Unprecedented challenges met with remarkable resilience: A Bills year like no other
In the fall of 1968, just after I had turned 6 years old, I was at a relative’s house in Buffalo for a reason that I cannot recall. Maybe it was a birthday party, maybe it was just a Sunday dinner.
I really have no idea.
But what I do recall is that the men in the house — my father, my uncle, and maybe a couple others — were in the TV room watching the Buffalo Bills game. Against who, I also have no idea.
As for the women, all I can say is this was a different time and they were not all that interested in watching the game (I know my mother wasn’t), especially that Bills team, which was one of the worst in franchise history. They were somewhere else in the house, probably preparing the meal and rolling their eyes at the men making noise about the game.
Anyway, from that day forward, I was hooked. I attended my first Bills game in 1970 at old War Memorial Stadium — they beat Joe Namath’s Jets on a day O.J. Simpson returned a kickoff for a touchdown — and remained a huge fan all the way through college.
And then I got into the journalism business, covered my first Bills game in 1982, and ultimately began covering the team full-time for the Democrat and Chronicle in 1990.
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Add that up, that’s about 55 years of following this team in some capacity. I can say today that there has never been anything quite like the last 12 months in terms of the crazy things that have transpired both on and off the field.
The latest, of course, being the horrific situation that took place Monday night when safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on the field in Cincinnati and nearly died.
The Bills have endured a level of adversity that, at least in my estimation, is unprecedented in franchise history. And the fact that as they head into Sunday’s game against New England with a 12-3 record and still maintain a chance to earn the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs is a remarkable testament to the culture Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane have established at One Bills Drive and to the eye-popping resiliency of these players.
Here’s a look back at what has happened:
13 seconds in Kansas City
While this didn't happen during the 2022 season, the Bills’ collapse at the end of the divisional round playoff game in Kansas City on Jan. 23 needs to be included because in some ways it's fueling the determination this team has needed to rise above everything that has taken place this season.
That was as difficult and gut-wrenching a loss as the Bills have ever suffered, and for this franchise of Wide Right and Music City Miracle and a bunch of other terrible though non-nicknamed losses, that’s saying something.
It took quite a while for the Bills to recover from their 42-36 overtime loss to the Chiefs in the divisional playoffs and for some, it’s a wound that may never heal if the players on that team don’t go on to win a Super Bowl. That’s because they were 13 seconds away from hosting the AFC Championship Game against the Bengals, and there were many who believed the Bills would have won that game and gone on to beat the Rams in the Super Bowl. Alas, we never got to find out.
Tops massacre in Buffalo
Obviously this did not directly impact the football operation of the Bills, but it certainly was felt by the organization.
This was one of the worst tragedies in Buffalo’s history, and the Bills — who at that time were in the midst of OTA practices — showed up in force to support the wounded community, especially for the families who lost loved ones in the racist killings of 10 Black citizens.
Led by McDermott, Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs, plus former players Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith, the Bills went to the East side of Buffalo and served food and talked to people while wearing Choose Love t-shirts in the hope that they could bring even a moment of joy amidst such a terrible situation.
“This is also my home,” Dion Dawkins said. “I have a large connection with this city. Everybody knows somebody and I’m one person away from knowing somebody who tragically lost their life.”
The Matt Araiza situation
Just days after announcing that their rookie sixth-round draft pick — who had been touted as one of the best punting prospects ever in an NFL Draft — had won the team’s job over Matt Haack, an explosive story broke that rocked not only the Bills, but the NFL.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Araiza and two of his former San Diego State football teammates were named in a lawsuit alleging they had been involved in the gang rape of a 17-year-old female in October 2021.
The Bills claimed to have no knowledge of this when they scouted Araiza and ultimately drafted him, and after a couple days of gathering whatever information they could, they cut Araiza.
“We did not know about this and the league did not know about this,” Beane claimed. “I know people are out there trying to find out and there’s no one — we’ve reached out to, I can tell you, double-digit teams at this point, and no one had anything on this. These names were sealed, wherever the investigation was at that point.”
Last month, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office announced no charges would be filed in the case because the evidence gathered, plus interviews with witnesses, did not support the filing of criminal charges and there was no path to a potential criminal conviction.
Bills face extreme weather
Hey, maybe there is something to all this climate change discussion because this has definitely been a volatile weather year and the Bills have been impacted heavily.
Start with Week 3 in Miami when the temperature on their sideline reached 120 degrees; it was “only” around 90 on the shaded Dolphins side of the field. That day, I’ve never seen so many players dropping to their knees because of heat exhaustion. The heat and humidity made playing conditions borderline dangerous, yet the Bills nearly pulled out a last-second victory before falling 21-19.
Then the weather changed, and historic and deadly snow became the issue. Thanks to seven feet that buried the Orchard Park area, the Bills had to shift their Nov. 20 home game against the Browns to Detroit. They couldn’t practice all week and needed extraordinary measures just to get their players out of their snowbound homes so they could get to the airport for the flight to Detroit. And still, they managed to beat the Browns.
Four days later, they had to go right back to Detroit to play on Thanksgiving and they beat the Lions 28-25. And a week later, completing a three games in 12 days stretch, the Bills defeated the Patriots 24-10. No one could recall any NFL team in modern times playing three games away from home in a span of 12 days, yet the Bills went 3-0.
Six weeks later came the Christmas Blizzard that many long-time observers opined was worse than even the famous Blizzard of 1977. The death toll has risen to 42 and may still go up.
The Bills had to fly to Chicago a day earlier than normal to escape the start of the storm, and after beating the Bears 35-13 in the coldest road game in team history, they were stuck in Chicago an extra night because there was no way they could fly home. They eventually flew to Rochester on Christmas Day, then made their way back to Buffalo to end a four-day odyssey.
Buffalo Bills defense has lost player after player
Injuries happen in the NFL, that’s just part of the brutal sport that football is, and every team loses players during a season. The Bills had enjoyed relatively good injury luck the previous two years, but it all caught up to them this year, especially on the defensive side.
In Week 2 they lost Pro Bowl safety Micah Hyde for the season to a neck injury that, at the time, was feared to be career-ending. On Thanksgiving Day they lost future Hall of Fame edge rusher Von Miller - who they signed to a six-year free agent contract potentially worth $120 million — to a season-ending knee injury.
And along the way, defensive players Greg Rousseau, Jordan Poyer, Ed Oliver, Tremaine Edmunds, Jordan Phillips, Jordan Poyer, Dane Jackson, Matt Milano, Tim Settle, Kaiir Elam, and Christian Benford have all missed games, and that doesn’t even include Tre’Davious White who didn’t play in the first 10 games. And still, they are 12-3 and their three losses have been by a combined eight points.
Again, no one in the NFL is feeling bad for the Bills regarding injuries. That is, until …
Damar Hamlin's collapse
I was there the day in 2007 when Bills tight end Kevin Everett nearly died on the field at Highmark Stadium. I’m sure some of you were there, too, or were at least watching on TV. I hoped I’d never bear witness to something like that again, but then Monday night, yet another unimaginable scene was taking place before our eyes.
The Everett situation was a little different than this. When he went down after making a tackle, it was clear within a few minutes that he’d suffered a spinal cord injury because of the way they were treating him, and how they gingerly moved him to the ambulance.
But we had no idea that he would have died right there if not for an innovative induced hypothermia procedure used by the team doctor, Andrew Cappuccino, which effectively lowered his body temperature. That only came to light several days later, and not only did Everett live, he has recovered to lead a normal life.
Monday, we knew what was happening with Hamlin. His heart stopped after he made a physical tackle on Bengals receiver Tee Higgins and collapsed to the turf. Medical personnel rushed onto the field and administered life-saving CPR before he was placed in an ambulance.
However, unlike the Everett game that was continued after about a 20-minute delay, Monday’s game was suspended, making it the first known game to have ever not been finished on the day it started. In fact, it may never be finished because the NFL is still considering its options.
It has been quite a year indeed.