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New York|In Buffalo, There Are Two Words on Everyone’s Lips: ‘Go Bills’
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/25/nyregion/buffalo-bills-fans.html
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Maceo Skinner, a Bills fan since the team’s inception in 1960, sat at a bar near downtown Buffalo on Tuesday. Outside, the temperature hovered in the single digits and lake-effect snow whistled sideways past the picture window.
Inside, patrons were warmed by a sturdy heater, plentiful drinks and the main topic in town. As everyone at the bar, the Alley Cat, knew — as everyone in western New York knew — the Bills were still alive in the National Football League playoffs, and even a state of weather emergency could not chill the hope that their time had finally come.
“We’ve put up with a lot,” Mr. Skinner said. “Buffalo needs this.”
There are many sports teams with long-frustrated supporters: Lions fans, Pirates fans, Vikings supporters and all those who root for the Mets, Jets or Cleveland Guardians. All claim a certain level of misery.
But it’s different in Buffalo.
Mr. Skinner was born in the city in 1945, sold beer at the old Rockpile (the Bills’ first home) in the 1960s, and despite all the suffering, remains a loyal fan. To illustrate it, he carefully extracted a relic from his wallet. It was a ticket from Super Bowl XXVII, a bit crinkled and slightly frayed around the edges.
He has cherished it for 32 years: a memento from a game in which the Bills were destroyed by the Dallas Cowboys, 52-17. It was Buffalo’s third straight Super Bowl loss. That is the past that Bills fans are left holding.
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