Friendship Rests for Skins-Bills NFL Battle

This Sunday marks the fourth consecutive season the Buffalo Bills will host a “home game” in Toronto, Canada.  But for this sportswriter, the team's contest with Washington is special, in more ways than one.

Each and every season for the past 15 years, I have enjoyed a spirited debate with my buddy Chris, a long-time friend from Northern Virginia, who eats, breathes and sleeps the Redskins.  Nowadays, our wives tell us to keep it civil, but they know that it is next to impossible.

Chris respects the fact that I grew up a Bills fan, and he genuinely feels bad for all of the suffering I have been through over the past three decades.  But he is also quick to state that Buffalo is “oh for four” in Super Bowls, while Washington has won three of five.  To make matters worse, he claims that the Redskins’ last championship was the sweetest one, when Washington trounced Buffalo 37-24 in Super Bowl XXVI.

During NFL training camps a couple of months ago, Chris and I had our annual discussion about the potential of both teams and wagered over what their records would be in 2011.   I reminded him that the Bills have won the last six meetings between the two teams.  But Chris ignored me and predicted a better record for Washington, despite the uncertainty surrounding the team’s signal-callers. 

I said that I felt more comfortable with a quarterback who earned a degree at Harvard.  And Chris countered, by suggesting an orthopedic surgeon for Buffalo's Ryan Fitzpatrick, who he said would be “running for his life” behind a questionable offensive line.

Like the majority of sports fans, Chris has high hopes for his favorite franchises.  He loves to brag about the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA, who have earned one more title than the Redskins have.  But it pains me every year when he labels Washington as a NFC playoff contender. 

I do not dislike or hold a grudge against the Redskins, because I enjoy covering them.  I also have a brother with season tickets, so objectivity gets me an end-zone seat in the sun, once or twice a year.  But, as a Bills fan since childhood, I have learned a thing or two about a team’s chances. 

The Redskins have had talented players over the past two decades, but they have participated in just three postseasons since 1992.  Their last playoff game was January 5, 2008, during Joe Gibbs' second head coaching stint with the team.  Unfortunately for Gibbs, the team's wild-card hopes were drowned out, during a driving rain storm in Seattle.

In the meantime, Buffalo has not sniffed the playoffs in 11 years.  That ties Detroit for the longest drought in the league.   The Houston Texans are next, with no playoff appearances since their inception in 2002.   

My friend Chris can argue until he is blue in the face, but in the past 10 years, Washington has been no better than Buffalo.  Like the Bills, the franchise has hired coaches with experience and some without.  But the results have been identical.  Since 2002, the Bills are 63-87, and so are the Redskins.

I will admit one thing to my friend.  Buffalo fans drive me as crazy as Washington fans do, when it comes to prognosticating.  Every year, the teams appear to be good on paper and playoff chatter runs rampant.  Then, after a couple of impressive wins, the banter turns into Super Bowl aspirations.  But before too long, hearts are broken and the Bills and Redskins return to mediocrity or worse.

I recall Chris lecturing me once about football contenders, who he compared to good business models.  He said “the best organizations give their managers the tools to succeed, and those managers find personnel who fit their systems.”  One feeds off the other and with hard work and a little luck, businesses profit and teams contend.

In their glory years, the Bills and Redskins benefited, because their front offices put faith in players and coaches for the long term.  In return, both franchises were rewarded with stadium sellouts, media exposure and Hall of Fame inductees.

But times have changed and in a league where free agency and the almighty dollar rule, it is hard to predict a contender from year to year.

Early this season, there was plenty to cheer about, as the Bills and Redskins got off to strong starts.  But Washington has dropped three of its last four, and Buffalo has come back to earth with losses to Cincinnati and the New York Giants. 

Nevertheless, I will prepare myself for a heated exchange with Chris, prior to Sunday’s kickoff.  I can hear it now.  We will methodically break down the matchups and find strengths and weaknesses on both sides.  He will remind me that the Bills have a regular season record of 0-3 in Toronto, since signing a five-year deal to play in the Rogers Centre. Then, he will tell me how his team will win and I will chuckle and tell him why it will not.

We both have a lot to lose.  Chris has the best record in our fantasy league, and I am one game behind.  So, I expect that he will talk up his tight end, who happens to be Washington’s Fred Davis.  Meanwhile, I will prepare a rebuttal, with visions of Stevie Johnson flashing a “Why So Serious?” tee-shirt to Toronto fans in the end zone. 

Chris and I do not have ESP, so there is no true way of telling who is going to perform touchdown dances.  But we do our homework and can make educated guesses. 

Chris will predict an above-average day for Freddie, because Bills linebacker Shawne Merriman is out for the season with an Achilles injury.  And I will state that Stevie’s scoring chances are greater because Washington may be without shutdown corner DeAngelo Hall, due to a hip problem. 

Season-ending injuries to running back Tim Hightower and tight end Chris Cooley may dim Washington’s chances even more, but I will not rub it in, because Buffalo will be without Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kyle Williams for the second straight game.

So, here we are.  It’s the eighth week of the season and unless the showdown ends in a tie, one of us will earn bragging rights, from a game played north of the border.

I know a couple of things for sure.  If my team loses, I will never hear the end of it.  But if they win, I will let Chris know loud and clear, that “Nobody Circles the Wagons like the Buffalo Bills.” 

Then, I will put egos aside and invite him out for some chicken wings and a round of Labbatt’s Blue beer.