Recent events in the NFL should inspire young athletes to never give up.
T
he Bills make me want to shout — and they should make all young athletes take note of at least one thing.
The longest-running playoff drought in American sports ended this month because of hard work. Andy Dalton and Tyler Boyd certainly helped, but that’s the easiest thing to look at from the armchair. Though Buffalo didn’t escape the first round of the NFL playoffs with a win, the team proved that hard work and a good attitude can turn the tide for an individual or a team struggling to meet goals. I know there are at least a few programs in the Plant City area that haven’t been able to put it together in recent years and I hope they all get the message that, if the Bills can break the slump, so can they.
It had been 17 seasons since the Bills last made the playoff cut. I was nine years old when that happened. Year after year of watching the team finish somewhere around .500 and choke in important games made me jaded. This season felt no different at first, with the addition of a rookie head coach, the trading of several star players, downgrades to the offensive line and questions surrounding our starting quarterback (which are still around, somehow). Nobody, not even I, had the Bills finishing above second or third in the AFC East, let alone making the playoffs. I believe ESPN had the team finishing at 5-11, which absolutely wouldn’t have gotten Buffalo to play the Jags over the weekend.
Then, the Bills entered November with a 5-2 record, swept the Miami Dolphins and upset the Kansas City Chiefs. With a little good luck courtesy of Dalton and Boyd, the drought came to an end.
Looking back, the players’ effort on the field seemed to be the biggest difference-maker. Those guys played harder than I’d seen them play in years. The off-field attitude was more family-oriented than it’s been in a while. The guys put the team first and played their butts off, especially on defense. In spite of its weaknesses, the team exceeded expectations.
Sean McDermott often told the media in press conferences that Buffalo just had to “trust the process.” This didn’t originate with the Bills but, other than the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA (who first coined the phrase), there’s no better poster child. We’ve got plenty of sports teams in the Plant City area that operate by the phrase — the Plant City Dolphins immediately come to mind, as it’s one of coach John Broome’s favorite things to say. Now they can say “trusting the process” ended one of America’s most high-profile streaks of futility.
If that team can turn it around and make the playoffs, what’s stopping you from hitting your biggest goal?
