What Do You Miss Most About The Bills Being In The Playoffs?

[BillsImpossible]

I miss the fun and excitement of waking up on a cold Sunday January morning knowing the Bills are going to crush Marino and the Fish.

I miss hanging out with my family in front of the fireplace watching the Bills roll over their opponents with a bucket of extra extra crispy hot wings, and a LCP at halftime. I miss the hot delivery girl.

That was so long ago.

If the Bills were 8-5 today, the last thing any of us here would be doing this Sunday is Christmas shopping, putting up lights or decorating a freaking tree with ornaments and tinsel. That's the wifey's job, not mine.

When the Bills are winning, everybody wants to be around each other and have a party. Unfortunately, the parties haven't lasted longer than a few weeks past Labor Day for way too long.

When they're losing, people don't want to hang out as much, and that so sucks balls. It's like getting your nose rubbed with a smelly sock that hasn't been washed in 14 years. Green Bay fans are thinking of making cheese from them at this point.

I miss hanging out with my closest friends and family when the Bills are in the playoffs.

Talk about missed opportunities.

[Meathead]

yeah the excitement and anticipation is great, like a buzz going around. and then it always crashes down to reality. lol

i like the bills regular season better than the sabres regular season and i like the sabres playoffs better than bills playoffs. missing either playoffs sucks but hockeys a little tougher. football is one game so its sort of on and then over in three hours, but a hockey series is like a repeating marathon of battles. football intensity is short bursts between somewhat long waits, while playoff hockey is intense pretty much the whole time between whistles

wow im making myself sad right now

[BuffaloRedleg]

It's amazing to say that I'm 29 ******* years old and I hardly remember what playoffs were like. I mean it's one thing if you are 18-22 and oh it's been a few unlucky years and you weren't as much into football in High School. But I'm almost 30 and I literally can't even remember the excitement of a playoff game.

My last memory was throwing my pizza at the TV after the music city miracle and thinking oh well maybe next year.

[BillsImpossible]

It's okay, Meat. Hang in there bub. Don't do anything drastic like suffocate yourself in Handi-Wrap.

[WagonCircler]

I miss being 36 years old.

Wow. I had to check the math on that.

[mightysimi]

I miss talking about relevant topics in December and not the draft

[Mace]

It's amazing to say that I'm 29 ******* years old and I hardly remember what playoffs were like. I mean it's one thing if you are 18-22 and oh it's been a few unlucky years and you weren't as much into football in High School. But I'm almost 30 and I literally can't even remember the excitement of a playoff game.

My last memory was throwing my pizza at the TV after the music city miracle and thinking oh well maybe next year.

Poor kid. I mean that too. I feel bad for people who missed out on the best of it. It sounds stupid, but it united the city and people with this shared festival experience. During the Bills run with a playoff game going, I remember going to work on a bus. The streets were dead silent on the West Side, but you could hear people cheering inside as you walked. Got on the bus, driver had the radio going. People on the bus cheered when they scored. Walked into the building, , heard the game, guard hit the intercom and gave me the score. Walked back into the computer center where I worked, the entire shifts during changeover, including managers, some 30 people or so, "emergency TV" on in the background, hum of changeover, if the announcers voice rose, dead silence, everyone all turned at once.

Fridays before the game, you didn't see anyone anywhere without some Bills talisman of luck, pins, pens, cups, hats, colors. No one wasn't a fan, it was a shared experience. If they won, the morning after, all the day shift people in the whole building would be glowing, no matter what their job was, everyone was equal and everyone was that much happier and that much more alive. If they lost, it would be solemn, idle comments about them, and then someone would say with certainty "next year, all we need is....", and people would get fierce again. Oh "next" year would be "THE" year. Shared experience, all of us united and in it together.

Because Buffalo was meaningful for a bit. A beaten up, endlessly rebuilding futile city of muckers and grinders eating up some national notice not from pity, but from seizing it. If it could happen, anything was possible, there would be magic in the air. Everyone wanted some of that magic, everyone was riveted.

I don't know if that could happen now, suspect it could. 2011, when we beat New England 34-31, I was amazed that my extremely ethnically and linguistically diverse neighborhood erupted in shouts, fireworks and cheers at the final gun. In a small, but close city like Buffalo, people unite improbably with shared purpose in shared experience to stick it to the world that always sticks it to them.

I miss the "anything is possible, there is magic in the air" feeling.

Having been through it, right here in the muck, I have little tolerance for people who got out of the muck of Buffalo and snark off about a team that no longer represents anything they give a crap about, forgetting why they used to give a crap in the first place, and that some of us are still stuck with crap or nothing while we hope for some magic. If you're starving, and crap is on the plate, you eat crap, is better than nothing on the plate. You pretend it's the best pizza.

And it's better than an empty plate.

Yeah, I miss the rush of possibility and magic that I didn't have to know anyone to share.

[BuffaloRedleg]

Poor kid. I mean that too. I feel bad for people who missed out on the best of it. It sounds stupid, but it united the city and people with this shared festival experience. During the Bills run with a playoff game going, I remember going to work on a bus. The streets were dead silent on the West Side, but you could hear people cheering inside as you walked. Got on the bus, driver had the radio going. People on the bus cheered when they scored. Walked into the building, , heard the game, guard hit the intercom and gave me the score. Walked back into the computer center where I worked, the entire shifts during changeover, including managers, some 30 people or so, "emergency TV" on in the background, hum of changeover, if the announcers voice rose, dead silence, everyone all turned at once.

Fridays before the game, you didn't see anyone anywhere without some Bills talisman of luck, pins, pens, cups, hats, colors. No one wasn't a fan, it was a shared experience. If they won, the morning after, all the day shift people in the whole building would be glowing, no matter what their job was, everyone was equal and everyone was that much happier and that much more alive. If they lost, it would be solemn, idle comments about them, and then someone would say with certainty "next year, all we need is....", and people would get fierce again. Oh "next" year would be "THE" year. Shared experience, all of us united and in it together.

Because Buffalo was meaningful for a bit. A beaten up, endlessly rebuilding futile city of muckers and grinders eating up some national notice not from pity, but from seizing it. If it could happen, anything was possible, there would be magic in the air. Everyone wanted some of that magic, everyone was riveted.

I don't know if that could happen now, suspect it could. 2011, when we beat New England 34-31, I was amazed that my extremely ethnically and linguistically diverse neighborhood erupted in shouts, fireworks and cheers at the final gun. In a small, but close city like Buffalo, people unite improbably with shared purpose in shared experience to stick it to the world that always sticks it to them.

I miss the "anything is possible, there is magic in the air" feeling.

Having been through it, right here in the muck, I have little tolerance for people who got out of the muck of Buffalo and snark off about a team that no longer represents anything they give a crap about, forgetting why they used to give a crap in the first place, and that some of us are still stuck with crap or nothing while we hope for some magic. If you're starving, and crap is on the plate, you eat crap, is better than nothing on the plate. You pretend it's the best pizza.

And it's better than an empty plate.

Yeah, I miss the rush of possibility and magic that I didn't have to know anyone to share.

Only thing close I can relate is the Sabres on 05-06 during my senior year of College. City was going nuts at the time and it being my last year of college it was absolutely a wild time during that playoffs.

I do however remember the Superbowl run. Zuba pants mondays and pizza parties every time we won **** yeah go bills. I actually remember watching wide right and my babysitter was trying to explain the Superbowl and I'm like whatever ***** time for some cereal. My parents are Bills nuts so I my entire wardrobe was basically Bills clothing so I had that going for me.

[Mace]

Only thing close I can relate is the Sabres on 05-06 during my senior year of College. City was going nuts at the time and it being my last year of college it was absolutely a wild time during that playoffs.

I do however remember the Superbowl run. Zuba pants mondays and pizza parties every time we won **** yeah go bills. I actually remember watching wide right and my babysitter was trying to explain the Superbowl and I'm like whatever ***** time for some cereal. My parents are Bills nuts so I my entire wardrobe was basically Bills clothing so I had that going for me.

True Buffalo people will ever live, laugh, love and die on the Bills and Sabres, wherever they go, until the casket closes on them with a Sabres pin, a Bills hat, or some junk Buffalo keychain in there with them.

Maybe we all get a chance to go nuts together again no matter where we are. You never know. Better than hoping we don't and loving the angst though.

[OpIv37]

Forget the playoffs. I miss 16 regular season games that matter. And if there were any that didn't matter, it was because our playoff position was locked up and something far more exciting than a regular season game was just around the corner.

And I miss the snow games. Even this past weekend, we got screwed. The entire east coast got pulverized and Pitt, Balt and Wash got snow bowls while we had an 80 degree out of conference game in ****ing Florida. Looks like the same thing is gonna happen this week.

Any bets it's miraculously 55 and sunny when the Fish come to the Ralph?

[OpIv37]

And yeah I miss the buzz that encapsulated the whole region. It was literally all anyone talked about.

I moved to Baltimore a little over two years ago, so I was here for their deep playoff run and their SB. I couldn't even enjoy the buzz because it reminded me of when we used to get that feeling in WNY.

Fortunately, the Skins largely spared me that misery for my 10+ years or so in northern VA. They only made the playoffs once or twice.

[Ingtar33]

I miss looking at the bills roster and thinking we had a hope at the playoffs. you know it's been over ten years since the last time i seriously thought we had a chance?!

Now I glance at the roster before the preseason starts and go on with my life because i know the Bills season will be a waste of time and effort. It is sad in a real meaningful way that all the joy of being a bills fan has been stripped from me by this organization.

[YardRat]

Being in the playoffs.

That was easy.

[Historian]

I miss seeing vendors on ever street corner selling AFC CHAMPIONS sweatshirts and tees!

[trapezeus]

i miss the whole week leading up to that game. you've watched every show. you have seen every play of the bills. you are trying to catch up with the opposing team's story. you spend two days convinced there is no way the bills can go on...then friday and saturday convincing yourself that they can't possibly lose.

once the game starts, each play gets that much more important to winning. and when they win, the sweet relief of surviving and watching the next game and thinking about the following week. Then comes the "forget next week, i think we are on to something. i think we are going to win the whole thing. Wait this is buffalo, we can't.....but maybe this time it's different"


as it stands now, the games are so meaningless. the wins are empty and mean very little. there is literally no excitement. even the fun of the jets win, you knew that was the result of geno just throwing pop ups to the outfield. Playoffs usually mean your team has the ability to be dominant for a game. i don't remember a post 2000 team that i trusted to be dominant at any phase of the game.

[Historian]

I can remember the Jet game in 1993. I think it was the day after Christmas.

-33 degree wind chill, blowing snow, couldn't even keep a grill lit.

But it didn't matter. You didn't even feel the cold because you were so busy cheering and high-fiving everyone around you.

I think one of the reasons the fans get so ****faced these days, is to drown their sorrows.

Why not....it's not like there's anything to celebrate.

[OpIv37]

I miss looking at the bills roster and thinking we had a hope at the playoffs. you know it's been over ten years since the last time i seriously thought we had a chance?!

Now I glance at the roster before the preseason starts and go on with my life because i know the Bills season will be a waste of time and effort. It is sad in a real meaningful way that all the joy of being a bills fan has been stripped from me by this organization.

I think the last time I seriously thought we had a shot was after the season opener in '05. We went to Buffalo for the game, the D played well and Losman didn't play great but he did get the game-winning TD in the 4th.

The D fell apart the next two games and the season turned into a cluster****.

Ever since then, being a Bills fan has meant hoping for the best but expecting the worst because, realistically, I know they have no shot. You're absolutely right- they have robbed us of the joy of being a fan. It hasn't been fun since that opener in 05.

[Meathead]

I actually remember watching wide right and my babysitter was trying to explain the Superbowl and I'm like whatever ***** time for some cereal.

back in my day we wanted to bone the babysitter

kids these days

[Meathead]

I can remember the Jet game in 1993. I think it was the day after Christmas.

-33 degree wind chill, blowing snow, couldn't even keep a grill lit.


on the positive side it took only five minutes to turn that cardboard cup of bud into a beer snowcone

[IlluminatusUIUC]

The Bills sucking wouldn't bother me so much if any of my teams were doing well, but my entire sports fandom is a black hole of suck. I think every team I follow finished in the bottom 5 of it's respective league or is on pace to.

[jdaltroy5]

The Bills sucking wouldn't bother me so much if any of my teams were doing well, but my entire sports fandom is a black hole of suck. I think every team I follow finished in the bottom 5 of it's respective league or is on pace to.I know the feeling.

-Bills
-Leafs
-Jays
-Raptors

[TacklingDummy]

Being raised in South Africa I miss the Bills winning Super Bowls.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

I know the feeling.

-Bills
-Leafs
-Jays
-Raptors

Well, despite that rather horrendous collapse, the Leafs at least made the playoffs.

Bills
Sabres (Last in the league by a wide margin)
Rockies (74-88, last in the NL West)
Buffaloes (4-9, 11th in the Pac 12)

It's almost enough to make me want to watch basketball, just to see a team that wins a game now and then.

[jdaltroy5]

Well, despite that rather horrendous collapse, the Leafs at least made the playoffs.

Bills
Sabres (Last in the league by a wide margin)
Rockies (74-88, last in the NL West)
Buffaloes (4-9, 11th in the Pac 12)

It's almost enough to make me want to watch basketball, just to see a team that wins a game now and then.What are you complaining about? Your team was in the World Series 6 years ago.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

What are you complaining about? Your team was in the World Series 6 years ago.

That's true, and it was fun, but it was also more than half a decade ago and we got blasted out without winning a game. I was there when the Sox swept us, behind some outrageously fat, obnoxious Boston women too.

[Ed]

That's true, and it was fun, but it was also more than half a decade ago and we got blasted out without winning a game. I was there when the Sox swept us, behind some outrageously fat, obnoxious Boston women too.
I'm a Rockies fan too, but they caught lightning in a bottle in 2007 when they went on that magical run. I can't stand Rockies ownership and the front office is so hopeless I fear we could be looking at a Bills-like playoff drought.

Go Nuggets! At least they make the playoffs every year.

[delo]

it bad enough to have the playoff draught, but were out of the race so early!

[TacklingDummy]

it bad enough to have the playoff draught, but were out of the race so early!
Seems like for more realist we know we are out of the playoffs chase come pre-season.

[sudzy]

I miss caring about the team. Football use to be fun, going to the games, talking about them with friends. Now it's almost an after thought.

[JohnnyGold]

For me, it's easy: I miss caring about ALL of the other teams in our conference.

These days, when the NFL schedule is released, I don't give much attention to the other teams in our division/conference, and when their big games are. I look at the Bills and check for

a) do we have any prime time games
b) who's our home opener
c) who's our toronto game
d) when's the bye

But back when the Bills were good? MAN, the NFL schedule release was like Christmas, because I wanted to watch all of the other good teams in the conference and see them lose. I would watch the Dolphins on monday night football and root for randal cunningham and the eagles to beat them. Or I would get amped for a steelers/giants game, hoping that neil o'donnel would choke and the Bills could lock up a bye.

That's what's missing from following football for me now: the excitement of analyzing everything-- "well, if the broncos lose and we win, we can host a wild card".

Some of the younger fans think it's the same playing with the NFL playoff calculator, trying to get us a 6 seed at 9-7, but it's not. Christmas vacation used to be so exciting as a kid, and me and my friends would have sleep overs and watch the sunday night and monday night games and root for teams to lose to help the bills playoff standings. And that literally hasn't been a concern for Bills fans since 2004. That's so sad to me. Theres adults out there that have never experienced how fun it is to follow the bills/the nfl in december, when you can assume the bills will win, and you can enjoy a game like this past thursday nights broncos/chargers game, because it matters for the bills.

its been so long since another team's football game mattered to the bills.

[DolfanTom]

As a Dolfan going to college in WNY during your last three Superbowls, I can tell you it was hell for me (fan-wise). But I always respected the passion of WNYers for their team, and still do to this day. It was a great time for your franchise.

I find the fans are different today then they used to be at the Ralph. I go almost every year and while I still get the occasional $%^* Miami and the ever-original Squish the Fish here and there, I find Bills fans (even really drunk ones) are far more cordial than they used to be. In the early-to-mid 90's, yikes! I mean, I had a cup of beer thrown at my car in '95. Much much tougher place, full of passionate fans.

Your fans are true fans, and are still passionate now, but on a lower level. But I think you're a lot like Dolfans in one way - losing for so long that there's this pent-up frustration that's just trying to get out!!! I'm sure if you truly were good again (unlike the few teases you had to start '08 and '11), you'd all come back strong in a big way. Heck, look at us, we Dolfans are in a tizzy over being 8-6 and having a good shot at the playoffs. You can expect a bunch of there this Sunday!

But for any of you that were too young to enjoy the Bills SB run of the early 90s, man, was that a good time for you guys!