Welcome to your new and improved life as a Buffalo Bills fan! More touchdowns, more wins, more national window games, and more division crowns!
The Bills are living the good life these days, with talk of … *cough cough* … sorry here, I’ll spit it out: The SUPER BOWL being realistic.
Seriously, you can talk about the Super Bowl, and not get laughed out of the room. Sure, there are a few good teams that might have something to say about the Bills' pursuit of that, but that’s part of the game.
But with all this good stuff comes something else, it’d seem.
In the last couple days or weeks, there are a few members of the "Take Industrial Complex" that see an opportunity to seize. While Buffalo isn’t the guaranteed interaction that the Dallas Cowboys or Ohio State Football might be, the "Take Industrial Complex" might look to jump on quarterback Josh Allen.
FOX Sports’ Nick Wright, a very good host, Syracuse grad, and Kansas City Chiefs fan, appears ready to troll "Bills Mafia" for all they’re worth. The engagement and back-and-forth is just enough to get "Bills Mafia", fresh off a fight over Allen’s “unfair” post-draft treatment, amped up for another fight.
Lots of people got Allen wrong, as a draft prospect. I was one of them.
I was very afraid of Allen as a prospect because watching him, he didn’t appear to be all that good at the quarterbacking. There was just so much work he had to do at the position, and I listened to a lot of folks that thought the lift would be too heavy.
The Bills took that chance on him, though, and they appear to be have won big time.
I will say again, and again, and again, that I am not sorry for having been wrong. You don’t have to apologize for thinking something might happen and getting it wrong. I promise. It’s okay. We don’t have to take ourselves all that seriously and we don’t have to "Old Takes Exposed" each other into a fear of ever saying anything that we think about sports.
If you thought he was going to be great from the jump, great. If you didn’t think Allen was very good until he became very good, that’s okay too. We’re not all supposed to be able to tell the future, and that’s precisely why we’re all into this. We don’t know what’s going to happen.
But that’s not what I’m getting at this time.
We live in a time where having an outlandish sports opinion, or moreover any outlandish opinion, will get you attention. We all know how the game works, right? As someone that is in this business, there’s no use denying that you can say things just to say them. Perhaps you think I’ve done this before, but I don’t think I ever have.
Somewhere between the self-awareness of “No, really, I THINK THIS” and just trying to make for good conversation, there can be a grey area, but we all accept it for what it is.
(Yes, the tank was smart. Yes, it worked. Yes, I would offer sheet NHL restricted free agents relentlessly. Yes, I think a “bordering Canada division” might have been a smart play for the NFL at some point. Yes, I’d take condiments over spices.)
If you’re good, you get attention, and you get:
- Is Joe Flacco elite?
- Should the Cowboys pay Dak Prescott?
- Can Peyton Manning win the big game?
- What’s going on with Carson Wentz?
- Are the Green Bay Packers sending Aaron Rodgers a message?
- Is LeBron James as good as Michael Jordan?
- Is Kevin Durant a traitor?
- Can Lamar Jackson win a playoff game?
- Hey, Tony Romo wore a hat backwards!
I’m sure you can think of plenty more, right? Every once in a while, you can get on this list for being a horrible team (tanking debates and all that).
We talk about sports. A lot. The Bills and Allen won’t command that spotlight at 8-8 or 9-7, and in the shadow of another team in the division.
The closest thing might have been the Tyrod Taylor debate, and that never felt like a real debate. Most Bills fans accepted him as pretty good, but wanted more. I can remember feeling like our biggest beef with national coverage was being treated like a fanbase that should be happy with a certain level of player, and not push for more. “Hey 9-7 is pretty good... FOR THE BILLS.”
You remember it, right? You remember hearing and feeling that and what it meant. Well, that’s gone. The division’s long-reigning king has fallen. We will soon shift from seeing the division as a layover, rather than a destination. Their next playoff game will go a long way to driving the conversation around them.
Lose first round, and that chatter gets louder everywhere.
Lose to Kansas City, anywhere, and it might quickly become, “Until you can beat Patrick Mahomes, you’re just the kid brother.”
The Bills are good, and the expectations are soaring around here, and around the country.
First division title in 25 years. Franchise quarterback. Consistent prime-time appearances.
We’re seeing a new side of football life, and we’ll be getting everything that comes with it. For better, or for worse.
Where would you rather be, right?