Diehard Buffalo fans dare to dream
‘Go big or go home’ talent is on the way for Bills and Sabres
BUFFALO, N.Y.— The Buffalo Bills were so dull during their lean years, comedian Nick Bakay feared his body would fuse to the couch while watching them play.
“It’s an incredibly disturbing image,” Bakay said of wasting away Sundays witnessing his hometown team sleepwalk through one loss after another during a 17-season playoff drought that ended last year.
“I never missed a Bills game. But I was always slumped on my couch. I was never sitting forward. I was never jumping to my feet,” said Bakay, who wrote
Paul Blart: Mall Cop and its sequel, and produced and appeared on the TV sitcom King of
Queens. “You sit on your couch, and your couch slowly eats you.”
No different for fans of Buffalo’s other pro sports franchise, the NHL’s Sabres, who finished last for the third time in five years.
In a shot-and-a-beer town where the winters are interminably long, Buffalo sports fans ride things out on the notion of renewal always being just around the corner. And there’s a new, palpable optimism for this hearty fan base, thanks to a three-day stretch which showed potential to alter the trajectory of both teams.
First, the Bills made a pair of splashes in the first round of the NFL draft on April 26 by trading up to select Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen and Virginia Tech linebacker Tremaine Edmunds.
Two days later, the Sabres won the NHL draft lottery — something Buffalo lost the previous two times it finished last — and the opportunity to select projected No. 1 pick, Swedish defenceman Rasmus Dahlin.
During the NFL draft, CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor got dirty looks from his wife during a rare dinner date sneaking peeks at the Bills’ picks. He then yelped with excitement upon learning the Sabres won the lottery while attending the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington.
“I had just resigned myself to never winning it,” Glor said. “But listen, I always have hope.”
The Bills and Sabres have won five playoff games combined since 2008. By comparison, the Vegas Golden Knights have already won eight in their first year of existence.
Buffalo joins Nashville and Charlotte, N.C., as the only North American markets with two or more major pro teams to not have won a title.
“I think it builds character in a way. I joke with my friends that one day my kids will have to go through therapy because we are Sabres, Bills and Mets fans,” said former VH1-cable TV chief Tom Calderone, who’s based in New York City but maintains a home in his native Buffalo. “It’s easy to be a Cowboys fan or a Patriots fan. But it takes true dedication to be a Bills or Sabres fan.”
Allen and the prospect of adding Dahlin has recaptured the imagination.
“It’s like all of a sudden we’ve got go-big-or-go-home-talent coming our way,” Bakay said.
“After years of the Trent Edwards of the world, we get a kid who has that kind of talent.”