Open letter to Buffalo Bills fans saying ‘next year’

Sometimes I emphasize the fact that I was born at such a horrible time for a Buffalo sports fan. My first football memory was the Music City Miracle, but it was the 2000 regular season that I started to follow every game closely as a kid.

The 2000 season was the year the 17-year playoff drought began. Those 17 years were all I knew of NFL football. Lose. Pains. Heart pain. Such was life as a Bills fan throughout my childhood, teenage years and young adulthood.

So what we have been blessed with in the last three years is a great thing. Josh Allen is a superstar quarterback who ranks among the top 2-3 quarterbacks in the NFL. He may be the most physically gifted quarterback in history, and that’s no understatement.

Last night we should have talked about Josh Allen being the clubhouse leader to win this year’s Super Bowl title.

Allen completed 27 of 37 passes for 329 yards and 4 touchdowns last night, rushing for an additional 68 yards. He had nearly 800 total yards and 9 touchdown passes in two games without a turnover. Not only is that great, it’s the best two-game stretch in NFL playoff history.

The Bills had won twice last night; most notably 36-33 by 13 seconds. The Bills had two all-time great NFL drives led by Josh Allen. Seriously, that first drive was legendary, especially considering the 27-yard touchdown pass to Gabriel Davis in 4th and 13th and the fact that Allen got a rabbit out of a hat on the 2-point conversion to Stefon Diggs pulled.

The Bills’ defense and coaching lost the game to them, with a historically poor defensive strategy by the Chiefs to put two games within field goal reach and kick the game-winning field goal. Why was Travis Kelce allowed to roam free? Why didn’t anyone hit him from the line of scrimmage? I have less trouble not doing squib kicks because of Mecole Hardman and Tyreek Hill back there, so I get it, but the defensive strategy is a choke job.

But the NFL overtime rules are terrible. Yes, the Bills defense screwed up, but the NFL overtime rules are terrible — either can be true, it doesn’t have to be one or the other.

The fact that Josh Allen didn’t get a chance to touch the ball in overtime is beyond ridiculous. That would be like one team hitting a home run at the top of the 10th inning and then simply ending the game without the other team having a chance of three at-bats.

One thing I couldn’t take the last 24 hours, and I’ve been told this a lot since last night, is that “you’ll get it next year” or “next year is your year”.

Or things like “The Bills will be back” and “Don’t worry Bills fans, you have a great young quarterback and you’re going to win one.”

I want to take that to heart. I REALLY want to take this stuff to heart. Deep down I know Allen is great and this team will probably be very good again next season. But will they be as good as this season’s team? Maybe, but they’re not a good chance.

We don’t know what the future will bring. Look at Dan Marino, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time and one of the most gifted QBs of all time. He went to the Super Bowl (lost) in his sophomore season and never came back.

Even guys like Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. They won a Super Bowl shortly after getting the starting job in Green Bay and never won another. Jim Kelly, as we all know, never won one.

You just don’t know Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly and Drew Brees have collectively won THREE Super Bowl titles in 75 combined years. It’s very, very difficult to win a Super Bowl. Too much talent and different variables come into play to take on anything.

Bills fans can wallow in misery for a while. That loss on Sunday night was a record. It’s right there with Wide Right, No Goal. Game 7 2006 and all the other terrible heartbreaks in Buffalo sports history.

I feel for people like my dad who has never seen the Bills win a Super Bowl and he’s 60 and who knows how many more times he’ll have to watch his Bills go all the way.

Buffalo deserves a Super Bowl. Last night was terrible. If you don’t want to hear about “next year”, neither do I and many others.

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