If you are not from Buffalo and its environs, it might be hard to understand the mentality of those of us from Western New York. So, I thought I might add some of my random thoughts to all the good-natured hysteria we are experiencing.
1. I believe the typical Bills fan does not expect that we will go far into the playoffs. We are just glad to get there, because like they say, "You never know."
2. The person I admire the most on this team is Kyle Williams. He has demonstrated a loyalty to the Buffalo area that is seldom experienced in professional sports, and since he is from Louisiana, it makes it all the more remarkable. He has been with us since 2006 and at the "old" age of 34, he started every game this year.
Thank you to the Buffalo Bills for putting his touchdown play in the playbook. No one...NO ONE...deserved it more. One unintelligent sports writer made a comment about the fat guy taking it into the end zone. I am going to say this as kindly as I can, "You are an idiot." There is not an ounce of fat on that man's body. He is 300 pounds of muscle.
No doubt he is my favorite because he expresses Christian values in his speech and in his walk. The way he talks about his faith, his wife, and his family is just too unusual in today's culture. He is definitely one of the good guys.
When I asked him once who he liked to "sack" the most, he said unequivocally "Tom Brady." It seems that Tom has a special place in his heart, because they seem to meet up at least once every time they play against each other.
3. No offense intended to Rex Ryan, who at the very least was entertaining, but this time we hired someone who knows how to coach a team. Sean McDermott has been better than expected. Unlike Rex, McDermott is judicious with his words and realizes that it is about the team, and not him. He also comes across as a humble man, which scores all kinds of points with me.
4. Contrary to what others think, I believe the benching of Tyrod Taylor was needed because he was not playing up to his potential. One thing is for sure, at the end of the season, we were seeing the same Tyrod we saw at the beginning of the season.
So kudos to Tyrod for responding positively to the benching and not being a jerk about it.
5. Thank you to the Cincinnati Bengals for playing football the way it is supposed to be played. Thank you for not laying down and settling for a better draft pick. Thank you for being a team one could respect on what could have been defined as a meaningless game.
Now, if you would just remove Vontaze Burfict from your team, who I think is a cancer on the league...
6. I keep hearing that the Bills are in the playoffs because of the Bengals. I beg to differ. We are in because of what we accomplished. We had the better record than the Ravens. Ravens could have pushed ahead of us. They did not. So we are in and they are not. There you go.
7. Finally, yes, we Bills fans are much aware of our Super Bowl record of losing four in a row during the 1990s. We still think it was an unbelievable accomplishment to get there four seasons in a row. When you laugh about it, we don't. We don't think it is funny at all.
It does remind me of the time when we were living in the Philadelphia area, that an Eagles fan from the church we served in wanted to remind me that we had just lost our fourth Super Bowl in a row. He thought it was so funny. The Bills were so incompetent. They were an embarrassment to the NFL.
I quietly responded, "Well, at least we have lost three more Super Bowls than you have."
He stood there for a moment with his mouth open, and then just walked away.
So, as my granddaughter says so earnestly, "Go Bills!"
