I’ve been thinking a lot lately about being wrong about the Bills and the consequences (Maybe too strong of a word) of figuring out how stupid you were to believe in them or whether you should still stick it out to the final gun. In today’s sports world, its almost impossible to get some fans and lamestream media to admit to making a mistake. Take the Cassel/EJ narrative. You see how both QBs were a grease fire on Sunday? Yet, some in the press fanning the fire of this BS backup QB controversy won’t budge about. For crap sakes, there have been 3 columns from TBN this week about Cassel/EJ. There’s beating a dead horse and then there’s TBN’s beating a dead horse into Elmer’s Glue mindset.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a lamestreamer admit to being absolutely wrong when it comes to a take. They are the first person to break their hand patting themselves on the back for being right and then the first person to completely spin being wrong. However, their stubbornness and arrogance comes from a different mindset than a fan.
One of the worst things about being a Bills fan is that you want something so badly to work out that you forget what preceded it. You want to stick to your guns because hope is ultimately all that we have as a Bills fan. There’s no history of faith that tells us that everything will be just fineeeeeee. Once we give up hope, we are truly lost as fans.
Take the hoopla and selective memory of Rex Ryan joining the Bills. He’s a star and the defense will be good!..but…You forget that the Bills had more wins from 2011-2014 than the Jets (26 to 27). You forget that Rex Ryan was dumb enough to put his starting QB back into a preseason game in the 4th quarter and have his QB fuck up his shoulder and be out for the year. You forget that Rex Ryan has more losses than any coach in the NFL since 2011. You forget that the Jets hadn’t made the playoffs the last 4 years. You forget that he didn’t get along with his GM. You forget that there were more leaks from the coaching staff being pissed off than the leaks on the Titanic. You forget that 99% of the Bills fan base laughed their asses off at how badly Rex and the Jets were performing last year at this time.
But here’s the rub….I didn’t forget it, but I just pushed it aside.
I mentioned all of the shortcomings in my piece about him signing but the art of believing and going with the crowd is what ultimately made me say “Meh. New team. New city. New GM. New owner. Its all moot.” That’s what sucks about Twitter and being a Bills fan. When something new happens in the offseason with a signing or new hire, its impossible to disagree with what the Bills did or bring up cause for trepidation because you get curb stomped.
I remember what went down during the Kiko/Shady deal and you couldn’t dare bring up the trade not being in the best interest of the Bills. I saw people blocking and trolling anyone who thought the Bills were losing that deal. I decided to play the diplomatic “A trade can work for both teams and let’s wait it out to judge” POV. But really, I didn’t wanna get fucking killed. The same went with Rex getting the job. You know how many NY columnists dissed the Bills and got thrashed by us (Myself included)? It was up there.
For Rex, he had the biggest honeymoon in the offseason for any Bills coach I can remember. Not to paint too broad of a brush, but Buffalo fans have always struck me as being a fan base that LOVES attention from the outside world. Its the constant chase of being “Relevant.” How many times have you complained about ESPN not focusing on the Bills enough over the last 15 years? Now all of a sudden we got a coach whose on TV and we are tickled because we are finally getting national exposure. Again, more forgetting his faults and acting like the guy is coaching Jesus.
Now the Bills are 3-4 and the expectations we had for the offseason haven’t come close to being met. We can talk about the injuries, the quality of teams they lost to, or its only 7 games in…but by doing so, you could be branded a shill and burned at the stake. Same goes with jumping off the bandwagon after boasting about their additions and the cockiness of Rex. I wish I could put my finger on Rex right now as a head coach, but then someone will just point a finger right back at me.
Its just becoming an instant gratification society where yesterday and tomorrow are forgotten. It used to be a lot nicer when we could all be introverts and not have social or lamestream media dictate our football thoughts.
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