Miami Dolphins: How much do I really hate the Buffalo Bills?

Miami Dolphins: How much do I really hate the Buffalo Bills?

Things changed as the millennium did. Both the Dolphins and Bills fell on harder times, as Buffalo began a 17-year playoff drought and Miami qualified just once in 15 years. There became a new king of the AFC East, as the other three teams sat back and watched the league’s greatest ever dynasty roll through their front yards, year after year after year.

The New England Patriots became the one of the most dominant forces that we have ever seen. From 2001 to 2019, they won 17 of a possible 19 division crowns, leaving little to no chance for success for the other three teams in the AFC East, making most of our adolescences and early adult years miserable for rooting for our Dolphins. With the Bills not posing as large of a threat, and the New York Jets doing New York Jets things, the Patriots became the easy target for hatred for the better part of two decades.

Or maybe we just hated Tom Brady. That will never change.

I still felt it in my bones, though. Hating the Bills was like second nature, and I felt that same passion every time the Dolphins played against them. But that was pretty much the only time I thought about them. I thought about Brady and the Patriots every Sunday, during every playoff run and in far too many Super Bowls. They were the cream of the crop not only in the division, but in the entire league, for what felt like forever. They had absolutely surpassed Buffalo as the team I hated the most.

But Brady left, and the Patriots are no longer the dominant force that they once were, despite their genius head coach still being at the helm. Josh Allen instead entered the picture in the division, and the Bills have been on the rise ever since.

It looked like the Dolphins had come close to catching up to their renewed rivals, for a fleeting moment at least. The Week 15 matchup between Miami and Buffalo was one of the better games of the 2022 season and one of the best in the long history of the rivalry. The Dolphins were unable to come out of the snowy atmosphere with a victory, but it was clear that they had earned a level of respect. The Bills fans that had spent the last three years talking smack to me were instead sending me texts showing relief, saying that they respected the Dolphins, that the game was too close for comfort, and that Miami was for real.

Despite the respect, I felt that hatred again. The rivalry was back.