thiS ONE huRt A LOt MORE

They trudged off the turf in Orchard Park, covered in snow and clad in blue – a color that perfectly captured their mood, plus the mood of most of the 70,000-plus souls exiting to their cars and toward their sorrows.

True, the Buffalo Bills’ season has ended short of a championship summit all other times in the Super Bowl era. Some were lost by October, others in January in the most public and excruciating manner.

This one? It just hurt, ached, a season of promise and plenty of accomplishment crushed by a far superior Cincinnati Bengals side who scored 14 quick points and never was seriously stressed.

For so many reasons, you wanted this team to win this title for this city and region.

Instead, all of us, as Bills fans, were left even more bereft, wondering if the best chance to turn all that heartache to happiness had slipped away.

It didn’t take long for the autopsy and recriminations to commence. Coaches, players, game plans – nothing was spared, every -

Phil Blackwell

thing was put into question, as if these men had not played a game, but committed a civic crime.

Sure, a good part of this is standard postplayoff exit operating procedure, which no one other than the ones hoisting the Lombardi in February escapes.

Yet here it seemed particularly excessive and egregious.

Not just because they were already feeling awful, but because of all….the….things they, and the area they played for, had to endure.

Hunger to atone for the way last season ended in Kansas City was acute enough for the Bills long before May 14, that awful Saturday when a hate-filled man walked into a Tops supermarket on Buffalo’s mostly Black East Side and killed 10 innocent civilians.

Both the Bills and Sabres were a big part of the “One Buffalo” response to the massacre, making personal appearances and raising funds for the victims’ families. Suddenly the season had a bigger purpose than was already present.

From September to mid-November, there were hiccups and the usual amount of injuries to key players, but also some big wins at K.C., and Baltimore, and all looked on track for the Bills to state its championship case.

Then, a week before Thanksgiving, an obscene amount of snow, more than 6 feet in Orchard Park, made the Bills move a home game to Detroit. Now it would have to play 10 road games.

And while the Bills went 3-0 in a 12-day stretch, it lost Von Miller to a torn ACL. Miller was the difference-maker that was supposed to wipe away the past. Now he could only watch.

As if one snow disaster wasn’t enough, a Christmas blizzard paralyzed Western New York, stranded hundreds and killed nearly 40. Even as community members dug out houses and streets, they all looked to the Bills for some kind of respite and hope.

What they got was Jan. 2, that night in Cincinnati, Damar Hamlin collapsing and nearly dying on the field.

True, the Bills picked up millions of fans who wanted them to win it all for no. 3, but the scar tissue remained.

Between all the adversity, all the tragedy and all the physical and psychological challenges, by the time they took the field to face the Bengals, as much as they wanted to do more….there just was nothing left to give.

Given all this, there are two options. One is to, like Dylan Thomas wrote, rage, rage against the dying of the light, and take out that rage on all those on the Bills, playing and coaching, who didn’t provide total deliverance.

The other is more novel in this era of hot takes.

To every Bills fan: consider, if you can, all that took place, a great deal of it far out of the control of mere mortals, and ask yourself how you could have handled trials and travails that would test any hearty soul.

It’s okay to feel sad, depressed, even shed tears, for how fate turned against the Bills once more. But remember that their pain is even greater, so instead of making it worse, pick them up, support them, and feel proud of all they did accomplish.

Champions? Maybe not. But you don’t need to win a title to be admired forever.

Phil Blackwell is sports editor at Eagle News. He can be reached at pblackwell@ eaglenewsonline.com.

Years Ago in history

BY CiNDY BELL tOBEY

150 Years Ago – Jan. 30, 1873

Comments of the Press – The Canastota and Cazenovia Railroad, after a brief existence in the hands of the company which constructed it, has been sold for the non-payment of interest on the mortgage bonds.

The purchaser was Horace F. Clark, son-inlaw of Commodore Vanderbilt.

It will be operated, therefore, by the Central.

It is said that it will be extended to DeRuyter, the right of way having been secured and some the work done. – Norwich Telegraph.

A Bad Blow – By the recent sale of the Cazenovia and Canastota railroad, to satisfy the mortgage debt, it seems that the town of Cazenovia loses $150,000; Fenner, $20,000; and the village of Canastota, $60,000, the upwards of $40,000 individual subscriptions – Oneida Union.

125 Years Ago – Feb. 3, 1898

A gentleman with a taste for statistics has figured out that $75,000 has been expended in Madison county during the past year for the maintenance of canals and reservoirs, and he computes the total share of the $9,000,000 which the state has already expended for canal improvement, and the $7,000,000 more in contemplation to be sixteen times as much as the county will pay toward it.

It seems that the county has within its bor - ders nine reservoirs, including natural ponds and lakes used for canal supply purposes; fourteen miles of one of the greatest arteries of commerce, and a mileage of feeders that almost requires three figures to denote its numerical volume.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent in constructing these public works, and the annual salary aggregate for their necessary care amounts to about $3,000.

100 Years Ago – Feb. 1, 1923

Dr. Halsey J. Ball, state sanitary supervisor for this district, will in a week or two retest the children of the Cazenovia Union and High schools who were given the Shick test last spring for the purpose of showing who were made immune to diphtheria.

At this time those who were not tested will have an opportunity of being tested and inoculated, if found necessary, against diphtheria provided their parents request it by signing the consent slips which will be given out at school.

From information gained by this work in other parts of the state it has been shown that from 85 to 90 percent of the children who have had the three injections of toxin antitoxin are made immune to diphtheria.

75 Years Ago – Jan. 29, 1948

For several weeks a group of public spirited citizens, including a committee composed of TenEyck Wendell, Joe Schwarzer, Robert

Constable, Edward W. Tremain, James Hole and John Homes, have been working on a proposal for a community youth recreational center for Cazenovia.

In a community this size the state each year would match up to $2,000 every dollar contributed by the community. Under that set-up, should the community contribute $2,000, the state would contribute an equal amount making available $4,000 each year for the project. A four-year plan is favored.

The first year it probably would be necessary to raise at least $2,000 in contributions to meet the community share but in subsequent years, when the center is fully operating, it is hoped that no more than $500 would have to be raised yearly as there would be receipts such as gate receipts from games, refreshment sales, etc.

It is proposed to enlarge Wright baseball field on Chenango street by utilizing a small piece of Lewis Ashby’s land on the southwest corner of the field, the use of which he has offered; and also some of the village land (on which wells were recently driven for emergency water supply) south of Wright field and south of the Jones property.

The plan envisions the development of the field to include, hard and soft ball fields, ice skating, general playground facilities and eventually tennis courts, the erection of a field house or heated shelter for skaters, bleachers, toilet and storage facilities.

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