BY ANDREW KRUSZKA, STAFF WRITER
Excuse me, wake up Buffalo. Your dream is over. You have to wake up every Monday morning now for the next seven months and hear the phrase “13 seconds.” For my readers that don’t know what that phrase entails in Buffalo, just ask your fellow neighbor that jumped through a burning table to explain.
Thirteen seconds, that’s all it took for the Kansas City Chiefs to move down the field, tie it with the foot of Harrison Butker and then win it in overtime over the Buffalo Bills. Yes, if you still haven’t woken up from your dream yet fellow Buffalonian, the Bills did lose and are not going to win a Super Bowl this year.
I’m as sad and hurt as all of my loyal readers. I actually was so excited when the Bills scored with 13 seconds left to go up by three over Kansas City that I ran into my backyard full of snow and ice and started doing snow angels yelling at the top of my lungs, “I LOVE THIS TEAM!”
Let me remind you, Bills fans, that this loss does not define who we are. What we are as a city, as a team, as a fanbase, as people here in Buffalo, are together. In a time like 2022, where the world is ending, the pandemic is still here. Politics are still a clogged toilet with no plunger. We still have our Buffalo Bills that bring us together.
On any given Sunday, let Marv Levy, Bills Head Coach during the four Super Bowl runs, remind you, “WHERE WOULD YOU RATHER BE THAN RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW?!” If you’ve never heard a Bills fan yell that, are they actually one?
Anyways, we have seen what one city can do just because of a sport where grown men run around with a football. We came together. We loved our team, and we most certainly supported it. The cities people have shown that there will not be a home game, whether it’s negative degrees, blizzarding out, or the sun is shining, where they won’t be there. Yes. They will also be there screaming loud and proud that their team is the Buffalo Bills. They will jump through tables. They will tailgate for hours and days on end. They will stop you on the sidewalk just to tell you that they like your hat because it has a Buffalo on it. Most importantly, they will support their cities’ football team, the Buffalo Bills, over all others.
Bills fans, yes, I’m still hurting as well, but please hear me out. This football season is only one of many. One of many where the Buffalo Bills have their General Manager, Head Coach, and most importantly, quarterback of the future. Let me not forget that this team has the best fans in the world! If you disagree, let me ask you this; what fan base do you know that would show up to an airport four hours before the team arrives, in negative degree weather on a Monday morning just past midnight, to help the players celebrate a job well done, even though they lost the game?
If this season has taught us fans anything here in Buffalo, it’s that Mayor Byron Brown is correct when saying that this city is a city of good neighbors. Till next season, goodnight, Bills fans.
