The Buffalo Bills were so dull during their lean years
Seahawks Cheap Jerseys , comedian Nick Bakay feared his body would fuse to the couch while watching them play.
"It's an incredibly disturbing image," Bakay said of wasting away Sundays witnessing his hometown team sleepwalk through one loss after another during a 17-season playoff drought that ended last year.
"I never missed a Bills game. But I was always slumped on my couch. I was never sitting forward. I was never jumping to my feet," said Bakay, who wrote "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" and its sequel, and produced and appeared on the TV sitcom "King of Queens." ''You sit on your couch, and your couch slowly eats you."
No different for fans of Buffalo's other pro sports franchise, the NHL's Sabres, who finished last for the third time in five years and extended their franchise-worst playoff drought to a seventh season.
In a shot-and-a-beer town where the winters are interminably long, Buffalo sports fans ride things out on the notion of renewal always being just around the corner.
And there's a new, palpable optimism for this hearty fan base, thanks to a three-day stretch which showed potential to alter the trajectory of both teams.
First, the Bills made a pair of splashes in the first round of the NFL draft on April 26 by trading up to select Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen and Virginia Tech linebacker Tremaine Edmunds.
Two days later, the Sabres won the NHL draft lottery 鈥?something Buffalo lost the previous two times it finished last 鈥?and the opportunity to select projected No. 1 pick, Swedish defenseman Rasmus Dahlin.
During the NFL draft, CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor got dirty looks from his wife during a rare dinner date sneaking peeks at the Bills' picks. He then yelped with excitement upon learning the Sabres won the lottery while attending the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington.
"I had just resigned myself to never winning it," Glor said. "But listen, I always have hope."
In Buffalo, there's a fine line between affection and affliction for hope.
"I always try to keep it in check a little bit," said Glor
http://www.49ersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-jonathan-cooper-jersey , who grew up in the Buffalo suburb of Tonawanda.
"Unfortunately, you get conditioned to where there are times you can be defeatist. And you try not to be. But you just don't give up."
Fans have little choice but to persevere in a place where nickname-worthy moments are tied to losses.
For the Bills, it's "Wide Right," after kicker Scott Norwood missed a last-second field-goal attempt in a 20-19 loss to the New York Giants in the 1991 Super Bowl 鈥?the first of four consecutive Super Bowl losses.
For the Sabres, it's "No Goal," following a 2-1, triple-overtime loss to Dallas in Game 6 of the 1999 Stanley Cup Final. Brett Hull's Cup-clinching goal stood even though replays showed his skate in the crease.
Those were the so-called glory days.
The Bills and Sabres have won five playoff games combined since 2008. By comparison, the NHL's expansion Vegas Golden Knights have already won eight in their first year of existence.
Buffalo joins Nashville, Tennessee, and Charlotte, North Carolina, as the only North American markets with two or more major pro teams to not have won a title.
"I think it builds character in a way. I joke with my friends that one day my kids will have to go through therapy because we are Sabres, Bills and Mets fans," said former VH1-cable TV chief Tom Calderone, who's from Long Island, New York, but got his broadcasting start in Buffalo and maintains a home in the city. "It's easy to be a Cowboys fan or a Patriots fan. But it takes true dedication to be a Bills or Sabres fan."
Calderone sees more hope reflected in signs of resurgence for the city itself.
The former site of the Erie Canal has been transformed from vacant gravel lots to parkland, a water park that doubles as an ice rink in winter, and an entertainment/hockey complex built by Bills and Sabres owner Terry Pegula.
Housing prices have tripled and a medical corridor is newly bustling along Main Street
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Buffalo still has its rust-belt blemishes as one of the nation's poorest cities. Racial inequities, failing schools and a crumbling infrastructure remain issues.
The Bills and Sabres aren't immune to troubling headlines. Last week, the two teams' president Russ Brandon resigned amid allegations of having inappropriate relationships with female employees.
Buffalo might never regain the industrial-age prominence it held in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the city became a Great Lakes shipping hub as the gateway to the Erie Canal.
Nor, however, should it become the punchline comedian Jon Stewart once delivered during a stop in Buffalo, calling the city the gateway to the Ontario border town of Fort Erie just across the Niagara River 鈥?population 30,000.
Watching a documentary on former Bills running back O.J. Simpson, Bakay was reminded of the gloomy times in the 1970s when the steel mills began closing and legions of people left to find jobs.
"It depressed me so much," he said. "Every shot of Buffalo looked like a moose that farted into the sky."
The decline led to Buffalo investing its psyche into its sports teams as a way of remaining part of the national conversation.
"Our teams were the only way we could punch back and say, 'Yeah, we're here,'" Bakay said.
Allen and the prospect of adding Dahlin have recaptured his imagination as to what's possible.
"It's like all of a sudden we've got go-big-or-go-home-talent coming our way," Bakay said.
He recalled how the Bills once pinned their hopes on quarterback Trent Edwards, who earned the nickname "Captain Checkdown" for being overly cautious.
"After years of the Trent Edwards of the w Lindsey Vonn edged Sofia Goggia in a foretaste of the Pyeongchang Olympic downhill on Saturday, raising her career total to 80 World Cup victories.
The American standout beat Goggia by two hundredths of a second as their ongoing rivalry in Alpine skiing’s fastest discipline continued.
”It’s a big number,” Vonn said of her 80 wins, just six short of the all-time record set by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark in the 1980s.
”I remember when I got my 50th here, I never thought I would even get close to Annemarie Moser-Proell’s record (of 62 wins) and now I am getting close to Stenmark’s. It’s incredible
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”Also the timing of this win, coming into the Olympics, I really feel strong mentally and physically.”
Vonn skied a solid run but didn’t seem to go to the limits as she trailed Italian rival Goggia by 0.08 at the last split time. However, Vonn overcame the deficit in the final section.
”I definitely skied aggressively, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t leave all the cards on the table,” Vonn said. ”I hold those extra aces for the Olympics.”
It was Vonn’s second straight downhill win after Cortina, Italy, two weeks ago. She and Goggia are the only racers with more than one downhill victory this season.
Cornelia Huetter of Austria was 0.13 behind in third, and Vonn’s teammate, Breezy Johnson, finished fourth for her career-best result.
Earlier, Johnson and Vonn posted the fastest times in a mandatory training session two hours before the race, after training was canceled on the previous two days.
Vonn’s joy was tempered, however, by a crash that ruled her teammate Jacqueline Wiles out of the Olympics with a knee injury.
Shortly after completing her run and taking the lead in the race, Vonn saw on a large video screen in the finish area how Wiles lost balance after skiing off the course, fell and went into the safety netting. Wiles had to be transported off the hill by helicopter.
Wiles was set to compete in her second Olympics. She had her second career podium by placing third in the race that Vonn won in Cortina two weeks ago.
Also, Laurenne Ross
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”It was really hard to actually be happy and excited and celebrate because Jackie is in the hospital,” said Vonn about Wiles, who has been financially supported by Vonn’s foundation.
”It’s a really rough day for the whole team,” Vonn said. ”I am happy that Laurenne wasn’t hurt. She will be really sore tomorrow but at least her knee is OK.”
Another downhill on the Kandahar course is scheduled for Sunday, the last World Cup race before the Olympics, and Vonn was expecting another close duel with Goggia.
The Italian edged Vonn in both speed races that were held as test events on the Olympic hill in South Korea last year.
”She is always risking everything, she’s the person that I have to beat,” said the American, who is chasing another Olympic downhill medal to add to the gold she won in Vancouver 2010.
”She is a personality that is really needed on the World Cup. We are playing a little game with each other: Who has the hundredths, you know. It makes it more exciting for us and also for the spectators.”
Goggia was smiling and hugged Vonn afterward.
”From the start gate to the red finish line, it’s a battle. But after, we are friends,” Goggia said. ”This is the rivalry that I like. It’s really fun and challenging for me.”
The Italian’s daredevil style of racing has sometimes been seen as similar to Bode Miller’s approach, but Goggia laughs off any comparisons with him.
”It would be a great honor just to have one percent of Bode,” she said. ”I am far away from him. I am a show girl on the skis sometimes and that’s the only thing we have in common. He has a class that I will never reach.”
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