Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs (14) is introduced during the introduction of the players … [+] The NY Bills win 20-12 during an NFL football game against the New York Jets at Orchard Park on Sunday, December 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Jeff Lewis)
associated Press
Sunday marked the 29th consecutive year that the Buffalo Bills have missed the Super Bowl.
And when the Bills were getting to Super Bowls, they experienced one of the greatest bouts of frustration in professional sports history. Buffalo lost four consecutive Super Bowls after the 1990–93 season. No other franchise in NFL history has this distinction.
So Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs will watch Sunday’s Super Bowl XVII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., with a sense of sadness.
No group of players and fan base may have a tighter bond than the Bills and the Bills Mafia. Buffalo’s last title came in 1965 when it won the American Football League championship, five years before the leagues merged and were absorbed by the NFL.
That’s a long time to wait for a championship, especially considering the Bills have been in the NFL playoffs in five of the past six years. They have yet to reach the Super Bowl in that span.
“It’s like a family atmosphere,” Diggs said of playing in Buffalo. “They love their football in Buffalo. Bill Maffia’s always got your side. They’re like your mom or your dad because they’re going to love you regardless. It just makes you want to do right by their . You want to win for them, and we all feel bad that we couldn’t bring them that Super Bowl again this year. They deserve one. They deserve a championship to celebrate.”
The Bills had a 13–3 record in the regular season and won their third straight AFC East title. However, they lost 27–10 to the Cincinnati Bengals in a divisional-round playoff game at their home field of Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York.
Diggs made the rounds of media appearances this week in Phoenix during Super Bowl festivities in his role as a spokesperson for Downey Unstoppables, who is said to “deliver a fresh 12 weeks with results so incredible that You really have to smell it to believe it.”
Diggs has enjoyed being a part of the ad campaign.
“I have a good day when I smell good,” he said with a laugh. “They do a fine job of keeping my clothes smelling fresh. I think I shower well and wear nice clothes.
Diggs, however, would prefer to wear his Bills uniform on Sunday. He played his role this season as he was selected to the Pro Bowl for the third year in a row, while he caught 108 passes for 1,429 yards and 11 touchdowns.
However, the Bills again fell short during a tryout season. The Bills had to deal with two major snow storms in western New York, then saw Damar Hamlin collapse and go into cardiac arrest on January 2 during a game against the Bengals in Cincinnati.
Diggs said, “We suffered a lot but God gives the toughest shoulders to the toughest battles.” “There was a lot of adversity but in that moment it puts all of us together, which is what he did, even though the world got a little closer with what happened. You try to take the positivity out of it.
There is no bigger positive than Hamlin’s remarkable improvement. He officiated in the Bills’ playoff loss and is performing in Phoenix this week.
Diggs said, “Just to see him alive and well and living his life, it’s hard to describe what me and everybody on our team feels.”
Now Diggs and his teammates can start thinking about the 2023 season.
“We’ve got 100 per cent motivation, 100 per cent confidence and we’re going to continue to push it forward,” he said. “We will all try to get healthy at the right time. The healthiest teams always win. We got some crucial injuries at the wrong time which hurt us.
“At the end of the day, we have to play at a high level and execute. It doesn’t matter who is out there, we have to find a way to win.”
