Football isn’t a drama, it’s a tragedy. For one team every year, though, that season-long epic full of ups and downs ends in triumph. In relation to the 2024 season, that team, once again, won’t be the Buffalo Bills.

I truly wish I had something more to say as it pertains to the AFC Championship Game and the duel we all witnessed, but truthfully, I don’t. A sentence will come to mind before immediately getting erased and brainstormed again followed by a long look of nothingness. There is no anger. There is no rage. Just utter numbness. Another terrific Josh Allen performance that will be just another footnote lost to time. Another defensive showing that shows just how poorly constructed that side of the ball is. Another season of this terrific quarterback’s prime come and gone with nothing to show for. I’m not going to go in depth about the game here, we all witnessed it and are aware of what went wrong and when the game flipped as Josh Allen was ruled short on fourth down, which was then followed by the Chiefs continuing to do whatever they pleased offensively.

I just sympathize with the fans. If you’ve followed my work for any amount of time, you know I grew up a Steelers fan, but I don’t hide that No. 17 is my favorite player in the league and there isn’t a close second. And in admiring him from afar, that rabid fan base that launches themselves through tables every Sunday while very much accepted me as an honorary member. Getting to see how bad they wanted it made me want it almost as much.

I can’t say I want it as bad as they do because that would be naive and factually incorrect. Bills fans and the city of Buffalo are truly second to none. A city and a fan base full of devoted, loyal fans that went through nearly 20 years without January football who finally found a guy that is unlike anything we’ve ever seen on a football field. The fans who watched him give that team a lead with 13 seconds in the 2021 divisional round only to never touch the ball again as confetti rained on him in a losing effort. The same quarterback who marched his team down the field to tie the game last postseason only to hear two words that Bills fans know all too well – wide right.

And then this time, to go through an entire offseason where everyone said they’d be afterthoughts only to watch that quarterback put an entire franchise, and an entire city on his back to lead them back to another conference championship Game only to watch those hopes fall to the turf with the ball that Dalton Kincaid dropped. The fans deserve a parade. That quarterback deserves to lift a Lombardi and tell the cameras he’s going to Disney World. I want it for him. I want it for the players. I want it for Bills Mafia. I want it. I want it very, very badly.