Published: September 12, 2009 11:56 pm      

MARREN: Win the last game, then we’ll celebrate

I know this isn’t supposed to be the page where you read about sports, but this is Western New York, where the weather and our sports teams lead the news.

Why should our opinion page be any different than other media around town?

Here’s my thing: As the Bills start another season tomorrow night, I think Buffalo sports fans should take a step back and reflect on how all of our sports pride, yes pride, comes after some horrific seasons, championship losses and just pitiful performances.

My reason for that statement is that I, like many others, just can’t get excited about the start of another Bills season. I have apathy for the Bills these days. So instead of excitement I’m thinking about how pathetic we all are for celebrating epic losses.

While I’m not getting excited about the Bills, and instead watch a team like the Pittsburgh Steelers kick off the NFL season this past Thursday and feel excitement for their team, their fans, their blue-collar city, I can’t help but think about the mediocrity — or less — that we have become accustomed to in Buffalo.

I guess it was during my trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, last month that got me thinking about Buffalo sports.

We celebrate four Super Bowl losses. How pathetic is that? That weekend, I was among thousands cheering two Bills, Ralph Wilson and Bruce Smith, who were integral in those four appearances — and four losses. I’ve thought about that weekend and the celebration in recent weeks and can’t get it out of my mind that the bulk of the Bills’ Hall of Famers had great personal accomplishments and deserve Hall recognition for that, but their teams never won the last game of the season.

I think that should have at least been a required accomplishment for Marv Levy and Ralph Wilson Jr.’s enshrinement. But we settle. We settle for four Super Bowl losses and build that up as a great accomplishment. It’s not. Why do we celebrate such losses.

Are others in the NFL secretly laughing at the fact that all we have to hang our hat on are four consecutive Super Bowl appearances and that’s apparently Hall of Fame worthy? They must think it’s a joke that so many players are in the Hall from those teams.

If I was a Hall member with multiple championship rings I’d wonder why my bust is next to a handful of guys who “just got there.” They didn’t win.

Contrast that against the Steelers opening with yet another win on Thursday, oh, and on the same night they raised their sixth Championship banner and the same day the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrated their Stanley Cup Championship with President Obama at the White House.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Four straight Super Bowl losses. The Sabres/Flyers fog game in the 1975 Stanley Cup finals. No goal in 1999. The Ice Bowl. These games were all either losses or part of a series that we ultimately lost. Yet listen to someone tell you their favorite Buffalo sports memory and undoubtedly the “experience” of one of these losses is near the top of their list.

We have that comeback game against the Houston Oilers, but I’d take one Super Bowl over some random greatest comeback game. Plus what is that? Just some playoff game where we came to life in the second half. Huh.

My point is we should stop celebrating losses or quirky Buffalo wins. In sports a loss is a loss. Showing up four years in a row but losing each time isn’t worth congratulations. It’s barely worth a pat on the back. Those were good teams, yes, but not great.

We had a rally after the Sabres LOST the 1999 Stanley Cup playoffs. I was at that rally. What was I doing? What city goes down to City Hall to celebrate a loss?

Buffalo.

I want a parade down Delaware Avenue with a shiny silver trophy in someone’s fancy car. Ticker tape. Visits to the White House. Championship banners.

In the words of crazy Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders, who actually has Super Bowl championships, “Just win, baby.”

Then we’ll celebrate.

Tim Marren is the managing

editor of the Lockport Union-Sun

& Journal. Contact him at Tim.Marren@lockportjournal.com

or 439-9222.