Open Letter: Bills Fans My Age Are Sick of Hearing About This In Buffalo

If you're in my age bracket, which is that 25-35 year-old range, then you likely spent your entire childhood and teenage years watching the Buffalo Bills during the 17-year drought.

The famous drought lasted from the 2000 season to the 2016 season, and at the time it was the longest playoff drought in the four major North American sports (NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB).

My first NFL memory was the Music City Miracle Game. I tell fans who are older that and they almost don't believe me, because the first thing to imagine is "that wasn't THAT long ago, was it?"

That game was the first week of January, 2000. That was 22 years ago. The first full regular season I watched as a Bills fan was the 2000 season, when Doug Flutie and Rob Johnson split time as the starter.

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I couldn't have possibly been born at a worse time as a Bills fan. I missed out on all of the good and got all of the bad, and I do mean all of that 17-year drought. It was the only football I knew of growing up in Buffalo.

While those my age grew up on drought Bills, those fans like my dad and older brother remember the Bills teams of the late 80s and early 90s, and we all know by now they went to four straight Super Bowls.

Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed and Bruce Smith live in Bills fans' minds for eternity. They were great. I know they're great...but I've been hearing about the early 90s Super Bowl teams in Buffalo my entire life.

Whenever I see old Bills footage, it's always between 1988-1994. It's never a 17-year period in the 2000s. I know the Bills were not good those seasons (2004 they actually were good, but just had a bad start to that season), but the way they're just passed over by a large portion of fans is kind of nuts if you ask me.

Like it or not, an entire generation of Bills fans grew up on those teams. I respect the Bills teams of the early '90s, but I'm not going to lie, I'm sick and tired of hearing about the same players and the same games, over and over and over again.

I'm so thankful that Josh Allen came along and I finally have a team that's one of the best in the NFL. It also looks like they will be for a while. Maybe we can look forward now, instead of constantly living in the past -- 30 years in the past.

Buffalo has been starving for this team to come along for 20+ years.