The Bills played their role perfectly

Every great dynasty has its one foe that is there simply to be toppled and make that conquering force look all the more mighty. Jordan had the Knicks. Brady had Manning. The Yankees had the Red Sox. And then the Red Sox had the Yankees. The Romans kicked around the Gauls for a while there. And the Chiefs have the Bills.

It’s OK to be Alydar. It’s obviously not as good as being Affirmed, but it’s hard to tell the latter’s story without the former. And to be Alydar one has to be of a certain quality, even excellent, to keep earning the right to dance in the spotlight with the main protagonist. There is some honor in it. Doesn’t feel that way to those on the banks of Lake Erie, though.

There’s a metronomic element to Kansas City, even if it doesn’t always look like it. It all permeates from Patrick Mahomes and he can overcome the minor blips of his receivers having the dropsies in the regular season or whatever brain melt Matt Nagy is going through on that particular afternoon/night (this time it was a couple drives of not running the ball at all while the Chiefs were leading and were gashing the Bills whenever they liked). Meanwhile, the vanquishable foe has a chaotic element to them at all times. The Bills fired an offensive coordinator, couldn’t stop turning the ball over, and then had to close hard on the outside to win the division to get back to this very spot where it comes to an end. A hard sprint back into the wall. But that’s how it goes. Batman always ends up putting The Joker in jail, right? Order over chaos.

Perhaps the difference is the assurance Kansas City has having done all this before repeatedly. The difference is only a few plays, KC is fairly sure to be arrogantly confident they’ll make them, and the Bills only hope to make them. And with each passing year the pressure to make them only makes it harder for the Bills, with another 365 days of angst and hope and anticipation and dread piled on the mound that was already there. All Kansas City carries is the muscle memory of coming through.

Or maybe it’s just Mahomes, perhaps the only true difference maker as a quarterback there is (he’s facing maybe the only other one next week). That doesn’t mean he’s’ the only good quarterback, but it starts to feel that much like the teams themselves, there’s two, maybe three, truly class ones and then a host of ones in the blob that are interchangeable. Put them in the right spot with the right weapons and the right coach, and the right plans, and they’ll produce. They’ll have good years and bad years, depending on how all the outside factors line up. The NFL is built on parity after all, which only means the coaching is that much more important if everyone has just about the same talent level, for the most part.

But Mahomes elevates the team. He’s done it since he stepped into the role. He is the outside factor. And this is what the Bills do. This is how they’ve been cast. Moriarty is always eventually foiled, no matter how coked up Holmes was.

History is made in Detroit . . .

While the Lions are appearing in their first NFC Championship game 33 years, here was the true accomplishment of Sunday in Detroit:

The working theory is that dude bought a pennant/flag to use the pole as an oversized club sandwich toothpick. What his plan of attack from there is a question, and on first glance it looks like me wants to stuff that three-foot atrocity into one single tupperware container. Did he eat it like a kabob?

And from around the socials

This was the big gag on Twitter last night:

Except this is what I see. 

Where does Madrid keep the envelopes?

In the world of soccer Sunday: It may be Barcelona who are under investigation for bribing refs, but Almeria is going to have some questions about what’s being left at the hotel desk by Real Madrid for the referees staying there after Sunday.

Almeria had taken a shock 2-0 lead at the Bernabeu, when Madrid got this joke of a penalty:

Then, Almeria appeared to quickly restore their two-goal lead off a gorgeous counterattack, only to have VAR ring up the ref for this caressing of Jude Bellingham’s cheek that somehow was called a foul, canceling out the goal:

We weren’t done. Madrid tied it when Vinicius Jr. chicken-winged one in that was at first ruled out, before VAR once again came rushing in to save us all from the injustice of Madrid not winning, apparently. It started to feel like USA-Russia in 1972.

And, of course, Madrid would later find a winner, though the VAR refs didn’t have to run on the field and chuck the ball into Almeria’s net themselves at least.

Follow Sam on Twitter @Felsgate and on Bluesky @felsgate.bsky.social