Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen hands off to running back James Cook III against the New York Jets last Sunday in Orchard Park, N.Y.Adrian Kraus/The Associated Press
As things stand, every Canadian must grapple with which parts of America are too American for them. A possible litmus test is ‘Could they name three Canadian cities?’
Florida – Couldn’t tell you if Canada is north or south. A few of them probably think we’re east. Far too American. Avoid.
Las Vegas – Why don’t you just stuff all your disposable income in an envelope and mail it to the White House? Remember to convert it first.
California – The political opposite of Florida and Nevada, but in its own smug, clueless way, also too American.
New England – Creeping up on the edge. Knows Canada well enough, but where were they when he came for us? Their benefit of the doubt is like their affordable health care – rapidly diminishing.
Buffalo – The only town in America that gets us. Buffalo knows what it’s like to get pushed around, and – this is the important part – that you must push back twice as hard. That city might actually go to the wall for us.
So while I don’t care who wins at sports, around this time of year, I hope the best for the Buffalo Bills.
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The Bills have had a nice run of popularity, though it hasn’t done them much good competitively. Every year they’re good, good, good, right up until they’re bad. The bad part only lasts 10 or 15 minutes, but it’s enough to pull them up short in the postseason.
This year, the Bills aren’t good. They’re just okay. Everybody’s jumping, tucking and rolling off the back of the bandwagon. That’s why I believe it’s the Bills’ year.
A team like this, in a city like this, was never going to win while everyone’s looking. There are about a quarter-million people living in Buffalo. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s hard to do anything well when you’ve got half-a-million dewy eyeballs boring into you. Buffalo is one of those places that hugs its teams to death.
The important thing the Bills had to manage this year was releasing some of the pressure that’s built up during the Josh Allen era. Don’t blow too much energy in the regular season. In the process, you rope-a-dope your own fans. So far, it’s worked.
As a result, the Bills start the playoffs on the road, which is great for them.
People seem to think that Buffalo’s weather provides the Bills with a home advantage. It might, if any of the key players were raised in Buffalo. But they aren’t. Allen was born near Fresno. James Cook’s from Miami. All their top receivers are from single-season environments.
Instead of hoping that a foot of snow discombobulates your opponents, how about trying the experience gleaned from five years of playoff runs?
There is a very realistic, maybe even probable, path that takes the Bills to the Super Bowl through three teams that are only starting to arrive – Jacksonville, New England and Denver. Would you bet against Buffalo in any of those games? I mean, real money, not ‘I have a feeling we’re in for a surprise’ and the promise to get an extra round.
All Buffalo needs to do is not focus. I am developing a theory that in the modern media era, teams win championships, and cities can lose them.
Twenty-five years ago, playing in Buffalo (or Toronto, or Chicago, or Cleveland, or wherever sports obsession is frequently out of whack with sports performance) must also have been intense, but sporadically so. It’s intense at the stadium. It’s intense if you go to the mall. So you avoid the mall, and accept the stadium.
In other places, it’s also intense at the park, but less so elsewhere. I presume the New York Giants are not mobbed every time they go into an Appleby’s, because it’s New York.
These days, it’s intense everywhere, always. All that intensity is emanating from your phone, which never leaves the hand of a twentysomething athlete. You go into a locker room after a game, and what’s everybody doing? The same thing the rest of us do after being unlatched from our electronic nipple for three hours. The only difference is that the pros all have two or three phones.
I cannot imagine how intense it must be in Buffalo. Twenty-five hours a day, if you want it to be. You can say you’re not listening to the noise, or checking your socials, or reading what they write about you, but that’s a dirty lie. Everybody checks. Everybody reads. If you don’t, then your wife, or your agent, or your mom does, and they misinterpret it for you, which is worse.
The Bills don’t lose because they’re not good enough. The Bills lose because they’re in Buffalo. It’s the same reason Toronto loses. People want it too badly, and they transfer all of that anxiety to the team, who then choke at the big moment.
Meanwhile, things are fine in Sunrise, Fla., where no one cares about hockey, and Philadelphia, where the city often hates the football team so much that the fractious personnel band together to stick it to the city.
In the 21st century, roster management is part of it. But so’s civic management.
This year, the Bills have found a sweet spot between expectation and experience. The city wants them to win, but no longer expects them to win, which gives them an opportunity to win. This Zen is made possible by apathy, the secret ingredient of any great professional achievement. You did it so well because you weren’t thinking about it so hard. Like Phil Jackson says: Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
This scenario is a win-win for a noninvolved Canadian. If Buffalo does it, we get to say we were there in spirit, because we were. If they don’t, welcome back to the club. We always have a spot for you up here.