Bills’ style of bad far better than Lions’ disastrous take

By Anthony Bialy  |   Wednesday, July 01, 2009  |  Comments( 79 )

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Like all sports fans ever, Buffalo Bills backers can take solace in not getting gut-punched every single week last season like Detroit Lions adherents. Except maybe they can’t: At least Detroit never teased its followers with playoff dreams or an undefeated September. Lions fans were stuck in a rotten relationship, but their partner never pretended it was anything other than dysfunctional. It’s the offseason’s most depressing hypothetical: Is it better to feel eternally depressed about one’s team than it is to feel happy before being driven to gloominess?

The Bills may have only been sub-mediocre compared to the criminally awful Lions. But they share one notorious distinction in that the squads stand tied for the longest current postseason drought, as both last made it following the 1999 season. For perspective, people were still listening to, really, Creed the last time each franchise got to a 17th game.

Since 2000, Detroit is as bad as anyone thinks or remembers. They’re 40-104, including seven shameful double digit-loss seasons; one of those was a 16-loss campaign about which you may have heard. The only one winning season they’ve had in that time was 2000’s 9-7 mark. Where have you gone, Wayne Fontes?

Meanwhile, Buffalo is a better-only-by-comparison 60-84 over the same duration. They posted at least 10 losses in three of those years; 2004’s middling 9-7 record served as their glory point, accompanied by two .500 seasons. Winning more frequently than the Lions doesn’t meant better results.

The franchises share a stronger link than the seemingly unconnected fact that Ralph Wilson owns one of the teams and lives near the other. More concretely, Wilson shares the Fords’ seeming nonchalance regarding victories. Every owner professes a dedication to winning, but actual actions show some don’t mean it. In both cases, that tendency has trickled down to management.

Most notoriously, Tom Donahoe was a lite version of Matt Millen. While Buffalo’s talentless talent evaluator has been gone for years now, the course he chartered was nearly as devastating as the one chosen by human anchor Millen. At least the Lions replaced their lout with Martin Mayhew; the Bills current general manager is marketing man Russ Brandon, which doesn’t speak to a true desire to end their playoff drought first.

At the same time, there’s cause for optimism in Buffalo despite spending a decade locked in a closet. It’s fair to argue that cutting back on a few glaring mistakes and weak performances could be all Buffalo needs to do to get to January football. Adding Terrell Owens should help, too, although Lions fans can in turn point out that they don’t have to cope with him.

Regardless, Detroit will need leprechauns granting wishes to get to three wins, while its weaknesses include every position that Calvin Johnson, Kevin Smith, and Ernie Sims don’t play. Rock bottom would currently be Detroit’s penthouse.

So, is it worse for fans to follow a team that’s close to OK like the Bills or one that wallows in awfulness, a la the Lions? It’s true that eternal badness is actually less stressful than being teased with the postseason before tanking. But that’s overridden by the knowledge nothing worthwhile ever comes without tension.

It’s better to have hopes dashed than to not have hopes; getting crushed beats starting off crushed. Unrewarded faith is far better than knowing things will suck. It’s not to be happy with Buffalo’s actions or failures, but thinking the Bills could succeed is far better than never having to face the chance of feeling bummed.
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