Go Bills…kinda

So, public opinion seems to be coalescing to a degree around the idea that the best Super Bowl matchup to conclude the season that is currently winding its way toward a conclusion would pit the Buffalo Bills against the Detroit Lions. That would be the Bills’ fifth Super Bowl appearance, versus the first for the Lions. The Bills, notably, lost all four of their previous Super Bowl tilts, so a Bills-Lions Super Bowl would produce the first ever Super Bowl victory for one of those two teams.

I get the appeal. I really do. The Bills are not only really good, but they’re really likeable and they are vastly exceeding expectations for this season. Many prognosticators had the Bills finishing somewhere around 9-8, after an offseason that had them dumping two wide receivers and a few key defensive starters from the really good teams of the last three or four seasons…but they just plugged in new, younger guys and here they are, 9-2 as I write this.

The Lions, meanwhile, have been building smartly over the last few years. Last year they advanced all the way to the NFC Championship Game before losing, and as of this writing they are 10-1, firmly in first place in the NFC and the favorite to win the conference and finally make their first ever Super Bowl. And they, too, are a very likeable team, and they have a fanbase that is seen as one of the most cruelly cursed in sports.

So, Bills-Lions in the Super Bowl is well within the realm of possibility, and because both teams are so easy to root for, that’s what’s happening.

Except for me.

I do not want this matchup, precisely because both teams are so likeable and precisely because both fan bases have suffered for, well, ever.

Now, I’m on record as not being terribly sympathetic to “suffering fans”, since the suffering is voluntary. But there’s a limit, and a Bills-Lions Super Bowl would allow one of those fanbases to experience glory, while plunging the other into more heartbreak. If the Lions won, that would drop the Bills to 0-5 in the Super Bowl, and more, they would be the only 0-5 team in the Super Bowl at all. The Bills are already still the butt of jokes for the Super Bowls they lost over 30 years ago, and adding a fifth loss would, I think, simply amplify the national mocking. It’s already annoying enough hearing “He hasn’t won a Super Bowl yet!” in reply to any post online anywhere talking about Josh Allen’s prodigious gifts as a quarterback.

So honestly, were I given by the Sports Gods the binary choice of “They make the Super Bowl and lose” versus “They don’t make the Super Bowl at all”, I would honestly take the latter.

As for the Lions? I don’t want them to lose either, even to the Bills. When the Lions reach the Super Bowl, I want to root for them, and I don’t want them to lose their first Super Bowl.

No, I don’t want Bills-Lions in the Super Bowl. I want the Bills in one of the next two Super Bowls, the Lions in the other, and both teams winning. That‘s what I want.

I’m also sick of the Chiefs, but that’s another matter entirely….