Colin Sheridan: After 25 years of irrelevance, Buffalo Bills give a forgotten town hope

Mon, 11 Jan, 2021 - 00:00

I once worked with a chap from Buffalo, New York. He described the town as “a skidmark on the toilet bowl of America”.

When other compatriots weighed in, sharing their lack of affection for the city, far from becoming suddenly proud and possessive of his hometown, he’d undercut and reassure them; “it’s way shittier than you think”.

Cleveland will always have LeBron. Milwaukee had Happy Days and the Fonz. Atlanta, Martin Luther King, and Childish Gambino.

Buffalo? Nothing. Unless you count rapper Benny the Butcher. There is no Beat poetry inspired by the city. No Breaking Bad to cement its status amongst pop culturalists. It sits perched on the edge of Lake Erie, like a forgotten pup from a litter of old industrial American cities. If Niagara Falls wasn’t on its doorstep, it’s unlikely it would be visited by anybody, ever, only by mistake.

Except; it has football. The 2021 iteration of the Buffalo Bills won the franchise’s first playoff game in 25 years on Saturday night, stuttering past the Indianapolis Colts. If the victory itself was not convincing, the sense amongst the Bills faithful that something special is building, certainly is.

Buffalo rolled into the post-season on the shortlist of favourites for the Super Bowl. Their third year quarterback Josh Allen has finally found his groove, consistently mixing the sublime with the ridiculous, often in the same play. His relationship with wide receiver Stefon Diggs has lit up the league, earning them a 13-3 regular season record and AFC East title.

January is the coldest month of the year in West New York, temperatures often plummeting to -20C. Such conditions can lend themselves to conservative, ground-based, running football. The less time the ball is in the air, the less room for error. With Allen and Diggs, that fear is gone.

Even the quarterback’s missteps are accepted with the expectation he will figure it out as he goes. On Saturday night in Orchard Park, Allen provided ample evidence to back up that belief. Allen threw, ran, fumbled and scrambled his way to a dramatic victory. Like the city he represents, it wasn’t pretty.

But in playoff football, only one mantra matters; survive and advance.

Buffalo has waited a long time for this. Of the 32 franchises in the NFL, 12 have never won a Super Bowl. Of that dozen, there are none more storied than Buffalo. From 1991 to 1994, the Bills appeared in four straight Super Bowls, losing all of them. This was their Beat generation. They lost each showdown in different ways; from heartbreaking one point losses to crushing blow-outs.

Each of those four seasons, they were led by their quarterback Jim Kelly, a man who has since become Buffalo’s most beloved son, his 10 years steering the Bills are only part of the reason why.

After retiring, he stayed in Buffalo, which was ironic as when he was first drafted by the Bills in 1983, it was literally the last place he wanted to go, so he didn’t.

Kelly had been a star at the University of Miami, and wanted to stay in warmer climes. Not realising Buffalo had two picks in quick succession, he celebrated the Bills not choosing him with the 12th pick. Putting a brave face on after being drafted 14th by Buffalo, he prayed for an out, and it came when the rival league USFL — an ultimately doomed enterprise that counted Donald Trump as a team owner — offered Kelly the pick of its franchises to front. He chose the warm air of Houston, Texas, until the league folded in 1986. Kelly had no choice but to return to Buffalo if he wanted to play ball. He did, and has never left.

Kelly’s only son, Hunter, died at the age of eight after battling Krabbe disease since birth. Much of Kelly’s post- football life has been dedicated to the care of his son and charity work to raise awareness of the disease. Kelly himself survived a plane crash and has battled cancer, twice. He credits the city of Buffalo and its people for being a major reason why he survived.

And so, finally, after a quarter of a century of irrelevance, a city and its team get to write a new history. On Saturday night, 6,700 fans spaced out in Orchard Park, a stadium that usually accommodates 72,000 Buffalonians, and a tailgating scene that is as infamous as it is messy (pre-game rituals include body slamming tables of food, and a ketchup and mustard spraying ritual that beggars belief).

For the 25 years since Kelly led them to their last playoff victory, the fanbase has feted the worst of teams imaginable with the most manic of fandom, usually in sub-zero temperatures. It’s quite typical that, after waiting so long for something to celebrate, the stands are practically empty, parking lots condiment free.

There is another side to this sporting zealotry; the “Bills Mafia” has monetised their notoriety, raising over $1m in donations for charities, proving there is a philanthropic method behind their madness.

The Bills path to Tampa Bay and Super Bowl LV on February 7 is far from assured, however. Should they survive the next two rounds, they will likely face the reigning champions Kansas City Chiefs led by wunderkind QB Patrick Mahomes in a divisional championship game. Now that the “playoff win” burden has been expelled, no team will want to face them, especially in West New York.

I reached out to my Buffalo buddy after they defeated the Colts on Saturday night, reminding him of his toilet bowl quip. “It’s true!” he countered, before qualifying the remark. “It’s also known as the City of Good Neighbours. We are a forgotten town, we need each other now more than ever.”

That probably explains why Jim Kelly never left. After so long in a literal and figurative wilderness, it’s likely the people of Buffalo don’t care what anyone else thinks.

It may be the very quality that leads them to glory.