Go Bills

This guy said the best things about the loss on Sunday.

“This one hurts. But of course it does! It adds to the fatigue we all feel. We’re tired – tired to our core. We’ve been beaten and shot and frozen and lost in a wilderness of powerlessness and trauma. And, so, we hang our hopes on our team. The one shining spot over this past year – the Bills. They were our beacon, the cornerstone of an identity that was not associated with the unimaginable. Winners! But, then, today, they lost. And I think I might know just a tiny bit of the reason why – they’re exhausted too. They are just as much a part of this injured city as we are; maybe even more so as they bear the burden of not just their own ordeals, ambitions and hopes, but of the hopes of all us.

And that’s a lot to carry. Yet they did, willingly and well. They fought and battled and carried on despite and in spite. Even when one of their own was felled and the outcome was unsure and unknown, they stepped up. But, somewhere along the way, and because they are human and are subject to human shortcomings, the tank hit a hard E. The players, the coaches, the staff; they’re all weary. I saw it today. When they came out on the field this afternoon, I didn’t see the spark, the fire, the heart they’ve been rolling with since last May. All I saw was tiredness and a demonstrative, intangible weighty burden – just like that which has beset the rest of us. Just like the city whose name, and hopes, they carry. And, you know what? That means the world to me! It means they care; for each other, for us. This past 12 months would, and has, laid low the heartiest of Buffalonians. They’ve been through what we’ve been through because they chose to. They could have ignored the city, the people and the abundance of distress we were going through. Many NFL teams do! But, over and over again, they praised us, the fans! They showed up. They connected. They believed in us as much as we believed in them. That’s character. And it’s exhausting.

I am grateful for the abundance of distractions, the frustrations, the elations and the hope the Buffalo Bills have brought me this season. They were my respite – they were that for all that invested in them. But I’m even more grateful for seeing Josh Allen sign the teddy bear of a kid with cancer; for Dawson Knox at Roswell Park; for all the team making Buffalo not just where they play, but where they contribute just as much off the field as on. I’m sorry they’re not going further. Truly. And I hope they get the rest they so richly deserve. I hope we all do.

Go Bills!