The planet shuddered, perceptibly, Saturday night. Perhaps you felt the rumble.
The Buffalo Bills thumped the Denver Broncos, 48-19, and clinched football’s AFC East.
Let’s take a moment to appreciate what has happened here. This is the first time the Bills have captured this division since 1995—a long ago time, when Bill Clinton was President, Americans would trudge through snow to return Jean-Claude Van Damme VHS tapes, and the computer would excitedly scream, in a human voice, across the room when you received an email.
The Bills used to win this division a lot back then. The NFL was different. The New England Patriots were regularly quite crummy.
Buffalo back on top? It feels like both a throwback and a breath of fresh air. If you know and love a Bills fan, especially a long-suffering Bills fan, who’s proud but also slightly haunted by the whole lifetime experience, call to congratulate him or her. Maybe not first thing Sunday a.m.—maybe they were at the Buffalo airport, in the cold, greeting the team, like a whole bunch of others—but call.
