Have you ever wondered if, much like physicians taking the Hippocratic Oath, Bills fans swear themselves to a veritable Hypocritical Oath, one that requires them to love the Bills one week and utterly despise them the next?

No team can claim of fans so finicky. When listening to water cooler conversations and talk radio shows on any given Monday during the NFL season you hear a motley crew of Bills fanatics who, in victory, praise the ground the Bills walk on or, following losses, use their keen armchair quarterback acumen to define what the oh-so-damned Bills should do against their next opponent. At first glance outsiders may perceive Bills fans to be the most ignorant fans in the league. Upon further analysis, though, one will discover that this dysfunction is not a character flaw but rather a reflection of the true gritty makeup of a good many of the area’s residents.

The philosophy behind Bills fans’ emotional roller-coaster is based entirely upon socio-economic factors. Other NFL regions have healthy, amiable fans only because their economies have accepted progress and epitomize the best that modern America has to offer, both economically and socially. For example, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego have booming computer and software industries. Seattle is the hotbed for thought and innovation. The Carolinas have become the destination for continued economic development. From a social standpoint, cities such as Miami, New York, Chicago, and Dallas have a great deal in terms of cultured offerings and urban entertainment.

The Buffalo Bills market area – Buffalo, Rochester, and rural WNY – is so different from those other NFL markets. It’s almost the Land That Progress Forgot. Look around and you see once-booming now-tired cities that seem outdated and as cold and uninviting as a lake-effect snowstorm. A great many of the area’s once magnificent employer base have left or slowly died-off. The remaining jobs are blue-collar positions always under the gun of outsourcing (Delphi and Kodak for example) or service jobs at a myriad of retail establishments. We don’t have the high-tech big-money jobs that the other markets have. Taking the analysis even further, from a cultural and entertainment standpoint the Bills home front is so different from most other NFL markets. The offerings at many of these larger cities are exotic, while ours are traditional and staid.

It’s this environment that so readily creates such a rabid fan base in Western New York. With our local economy being somewhat stale and unstable, our populace can’t help but have a wandering mind while on the job and the Bills have become a recurring daydream. Taking this further, with most folks seeming to find minimal availability of varied diversions outside of work, the Bills become the choice of entertainment, a weekly reason to party and let loose.

Bills fans are not ignorant as their fickle emotions might imply. They relish this love-hate relationship not out of indifference to the sport, but out of understanding of what this team means to them. It is escapism at its finest. The fans live vicariously through the Bills. The Bills give these gritty, middle class breadwinners a subject that they can revere and pin all of their hopes on. It’s rewarding to see the hometown Bills demolish a team from one of the aforementioned high-tech cities. Conversely, it’s disappointing to watch the team lose and see the city of Buffalo once again take a backseat to these healthier communities.

The Bills are more than just a sports team to its admirers. The Bills are Hope Incarnate. The team and its gridiron battles present a release from the daily stresses of the fans’ jobs and a release from everything that exemplifies life in Western New York, ultimately offering a little bits of hope, freedom and progress to all its fans.