Do the Bills Even Have a Hated Division Rival?

[machine gun kelly]

Short answer- F them all.  I’m not crazy about the Chiefs, Ravens, or Bungals, but respect them for their accomplishments.  They deserve a healthy respect.

[BuffaloBillyG]

For me it's the Jets and it's largely because of their fan base. I love when we shut their loud mouths up.

[BuffaloBaumer]

12 minutes ago, US Egg said:

You want to beat opponents in your division for the obvious reasons. The notion that they look across the field seething more so than when non division teams are over there simply plays well with fans and media. Doubt they’d be more pumped wanting to beat a mediocre division rival than a top tier team.

After watching the AFC North Hard Knocks, it is very real for the players in that division. Joey Porter even went on to say that he would never even go to a restaurant in Cleveland, Baltimore or Cinci. They genuinely all hate each other. 

[BuffaloMatt]

1 hour ago, hondo in seattle said:

Deep history: Fins

More recent history: Pats

 

Current: Chiefs

 

Hatred poisons the soul, so I try not to hate anyone but it's frustrating to keep watching the Bills beat the Chiefs in the regular season only to lose to them in the playoffs.  I don't "hate" the Chiefs per se but I don't root for them either and would be happy if they somehow missed the playoffs this season.  Other teams and fanbases deserve some of their success.  

"My hate will die with you"

 

- Robert the Bruce Smith

 

 

[Lost]

Chiefs and Ravens and the 2023 Dolphins when everyone was anointing them Super Bowl champions after week 3

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Good question!

 

To be a rival in my opinion you need to be on equal footing and play meaningful games. So for the 1970's the Dolphins owned the Bills. It became a rivalry in Sept 1980 and continued through the 1990's as the teams battled for division titles and had meaningful playoff games. 

 

Pats with Brady just beat us. They were ok with Stanley, Grogan, Bledsoe and Coates but always one step below the Dolphins. Oddly though they made two SuperBowls before Brady and Marino only made it to one - mostly beacuase of losing to the Bills!  Once Brady arrived we were just not competitive with them. Can't be a rival when you are losing repeatedly over a decade and a half. 

 

Jets just are never good long enough to matter even though for some reason the Jets give Josh all kinds of problems. 

 

Edited August 8 by Ethan in Cleveland

[corta765]

Dolphins have/were that team. The issue is neither team is relevant from 2000 on until Buffalo got good so it became middling. With that said the 2022/2023 some of that hatred came back quick between the infamous Sun Game in 2022 (plus Miami was still in the division race when we beat them later in the year) and then Buffalo coming back to take the division crown in 2023. You truthfully need both teams to be relevant though for it to regain form. Buffalo has been whopping on Miami the way New England did on us so I know Phin fans do not like us at all, but honestly I laugh at Miami the way Patriot fans laughed at us.

 

To me the Chiefs are our prime rival at this point and it has been that way even before Mahomes as the in 2014 that loss took us out of the playoffs at home and the next year the loss in KC again hurt our playoff chances. KC v BUF has had a decade now playoff implications now to SB implications.

 

I will say I have a sizable hatred for Jacksonville. They always have our damn number in the playoffs or games with national attention like England. It is why to me whopping them at home felt so good last year on MNF because they get these weird freaking wins against us even if we are good.

[julian]

#1 Ravens because of the insecure fan base 

#2 Bengals because the arrogance of many Bengal players and the Media’s love affair with Burrow.

#3 Chiefs for obvious reasons.

 

i have zero feelings for the fellow division teams, until any of the 3 can field a QB to challenge Allen I just see W’s with no emotion.

[Warriorspikes51]

1 hour ago, dorquemada said:

Chiefs are the big rival, but why hate them?  If their victories over us were questionable, it would be one thing.  I think it's still ok to hate the dolphins, but Im of a certain age where i watched us lose to them 10 years in a row.

 

uhhh did you watch the AFC Championship? lol 

[wjag]

26 minutes ago, Walking Tall said:

Yep. I hate Baltimore.

 

Me too.  I live in Maryland so I have 24-7-365 exposure to Thug-U.

[Whites Bay]

After 17 years of getting drubbed by the Pats*, I'm unable to let it go - regardless of the fact that the Pats* were better/Bills poorly coached and managed/blah blah blah.  F-em.  Few things in life bring me greater joy than watching the Pats* get curb-stomped.  This having been said, I have to admit that I enjoyed watching them drink from a poisoned chalice as they beat the Bills last year and cost themselves like 4 draft slots.

 

Now it's the playoff Chiefs.  Not regular season.  Always seem to handle that part okay.

[dorquemada]

15 minutes ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

 

uhhh did you watch the AFC Championship? lol 

 

Yeah I watched our D show up small when it counted the most.  Every game, and I mean EVERY SINGLE NFL GAME has terrible officiating.  Whining that they have it out for a given team is just cope.  I've said it before, AI driven video analytics are the only way to go for officiating.

[Southern McButterpants.]

A lot of posts are saying that both teams need to be "good" for the rivalry to be relevant. I disagree.  Chief/Raiders has long been one of the best rivalries in the NFL. I can probably count on one hand the number of times they've both been "good."

 

And I'll chime in on the Phins. I will never not hate the Dolphins.  I dislike the Pat*s, but truly hates their fanbase (and that stupid accent) more than the team. Jets always have been and look to continue to be irrelevant.  

[Scott7975]

I'll always hate the Dolphins. Have since the 80s. Their fans to this day talk a lot of trash and then run away when Daddy Josh owns them again. I hate the Ravens too but thats mostly because of the fans are some of the most hateful group in the league. They get disgusting on twitter. Cheifs I dont really hate. Just want to get over the hump. Although their fans are pretty spoiled like Pats fans were. I hated the Pats back in the day because they always kicked our ass. I respect Brady and Belichick for how good they were though.

[technobot]

My daughter bought a pack of stickers and gave me the Eagles sticker. After tearing it into a million pieces, I gently explained to her as much as I love the NFL, I am predisposed to dislike every other team on a spectrum.

 

Tier 1 - Hatred: These teams, their fans, their families, their pets, their churches, anything associated with them are despised, their mere mention raising my already elevated blood pressure. When completing a task that requires extraordinary effort, I think of these teams, channel the anger, and push through. Watching these teams lose (barring some strange scenario requiring a win) brings joy comparable to a Bills victory.

 

Cowboys (I decided in the early 90s that the Cowboys were to be hated for the rest of eternity. Still unsure if I hate the Cowboys more than I love the Bills)

Dolphins (there will forever be a special place in my cold, black heart for these clowns. The current iteration with Hill and McDaniel makes the hate even more delicious)

Patriots (they could lose the rest of their games from now until the end of the NFL and it would still never be enough)

Jets (with any other team other than this one and the Browns, sympathy might lessen the hate a little bit. But their owner and fans make it so easy to continue as is)

Chiefs (hatred shared with most of NFL fandom, apparently)

Ravens (Just a dirty team... having been punched in the face by these guys, always a little triggered when we face them)

Bengals (Forever riding their recent Super Bowl appearance, punch in the face kind of cocky, lead by their smarmy QB. The goodwill from backdooring us to the playoffs is long gone)

[RoscoeParrish]

2 hours ago, dorquemada said:

Chiefs are the big rival, but why hate them?  If their victories over us were questionable, it would be one thing.  I think it's still ok to hate the dolphins, but Im of a certain age where i watched us lose to them 10 years in a row.

I hate them because I think we would have multiple SB trips without them. 
 

Why not hate them

[dorquemada]

3 minutes ago, RoscoeParrish said:

I hate them because I think we would have multiple SB trips without them. 
 

Why not hate them

 

Fair enough!

[Another Fan]

2 hours ago, machine gun kelly said:

Old an, thanks for setting this youngins straight.  Maybe you’re not aware that the f#$&cking Fish beat us 20 straight times in the 70’s.  When we beat them on September 17th 1980 in Rich Stadium, we tore the goal posts down in jubilation.  F the fish.

 

Your remarks indicate you’re young.  My father still hates the Japanese for Pearl.  He’s 95.  I try and and have him talk down, but he can’t forget how he felt at 11 when those bastards invaded Pearl.  It’s true, they were the greatest generation.  Thank god my wife is Chinese as he loves her.  It’s irrational, but my point was not xenophobia, just something like that scars you.

 

I hate the Fish with every fiber of my being.  The Cheats beat a mediocre, poorly managed Bills for 20 years.  We had Saban for a short time in the 70’s, and it was Knox who led us to our first victory over those slimy bastages.

 

I will never ever not hate the Fish.  If you were in you’re 50’s or older, you’d never write these words.

While I don’t dispute that and hear you

 

Sometimes I’m surprised how many Bills fans have totally moved on from their hatred of the Patriots.  I mean Brady had more wins in Buffalo than a lot of Bills QBs had in their career.  
 

Since the Josh Allen era the Bills/Dolphins history of head to head matchups is pretty even.  

Edited August 8 by Another Fan

[JP51]

all of them... every last one of em ... trying to take away my happiness..... LOL hate em all. 

[Buffalo ill]

How relevant both teams are matters a lot in rivalries.  The 90's Bills are the reason the Dolphins were kept out of the superbowl.  It's like the Chiefs and Bills in recent years.

 

The Patriots dynasty happened in a two decade window where the Bills were a dumpster fire.  The games between the two teams didn't matter because there was no threat that the Bills would ever challenge NE for a division title, much less the playoffs.