'Becoming the Bills!' Collin Cowherd Compares Celtics' Playoff Failures to Buffalo's Drought
The Buffalo Bills have earned themselves a reputation … twice over. The Bills of the last millennium lost four consecutive Super Bowls to begin the 1990s, bringing themselves to the brink of football immortality only to be lost to history.
This time around, Buffalo is armed with possibly the most physically talented quarterback on the planet and enough talent around them to rack up AFC East titles and early-round divisional wins. Yet, a Super Bowl victory – even a Super Bowl appearance – remains too elusive to capture.
The Bills are a professional playoff heartbreak, and their road isn’t getting any easier anytime soon. With Josh Allen’s contract putting a dent in Buffalo’s offseason plans and a core that is aging out of its prime, the Bills look a lot like their decades-old counterparts.
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On “The Herd,” Colin Cowherd compared Buffalo’s string of late-season shortcomings to arguably the best team in the NBA, the Boston Celtics.
“Boston hammers a lot of teams by a lot all the time. I’ve been watching Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and either Marcus Smart or Jrue Holiday blow out teams for three seasons,” Cowherd said. “They lead the NBA in point-differential this year and they led the NBA in point-differential last year. They were second in point-differential in 2021. I got one trip to the Finals where they had a lead and blew it, and no trophies. They are becoming the Buffalo Bills, I’m sorry.”
Buffalo preceded its four Super Bowl appearances with win totals of 13, 13, 11, and 12, respectively. They dominated the regular season and were even more successful in the playoffs than Boston has been.
The Celtics are currently eight games ahead of the second-best team in the Eastern Conference and six games better than any other team in the sport. And yet, few are legitimately confident that they’ll bring home a championship.
As Cowherd notes, we’ve seen this story before – in both sports, and both eras.
“I am in no way doubting Boston, but we’ve seen this before,” Cowherd said. “We saw those great Sacramento Kings teams never get a title. We saw those great Bills teams with Jim Kelly, Hall of Famer, never got a title.
“This Buffalo Bills team doesn’t feel like they’re going to get to a Super Bowl, this Chiefs defense is all kids and only getting better, and they’ve got Mahomes in his prime. I feel like Boston has got that feeling. You’re not as good as Denver because you don’t have anyone as good as Jokic.”
As Buffalo and Boston look to get over the hump, they’ll have traditions to look back on. The Bills – one of failure, fueling a title that a city has so desperately wanted. The Celtics’ championship-laden past has set the expectation for the current core, without success.
Both have the stars and the playoff experience to breed success, but until it finally happens, some level of doubt will be as consistent as their regular-season prowess.
