Here's something no one has ever truthfully said on Twitter, or Facebook, or in a blog, or in a streaming video, until today:
The Buffalo Bills are in the Playoffs!
Yes, Jim Mora Sr., I'm talking about Playoffs!
The Bills were the only team in the 4 North American major league sports that hadn't made the Playoffs in a calendar year within the 21st Century, until today, when they beat the Miami Dolphins 22-16 at Hard Rock Stadium, and got the benefit of the Cincinnati Bengals beating the Baltimore Ravens 31-27, to knock the Ravens out of contention. The Bills last made the Playoffs in the 1999 season.
The Bills' last Playoff game was against the Tennessee Titans on January 8, 2000, at what's now named Nissan Stadium in Nashville, the game known as the Music City Miracle, for its incredible last play.
The Bills clinched a Playoff berth in the regular season finale, on January 2, 2000. They beat the Indianapolis Colts 31-6 at Ralph Wilson Stadium, now named New Era Field.
That's 18 years. How long has that been?
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The Bills' coach was Wade Phillips. The starting quarterback was Doug Flutie, the 1984 Heisman Trophy winner. Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed and Bruce Smith, heroes of their 4 straight AFC Championship seasons of 1990 to 1993, were still with them.
Current Bills coach Sean McDermott was 25 years old, and a scout for the Philadelphia Eagles. Their oldest current player, linebacker Lorenzo Alexander, now 34, was a junior in high school in Oakland. Current starting quarterback Nathan Peterman was 5 years old, and living in the Jacksonville area.
The New England Patriots, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the New Orleans Saints and the Seattle Seahawks had not yet won a Super Bowl. Nor had the Rams since their move to St. Louis. Nor had the Colts since their move to Indianapolis. Nor had the Baltimore Ravens since moving from being the original Cleveland Browns.
The Bucs, the Seahawks, the Saints; the Rams, Colts and Ravens since moving, and the Carolina Panthers had never been to a Super Bowl. The Arizona Cardinals hadn't been to an NFL Championship Game under any name in 51 years, and that was 2 cities earlier. The Houston Texans only existed on paper. All of those facts are no longer true.
The Patriots, the Seahawks, the Texans, the Cardinals, the Colts, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Denver Broncos, the Detroit Lions, the Chicago Bears, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Dallas Cowboys, and the New York Giants and Jets have all opened new stadiums since. The Rams and Chargers have moved back to Los Angeles. The Oakland Raiders have announced they are moving to Las Vegas.
The Montreal Expos have become the Washington Nationals, the Vancouver Grizzlies the Memphis Grizzlies, the original Charlotte Hornets the New Orleans Hornets and now the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Atlanta Thrashers the new Winnipeg Jets.
The Charlotte Bobcats have been established, and become the new Charlotte Hornets. The NHL has added the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Minnesota Wild and the Vegas Golden Knights, the 1st major league team in Nevada. The Jackets, unless you count MLS' Columbus Crew, were the 1st major league team in Columbus since the NFL's Pandhandles in the 1920s.
Sammy Baugh, Steve Van Buren, Chuck Bednarik, Otto Graham, Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch, Dick "Night Train" Lane, Roosevelt Brown, Johnny Unitas, Jim Parker, Deacon Jones, Merlin Olsen, John Mackey, George Blanda, Gene Upshaw, Mike Webster and Reggie White had recently been named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players. They were all still alive then. They're all dead now.
Tom Brady and Drew Brees were still in college; Eli Manning, Troy Polamalu, Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers in high school. Matt Ryan was 14 years old, Clay Matthews 13, Sam Bradford 12, Richard Sherman and Russell Wilson 11; Cam Newton, Rob Gronkowski and Andrew Luck 10; Odell Beckham Jr. and Johnny Manziel 7, Dak Prescott and Marcus Mariota 6, Joey Bosa and Kareem Hunt 5.
Current Giants coach Steve Spagnuolo was an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Eagles, Todd Bowles of the Jets the defensive coordinator for Grambling State University, Alain Vigneault of the Rangers was head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, John Hynes of the Devils was an assistant coach at Boston University, Jeff Hornacek of the Knicks was playing for the Utah Jazz, Doug Weight of the Islanders was playing for the Edmonton Oilers, Aaron Boone of the Yankees was playing for the Cincinnati Reds, Mickey Callaway of the Mets was playing for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and Kenny Atkinson of the Nets was playing in France's basketball league.
The defending World Champions were the Denver Broncos in the NFL, the Yankees in MLB, the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA, and the Dallas Stars in the NHL. The Heavyweight Champion of the World was Lennox Lewis.
The Olympics have since been held in America, Canada, Britain, Australia, Greece, Italy, China, Russia and Brazil. The World Cup has since been held in Japan, Korea, Germany, South Africa and Brazil.
Four of the Justices then on the Supreme Court are still on it now: Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. The idea was corporations were "people," and entitled to the rights thereof, was ridiculous -- but neither was the idea that two consenting adults of the same gender could get married taken seriously.
The President of the United States was Bill Clinton. George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, their wives, and the widow of Lyndon Johnson were still alive. George W. Bush was Governor of Texas, and had launched his campaign for President. Barack Obama was in the Illinois State Senate. Donald Trump had been talking about running for President someday. Most people thought he was joking. After all, the idea of a failed businessman with no political qualifications becoming President was ridiculous.
The Governor of the State of New York was George Pataki. The Mayor of the City of New York was Rudy Giuliani. The Mayor of Buffalo was Anthony Masiello, and he's now a lobbyist. Current Mayor Byron Brown was just elected the 1st black member of the City Council.
Current Governor Andrew Cuomo was U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The Governor of New Jersey was Christine Todd Whitman. Current outgoing Governor Chris Christie was a lobbyist for deregulating the energy industry. (That shouldn't surprise you.) Current Governor-elect Phil Murphy was President of Goldman Sachs. And current New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was on the Board of Education.
There were still living veterans of World War I, the Mexican Revolution, the Easter Rising, the Bolshevik Revolution, and Benito Mussolini's March On Rome. There were living survivors of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the General Slocum fire of 1904, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, and the builders of the Panama Canal.
Doctors Without Borders had just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Pope was John Paul II. The current Pope, Francis, was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
The Prime Minister of Canada was Jean Chretien, and of Britain Tony Blair. The monarch of both was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed.
Manchester United was coming off the only "European Treble" in English soccer history, having won the Premier League, the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League. In the season then underway, Man U would win the Premier League again, but West London club Chelsea would win the FA Cup, and Real Madrid would win the Champions League. There have since been 4 Presidents of the United States, 4 Prime Ministers of Britain, and 3 Popes.
Recent fiction bestsellers included Timeline by Michael Crichton, Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding and Hannibal by Thomas Harris. All would be made into major motion pictures.
Stephen King combined his loves of fantasy and baseball, publishing The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. J.K. Rowling had published 3 Harry Potter novels, George R.R. Martin 2 A Song of Ice and Fire books. There had not yet been any Hunger Games, Millennium or Twilight books.
Recently premiered films included The Green Mile, The Cider House Rules, Bicentennial Man, a live-action version of Stuart Little, the football film Any Given Sunday, the Andy Kaufman biopic Man On the Moon, the science-fiction spoof Galaxy Quest, the Rubin Carter biopic The Hurricane, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Angela's Ashes.
Star Wars had recently resumed with Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Pierce Brosnan had just played James Bond again in The World Is Not Enough, which featured Sophie Marceau as the 1st female main "Bond villain." It also featured Denise Richards as a nuclear scientist, which was almost as ridiculous as Jar Jar Binks.
Star Trek had recently wrapped up Deep Space Nine, but Voyager was still going. Dean Cain was the most recent live-action Superman, but George Clooney's Batman nearly killed the franchise.
Recently-debuted TV shows included Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Angel, Roswell, The Parkers, Judging Amy, Relic Hunter, Freaks & Geeks, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and, perhaps the greatest TV show ever made, The West Wing.
The Number 1 song in America was "Smooth," by Carlos Santana, with Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty singing. Former Beatle George Harrison had just survived getting stabbed by a home invader. Boy George had also narrowly avoided death, as a 62-pound disco ball fell from the stage during a rehearsal, and nearly hit his head.
Sean Combs (whatever he was calling himself at the time) and his then-girlfriend were arrested on weapons charges. People ask me why I don't like him. Here's a good reason: He got Jennifer Lopez arrested.
New Millennium's Eve shows included Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden, the Eagles at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Barbra Streisand at The MGM Grand Las Vegas, Neil Diamond at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Elton John at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Metallica with local boys Ted Nugent and Kid Rock at the Pontiac Silverdome, and Phish in front of 75,000 people at the Big Cypress Indian Reservation in South Florida.
Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $1.46 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 33 cents, and a New York Subway ride $1.50. The average price of a gallon of gas was $1.22, a cup of coffee $1.93, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) $5.69, a movie ticket $5.22, a new car $20,900, and a new house $204,800. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed that day at a record high of 11,497.12.
The tallest building in the world was the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We had the Internet, but there was, as yet, no Wikipedia, no iPod, no Skype, no MySpace, no Facebook, no YouTube, no Twitter, no Tumblr, no iPhone, no Pinterest, no Instagram, no Vine. The original Sony PlayStation was the leading home video game system of the time.
In the last days of 1999 and the first days of 2000 -- at the turn of the 20th to the 21st Century -- Tori Murden became the 1st woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean alone in a rowboat, going from the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain to Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. An Indian airliner was hijacked between Kathmandu and Dehli, and held for 7 days, before the passengers were released in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Portugal turned its colony of Macau over to China. America turned control of the Panama Canal over to Panama. Both of these were mandated in treaties concluded years earlier. And Boris Yeltsin retired as President of Russia, handing control over to his Prime Minister... Vladimir Putin.
Joseph Heller, and Curtis Mayfield, and former All-Star Met 1st baseman John Milner died. Nobody particularly famous yet was born during those days, but new Devils star Nico Hischier, and Red Bulls player Tyler Adams, and AC Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma were born in 1999.
January 2, 2000. The Buffalo Bills clinched a Playoff berth. It didn't happen again for just under 18 years.
Now it has happened again. Can they possibly do something with it? Stay tuned.
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