Buffalo Bills fans never give up on their team. In spite of poor performances in the past 16 seasons, Bills fans have showed up to home games, ready and wild to cheer on their team. Buffalo is widely known as one of the hardest places to play in the NFL, and part of that is due to weather, while the other part is due to the fanbase making huge amounts of noise. And there's one person who recognizes just how special Bills fans are.
Peyton Manning.
One of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, peyton manning hosted the ESPYs this year. He gave Bills fans a shoutout on national television on the "Jimmy Kimmel show," recounting a story from his career for a national TV audience.
The story can be summarized as follows:
In an earlier game from his career, Peyton Manning had defeated the Buffalo Bills in a tight game. He remembered the events afterwards, before he would walk into the locker room. Prior to entering, Manning decided to throw some of his clothing into the stands. He chose his hat and sweatbands as his choice items.
Manning justified his tosses by explaining what happened at the end of the game: "We were playing Buffalo and defeated them on the last drive of the game. So I'm going up to the locker room and figure I could throw some clothing up there. Even a kid who is a Buffalo fan is going to want some gear, right? I threw my hat to a Dad, who was happy, and threw my sweatband to a kid.
This kid is wearing a big Buffalo Bills jersey, and he throws it right back in my face. And I'm like, you know what, I like this kid. I like diehards."
Legendary Kid.
That kid spoke for all Buffalo Bills fans when he threw that sweatband back at Peyton Manning. We are all diehard fans, who root for our team no matter what. And this was a perfect example of what diehard fans do, even to legends like Peyton Manning.
He might be one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, but he certainly wasn't one of the greatest Bills quarterbacks of all time.
This season, Bills fans won't be any different. They'll be rooting on their team in 2017 until the team is completely out of the playoff race. Even last season, Bills fans were calculating the scenarios in which Buffalo could somehow sneak into the playoffs.
And I'll be cheering for them too, and watching every step of the way as Buffalo tries to end the longest playoff drought in sports.
And there's nobody I'd rather do it with than the group of diehard Bills Mafia fans, including the one who threw his shirt back at Peyton Manning.
