The Buffalo Bills have won the AFC East Division five years in a row.
For the first few of those seasons, it felt so cathartic that there was no reason to worry the mind about anything else. But these last few seasons, it became a matter of procedure: No one else in the division was any good.
That brought along this season, when the New England Patriots have quickly risen from their ashes and can clinch the division title for themselves on Sunday when they play the Bills.
Most of Bills Mafia has an ingrained hatred for the Pats. They're ticked off that New England is this good again, this quickly.
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That really doesn't feel like the right way to look at it, though.
These Patriots aren't those Patriots.
It was fair to be an opposing fan and hate the Tom Brady and Bill Belichick version of the Patriots. They were annoying. They always won, especially in the AFC East.
The most fun divisions, though, have multiple competitive teams. How about those Jim Kelly battles with Dan Marino? The AFC East hasn't seen anything like that since.
Of course the Bills don't want to lose the division and have to fight for a wild card spot, and no one is saying Bills Mafia should root in a different direction than that.
But for the seasons ahead, these battles between Josh Allen and Drake Maye could be some of the best games in football. Maye reminds, at times, of a young, on-the-rise Allen. The two have become friends, too.
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Sure, Pats fans have had it quite good in the last quarter-century. Maybe they deserve to suffer a bit longer.
But a strong, powerful, QB rivalry in a division isn't a bad thing. It makes the regular season that much more exciting. It challenges a team to be at its best and reach a level it didn't even know it was capable of.
The Bills and Patriots, for one of the first times ever, are set up to be good at the same time. And for the sake of good, exciting football, that has the potential to be very fun.
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