Buffalo Bills

Based in Buffalo, NY, the Bills are a professional American NFL team. They are in the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference—AFC, which is part of the National Football League. The Buffalo Bills began competing in 1960 as members of the American Football League—AFL, and then later joined up with the NFL during the AFL-NFL merger.

Here are some interesting facts about the Buffalo Bills:

• The Bills are the only National Football League team that get to play theier home games in their state of New York. The New York Jets and Giants play in East Rutherford, NJ, which is outside of NYC.
• Controversial figure O.J. Simpson used to play with the Buffalo Bills, and was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in the 1980’s. United Press International also named him as “AFC Player of the Year” in 1975.
• In January of this year, the Buffalo Bills officially became the first NFL team to play annual home games in another country. An agreement was made for them to move one December home game to Toronto over the next five years.
• The Bills’ very first championship was the 1964 AFL Championship, in which they defeated the San Diego Chargers 20-7.
• The Buffalo Bills played in the Super Bowl for four years in a roll, 1991-1995. They lost each year; once to each the New York Giants and Washington Redskins and twice to the Dallas Cowboys.
• They did, however, win two consecutive AFL titles in 1964 and 1965.

The overall 40-year history of the Buffalo Bills is quite an extensive one. The team has seen its shares of victories and losses, including the unfortunate loss of lives. In 1970, the Bills receive unfortunate news that their offensive lineman, Bob Kalsu, lost his life while on a tour of duty during the war. The bills ended up failing miserably that year, with a 3-10-1 record.

As to where the Bills got their name, a local contest was held and the winning entry decided they should be named after a previous team with the same namesake from the AAFC. The former team, which received its name after the infamous outlaw, “Buffalo Bill,” later went on to merge with the Cleveland Browns in the 1950’s

All though the Bills have yet to win an NFL Super Bowl Championship, they still have had a very rich history, with Hall of Fame inductees such as O.J. Simpson, Billy Shaw, Mark Levy, Jack Kemp, and the latest in 2008, Bruce Smith. Time will only tell if the next few years will be fortunate for the Buffalo Bills.