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Take a step back and picture it with me.
A month from now, Josh Allen, Sean McDermott, and the Buffalo Bills will be standing on a platform in Glendale, Arizona. Everything is buried in red and blue confetti, and everyone has at least a few speckles on their person.
Once folks are settled in, FOX’s Kevin Burkhardt talks to Sean McDermott about the seemingly relentless adversity Bills have been through this year and how they weathered the storm. Then Super Bowl MVP Josh Allen — one of the young, bright faces of the entire sport — grabs the microphone. He talks about his tremendous pride in his team before coming to tears.
Can you visualize it? I know I can.
The Buffalo Bills, the NFL team that defined the 2022 season in more ways than one, being the last squad standing. Super Bowl 57 champions. Phew. I get chills and goosebumps even just typing these words, writing this into existence.
I don’t know whether the Bills will actually reach the summit of football’s highest mountain. But I do know I’m rooting for it. I see the league’s best team from the jump, and now I see them taking the toll of this physical and emotional damage no one should endure. And, frankly — I wonder how they’re still here.
If someone recapped the 2022 Bills season — especially if it ended with the Lombardi Trophy — and handed it to you on a paper, it’d read like one of the most dramatic sports stories in a long time. It’d probably be an instant classic, drawing raw, powerful emotions from people as they watch a football family come together for one incredible mission.
To be clear, the Bills’ season didn’t seem especially remarkable for a while. I don’t mean in the football sense. They were clearly quite good and an obvious Super Bowl contender/heavyweight. This was never in question. But then everything else kept piling on. And this close-knit team kept being tested. And they kept passing with flying colors.
In mid-November, a historic snowstorm in Buffalo displaced a Bills home game. As a Western New York community reeled from what felt like an avalanche of snow, the Bills still played a football game — albeit at Detroit’s Ford Field — still beat the Browns and still did their best. Together.
Days later, after the Bills ironically beat the Lions on Thanksgiving in the same stadium, they would lose Von Miller to an ACL tear. Miller, the high-priced future Hall of Famer who had already won two Super Bowls, was supposed to be the guy that took one of the most tortured franchises and football cities around and play kingmaker. Hearts … sank.
Instead, if the Bills’ magical season were to play out how they hoped and planned, they’d, unfortunately, have to finish their mission without Miller embarrassing 300-pound men.
Then, only weeks later, Damar Hamlin collapsed from cardiac arrest in the middle of a nationally televised “Game of the Year” with the Cincinnati Bengals. I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that watching both teams gather around Hamlin as medical heroes kept him alive was one of the most stunning, gut-wrenching moments anyone’s ever seen.
But Hamlin lived thanks to all the medical professionals involved — from the field to the hospital.
A lengthy playoff journey awaits the Bills over the next month. They’ll have to win four consecutive games, including a potential rematch with the Bengals and a date with the red and yellow thorn in their side in the rival Chiefs.
In succession. Woof.
Yet, after all they’ve been through in the last two months, something tells me such a path isn’t remotely daunting for the Bills. They’ve already been to hell and back as a team. Why would this be intimidating? That’s just a few bumps in the road, by comparison, nothing to really be worried about.
Ultimately, Buffalo’s desired goal — a glorious win in Super Bowl 57 — would be one of the most remarkable endings I’ve ever seen in any football season. It’d be like a movie.
It’d be one of the best sports movies I’ve ever seen.
Quick hits: Shaq ate frog legs … Derek Carr says goodbye … NFL picks … and more.
— Shaquille O’Neal is a man of his word and ate frog legs after losing a bet on Georgia and TCU.
— Derek Carr hasn’t been released or traded by the Las Vegas Raiders yet, but he said goodbye knowing that’s the path for him this offseason.
— Our NFL picks against the spread for Super Wild Card Weekend.
— NC Courage captain Abby Erceg was absolutely incensed over a trade of her teammate.