So, we’ve arrived back in the same place even though the feeling is completely different. Like going back to your frat house in your 30s or eating at a new restaurant that you’re pretty sure used to be a Wendy’s.
The Buffalo Bills will host the Kansas City Chiefs next week for a chance to go to the AFC championship game. After nearly every Bills game this year looked like a complete and total slog. After injuries cleared out a handful of defensive stalwarts. After the offensive coordinator was fired midseason. After a series of cryptic social media posts, training camp absences and passive-aggressive body language that forced us all to wonder whether the Buffalo Super Friends were starting to grow tired of one another. After the head coach of the football team had to come out and apologize for using the 9/11 attackers as an example of good coordination. I mean, who hasn’t been there?
The tenor of this Buffalo season has been decidedly different from years past. This team was always the NFL’s beating heart but, coming into Monday’s rescheduled beatdown of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the lot of us were probably unsure whether to hug them, boo them or lay a little cash down on Mike Tomlin’s team to cover the spread.
