Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills, American professional football franchise that plays in the American Football Conference (AFC) of the National Football League (NFL) and is based in Buffalo. As a member of the American Football League (AFL), the Bills won two league championships (1964 and 1965), and, while playing in the NFL (after the merger of the AFL and the NFL in 1970), they appeared in a record four consecutive Super Bowls (1991–94), losing on each occasion.
(Read Walter Camp’s 1903 Britannica essay on inventing American football.)
The Bills were one of the eight founding members of the AFL (1959). They were one of the worst teams in the league in their first two seasons, but the addition of quarterback Jack Kemp and punishing running back Cookie Gilchrist during the 1962 season helped turn around the franchise’s fortunes. That year Gilchrist was named the AFL’s Player of the Year, and in 1963 he set a league record by rushing for 243 yards in a game. Also in 1963, in his first full season with the team, Kemp guided the Bills to a playoff appearance. The following year the Bills won 12 of their 14 games and finished with the AFL’s highest-ranked offense and defense. To cap off the season, Buffalo defeated the San Diego Chargers to win its first championship in only its fifth year of existence. The Bills repeated their title-game victory over the Chargers in 1965, and in 1966 they again returned to the AFL championship game, only to lose to the Kansas City Chiefs and be denied entry into the inaugural AFL-NFL World Championship Game (now called the Super Bowl).
Buffalo then entered into a prolonged period of losing seasons, including a league-worst 1–12–1 record in 1968 that gave the team the first selection in the 1969 NFL draft (the two leagues held a joint draft for three years before their merger in 1970), which it used to select running back O.J. Simpson. Running behind a powerful offensive line known as “The Electric Company” (because they “turned on the Juice”—an allusion to Simpson’s nickname), Simpson set a number of NFL rushing records in his nine years with the Bills, including having the league’s first 2,000-yard rushing season in 1973, but the team advanced to the playoffs only once over that span. The Bills continued to struggle for a few seasons after Simpson was traded to the San Francisco 49ers in 1978, but in 1980 they made their first of two consecutive postseason berths.
The Bills drafted quarterback Jim Kelly in the first round of the 1983 NFL draft. Kelly instead signed to play in the upstart United States Football League (USFL), and Buffalo posted league-worst 2–14 records in both 1984 and 1985. After the USFL folded in 1986, Kelly joined the Bills, who had retained his NFL rights. Head coach Marv Levy soon took advantage of his quarterback’s skill set and instituted a no-huddle “K-Gun” offense (named after Kelly), which was based on a series of fast-paced passes and runs out of the shotgun formation. The Buffalo offense—which also featured future Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas and perennial Pro Bowl receiver Andre Reed—was one of the most prolific in the league at this time, and the team’s defense was anchored by all-time great defensive end Bruce Smith and star linebacker Cornelius Bennett. Between 1988 and 1993 the Bills made six straight playoff appearances (winning five division titles), and the team had a number of notable postseason exploits over those years.
The Bills advanced to their first Super Bowl in 1991, which they lost to the New York Giants after a last-second field goal attempt by Buffalo’s Scott Norwood missed wide right. The next year Buffalo returned to the Super Bowl, where they were defeated by the Washington Redskins. In the 1992 postseason’s Wild Card round, the Bills—playing without an injured Kelly—trailed the Houston Oilers by a score of 35–3 early in the third quarter. Backup quarterback Frank Reich rallied the Bills to five unanswered touchdowns, and Buffalo prevailed over the Oilers 41–38 in overtime. The Bills’ feat was the greatest point-differential comeback in NFL history, including both regular-season and postseason games. The team’s momentum continued throughout the AFC playoffs, and the Bills easily won two road games to advance to a third Super Bowl. There, however, they were soundly defeated by the Dallas Cowboys 52–17. Buffalo made it to a record fourth consecutive Super Bowl in 1994, but its rematch against the Cowboys ended in another disappointing loss in the big game. The Bills made two more postseason appearances in the mid-1990s but failed to advance past the second round of the playoffs each time, and the key members of the team’s 1990s dynasty all soon retired.
Quarterback Doug Flutie led the Bills to brief postseason berths after both the 1998 and 1999 seasons, but the franchise fell back to the middle of the AFC standings in the early 2000s. The financially struggling team was dogged by rumors of an impending move to Toronto, which only increased when the Bills agreed to play a series of “home” games (including both preseason and regular-season contests) in the Canadian city between 2008 and 2017. However, in October 2014 the Bills were sold to a local ownership group that vowed to keep the team in Buffalo, and the Toronto series was canceled soon thereafter. In 2017 the Bills posted a 9–7 record and ended a franchise-record 18-year postseason drought, but the team lost its opening playoff game.
In 2018 the Bills drafted Josh Allen, who quickly became one of the game’s elite quarterbacks. The following year he helped the team win 10 games—its first season with double-digit victories in 20 years—but the Bills again lost their first postseason contest. In 2020 Buffalo traded for wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who became one of Allen’s favorite targets. That season the Bills advanced to the conference championship game for the first time since 1993. However, the team was defeated by the Kansas City Chiefs. Buffalo returned to the playoffs the next three seasons but could not advance beyond the divisional round.