The Bills and Sabres Have Literally Reversed Roles From 15 Years Ago

The Buffalo Sabres have already begun their 2021-2022 preseason. The first game was on Tuesday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets and unlike the vast majority of games last season, it was fun to watch.

The Sabres made a roaring comeback with three goals in the third period and won in overtime, 5-4.

The Sabres next play at the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday evening.

While the Sabres are back, you're probably hard-pressed in finding people in Western New York that are glued to everything that the Sabres are doing. That's partly because the team has been so bad for so long (10 years), but also because the Buffalo Bills are about to play their week 4 game at Highmark Stadium against the Houston Texans.

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The Bills are one of the favorites to win the Super Bowl this season, lead the AFC East (albeit, at 2-1), and have a franchise quarterback in Josh Allen.

The Bills cannot do anything wrong at the moment, while the opposite can be said about the Sabres. It seems anything the Sabres so right now is the wrong decision; whether it's a player move, coaching hire, front office hire, or off-the-ice move for fan experience. Fan morale is at an all-time low.

Remember in 2006? Back in October of 2006, the Sabres were the talk of the town. They reached game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final and started the 2006-2007 season with a 10-game win streak and won the President's Trophy in 2007.

The Bills on the other hand, were in a much different place. They were in the midst of a 17-year playoff drought and in what is probably the most mediocre of teams back then. 2005-2007 Bills teams were not good enough to make the playoffs, but not nearly bad enough to pick high in the draft and select a new franchise quarterback. It was truly sports purgatory.

I never thought the roles would be reversed some day. I was a huge Sabres fan back then, but the excitement has waned considerably in the last few years. The Bills and Sabres rise and fall shows just how drastically a sports team success or lack thereof can happen in the blink of an eye.