HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY BILLS NATION!

HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY BILLS NATION!

    Yes, boys and girls, the Buffalo Bills are now officially as old as your grandparents. They've reached their 60s and still have no rings to show for it. They've turned 60 and haven't won a playoff game in the past 24 years, that's a whole lifetime. As a proud supporter of the Buffalo Bills, this season is giving me plenty of reason to believe the Bills will make some serious noise this coming year. They might even finish with a winning record! Hip Hip Hooray!

    Do I sound a little bitter, I'm just thinking about Tailgate Village and the black mark that puts on the festivities. Truth be told, there hasn't been much of a rumbling surrounding the Bills and their 60th anniversary. One would expect there to be a giant hullabaloo about such a milestone but it appears those are reserved for the Packers, Steelers, Cowboys. You know, teams that don't choke on Beer.

    It could be I that's not making a big deal out of it because there's not much to make a big deal out of. When the Bills celebrated their 35th (that's right, their 35th), they were coming off of four-straight Super Bowls and countless division titles. The Bills haven't won the division since...it's been so long that shows like Breaking Bad, The Wire and Sopranos have enjoyed full runs in between division titles.

    When the Bills celebrated their 50th anniversary, the AFL (or AFC) was also celebrating their 60th anniversary. Same thing with the 35th anniversary, that came on the heels of the NFL's 75th anniversary. The NFL has at least come out with a few gimmicks to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the NFL such as that awesome Super Bowl commercial, the 100th anniversary patch they've thrown onto the jerseys, balls, and fields all over the country. They even allowed for Bills fans to go down to Tennessee and remember “Homerun Throwback”. Isn't it wonderful?

    No, and the 75th anniversary logo was better, much better.

    Asking most Bills fans around the area, many of them even forgot the Bills were celebrating an anniversary. It's cool that we got the Thanksgiving game but the league gave that to us so that we could get carved down in Big D. We all know the remedy to that but will the team get it done?

   It's up to the players on the field to give us fans a reason to remember the 60th anniversary of this team. We missed the playoffs during our 35th anniversary and while TO in the B-LO was a cool marketing ploy, that 50th season was as forgettable as your wallet or car keys. I hope this anniversary can act as an extra incentive for the players.

    Give us fans an anniversary gift. A win in Foxboro, a division title, a playoff berth, something!

-By: Thomas P. Braun Jr.