Below the Rim: Bills building for the future (Again)
By Chris Potter
Last Updated:11:52 AM EST 9/19/07 Section: Sports
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Quick, name the only nonexpansion AFC team that hasn't been to the playoffs in the twenty-first century.
OK, time's up.
If you answered the Buffalo Bills, then you have my congratulations and sympathy. Yes, Bills fans, we support one of only three non-expansion teams that have failed to reach the postseason this side of the year 2000. Or, if you find it difficult to remember that far back, try to recall a time when Who Let the Dogs Out ruled the airwaves. It's hard, I know. Although the song has mercifully faded away, the Bills playoff drought remains constant.
To make matters worse, joining Buffalo on this infamous list is the Arizona Cardinals and the Detroit Lions, two franchises whose very names are synonymous with losing.
The Bills have fielded a lot of mediocre football teams since the glory days of Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith. Unlike the Cardinals and Lions, who have been miserable for decades, Buffalo's run of dominance throughout the 1990's leaves Bills fans yearning for more than just a lovable loser.
When your earliest Bills memories consist of annual trips to the Super Bowl, settling for anything less than a playoff contender is like willingly choosing to live in Murphy rather than Founders; it might be OK if you're a freshman that doesn't know any better, but if you've already experienced something superior, then anything less is uncivilized.
Despite the Bills recent run of futility, the start of a new season brings with it great expectations, the hope that 2007 will be the year where it all turns around. Fans can comfort themselves with the fact that anything is possible in the NFL, where parity reigns supreme. This is a league, after all, where the St. Louis Rams went from 4-12 afterthoughts in 1998 to 13-3 Super Bowl champions in 1999. It's not inconceivable that Buffalo, a team that could have been in the playoffs last season if a couple more plays had broke their way, does the unthinkable and actually snaps its postseason drought.
OK, time's up.
If you answered the Buffalo Bills, then you have my congratulations and sympathy. Yes, Bills fans, we support one of only three non-expansion teams that have failed to reach the postseason this side of the year 2000. Or, if you find it difficult to remember that far back, try to recall a time when Who Let the Dogs Out ruled the airwaves. It's hard, I know. Although the song has mercifully faded away, the Bills playoff drought remains constant.
To make matters worse, joining Buffalo on this infamous list is the Arizona Cardinals and the Detroit Lions, two franchises whose very names are synonymous with losing.
The Bills have fielded a lot of mediocre football teams since the glory days of Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith. Unlike the Cardinals and Lions, who have been miserable for decades, Buffalo's run of dominance throughout the 1990's leaves Bills fans yearning for more than just a lovable loser.
When your earliest Bills memories consist of annual trips to the Super Bowl, settling for anything less than a playoff contender is like willingly choosing to live in Murphy rather than Founders; it might be OK if you're a freshman that doesn't know any better, but if you've already experienced something superior, then anything less is uncivilized.
Despite the Bills recent run of futility, the start of a new season brings with it great expectations, the hope that 2007 will be the year where it all turns around. Fans can comfort themselves with the fact that anything is possible in the NFL, where parity reigns supreme. This is a league, after all, where the St. Louis Rams went from 4-12 afterthoughts in 1998 to 13-3 Super Bowl champions in 1999. It's not inconceivable that Buffalo, a team that could have been in the playoffs last season if a couple more plays had broke their way, does the unthinkable and actually snaps its postseason drought.
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