The NFL is the Buffalo Bills’ world and we’re all just living in it.
The Kansas City Chiefs, Joe Brrrr..Bengals and the Philadelphia Eagles dominate the discourse, but Buffalo is the Forrest Gump of NFL franchises. Not in the sense that one day a generic leading man will portray Josh Allen in a biopic of the same name. No, the Bills are the Forrest Gump whose fictional exploits propelled him to influence crucial events from the sixties, seventies and eighties.
There are 32 teams, but the Bills are inadvertently the most influential team of the modern era. From the passenger seat, they changed the arc of recent history without actually doing anything extraordinary. An assortment for your viewing pleasure:
Run, Aaron, run!
For example, Monday marks a week since Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon on Monday Night Football, and the reverberations haven’t fully worn off yet. Few people outside of New York State, however, will remember Leonard Floyd as the Bills outside linebacker who sacked Aaron Rodgers on the Jets’ fateful fourth play from a scrimmage. At so many points in recent NFL history, Buffalo has found itself on the periphery of the frame. It’s still too early to predict how quickly Rodgers’ injury will create a butterfly effect, but based on Sunday’s result, it’s painfully clear that the Jets will ultimately desperately pursue an above-average quarterback who can give them a chance this season to give. more importantly in the postseason.
Overtime is like a box of chocolates
In January 2022, the Bills took part in one of the most exciting offensive back and forth in the fourth quarter in the NFL playoff annals during the final seconds of their Divisional Round game against Kansas City. Ultimately, Travis Kelce’s touchdown catch prompted a revision of the playoff overtime rules in favor of rules that would have given the Bills a chance to match Kansas City’s offensive scoring output.
Tuas Concussions changed the game – that’s all I have to say about that
In Week 3 of the 2022 season, Tua Tagovailloa’s head bounced off the turf, causing him to wobble off the field. Tagovailoa attributed his stumble to the sideline on his back. Days later, on Thursday Night Football, Tagovailoa’s head dribbled off the turf for a second time, sending him into an involuntary screen reaction, leading to enhanced concussion protocols. That’s not as glamorous as teaching Elvis to dancebut the chain reaction of events that Buffalo set in motion is significant enough.
Some people don’t think miracles happen. Wuh, they do
It doesn’t take six degrees to identify the role Buffalo’s coaches played in saving the Bills’ safety. Damar Hamlin’s life as he lay motionless on the field. Hamlin’s collapse and the 15 minutes during which medics performed life-saving medical procedures to revive him were the most traumatic NFL experience on national television since Lawrence Taylor accidentally broke Joe Theismann’s tibia and fibula on Nov. 18, 1985.
The last time the collective NFL world watched with bated breath as someone’s mortality hung in the balance was 16 years earlier, when Bills tight end Kevin Everett’s life was saved on the field. After Hamlin was released from a lengthy hospital stay, the status of his health became fodder for him some of the most unhinged corners of the internet– also known as the app formerly known as Twitter.
YYou have to put the past behind you before you can move on
In a more trivial development, the Minnesota Vikings shattered Buffalo’s nearly 30-year-old record for the largest comeback in NFL history during Week 15 against Indianapolis. But that pales in comparison to the impact of poor sales on the global stage.
I’m not a smart man, but I know what a scammer is
About a year before he launched his presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s bid to buy the Buffalo Bills exploded as a result of his falsified financials. If Trump had been allowed to buy the Bills, there was a real possibility that his corruption could have been limited to the NFL. The kingpin may have been influenced by the NFL’s decision to sell the franchise to Terry Pegula instead of a high-profile, firebrand billionaire. If we had access to a time machine, this would be the easiest trolley problem that presents such a high-stakes dilemma this side of the 21st century. Sacrificing the bills to serve the greater good would be an easy choice. The arc of the universe is long and bends towards the joke.
WWe all happen to float around, like a breeze
When the Buffalo Bills make a football game or football personnel decision, a hurricane forms in the Atlantic Ocean. Even a text message from Bill Belichick, intended for Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, is changing the way the entire league does business.
Three days before Brian Flores’ interview for the head coaching job with the New York Giants, Bill Belichick congratulated him on his impending announcement as the next Big Blue head coach in a text message that read: “I hear from Buffalo & NYG that you are the are a man. ” Moments later, Belichick realized that Houses had texted the wrong Brian and awkwardly texted back, “Sorry, I screwed this up. I double checked the text and misread it. I think they call it Brian Daboll. Sorry about that. BB.”
It doesn’t matter if Belichick was Machiavellian by throwing the Giants under the bus and accidentally trapping the Miami Dolphins. Belichick’s coincidental text to Flores instead of the Bills’ Daboll is the opening paragraph in the former text. class action discrimination lawsuit against the NFL. The Dolphins even lost a first-round pick as a result of the investigation stemming from Flores that accused Dolphins owner Stephen Ross of asking him to recruit Tom Brady while he was still under contract with Tampa Bay.
Stupid is as stupid as stupid
Former NFL Network reporter Jim Trotter’s Trial contains excerpts of scathing comments allegedly made by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Pegula.
For better or worse, the Buffalo Bills are movers and shakers. They may not start it, but Buffalo is always in the middle of something.
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