On 14 October 2024, having by no means supported a group earlier than, or, to be sincere, particularly preferred sports activities in any respect, I turned a Buffalo Payments fan. I’d been going out with my Buffalonian boyfriend for greater than a yr, which I believe in his dad and mom’ eyes meant my introduction to the group that animates their whole hometown was overdue. They drove right down to New York Metropolis, kitted me out in a Payments baseball cap, hoodie and blanket (and plastic Payments bag to carry all of it in) – and took me to a recreation.
I assumed I’d seen sufficient Tremendous Bowls to know I didn’t care about soccer, however wrapped in that staticky blanket, one of many few spots of Buffalo blue in a snake-green sea of Jets supporters at MetLife Stadium, I spotted what I’d been lacking: a group. Or extra particularly: this group.
In Buffalo, the Payments are in all places. I used to search out this bewildering on my journeys as much as western New York (by no means name it upstate); now I discover it comforting. Indicators saying “Billieve” welcome you into individuals’s homes; infants put on Payments onesies; coats, T-shirts, jewelry and underwear all function the group’s stylish streaking buffalo. Even within the low season, a automobile’s horn tooting “Let’s go Buffalo!” can set off canon of equivalent beeps from close by automobiles. “Go Payments” means each hiya and goodbye, generally even the final goodbye, as I found in an area cemetery, the place a grave featured the phrase as an epitaph. I’m positive it’s not the one one.
That’s as a result of the Payments are Buffalo. They’re the spirit of town, and for a lot of Buffalonians, a metaphor for it too. Buffalo’s increase occasions are lengthy behind it, although the architectural marvels constructed by the cash flowing via the Erie Canal communicate to its former significance as an industrial hub. The town is usually depicted as onerous on its luck, that includes within the information normally solely when there’s a catastrophe, just like the capturing of 10 Black individuals in 2022, or the more moderen bus crash that killed 5. However what that narrative misses is the story of a city that’s quietly been present process an financial and cultural revival because of vital public spending and dedicated native preservationists.
Buffalo’s state of almost-thereness is mirrored again to it by its beloved house group, who’ve acquired so shut however by no means fairly secured the win. There have been the devastating 4 Tremendous Bowl losses in a row from 1991 via 1994, then a play-off drought that lasted for practically a era. The Payments saved inching ever nearer to Tremendous Bowl greatness, their efforts turbocharged by Josh Allen, the NFL’s reigning MVP and broadly thought of considered one of its finest quarterbacks. “You must be fairly robust in a spot like this,” Allen has mentioned of his adopted hometown. “We really feel like we’ve guys on this locker room that perhaps haven’t gotten all the popularity they deserve, coming right here on the final leg of their profession and simply coming right here making an attempt to show one thing to not simply the world however to themselves.”
The Payments are not any hardscrabble minor group – subsequent yr they’ll transfer into a brand new $2.1bn stadium – however this sort of underdog story is addictive. It’s a narrative of onerous work and functionality, of striving for one thing that’s all the time simply out of attain. When the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs crushed the Payments’ desires in final season’s AFC Championship Sport, I nearly felt the entire metropolis’s coronary heart breaking.
However right here’s the factor: failure bonds individuals, and there’s nothing like rooting for a dropping group to connect a group collectively. The immense positivity required to defend a group – or a city – you’re keen on when it’s on the again foot will be an irresistible draw. You’ll discover not one of the hauteur of the followers of a profitable group up in Buffalo. I’ve but to attend considered one of their legendary tailgates outdoors the stadium – I’ll admit that I’m considerably terrified of doing so, having seen the movies of followers hurling themselves round making an attempt to interrupt tables – however you needn’t look far to see their dedication. When considered one of Buffalo’s common snowstorms roll round, Payments followers flip as much as clear the snow from the stadium. It goes with out saying that these aren’t fair-weather followers; certainly, the trick to protecting chills at bay in freezing temperatures, my boyfriend’s mom defined, is bringing cardboard to face on.
The concept of house means loads in group sports activities. Folks not often root for a group based mostly on efficiency – allegiance is normally inherited, or geographical. However what I’ve discovered as a beforehand teamless particular person is that it will also be gifted. I assumed I wasn’t into soccer as a result of it was onerous to comply with or boring or perhaps even simply too male, however I realise now that the one factor I wanted was an individual to increase a hand to me and say: you will be a part of our group.
My boyfriend and I moved to London earlier this yr, and he’s additional than he’s ever been from the city that calls itself the “metropolis of fine neighbors”. However each every so often, we see a blue No 17 jersey or spy a Buffalo keyring dangling off a bag, reminding us that his neighbors, his group and his household are nearer than we expect. So we are saying hiya, Buffalo-style: “Go Payments.”
