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| Buffalo Bills --- Supernova or Black Hole? Related Links Federer or Nadal--Who Is Better? Novak Djokovic Wins His 3rd Grand Slam of 2011! Nadal Wins 7th French in 2012 Federer's Tears at the Australian-A Marketing Disaster for Nike? How Did Bubba Watson Get Lean? Sports Tiger Woods Workout Get Lean Diet for Men The Add Muscle Diet 10 Superfoods for Men's Health Foods That Shrink Your Waist Six Pack Abs--The Exercises That Work December 28, 2013 Kenneth Lashay, Contributing Columnist Is there ever glory in losing? If there is, no team epitomes that glory better than the NFL's Buffalo Bills. Few teams in the National Football League enjoy success at a frequency that could be described as regular, and no teams are always successful – competition is just too fierce at this level, and there is no way to guarantee a continuous influx of the great players necessary for success. Still, some franchises manage to sustain prolonged periods of success, as gauged by the consistency of their appearances in the playoffs --think the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Lakers. The Buffalo Bills are not one of those teams – for this team, life in the NFL has been characterized by spectacular bursts of supernova prominence, offset by agonizingly long periods of black hole invisibility. EARLY SUCCESSES, EARLY FAILURES The first of their starburst successes came during the years 1963- 1966, when they were the only team in the American Football League to ever make the playoffs in four consecutive years. They won the AFL Championship in 1964 and 1965 with a punishing defense and an offense that included future presidential candidate Jack Kemp at quarterback. Kemp was not physically gifted, nor did he have a powerful throwing arm, but he personified the scrappy, workmanlike attitude of the city and was embraced accordingly. After the last of their successful playoff years, the Buffalo Bills along with the other AFL teams were incorporated into the National Football League, and in 1967 the first Super Bowl was staged - as the Bills skidded toward becoming a black hole. Throughout the entire decade of the 70’s and for most of the 80’s, the former AFL champion languished in the lower echelon of the bigger league, frequent owners of its worst won-lost record. AN ACHIEVEMENT FOR THE AGES And then, in the new decade of the 90’s, the mother of all supernovas exploded in the Buffalo Bills’ autumn sky. Using an innovative ‘no- huddle’ offense, they confounded NFL defenses with their rapid-fire ability to score points and earned their first trip to the Super Bowl in 1990. It was an unbelievable time to be a Bills fan; I remember walking through a local mall and counting 7 out of every 10 people wearing some kind of Bills clothing to support their team. I don’t really understand the psychology of a crowd needing to embrace a winner, but I can tell you it is a fact – those 1990 Bills were adored by a city starved for heroes. As most people know, the Bills didn’t win that 1990 Super Bowl – they lost by a single point when they missed a winning field goal by about a foot from 47 yards away as time ran out. In Buffalo, there was disappointment of course, but in a sense it almost didn’t matter – the Buffalo Bills had finally been recognized, and by default the city itself, as one of the best in the National Football League. Even better, the Bills proved in 1991 that it wasn’t a fluke and repeated the accomplishment, again advancing through the playoffs to earn a spot in the coveted Super Bowl game. Unhappily they were thwarted again, but the wave of euphoria in Buffalo persisted – the Bills remained champions of the American Conference of the league, and they still had the core of their dynamic team intact. Late in the season of 1992, hope faded when the swashbuckling quarterback of the Bills, Jim Kelly, came down with an injury right before their playoff game with the Houston Oilers. Sure enough, by halftime of that game, the Bills were losing 35-3 and staring at abject humiliation to end their glorious run of winning football. But there was something magical about those Buffalo Bills – even without their most important player, they made a comeback that has never been equaled and won that game 41-38, and eventually advanced to their third consecutive Super Bowl. Again in the following year, they steam-rolled through the American Conference and earned the right to face the National Conference champions in the Super Bowl. This fourth consecutive Super Bowl also ended in frustration, but even so the Buffalo Bills achieved something that is not likely to ever be repeated in the National Football League. Since the Bills’ 4-year run of excellence, no team has appeared in more than 2 consecutive Super Bowls. THE BLACK HOLE REVISITED Then came the new century. By the year 2001, all the players from the Super Bowl glory years were gone, and a string of mostly forgettable players, coaches, and administrators paraded through the revolving door of the Buffalo Bills franchise. Young Buffalo football fans now endure the seemingly endless string of seasons where the Bills miss the playoffs, while listening to wistful recollections of their elders about ‘the Super Bowl years’ when the Bills mowed through competitors like they were part of the front lawn. Maybe even more than every other city in America, Buffalo realizes how special those Super Bowl years were, because the team has achieved so little success in all the years since then. But the people of Buffalo are hopeful people; every Sunday in the fall they flock to fill the stadium and cheer themselves hoarse in support of their beloved Bills. Perhaps it is because the city itself will never again enjoy the once prominent position it held among America’s great cities that Buffalo Bills fans need to cheer so loudly and hope so fervently for the success of their hometown heroes. Even if there can be no greatness in the city’ s future, fans will always have hope for the next Buffalo Bills supernova explosion to football greatness. Related: Nadal Sweeps Aside Ferrer to Claim 8th French Open Title Andy Murray Captures US Open Novak Djokovic Wins His 3rd Grand Slam! Federer's Tears at the Australian-A Marketing Disaster for Nike? How Did Bubba Watson Get Lean? 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