The script, it seemed, had been crafted. This was late-January playoff football in Buffalo. This was snow swirling, traffic jamming, and Bills Mafia out drinking and chanting and jumping through tables. Typical. And, ultimately, not typical at all.
This was at the end of a brutal year, even by the local standards, after the blizzard to end all blizzards and the racist mass shooting at a grocery store and Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest. This was the backdrop of this game, which mattered a whole lot less than life-and-death but was relevant, tethered, tied: A franchise with history and Hall of Famers and four-straight Super Bowl appearances but still no NFL championship could end the misery. Maybe. Please?
At Store716 early Sunday morning, co-founder David Gram tried to summarize this recent stretch. His spot sells what he calls “original Buffalo fan gear.” He himself is an original Buffalo sports fan, born and bred and never left. In truth, he never even thought of leaving. Not this place. He described a city that rallied around Hamlin, and each other, because that’s what happens here, what drives a fanbase and its football team and sustains them both. “We get kicked in the balls over and over again,” he says. “And we always just rise up and do something, keep going. There’s no doubt in my mind. I know we’re going to win.”
