From 2000 to 2017 the Buffalo Bills did not make the playoffsonce. In that same span of time, they had just two winningseasons. To put it into perspective, those seventeen years ofconsistmently poor play tie for the second longest playoff drought in National Football League (NFL) history. This was a time of torture for myself and other diehard fans. Every year we’d watch with ill-advised hope, only to witness another season ending in disappointment. But what can fans do? We’re all gluttons for punishment and can’t help waving the banner of our favorite team no matter how awfully they perform. But thankfully, the tired masses of Bills fans finally got a glimmer of hope in 2017. They limped into the playoffs on the back of athletic quarterback Tyrod Taylor. But still too poor a team to make it over the hump, they lost in a heartbreaker against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The very next year, Taylor was traded and the Bills acquired a new quarterback to build their offense around. They selected Josh Allen out of Wyoming as the seventh pick of the draft. All the hopes and dreams of the Bills Mafia were riding on the arm talent of a twenty-two-year-old barely out of college. If this seems like a recipe for failure, it was. Josh Allen, despite his immense talent was unable to lead the Bills to the playoffs and they finished with yet another losing season. However, Allen showed flashes of raw athleticism and potential that provided some hope for the future.
By 2019, the Buffalo Bills were back in the playoffs. But again, they lost a heartbreaker in the first round (this time to the Houston Texans). Fans and players were determined that 2020 would finally be the year that they broke out. They acquired star wide receiver Stefon Diggs from a trade with the Minnesota Vikings so that Allen would finally have an elite pass catcher to throw to. The Bills rumbled their way through the season, going 13-3 and proving to be one of the best teams in the NFL. They finally won a playoff game and marched all the way to the AFC (American Football Conference) where they were halted in their tracks by the deadly Kansas City Chiefs team. Led by Patrick Mahomes as quarterback, the Chiefs slapped the Bills out of sight of the Super Bowl in a crushing fourteen point defeat. After the game Stefon Diggs was seen standing alone on the field in silence and misery at having come so close to playing in the biggest game of the year only to have his hopes dashed by one of the best offenses history has ever seen.
2021 proved to be another stellar year for the Bills. Both Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs were selected to their second pro bowls in a row (although Allen chose not to attend). After winning the first round of the playoffs handily, the Bills again faced the Chiefs. It came down to the wire, but with thirteen seconds left on the clock Mahomes marched down the field to set up a game tying field goal which sent the match into overtime. By overtime rules, if the first team to receive the ball (decided by a coin flip) scores a touchdown, the game is over. In a gut-wrenching twist of fate, the Bills lost the toss and the game in quick succession. Another failed season, so close to the goal of becoming national champions.
This year, fans like me waited in eager anticipation of what we hope is finally the year the Bills will come out on top. Three games in, Josh Allen is playing like an MVP (Most Valuable Player) and the emergence of new playmaker Gabriel Davis at receiver has supplemented the always spectacular play of Diggs. Maybe this is finally the year that the Bills will win their first Super Bowl and end a lifetime of loss.