It’s 4 AM on Sunday morning and I’m sitting at my desk and I’m still trying to take in the fact that the Buffalo Bills are headed to the AFC Championship game.

The Bills beat the Baltimore Ravens last night and while both of the Bills playoff wins have not been pretty, they have been wins.

As a kid, my Mom and Dad had season tickets to the Bills games. As the Fall turned to Winter and that nasty Buffalo weather would roll in, my mother was smart enough to stay home and watch the game on TV. That meant, Dad and I would go to the games.

The Bills were never very good in those years, but I still loved going to the game watching the Bills and cheering them on.

In the early 90’s the Bills went to 4 straight Super Bowls and being the Bills, they lost 4 straight Super Bowls.

Since then, it has been slim pickings and when the Bills beat the beat the Indianapolis Colts last week, it was the first time they won a playoff game in 25 years.

With their win against the Ravens last night, they are going to the AFC Championship game for the first time since 1994.

To cheer on a losing team for a quarter of a century is not fun, but I held out hope that maybe, just maybe, the Bills would one day win again.

Back on January 27, 1991, mad Dad flew out from Florida to Sacramento, California where I was living at the time and we watched on TV as the Bills play in their first-ever Super Bowl.

The game came down to the Bills lining up to kick a 47-yard field goal to win the game. I can still hear announcer Al Michaels say "No good... wide right. The words haunt me to this day.

After the Bills lost the Super Bowl, my Dad and I hopped in the car, drove down the Pacific Coast Highway and spent two days playing golf at Pebble Beach.

This is how two life long Bills fans dealt with the crushing Super Bowl loss, playing one of the best golf courses in the world. It was a time with my Dad that I will never forget. We were both really sad that the Bills lost, but we cheered ourselves up by going to Pebble.

It wasn’t a Super Bowl win, but spending time with your Dad on the most beautiful golf course in the world was pretty damn good.

Being a Bills fan, I’m still not sure they have what it takes to make it to the Super Bowl, but right now the dream is still alive and I am holding out hope.

Maybe the Bills are destined to win a Super Bowl each time a global pandemic hits, and maybe this is the year.

Sadly, my Dad is gone, but I know how much he would have loved this run by our team. A team that we cheered on for years and for years brought us disappointment. But, not matter what, we never stopped cheering.

If the Bills do make it the Super Bowl and win, I can’t even imagine how I will feel. I can only wish that I could be talking to my Mom and Dad as the lead up to the AFC Championship game draws near.

If the Bills make the Super Bowl and lose, well, I wonder if I can get a tee time for one at Pebble Beach?

Go Bills!