There’s a long history of Buffalo and Detroit sharing their inspirational figures.
Joyce Carol Oates and Rick James, Bob Lanier and Pat LaFontaine.
They’ve easily crisscrossed the path around Lake Erie, whether by Interstate 90 or Ontario’s Highway 401, to find a familiar setting on the other end — another vibrant Rust Belt city that’s been kicked in the teeth but refuses to roll over. They’re union towns, hard-drinking towns. They’re poorer than most places their size.
On the Canadian border, Tim Hortons is a local coffee shop and Labatt Blue is considered a domestic beer. Their sports teams are oxygen.
And, for generations, the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions have deprived them.
There’ve been successes, of course: the Bills with their back-to-back AFL titles in the 1960s and four straight Super Bowl losses three decades back, the Lions with their pre-JFK dominance and Barry Sanders’ resplendence until too much dysfunction made him quit.
Who could have entertained the notion of Buffalo and Detroit playing for the Lombardi Trophy?
“It would be a Super Bowl made in heaven,” said Mary Wilson, widow of Bills founder and Detroit businessman Ralph Wilson. “It would be awesome.”
A possible championship preview will be the chief storyline on Sunday when two ringless franchises meet at Ford Field. The 12-1 Lions have been betting favorites to win the NFC, while the 10-3 Bills last week slipped back to the second-best odds in the AFC behind the Kansas City Chiefs, whom the Bills conquered last month.
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