The Buffalo Bills are always around when history is made

The NFL is the Buffalo Bills’ world and we’re all just living in it.

The Kansas City Chiefs, Joe Brrrr..Bengals and the Philadelphia Eagles dominate the discourse, but Buffalo is the Forrest Gump of NFL franchises. Not within the sense that someday a generic leading man will depict Josh Allen in an eponymous biopic. No, the Bills are the Forrest Gump whose fictional exploits lead him to influence pivotal events of the Nineteen Sixties, ‘70s and ‘80s.

There are 32 teams, however the Bills are essentially the most unintentionally influential team of contemporary times. From the passenger seat, they’ve altered the arc of recent history without actually doing anything extraordinary. An assortment in your viewing pleasure:

Run, Aaron, Run!

For example, Monday marks one week since Aaron Rodgers ruptured his achilles on Monday Night Football and the reverberations haven’t been fully fleshed out yet. Nevertheless, few people outside of upstate Recent Yorkers will remember Leonard Floyd because the Bills outside linebacker who sacked Aaron Rodgers on the Jets’ fateful fourth play from scrimmage. At so many nexus points in recent NFL history, Buffalo has been within the peripherals of the frame. It’s too early to predict how quickly Rodgers’ injury will create a butterfly effect, but based on Sunday’s result, it’s painfully obvious that eventually, the Jets will desperately reach for an above average quarterback placeholder who may give them a fighting probability this season, and more importantly within the postseason.

Time beyond regulation is like a box of chocolates

In January of 2022, the Bills participated in one of the crucial electrifying fourth-quarter offensive back-and-forths in NFL playoff annals through the final seconds of their Divisional Round matchup against Kansas City. Ultimately, Travis Kelce’s extra time touchdown catch prompted an overhaul of playoff extra time rules in favor of ones that may have given the Bills a probability to match Kansas City’s offensive rating.

Tua’s concussions modified the sport — that’s all I actually have to say about that

In Week 3 of the 2022 season, Tua Tagovailloa’s head bounced off the turf leading him to wobble off the sphere. Tagovailoa attributed his stumble to the sideline on his back. Days later, on Thursday Night Football Tagovailoa’s head dribbled off the turf a second time, causing him to involuntarily tense up right into a fencing response, which led to enhanced concussion protocols. That’s not quite as glamorous as teaching Elvis to bop, however the chain response of events Buffalo set in motion is significant enough.

Some people don’t think miracles occur. Well, they do

It doesn’t take six degrees to discover the roles Buffalo’s trainers played in saving Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s life as he sprawled out motionless on the sphere. Hamlin collapsing and the quarter-hour when medics performed life-saving medical procedures to resuscitate him was essentially the most traumatic NFL experience on national television since Lawrence Taylor by chance snapped Joe Theismann’s tibia and fibula on November 18, 1985.

The last time the collective NFL world watched with bated breath while someone’s mortality swung within the balance was 16 years earlier when Bills tight end Kevin Everett‘s life was saved on the sphere. After Hamlin was released from a lengthy hospital stay, the status of his health became fodder for a number of the most unhinged corners of the web–aka the App Formerly Often known as Twitter.

You’ve got to place the past behind you before you’ll be able to move on

In a more trivial development, the Minnesota Vikings shattered Buffalo’s nearly 30-year-old record for the biggest comeback in NFL history during Week 15 against Indianapolis. But that pales as compared to how the ills sale impacted the world stage.

I’m not a wise man, but I do know what a grifter is

A couple of 12 months before he launched his presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s bid to buy the Buffalo Bills blew up as a consequence of his falsified financial records. Had Trump been approved to buy the Bills, there’s an actual possibility his corruption might have been contained to the NFL. The world’s axis can have swung on the NFL’s decision to sell the franchise to Terry Pegula as a substitute of a high-profile grifting billionaire. If we had access to a time machine, it might be the best trolley problem involving such a high-stakes dilemma this side of the twenty first century. Sacrificing the Bills to serve the greater good can be a simple alternative. The arc of the universe is long and it bends towards jest.

We’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze

When the Buffalo Bills make a football play or a football personnel decision, a hurricane forms within the Atlantic. Even a text message from Bill Belichick intended for Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll changes how the complete league does business.

Three days before Brian Flores’ interview for the Recent York Giants head coaching job, Bill Belichick congratulated him for his impending announcement as the subsequent Big blue head coach in a text that read, “I hear from Buffalo & NYG that you simply are the guy.” Moments later, Belichick realized homes texted the incorrect Brian and awkwardly texted back, “Sorry – I fucked this up. I double checked and misread the text. I believe they are naming Brian Daboll. I’m sorry about that. BB.”

It doesn’t matter if Belichick was being Machiavellian by throwing the Giants under the bus and by chance ensnaring the Miami Dolphins. Belichick’s accidental text to Flores as a substitute of the Bills’ Daboll is the opening paragraph in the previous’s class-action discrimination lawsuit against the NFL. The Dolphins even lost a first-round pick because of this of the investigation that sprouted from Flores accusing Dolphins owner Stephen Ross of asking him to recruit Tom Brady, while he was still under contract with Tampa Bay.

Silly is as silly does

Former NFL Network reporter Jim Trotter’s lawsuit features excerpts of damning comments allegedly made by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Pegula.

For higher or for worse, the Buffalo Bills are movers and shakers. They might not start it, but Buffalo is always in the course of something.

Follow DJ Dunson on X: @cerebralsportex