Decades of heartbreak, four Super Bowl losses, and another playoff exit — is rooting for the Buffalo Bills a form of masochism, or is the community bond it creates worth every painful moment?
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Add your commentBorn and raised in South Buffalo. My grandfather cried after the first Super Bowl loss. My dad cried after the fourth. I cried watching us blow that playoff game two years ago. We don't root for the Bills because it feels good. We root for them because they're OURS. That's something no one from outside this city will ever understand.
I want someone to explain to me how we lose to the Chiefs in the playoffs approximately every single year in increasingly creative and devastating ways. Like the football gods sat in a room and said "what's the most Bills thing that could possibly happen" and then made it happen. It's not suffering at this point it's performance art.
My therapist actually told me I need to stop letting Bills games affect my mood for the entire following week. I told her that's not a Bills problem, that's just being from Buffalo. She is also from Buffalo and she nodded and said "fair enough." True story.
Moved here from Phoenix three years ago for work and honestly became a Bills fan by accident — neighbor dragged me to a watch party on Abbott Road and now I own two jerseys and scream at my TV every Sunday like I grew up here. The community piece is real. These fans are like nothing I've ever seen.
To the people calling it masochism — with respect, go root for the Patriots then. Or the Cowboys. Root for a franchise that's basically a corporation with a logo. We root for a team that stayed in this city when every economic reason said leave. That loyalty goes both ways. End of discussion.
Suffering? SUFFERING?? We beat the Dolphins last January and I didn't sleep for two days I was so hyped. Then we lost the next week and I called in sick to work. So yes. Both things are true simultaneously. Bills fandom is a clinical condition and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Okay but let's be honest. The Bengals went to the Super Bowl like last year or the year before. The Lions just made a deep run. At some point "lovable suffering" stops being a personality and starts being a cope. We have Josh Allen. JOSH ALLEN. If we don't win one with him we genuinely deserve the heartbreak.
fun fact: the bills are actually the only team in NFL history to go to four consecutive super bowls. most franchises never sniff ONE. so maybe instead of crying about losing them we remember we were THERE four times in a row. name another fanbase that did that in the 90s. i'll wait.
Wait I thought the Bills actually won a Super Bowl at some point? My uncle always said they did. Did I imagine this my whole life
nope. hard disagree with the whole premise. joy absolutely outweighs it. anyone who says otherwise has never been to a home game in december when the whole stadium is one giant freezing screaming organism and you cant feel your toes and you dont even care
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