Warning: Contains Copius Amounts Of Homerism

Nine years.  Nine long, agonizing, horrible years.  I’ve done everything I can to forget about the debacle that happened on January 8th, 2000; to no avail.  I remember being livid when I heard that Wade Phillips was starting Rob Johnson over fan favorite Doug Flutie.  You know, the guy that got the team to the playoffs, or at least didn’t keep them from making the playoffs.  It really seems like an eternity ago.

Still with a group of players that had played on the Super Bowl teams of the early part of that decade, this could have been the year, had it not been for the Music City Mistake.  Whatever.  It’s things like the “Music City Miracle”, Wide Right, and No Goal that turn many of us into pessimists, only we hide under the term “realist”.  We are so sore at the happenstance of a seemingly doomed town that we truly forget that this team isn’t cursed.  There is no conspiracy to keep Buffalo teams from winning it all.  I swear to you, there isn’t - as much as it sometimes seems that there is.  It just so happens that all this shitty stuff seems to happen to Buffalo, in sports and in life.  We always seem to get the short end of the stick when it comes to taxes going to municipal projects.  I absolutely love that we as New Yorkers got to help pay the bill for not one but two new New York City stadiums.  $70 Million dollars of our money went into building the new Yankee Stadium, and $74 Million for CitiField.  Thankfully the new Meadowlands is being paid for in full by both the Jets and Giants organizations.  But I can guarantee you that if the city of Buffalo asked for $140 million to build two new stadiums (or just a new Bills stadium) that the money “just wouldn’t be there”.  O.K. - maybe I shouldn’t make guarantees, as I really haven’t much of a clue, it just seems like that’s the way that it’d be.

The City of Buffalo has a lot to offer its residents, though.  We may not have the most exciting town, but what we do have is character.  Buffalonians are a hearty bunch - enduring sports heartbreak - and ironically, missing the days of heartbreak.  Not only do we not forget those four years of consecutive super bowl losses, we miss those days.  We like to call them the four years we won four consecutive AFC Championships.  We deal with brutal winters - some of us even enjoy them.  Since 2000 we have seen major storms that paralyzed the city almost every year.  I can recall getting stranded at my high school in 2001, wishing I had made the bus, only to find out that my bus had overturned in a snowbank.  A few years back was the infamous “October Storm” - an ice storm that leveled many of the cities trees and left close to 400,000 residents without power for days.  And yet, I recall the storm with fondness.  Everyone is nicer when everything sucks.  It levels the playing field.

But it’s not all about the doom and gloom, no matter how well Buffalonians handle said doom and gloom.  The summer is a very beautiful season in Buffalo, NY.  With outdoor festivities such as Thursday at the Square, Rock the Harbor, and the ArtPark concert series, there is never a shortage of things to do and live music to see.

Buffalo Bisons games are a very nice time even if you don’t much care for baseball as Coca-Cola Field is amongst one of the nicest AAA ballparks in America.  Our waterfront could definitely use some work, and just like our sports teams the possibilities are endless, things just never seem to fall into place.

Moving past the summer time Buffalo still has much to offer.  Our St. Patrick’s Day Parade is often touted as one of the best, and personally I’d have to agree.  Last year after the parade I was introduced to one of Buffalos best kept secrets - Ulrichs Tavern.  Ulrich’s has the distinction of being Buffalos oldest documented Tavern.  Founded in 1868 the bar has undergone many changes, but still has a very old-world feel to both the interior and exterior.

I mentioned Buffalos waterfront leaving much to be desired, but I suppose that wasn’t entirely fair.  There is a small portion where the U.S.S. Little Rock, U.S.S. Croaker, and U.S.S. Sullivans offer a look into the WWII era U.S. Navy and on a nice day one can take a walk down the break wall and enjoy where the mighty Niagara River meets Lake Erie.

I suppose what I am trying to convey is that while things look bleak from both a sports and economic perspective that things could be worse.  Perhaps as we embark on this season, one that will close out a decade of Buffalo Bills football mediocrity we will finally be alleviated of our pain and anguish.  I know the experts say that it’s not to be, but I suppose all we can do is BILLEAVE.