Bills 37, Commanders 3

Throughout most of the 1990s,Toronto sports radio personality Bob McCown maintained a residence in Las Vegas and often did his syndicated radio program Prime Time Sports from his home studio. After having his usual time slot taken from him by "Tim and Sid", McCown left the airwaves of the Fan 590 in Toronto in 2019 (after quite a public expression of his displeasure with the demotion) and earlier this year he suffered two serious strokes which left him unable to walk or speak - although he said this summer through his Twitter account that he is on the mend and hopes to be back doing his sports podcast again before too long. I remember McCown saying repeatedly that by far the best place to be for a Superbowl was Las Vegas. I presume that what he meant was that it was the best place to be if you couldn't actually be at the game in person.

Now that online sports gambling platforms have earned official status in most jurisdictions in North America (the television ads are ubiquitous on almost all live sports broadcasts) and now that the league has officially climbed into bed with them, NFL viewership ratings are climbing even further - something I doubted was even possible. With the Raiders now settled into a new stadium in Las Vegas, the Superbowl will be played there in a few months. The combination of the frenzy that takes over the sports books in the big Vegas hotels for the Superbowl and with the big game actually taking place there, Vegas will truly be the place to be in early February for even the most casual football fan. 

Last week, I received an email from the league setting out a few of the Superbowl packages offered by the major hotels on the Vegas strip. For a bit more than $14,000 USD, you can enjoy three nights at the Wynn, admission to the Superbowl Players Tailgate Party which features appearances by 50 NFL celebrities, a five-star food menu created by celebrity chefs, an open bar etc etc. The party will apparently not feature open fires in a parking lot which typifies the kind of tailgating we experience in Orchard Park. The package obviously includes ground transfers to and from Allegiant Stadium and a game ticket but air transportation to Las Vegas is not included. Since attending a Superbowl has long been an item on my own bucket list (although it is not really near the top), perusing these Superbowl packages did cause me to fantasize about it and if I were in a position to piss away $20,000 CAD on a Vegas weekend at the Superbowl, it would be tempting. But in the course of indulging my fantasy, I realized that my bucket list item is really to attend a Superbowl in which the Buffalo Bills are playing.

Although we may know well in advance that the Bills will not be playing in the big game, if they do in fact make it to their first Superbowl in 30 years, we will not know this until after the AFC Championship game - two weeks before the Superbowl. What will the price for these hotel packages be by then (if they are available at all) and what will a flight to Vegas cost if it is booked so close to the game, I asked myself. Why am I even wondering about this I also asked myself.... Then I remembered that if the Bills do make it to the big game, as a season ticket holder I will be entered in a Superbowl ticket lottery which I now realize is not only my best chance but my only chance of getting to the big game. I have it all planned out: After winning a pair of the tickets allocated to each Superbowl team (or winning the option to purchase them), I would drive my car to the California desert and camp in Death Valley National Park (as I have done before) and make the two hour drive to Las Vegas on game day. I might even watch the Superbowl Players Tailgate Party from outside the fence. So that's my plan to attend Superbowl LVIII in Las Vegas: the Bills win the AFC Championship Game, I win the ticket lottery, drive there and camp in Death Valley. It's a solid plan. Wish me luck.

Some of this fantasizing was made possible yesterday by a dominant performance by the Bills in Landover, Maryland. The game was not as close as the score would indicate as the Bills found the endzone three times in the fourth quarter to extend their lead to 37-0. By this point, I was looking at  specific campsites at the Furnace Creek campground. Buffalo's defence was too much for Commanders quarterback Sam "Thurston" Howell who threw four interceptions and was sacked nine times. 

In south Florida, the Miami Dolphins racked up no less than 10 touchdowns against the inept Broncos defence. The 70 points the Dolphins scored was the most in an NFL game since 1966 and the 726 yards of total offence was the second most ever in league history. Denver coach Sean Payton called his team's performance "embarrassing". 

These same Miami Dolphins, now 3-0, travel to Orchard Park next week in what will be a huge test for the Bills defence. For a week four game, there is plenty at stake: a Bills win would pull them even with Miami in the AFC East with a hold on the tie-breaker while a loss would put them two games behind with the Dolphins holding the tie-breaker (which would effectively give them a three game lead).