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As you undoubtedly know by now, the Buffalo Bills are a playoff team for the first time since I reached puberty. Doug Flutie still won't be their quarterback for their showdown in Jacksonville, but another quarterback who's a slightly undersized dual threat will be under center so it's all okay. Since the last time the Bills played beyond Week 17, we've lived through eight  Fast and Furious  movies, four presidencies, the deaths of Robin Williams, short airport waits, AIM, and Osama bin laden, the entirety of Arnold Schwarzenegger's political career, and the releases of 25 different variations of Pepsi. The fact that no Bills playoff games occurred in the same span that featured two separate TV shows starring Kevin James and Leah Remini is something to marvel at. But Buffalo News columnist Rod Watson is not amazed. Or amused. Or even apathetic. In fact, he's downright angry . At the inevitable watch parties, we should use halftime for mass therapy se...

Old Team Tuesday is a weekly feature taking a look at former teams that have gone by the wayside. This week’s edition does not look at the history of a single team, but revisits the entire scope of upper-level soccer in Western New York as a whole. ********************************************** The relationship between Buffalo and soccer has been more unstable than a marriage to Zsa Zsa Gabor. Nine teams have set up shop here, with few finding any measure of success and most being forced to close down or move away. Now, as Americans finally seem to be falling for the beautiful game, that sentiment is echoed in Western New York, where Buffalonians finally have a team they can cozy up to. Let’s start in 1976, near the tail end of Gabor’s sixth marriage. The Buffalo Blazers of the Canadian-based National Soccer League opened play at War Memorial Stadium. A mediocre first season didn’t disparage the team, and in 1977, the club finally made progress, going 12-3-3 to wind up th...

Old Team Tuesday is a weekly feature taking a look at former teams that have gone by the wayside. This week’s edition revisits the entire history of soccer in Western New York. This is the original, unedited version of the same topic that appeared on queencityblitzers.com on April 23, 2014. ********************************************** The relationship between Buffalo and soccer has been more unstable than a marriage to Zsa Zsa Gabor. Nine teams have set up shop here, with few finding any measure of success and most being forced to close down or move away. Now, as Americans finally seem to be falling for the beautiful game, that sentiment is echoed in western New York, where Buffalonians finally have a team they can cozy up to. Our Past: Let’s start in 1976, near the tail end of Gabor’s sixth marriage. The Buffalo Blazers of the Canadian-based National Soccer League opened play at War Memorial Stadium. A mediocre first season didn’t disparage the team, and in 1977,...