Political advice to Miami Dolphins fans from a Buffalo Bills fan | Opinion
Miami Dolphins fans may not be inclined to take advice from a fan of the Buffalo Bills, especially when my team is coming to town on Sunday to renew a bitter division rivalry. But hear me out: Bills fans have a tale to tell that Floridians may want to consider come November.
The Bills are a hard luck team in a hard luck city. They went an astounding 0-20 against the Dolphins in the 1970s and since 2000 are 5-35 against the New England Patriots. In between were the so-called glory years that ended with four consecutive soul-crushing losses in the Super Bowl. No matter, Buffalo identifies with the team to a degree outsiders could not imagine.
This explains the panic that seized the city when original Bills owner Ralph Wilson passed away in 2014 and the team was put up for sale. Here was the long-dreaded moment when deep-pocketed outsiders would swoop in and relocate the franchise to a more lucrative market. When the bidding began, danger lurked on several fronts. A group from Toronto fronted by Jon Bon Jovi was widely suspected of seeking to move the team north of the border. Terry and Kim Pegula, billionaires who already owned the Buffalo Sabres hockey franchise, were thought likeliest to sustain the team in Western New York.
And then there was Donald Trump, who stated emphatically that the Bills belonged in Buffalo but was nonetheless viewed as untrustworthy self-promoter. Only the Pegulas were trusted by fans to safeguard the team in Buffalo, and the city was ecstatic when their bid prevailed. Michael Cohen later told Congress that Trump had illegally inflated his net worth to qualify for a bank loan to support his offer. Plainly, Donald Trump could not afford to buy the Bills. He reacted like a sore loser, tweeting: “Even though I refused to pay a ridiculous price for the Buffalo Bills, I would have produced a winner. Now that won’t happen.”
Trump would clearly have been a disastrous NFL owner. The man who has run through four chiefs of staff, four National Security Advisers, four press secretaries and six communications directors in three plus years would surely have plunged the Bills into constant turmoil. Coaches and general managers would be second-guessed and sacked. Chaos would derail any blueprint for sustained success. The organization would leak like a sieve. The league itself would have a tremendous headache on its hands, as the owner would invariably blame losses on cheating opponents, biased referees and a rigged system. And of course, he would have moved the team whenever it suited him.
What is astonishing is that two years later Donald Trump received more votes in the Bills stronghold of Erie County than any Republican presidential candidate in decades. Die-hard fans who did not trust Trump with their beloved football team were prepared to entrust him with the awesome powers of the presidency. Many who understood on some level that he was a con man were mesmerized by his boasts and promises.
But now in 2020 there is a record of Trump’s leadership defects as president – the volatility and poor judgment behind the dizzying churn of personnel, which no NFL fan would tolerate in an owner. The shocking ignorance described by former associates who branded him a “moron”, an “idiot”, and someone with the “understanding of a fifth-or sixth-grader”. And the ineptitude of his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has landed the U.S. at the bottom of the standings internationally.
The irony for Bills fans who may have supported Trump is that his incompetence has cast a shadow over an NFL season in which expectations for the team are running high. But they are not the ones who are going to decide the upcoming election; Dolphins fans will – along with fans of several other franchises in key battleground states. The question is whether they will choose as their president someone they would consider so inept, erratic and unreliable as to be unthinkable as owner of their cherished football team. Would these fans seriously pick the Daniel Snyder of presidents to serve four more years? In their hands may lie the fate of our seasons to come.
James B. Foley is a former career U.S. diplomat who served as Ambassador to Haiti and to Croatia. He was born in Buffalo, N.Y.
This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 12:12 PM.