Much ado has already been made, this week, about the conclusion of last Sunday’s season-saving victory over the Kansas City Chiefs; in particular, there was a penalty that impacted the outcome of the game, turning the tides in an insurmountable way. Oddly enough... in fact unprecedentedly enough, for perhaps the first time in this season, and one of the handful of times in Buffalo Bills history, the NFL Narrative decided that we would not be the team crushed into oblivion by a penalty.
Had we met our quota?
Were there just not enough flags written into the NFL's script, this week, to give us one more?
Or did the facts finally smack the NFL between the eyes that with the rash of AFC quarterback injuries, it just might behoove them–in terms of viewership and finances–to let arguably the most electric player in the league have a chance to claw and scrape his way into the playoff picture, instead of trotting out a slew of high-school clipboard-holders to woo the post-season viewers?
Just maybe the NFL Narrative writers have been force-fed a dose of harsh reality: They may not like it, but they NEED JA17! Watching the talking heads, this week, I’m literally teleported back into the mid-2000’s: Buffalo is, again, “In The Hunt”. All is well, again, in the world.
But let’s talk about another narrative: Not just the “Kermit’s a Crybaby” (which we all witnessed, on the latest edition of the nationally-televised Mahomes Meltdown). No… It’s a Sunday, so let’s talk about a little old time relijun.
Upstate New York Autumn and Winter Sundays in the late 90’s and early 2000’s could be typified by two things: The Buffalo Bills being “In The Hunt”, and teens wearing W.W.J.D. bracelets: “What Would Jesus Do?” That era featured something of a mesh-point between religion and Bills football: Hope springing eternal, and an expectation that being good would result in the blessing of an after-season… or a post-life…
Post-season. There it is.
Anyhow, what I’m really getting at is NOT a commercialization of religion in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, but the question: What Would JA17 Do? More specifically: What would Josh do if he had been “cheated” out of a win, as Mahomes claimed. Can anyone–Bills fan or otherwise–look themselves in the mirror, and honestly say that Josh Allen would have gone into an infantile hissy fit, throw his helmet, and then whine to the opposing quarterback and refuse to shake the opposing coach's hand because a penalty stole a meaningful game?
H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks NO! In fact, how did Allen behave after the 9-11 loss? The 12-man Bronco Barf-on-Themselves? The Horse Collar that Wasn’t? Defeated: Yes. Flabbergasted: Yes. Glass-Eyed: Yes.
But not once–not after the countless ACTUAL stolen games, peppered with non-calls on blatant penalties or bogus flags where there was no ground for a penalty, robbing the Bills of a crucial win–have we seen JA17 do anything remotely close to what Kermit MaCrybaby did last Sunday. What Would JA17 Do?
We've all seen it: He would accept the crap, and keep on slinging impossible throw after impossible throw.
God knows how the 2023 Buffalo Bills season is going to wrap up, but I can tell you one thing: If I were a non-NFL fan, and I saw how Mahomes reacted and behaved after the Bills rightfully won in Arrowhead last week, I know which quarterback I’d root for. I know which team I’d root for. I know which region of the country I would Billeve in.
I know exactly what I would do: I would root for Josh Allen, and I would root for the Bills.
Let’s Go, Buffalo!
-Tim Avery - 12/17/2023
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