The Buffalo Bills have won the AFC East division for the first time in 25 years and have made their first playoff game at home in almost the same time. Thousands of retired Bills fans waited cold hours to greet the team, which arrived at Buffalo Airport at 1:30 a.m. after beating the Denver Broncos on Dec. 19 to win the division title. . Strong problems were unsettling after he was ruled out of the Bills games all season. Whether Bills Stadium will join the other 13 allowing fans before the playoffs may now depend on the wisdom of Howard Zucker – the state health commissioner, who signed the now-famous New York City March 25 ban on residencies of elders set aside Covid— positive residents.
I grew up in Buffalo in the seventies and eighties, times for Bills fans. When I left for college in 1990, the team quickly made it to the Super Bowl, but lost when Scott Norwood’s last-minute field goal attempt went right. The Bills returned to the Super Bowl during my sophomore, junior and senior years, but I lost every time. In 1995, when he was 23, the Bills won the division but lost to Pittsburgh in the second round of the playoffs. Little did I know I would be 48 years old before my team won the AFC East again.
Suffering is an integral part of Buffalo’s fondness for sports and loyalty as well. Possibly, except for the Green Bay Packers, I can’t think of a team more tied to the identity and fortune of their city than the Bills. In a hellish year, the team and its faithful, affectionately known as the “Bills Mafia,” finally have a reason to be hopeful and proud.
The coal of our Bills socks is the absence of fans at the stadium. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been sending mixed signals about the opening of Bills Stadium all season. On Sept. 30, he said he would tour the stadium and meet with team leadership to “talk” about reopening-related issues. On November 6, he stepped back and said Dr. Zucker, whose nursing home arrangement killed at least 6,200 people, had told him it would be “reckless” to allow the fans would return to the stadium (outdoors), which has a capacity of over 71,000.
The governor never came to tour the stadium, but recently said he “would love nothing more” than to attend a playoff game at the Bills’ home. He insisted that the Department of Health of Dr. Zucker should give the green light to any deal to open the stadium, including a cautious proposal to admit about 6,700 fans.
Even that may not be enough. Mark C. Poloncarz, an Erie County executive, recently threw cold water on the proposal. The Democrat scolded Bills fans for greeting his team at the airport and told reporters they asked if he would agree to allow fans at the stadium, telling them, “Clarify your priorities.” . Maybe football just isn’t their game. In late September he was photographed on a golf course with 16 other people, all without masks. “I just forgot to bring one,” he said after posting the photo. Mr. Poloncarz will receive advice from the well-compensated Gale Burnstein, who earned $ 166,319 in overtime and paid vacation leave from March 4 to December 4 as county health commissioner, in addition to her $ 202,312 salary.
The Bills Mafia has science at its side. There has only been one case of an amateur who has tested positive for Covid-19 after a game in the 13 NFL stadiums that allow fans, and that was months ago at the opening of the season in Kansas City. Other people may have become infected and uninformed, but it is clear that the games have not been at all close to superextension events.
Many officials, including Messrs. Cuomo and Poloncarz, appear to be enjoying the new powers they have assumed during the pandemic. But they will never be able to show their face west of New York again if they decree that the stadium should remain closed to fans. What may be the reason the governor bet on Dr. Zucker.
Bills fans have suffered four consecutive Super Bowl defeats, a 17-year playoff drought (2000-16 seasons) and a 25-year hunger for a division title. We know the risks of Covid-19 and we also know we haven’t had a playoff game at home since December 1996. It’s time for politicians and health bureaucrats to get on their knees and allow us to reconnect with our team at our stadium.
Seminara is a former diplomat and author of “Federer’s Steps: A Pilgrimage of a Fan Through 7 Swiss Cantons in 10 Acts,” which will be published in March.
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