ESPN Host Rants Why Buffalo Has Been Longest Suffering Fanbase [VIDEO]
You get used to the same old jokes about Buffalo, when people (usually those who have never been here) talk about the region and the fact our sports teams have not won anything.
It's true though. Neither the Buffalo Bills or the Buffalo Sabres have won a championship. Technically, the Bills won AFL titles, back in 1964 and 1965, but have never won a Super Bowl (since 1966).
The Sabres have been around since 1970 and also, have never won a Stanley Cup. They've only made the Stanley Cup Final twice in their 52-year history (1975, 1999).
It's not just the fact the Bills and Sabres have never won a title in the last 50-plus years, it's the fact that many of those defeats have been soul-crushing.
The obvious one is "Wide Right," when Bills kicker Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal in Super Bowl 25 against the New York Giants that would have won the game. That kicked off four straight Super Bowl losses and really the genesis of the Buffalo sports jokes.
The Bills were also victims of the "Music City Miracle", or as many locals here call it, "home run throwback."
The miraculous kick return "lateral" in which wide receiver Kevin Dyson returned it all the way for a touchdown in the Wild Card Round of the NFL playoffs in January of 2000.
That was the start of the Bills missing the postseason for 17 straight years. Not to mention the bad calls against the Bills when they played against the Houston Texans in the Wild Card Round of the 2019 NFL playoffs.
Then you have the Sabres and the famous "No Goal," when Brett Hull's foot was in the crease as he scored the overtime, game-winning goal against the Sabres in game 6 of the 1999 Stanley Cup Final.
Seven years later, the Sabres lost a heartbreaking 7-game series in the Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes, as four of their top six defenceman were injured by game 7 of that series; including the freak staph infection that Jay McKee suffered the morning of the final game of the series.
There are other instances in there as well, but you get the point -- Buffalo absolutely deserves to be in consideration for the longest-suffering fanbase in all of sports.
ESPN radio anchor Christine Lisi, longtime Bills and Sabres fan, went on a minute-long rant for why Buffalo is without a doubt, the longest suffering fanbase in sports.
Watch the video below.
Lisi is absolutely right. The only other city who has a right to claim that distinction, in my opinion, is Cleveland, but the Cavaliers have won an NBA Championship in 2016. Buffalo has not won anything yet, with the amazing heartbreaks that go along with it.
Buffalo is the longest suffering fanbase in North American sports.