There can be no true despair without hope. Bane said it best when he had Bruce Wayne trapped in his prison in Dark Knight Rises. His theory was put to the test as the light at the top of the tunnel was right above Bruce Wayne. The light/hole represented hope that he might get out. If there wasn’t a visible way out, there would be zero hope and there wouldn’t be any reason to fight on. The above hole would always be there to remind you that you were on the verge of escaping. Yet, time after time with trying to get out and failing would basically make you go insane and have complete true despair. What do they say…Going insane is basically doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.
The cave represents the Buffalo Bills, Bills fans represent Bruce Wayne and the tunnel above represents every single off season over the last 16 years. The offseason is basically a time of year where the Bills can hopefully [There’s that word again] get bet better and where we as Bills fans can get to our happy place in hoping we can escape from the darkness. Whether its TO or Bledsoe/Spikes or Mario or Rex/McCoy, the hope the Bills bring to us during the offseason makes us believe we can get the hell out of that dark tunnel because there’s a light at the end of it. Of course, we know what happens next..chaos. The light is just an oncoming train that eventually derails our season. The regular season breaks our backs and it makes it even more disheartening because of the hope we had during the offseasons.
The 2015 season was really disconcerting for me because the Bills offseason hopes with the Rex effect, Pegula taking over, and a lot of the changes the Bills made to their roster made it the most over-hyped prelude to a season since probably the SB years. It hurt more last year because of those expectations. It would make you think if maybe we were better off with NOT getting our hopes up for a change.
As for this offseason…well, I’m not exactly in that game mode of hope. There’s been more sightings of the Ryan Brothers at sporting events than free agents coming to One Bills Drive. I know we signed a safety who started a few years ago, but other than that, its been a complete snooze. Yeah, count me as someone who thought the Bills would do some salary cap maneuvering to get active, but the franchise tag to Glenn and Gilmore’s 11-million dollar salary cap hit for next season has undone that hope.
Still, I feel a sense of calmness within myself about the team. I’m not saying they are going to be good or bad, but there’s just a sense of nothing. No despair. No excitement. No false hope. I have zero idea if it is a good or bad thing. Maybe things will change for me by training camp or something big will go down at the draft. Maybe the years of losing have gotten to me to the point that I’m just apathetic about it. Maybe I don’t want to get hurt again. Maybe I don’t care.
For once, the Bills offseason hasn’t given me hope.
There isn’t a new shinny toy for us to grab onto in hoping that we can finally get out of this hole. No tricks or savior this time around. The Bills will have to rely on what’s already been built there and that’s each other. The illusion of hope that has been constantly shown to us over the years in the offseason seems to be closed this time around, but, maybe there’s another way out and we just don’t see yet.
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