(Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images)
"Its goin 2 b a great ride to our destination. People dont believe n US. If ur 1 of these people, eat a fat duck. We're on a mission. MIAMI!!"
This quote is directly from Buffalo linebacker Kawika Mitchell's twitter account. For those that don't know, Miami is where Super Bowl XLIV will be played next February.
He's not making a foolish guarantee like Donte Whitner did before the start of the 2008 season. Mitchell is an optimist and a hard worker; and he's championship tested.
Mitchell is one of the two guys on the Bills with a ring—Dominic Rhodes is the other. On the Giants in '07, his team accomplished the improbable win over the then undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.
Mitchell, who changed his number to 59 when he joined the Buffalo Bills, knows what it’s like to be an underdog.
Now he's in the city full of underdogs—and underperformers, if you followed the past 50 years in Buffalo sports history.
The Bills are 50-1 early odds to win Super Bowl XLIV, according to NFL-Betting--Super-Bowl-44--XLIV--Future-Odds-announced.aspx" title="Super Bowl Odds">The Online Wire. Nobody is betting on the Bills. How surprised would we be if they won the big game?
There'd be riots in the streets of Buffalo. The scene would be similar to the one in Boston after the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series.
It seems like the Bills have a better chance to win this year than in any other year. Granted they're a young squad, but it won't be the first time a team has won without being playoff tested.
To accomplish such a tremendous feat, Mitchell and Rhodes must be instrumental leaders in the locker room and out on the field.
Last year—Mitchell's first with the Bills—he honed that leadership role during the rough point of last season when the Bills squandered a division lead and finished 2-8 after a promising 5-1 start. He tried to develop a "mentality adjustment" among players in the locker room in hopes of turning things around and re-claim Buffalo's position as the league's elite.
At the end of the season things didn't turn out the way they had hoped for.
In 2008, Mitchell made 82 tackles, four sacks, two interceptions, two forced fumbles, and three defended passes.
Several Bills players began to look towards Mitchell through the season's ups and downs.
Mitchell's previous team—the '07 Giants—was a team that overcame adversity.
Two years after getting a ring, Mitchell knows his role going in, and so do the rest of the Bills young "veterans".
He looks to perform even better on a more solidified linebacker corps with rookie and veteran depth.
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