Cuomo should be kneeling in Buffalo

Buffalo Bills won their first AFC Eastern Conference title in 25 years and won their first home playoff game in about a long time. After defeating the Denver Broncos on December 19 to win the scoring zone championship, thousands of Bill fanatic fans waited for hours in the cold weather to welcome the team. The team arrived at Buffalo Airport at 1:30 am on January 30. The diehard was upset after being banned from participating in the Bill game throughout the season. Whether Bills Stadium will join the other 13 fans before the playoffs may now depend on the wisdom of State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker. He has signed New York’s now infamous March 25 directive prohibiting nursing homes from rejecting Covid-active residents.

I grew up in Buffalo in the 1

970s and 80s, and this was a difficult time for Bills fans. When I left college in 1990, the team quickly entered the Super Bowl, but lost when Scott Norwood’s last-minute shot attempted to go to the right. In my sophomore, junior and junior year, Bill returned to the Super Bowl, but lost every time. In 1995, when I was 23 years old, Bill won the division but lost to Pittsburgh in the second round of the playoffs. Before my team won the AFC East again, I hardly knew that I would be 48 years old.

Suffering is an integral part of being a fan of Buffalo sports, and so is loyalty. Apart from Green Bay Packers, I can’t think of a team that is more closely intertwined with the identity and wealth of the city than Bill. In an otherwise hell-like year, the team and its loyalists (called “Bill Mafia”) finally have reason to be hopeful and proud.

The coal in Bill’s stockings is where there are no fans in the stadium. Governor Andrew Cuomo sent a different signal to open the Bills Stadium throughout the season. On September 30, he said he would visit the stadium and meet with team leaders to “discuss” the reopening. By November 6, he went back and said that Dr. Zach (his nursing home killed at least 6,200 people) told him that allowing any fan to return to the (outdoor) stadium was “reckless”, with a capacity of more than 71,000.

The governor has never been to the stadium, but he recently stated that he “has nothing else” other than participating in the Bills’ home playoff games. He insisted that Dr. Zucker’s Department of Health needed to approve any deal to open the stadium, including a prudent proposal to admit about 6,700 fans.