Bragging in Buffalo : Often the Target of Bad Jokes, the City Prides Itself in Bills’ Victories

A radio station held a contest last week to determine how far Bills’ fans would go to get a ticket to see their team in the AFC championship game in Miami.

Pretty far.

One desperate soul ate maggots. Another consumed what he claimed were buffalo chips.

And they weren’t even the winners.

That dubious honor went to a fan who smeared his body with what he claimed were dolphin parts and then ate them. Contest supervisors weren’t sure he was telling the truth, but no one wanted to investigate further.

In this town, fan is definitely short for fanatic .

Of course, every NFL town has its devotees, but in this city, the love affair runs particularly deep.

The Bills, heading for their third consecutive Super Bowl on Jan. 31 at the Rose Bowl against the Dallas Cowboys, are a glowing positive force in a city long bedeviled by negatives.

Buffalo is America’s dartboard, the darling of stand-up comedians.

One of its problems is that it’s in New York, but it’s not New York .

But the concerns also go much deeper. Beset by bad weather and bad economic times that stretched over many years after the loss of its steel industry, Buffalo is a convenient target for bad jokes and one-liners.

The reality is that the city is doing a lot better than some other parts of the country in the midst of a recession. By diversifying its manufacturing base and increasing trade with Canada across the nearby border, Buffalo and surrounding Erie County have cut unemployment nearly in half in a decade, from about 12% to 6.7%.

“It’s a fine city,” Bill owner Ralph Wilson said. “But everybody around the countrythinks it’s Siberia.”

In Buffalo, they still remember Johnny Carson--and not with much fondness. When the city was hit by a devastating blizzard in 1977, Carson used a few Buffalo lines on the “Tonight Show” that still rankle city fathers.

“Johnny Carson caused a lot of our problems,” Buffalo Mayor James D. Griffin said. “If people want an easy joke, they mention our snow.

“What they don’t talk about is our fair housing, our waterfront area, our beautiful lake and the great country of Canada, which is a neighbor right on our front door. We have arts, we have culture, everything every other city has, and maybe more.”

And they have their Bills.

“It means a tremendous amount in prestige, goodwill and business for us to be going to the Super Bowl,” Griffin said.

“It used to be,” said Buffalo businessman Bill Heussler, president of the Buffalo Quarterback Club, “that when I traveled out of town and people found out I was from Buffalo, they’d say, ‘Buffalo, eh? Have you dug out yet?’ Now, their reaction is, ‘Buffalo? Oh, the Buffalo Bills.’ They have given the city what it could really use, a shot in the arm.

“We had one big snowstorm in 1977 and we’ve had to live with it for years. The Bills are a way to show this city is a winner.”

Wilson, a Detroit resident who maintains an apartment in Buffalo and spends a good deal of time there, feels the same way.

“Buffalo is a town grasping for recognition,” he said. “This is a city that has been beaten into the ground. The team gives them something to be proud of. People live and die with this team. It means everything to this city.

“People still show disdain for Buffalo. Those are people who don’t know, who haven’t been there. This team gives the fans of Buffalo a chance to tell those people to shove it.”

Don Sabo, a sociologist and a professor at Buffalo’s D’Youville College, uses a bit different language, but sums up the same idea.

“I think Western New York,” Sabo said, “has always had a chip on its shoulder regarding national recognition. There’s a certain inferiority complex here. The fans’ investment in the Bills always has been a matter of projected pride. If the Bills win, the nation will think better of us. That’s the thinking.”

Another factor contributing to the Bills’ popularity is the dearth of big league teams in other sports. The only other such club in the area is the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL, and they have not been a consistent championship contender. The closest major college is Syracuse, about 175 miles away.

“This town is small enough,” Bill Coach Marv Levy said, “to have both a pro and college mentality, both big-town and small. These are dyed-in-the-wool fans. They hurt when we hurt.”

But the fans are there, win or lose. Erie is only the 47th-largest county in the country, with a population of 968,500. Buffalo has a population of 328,000. As a result, the Bills play in the NFL’s second-smallest market. Yet, the team has led the league in attendance four consecutive seasons.

Season-ticket sales in 80,290-seat Rich Stadium surpassed 57,000 this past season, a franchise record.

The Bills haven’t always been so popular during their three decades. Wilson can remember bleaker days when the team was struggling. Fans blamed him for not buying enough talent to put the city on the map.

“When I used to leave the stadium,” said Wilson, recalling the seasons when the Bills won only one or two games, “the fans would throw their programs at me. Now when I leave, they ask me to autograph them.”

But Wilson is under no illusion that a winning team can simply be purchased, like a successful company.

“The fans had better enjoy this team,” he said, “because it might be another 30 years before they have another one like this. Teams like this come along once in a generation.”

These days, with Buffalo headed for another Super Bowl, team paraphernalia can be found on every street corner.

And in some rather unlikely spots.

A local doctor is working on his patients this week while decked out in a Bills’ sweat shirt.

But nothing has focused the fans on their beloved team quite like The Comeback. Every football fan knows the story. Down, 35-3, to the Houston Oilers three weeks ago in the third quarter of their playoff opener, the Bills pulled off the greatest rally in NFL history to win in overtime, 41-38.

“There were 75,000 people at Rich Stadium for that game,” said Heussler, the fan club president, “but a few years from now, there will be 450,000 who will say they were there.”

That includes Griffin, the mayor, who was there, but acknowledges that he was one of those who gave up on the Bills when they fell behind by 32 points.

With the game apparently lost, Griffin’s son, Tom, was urging his father to leave.

“Hold on,” the mayor said, “I’ve got another beer to go.”

By the time he finished that beer, the mayor was ready to buy another one to celebrate.

Wilson was also there, sitting in his private box. When Houston went up, 35-3, an irate fan stood up and yelled, “Hey Wilson, you’d better not raise ticket prices next year.”

With that, the fan stormed out.

Recalling the moment with a smile, Wilson said: “If I ever find that fan, I’ll double or triple the price on his ticket.”

If he’s a true fan of the Bills, he’ll probably pay it.