We CAN have it both ways by @rcanepac

After the draft, I really thought that the Bills would have a shot this year: ‘defense will be better in a 4-3 system and Sammy, Lawson *and* Regland will be healthy this year’, yours truly thought. I even wrote this piece predicting that we would all be excited by the end of training camp, for God’s sake! Boy was I wrong.

I feel that everybody is now preparing for the worst. We have all lowered our expectations because we can’t take another heartbreak from this team. Our defense mechanisms have built an underground shelter waiting for the Armageddon to come. Sure, some are in the Tank movement, and some are in the anti-tank / “let’s see how it goes, but try to win” bandwagon. And there’s people like me, just in the middle.

To start, I will never enter into a season hoping for the Bills to lose. I long for the season to begin so hard that I’m not willing to send it all to the garbage before it even starts. In a way, every year I hang on a hope that the stars will align and we will win this season. Hey! It seems to be happening to Peru soccer team:  Peru hasn’t gone to a world cup since 1982, and this year, when everything seemed absolutely lost, we are closer than ever to finally go. Wooohoo! A miracle can happen any time with any team. We’ve seen it. I want and hope to see it with the Bills.

But I’m not THAT stupid either. I know that hoping for miracles is naïve and can lead for some heartbreaks. There’s where my brain kicks my heart in the nuts and tells me that the Bills suck and that this will be a loooong season.

Luckily, I have the solution for those who are confused on how to feel in this season: RELAX, ENJOY AND CELEBRATE ANY OUTCOME AFTER EVERY GAME. Don’t you realize it? THIS IS THE PERFECT SEASON. Bills win? YES! I’VE BEEN WAITING THE WHOLE YEAR TO HAVE THIS EMOTION! Bills lose? That’s fine. A higher pick in 2018! Sure, there will probably be games hard to watch in which the team looks putrid… well, I’ll always have a nice beer six pack by my side and try to make the best out of it.

I’m sorry, in a probably lost season, I’m not willing to be miserable after an 8 month wait. For me, it just doesn’t make any sense to be disappointed once again when all indicates that this team will suck. We don’t deserve to suffer, not this year. They always sell us hope and this season I’m not buying it. I’m not expecting a wining season.  If that happens and we go to the playoffs, I’ll go to rehab after all the partying I’ll have (by myself, since I think I’m the only Bills fan in Peru). But if they are terrible, that’s OK too: barring a miracle, the only hope I’m buying is for 2019 and maybe it all starts in the 2018 draft.

So, there you go. Pick my remedy and don’t pick sides in the tanking conversation. Win or lose, let’s be ok: WE CAN HAVE IT BOTH WAYS. For once, let’s allow ourselves to be mediocre fans of a mediocre team.