The Bills make me want to shout and sometimes scream. Let’s consider with the Buffalo Bills endured this year. A mass shooting in Buffalo and then a very positive response to that tragedy led by many of the players. That’s a traumatic experience for everyone. Injuries to key defensive players like Micah Hyde, Von Miller, Damar Hamlin. Josh Allen sustained an injury to his throwing arm. He was supposed to miss six weeks to recover. He played through that! Two prodigious winter storms that shutdown the community for days and forced the team to play a home game in Detroit. The second storm forced the team to land in Rochester and then I don’t know how the hell they got home. They witness the near death of of their beloved teammate Damar Hamlin. That’s incredibly traumatic. I’m sure that effected everyone as it did those of us who watched that unfold from the comfort of their homes. The game in Cincinnati took away their bye in the first round. This team endured and survived a devastating year. I don’t know how they did it. I would’ve loved to see them win yesterday but they’re tapped out. Trauma does that. We’ve witnessed the profile In courage that this team showed us this year. Their “Choose Love” logo united NFL fans everywhere. The goodwill generated by Damar Hamlin’s injury and the money raised for charity is unsurpassed. They lost to a very good team yesterday. They owe us nothing.
I am reminded of this which is one of my favorites.
“it is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
— Theodore Roosevelt