Let's start at the beginning. My parents took me to Sears department store in Big Flats, NY around the year of 1980 for a winter coat for school. I can't recall the selection (of team jackets) they had back then but I'm pretty sure it was very limited (maybe 1 or 2 teams). I returned home with a Pittsburgh Steelers coat and winter hat (the old school kind with the gold puffy ball at the top and the logo sewn on the folded up bottom). And I was a Pittsburg Steelers fan. After all they had just won like 4 Super Bowls in the 70's. I was a product of my time you could say. I went to my first Bills game around 1981 actually rooting against the Bills because they were playing the Steelers in a pre-season game. I dislike the Bills even more because some loud mouth a row back kept shouting "LET'S GO BUFFALO!" over and over again! At any rate at a young age football didn't keep my attention very long and I didn't really start following sports until I was about 9 or 10 which brings us to 1984. I would emerge a Bills and Giants fan because that's who they televised locally and I would root for the Bills in the AFC and the Giants in the NFC. I lived about 2 1/2 hrs from Buffalo and 4 hrs from NYC area and still do today (Elmira, NY).
You say what about the Jets? Come on, really, the Jets in the 80's. So I would see the transition from Joe Furgeson and Joe Cribbs to players like Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, and Bruce Smith for the Bills. For the Giants I loved Phil Simms, Joe Morris and Lawrence Taylor and enjoyed their Super Bowl win over the Broncos in the '86 season. I was always able to attend Buffalo games (usually once or twice a year) throughout the mid to late 80's because my Uncle had season tickets, but never went to a Giants game. The Bills transformed from cellar dwellers (84-85) to best in the AFC (89-93). It was exhilirating seeing a team that won 2 games all year develop into an explosive offense in the K-Gun no huddle offense. Of course, in late January of 1991 the 2 teams from separate conferences I pulled for met in Super Bowl XXV. I had a decision to make. A big one. But, there was really no thought behind it and here are a few of the reasons why: 1) having attended Bills games for years 2) living in upstate NY 3) the Giants are really a NJ team (and had already won a Super Bowl) 4) having obnoxious friends who were Giant fans 4) Jeff Hostetler had taken over QB for the Giants over Phil Simms 5) Bill Parcells is a dick. So I was Bills all the way in that game. After that game, I broke any ties ever pulling for the Giants again due to the heart-breaking fashion the game ended and the ribbing I endured amongst my Giant fan friends. After 3 more Super Bowl losses and even more ribbing for being a Bills fan I had the complex. The Buffalo Bills fan chip on the shoulder "you can't win the big one" with 4 straight Super Bowl losses. Instead of being a fan of a very successful team (which I was), I was seen as a fan of a loser. After mediocre teams in the late 90's, the Bills returned to playoff form under Doug Flutie in 2000-01. What a great little player defying all the odds. A winner in every sense. And after a great season led by Flutie at QB, they turn the reigns over to Rob F-in Johnson when the playoffs started. Which leads us to Buffalo's last playoff appearance. That's right, the Music City Miracle game vs Tennessee. The rest of the decade was very supbar. AND NOW, a new decade, the present 2010, and a renewed hope for this upstate Central Southern Tier New York fan. "LET'S GO BUFFALO!".
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