Janet Gramza: How I became a Bills fan, 4 days after a racist massacre

But this has been my routine for every game day since I became a Bills fan about one year and eight months ago, on May 18, 2022.

I didn’t expect it to happen. I wasn’t looking to fit in. I didn’t even know what Zubaz were at the time.

I had recently moved to Buffalo to be a reporter at The Buffalo News after decades of working in Syracuse – but I wasn’t expecting to follow the Bills just because I was now a Buffalonian working for a fellow Buffalo institution.

For one thing, I had a grudge against the NFL for a couple reasons, namely 1) its years of denial that repeated concussions cause the brain damage known as CTE and 2) how the league treated Colin Kaepernick after the former quarterback tried to bring attention to racism and police brutality.

I also don’t like the idea of fair-weather fans jumping on the good-times bandwagon without having spent decades, or at least years, weathering the downfalls of loving an underperforming team. (As a Cardiac ‘Cuse basketball fan, I know the feeling.)

And when I got here, the Bills were at the top of their game. In March 2022, I moved into a neighborhood decked with banners designating it “Josh Allentown.” Everyone expected the Bills to go to the next Super Bowl, if not win it.

I wasn’t really paying attention, but I began to absorb some Bills knowledge by hanging around my brother and his family, who live in Amherst and put me up until I found my Allentown apartment. My brother and his kids are rabid Bills fans and I started joining them on the couch just to be in their company.

Watching games with them, I learned why 17 + 14 = 6, why Dion Dawkins is the “Shnowman,” and why there’s nowhere else you’d rather be than right here, right now.

But I…