally uninspiring head coaches. This was during Ralph's cheap phase.

[Metal Man]

Never.

 

Grandma took me to a Bills game as a kid in the mid 80s and I don't think I have missed watching a game since. Like someone mentioned before up thread, Sundays being reserved for the Bills was always something that was brought up early in any of my relationships and something my wife has now embraced.

 

Sabres on the other hand.... 🤢

[corta765]

My fandom steadily grew as I got older and once I started dating my wife who is bigger fan then me (I am huge fan shes just better fan wise) it took off in 2009 lol. My brother and I look back at how delusional we probably were in years like 2011 before the season started that the team was a playoff team. The NFL truly does sell hope better than any other sport. Also because the drought by 2010 was long you kinda felt like you were due to back in at some point which didn't help drinking the koolaid.

 

I will say years like 2011/2012/2015/2016 where they started 5-2 or 4-3 etc once they were out of it minus completely wild mathematics I def checked out on the season. The 2010 offseason may have been the most depressing just because the Bills were so out in the wilderness and you couldn't pay a decent name to come here. Buddy Nix saying "we got the guy we wanted" when guys like Cowher & Mike Shanahan wouldn't even take an interview was awful. Add on the teams future was so murky long term and the upcoming stadium lease was a major question... yea it was tough to get pumped for that year. My wife and I still went to a preseason game and three regular season games, but that was legit partly to tailgate and walking in at 1pm minus the home opener was a borderline ritual for most fans as the season went on haha.

 

I think 2016 probably was worst though for me at end of season because the hype train failed badly, the defense was wrecked (Rexed), the big name coach you had hoped would at least get a playoff berth instead made it worse. I remember heading into 2017 knowing good players like Mario, Robert Woods, etc were leaving just felt like will this thing ever turn around and here comes another rebuild. It was the irony of ironies that the drought died in 2017 because just about everyone predicting that year had the Bills near the basement and I distinctly remember week 1 be billed nationally as the toilet bowl between the Jets & Bills as no one was even sure they would win more than a game or two apiece. We do a massive Bills party week 1 yearly (since 2013) and that was the most relaxed easy going viewing ever because expectations were so low lol.

[Gunsgoodtime]

4 hours ago, Bills!Win! said:

Lots of people rave about the Gailey/Fitzpatrick years. To be honest I wasn’t too thrilled with having Donald Jones and David Nelson and Naaman Roosevelt as our receivers. What a waste 

Looks familiar lol

[KOKBILLS]

[Another Fan]

47 minutes ago, corta765 said:

My fandom steadily grew as I got older and once I started dating my wife who is bigger fan then me (I am huge fan shes just better fan wise) it took off in 2009 lol. My brother and I look back at how delusional we probably were in years like 2011 before the season started that the team was a playoff team. The NFL truly does sell hope better than any other sport. Also because the drought by 2010 was long you kinda felt like you were due to back in at some point which didn't help drinking the koolaid.

 

I will say years like 2011/2012/2015/2016 where they started 5-2 or 4-3 etc once they were out of it minus completely wild mathematics I def checked out on the season. The 2010 offseason may have been the most depressing just because the Bills were so out in the wilderness and you couldn't pay a decent name to come here. Buddy Nix saying "we got the guy we wanted" when guys like Cowher & Mike Shanahan wouldn't even take an interview was awful. Add on the teams future was so murky long term and the upcoming stadium lease was a major question... yea it was tough to get pumped for that year. My wife and I still went to a preseason game and three regular season games, but that was legit partly to tailgate and walking in at 1pm minus the home opener was a borderline ritual for most fans as the season went on haha.

 

I think 2016 probably was worst though for me at end of season because the hype train failed badly, the defense was wrecked (Rexed), the big name coach you had hoped would at least get a playoff berth instead made it worse. I remember heading into 2017 knowing good players like Mario, Robert Woods, etc were leaving just felt like will this thing ever turn around and here comes another rebuild. It was the irony of ironies that the drought died in 2017 because just about everyone predicting that year had the Bills near the basement and I distinctly remember week 1 be billed nationally as the toilet bowl between the Jets & Bills as no one was even sure they would win more than a game or two apiece. We do a massive Bills party week 1 yearly (since 2013) and that was the most relaxed easy going viewing ever because expectations were so low lol.

I def remember you writing up some pretty good detailed summaries of the games from those 2009-2015 years.  

 

Maybe because I had been away from fandom a number of years before then but I was back with full passion and drank the KoolAid.

 

 

I’ll always say 2012 was the most disappointing season of fandom in my life.  Just in the huge gap where I thought the team could finish and where they actually wound up.  

[loedward22]

2 hours ago, Jauronimo said:

Based on the timeline, it doesn't look like going to class was one of those distractions. 😅

Or maybe there was more than a bachelor’s degree involved 

[Jauronimo]

Just now, loedward22 said:

Or maybe there was more than a bachelor’s degree involved 

I considered that but determined it was unlikely.  

[Sestak4ever]

1959

[The Frankish Reich]

1984/85: I honestly can't remember watching a Bills game. Post-Chuck Knox, boring teams, sad old Fergie, then Vince Ferragamo (had to look it up), before Jim Kelly, plus I was in college and just a little distracted....

 

... I can't believe I stuck with the team in those JP Losman/Trent Edwards years. But I did.

[Mark Vader]

Never.

 

Always interested.

[Dan]

3 hours ago, Augie said:

I was never disinterested, but there was a time in the 80’s into the early 90’s when it was hard to follow them. I wasn’t living locally, and the NFL had yet to take over the media world. I would go to Chili’s for lunch on Tuesdays because they had the USA Today at the bar and they had maybe two sentences on each NFL team. THAT was my weekly Bills fix. Imagine that today with the NFL being a 24/7 non-stop hype machine! 

Those are the years that my Shout! Subscription saved me!

 

 

For me, it was the Rex years.   Didn’t like him. He was all hype!  I knew as long as he was bumbling around the team had no chance.  I wouldn’t say I was disinterested, so much as I just found better things to do with my time. 
 

2016 was the first time I didn’t watch a Bills. I used to do everything imaginable every Sunday to watch those crappy teams!  But in 2016, my work took me to the USVI.. then it was one Sunday trying to find a feed.. that it dawned on me… I could be at a beautiful beach with a rum drink.  Seemed ridiculous to sit inside and watch the team lose after that… so I had about a year or so.. of just having far better options and was a bit more picky about which games I would try to watch.    

Edited July 10 by Dan

[corta765]

31 minutes ago, Another Fan said:

I def remember you writing up some pretty good detailed summaries of the games from those 2009-2015 years.  

 

Maybe because I had been away from fandom a number of years before then but I was back with full passion and drank the KoolAid.

 

 

I’ll always say 2012 was the most disappointing season of fandom in my life.  Just in the huge gap where I thought the team could finish and where they actually wound up.  

 

Appreciate that.

 

Outside of 2015 I would say 2012 was by far the hardest season fandom for most Bills fans. Even the hardest Bills critics like Jerry Sullivan of the Buffalo News predicted them in the playoffs as the offense was pretty good the year prior and the defense added Mario, Gilmore, Bradham, & Mark Anderson along with Dareus in year 2. The schedule looked decent enough and the good vibes with Fitz still existed.

 

The Titans game before the bye broke me that season. The Titans were not a good team themselves (went 6-10) and Chris Johnson just ran all over the defense you had high hopes for. Even so they had the lead late and could've went into the bye at 4-3 with some very winnable games down the stretch so playoffs were still very real. Then Fitz Fitz'd, the defense wilted badly and to me it was over with Gailey. At that point I felt between Coach QB & GM it just wasn't there and it was gonna be another reset.

[JP51]

My first game was the Oakland Raiders/Bill Pre Season game in 1973...  2nd game at the Stadium... I was 5.... I think I can count on one hand Bills games I have not seen on TV, attended at the stadium or listened to on the radio (as we did alot back in the 70s 80's and some 90s... )  So no... I have never been disinterested ... Frustrated... yes... but if I go back and look at my rants during the 2-12 years... the Ringo, Stevenson, Bullough, Jauron, Phillips,  Marrone, Gailey years I was probably more interested based on the amount of time I spent ranting and raving like a small slighted child about them LOL....  

[Golden*Wheels]

I took a HARD hiatus post Music City Forward Lateral then came back in 2002 when we traded for Drew. 

 

It was a short period overall, but I watched NOTHING Bills related. I'm not even sure I watched those Superbowls. I just went hard no football. 

 

Then I gots to jonesin....Drew was a big move....found the BB.com forum....now I'm just a regular junkie again.