Buffalo Bills Fans, Tony Dungy Has Set You Free

You know a football team is bad when they have a bye week and the team still finds a way to anger fans. Tony Dungy on Football Night in America mentioned that Michael Vick would probably not return to the Eagles, and that a good fit for him would be the Buffalo Bills. Dungy also stated how the Bills had a strong interest in Vick before the season. Yes, Bills fans, Ralph Wilson wanted to sign Terrell Owens and Michael Vick in the same offseason.

The idea of Ralph Wilson wanting to sign Michael Vick after this season shows that Wilson is absolutely insane. Vick has done zero in Philadelphia, and he will turn 30 in June. Since Vick’s style is like a running back, 30 is the magic number where running backs see a sharp decline in productivity.

Hello, Larry Johnson (turning 30 next week) and LT fantasy owners. Spending two years in jail may have spared his body from the hits, but I doubt people increase speed in prison.

The news of Ralph Wilson wanting Michael Vick is another sign that he doesn’t care about the fans. The same fans who invest a lot of money in a bad economy to watch a team that has lost seven of their last eight at home.

The same fans that are slowly watching the team move to Toronto or somewhere else because the owner has no succession plan to keep the team in Buffalo. Why invest so much time and effort in a product where excellence is not being pursued?

The Vick news should be a great moment for Bills fans. This is the moment we become free. Just like Vick served his time and got a second chance with the Eagles, as Bills fans we get a second chance, to pick a new team to root for.

As long as Ralph Wilson is alive, we have no obligation any more to root for this awful junk that consistently disappoints and hurts. With the Sunday Ticket and Red Zone, picking a new team to follow is easier than ever. You can still watch all of the games, and have some sense that quality may actually be important to the organization. The main question of course is which team is your new team.

I have created guidelines that any fan can use, but for now are helpful for exiled Bills fan freed from the decade of pathetic football.

1. Your new favorite team cannot be in the same division as your old team – A Bills fan cannot become a Dolphins, Jets or Patriots fan, mostly because you would have to watch two Bills games a year.
2. Your new favorite team cannot have won a Super Bowl in the last 10 years – Going from an awful team, you can’t jump on a bandwagon of a winner. If you wait until the end of the season you can become a Rams fan. In the meantime, you cannot be a fan of the Steelers, Colts, Patriots again, Giants, Bucs, and Ravens.
3. Your new favorite team cannot have beaten your team in a conference championship or Super Bowl – I had to think about other teams when I made this rule since excluding the Bengals seems unfair, but ask angry Browns fans if they can root for the Broncos. A Bills fan cannot root for the Redskins, Cowboys, and Giants again.
4. Your new favorite team cannot be in the same state as your old team – In theory; this doesn’t apply to the Bills, since the Jets and Giants play in Jersey. Then again, in the last eight home games, the Bills barely play in New York also.
5. Your new favorite team cannot be the victor in one of the 10 most painful losses of your old team in the last 10 years – Originally this was the five most painful games, then I realized I was making the list for the Bills and I could create a list of about 30 games. My top of the head list includes losses to the Titans, Patriots, Cowboys, Browns, Jets, Steelers, 49ers, Broncos, Jaguars. The 10th loss includes probably another Browns, Jets, Titans or Patriots game. Pick your poison.

Bills fans still have a lot of choices, even with these restrictions, and Sunday can be a great time to take a broad view of other games while searching for a new team. There’s no need to watch Chris Johnson run for 285 yards against Buffalo. Instead realize that you soon can be a fan of one of 14 teams.

You can become a Raiders fan and have the exact same feeling as Bills fans, just with cooler uniforms.

You can become a Saints fan and jump onto an undefeated bandwagon.

You can become a Falcons fan that is young but brings a lot of excitement.

You can become a Bears fan and root for a team that will consistently be 8-8.

You can become a Panthers fan and know that you will get a new quarterback soon, and that you won’t play the Bills for another 4 years.

You can become a Texans fan and be there celebrating their first playoff victory, eventually.

You can become a Cardinals fan and be a fan of a team that painfully lost a Super Bowl in the last minute in their first appearance.

You can become a Seahawks fan and root for a team and a city that has suffered many painful sports losses in the last decade, and had an NBA team leave.

You can become a Vikings fan and root for Brett Favre. Okay, you can root for a few former Bills defensive stars, and Adrian Peterson.

You can become a Chiefs fan and torture yourself endlessly while spending money on new merchandise. You might as well stay a Bills fan at that point.

You can become an Eagles fan and root for the future quarterback of the Bills and the awesome Eagles left tackle.

You can become a Lions fan and know that things probably can’t get worse. Plus their greatest running back in franchise history didn’t kill people and commit felony robbery.

You can become a Packers fan and be part of a cool fan base.

You can become a Chargers fan and root for a team in a city that has never won a championship and had the Clippers leave it.

Or you can take everything Ralph Wilson keeps selling you and continue to root for the Bills. I can see how cheering for a team that is constantly 7-9 with no long term vision is a valuable use of time and money. For me, I watched football on Sunday with no Bills game and I had fun. I want to root for a team that values me as a consumer. Become a free agent, and football Sundays will bring so much more joy.