Buffalo Bills

Buffalo Bills
Current season
Buffalo Bills logo
Buffalo Bills logo
Buffalo Bills wordmark
Buffalo Bills wordmark
LogoWordmark
Established October 28, 1959; 65 years ago (October 28, 1959)[1]
First season: 1960
Play in Highmark Stadium
Orchard Park, New York[2]
Headquartered in the ADPRO Sports Training Center (Orchard Park, New York)[3]
League / conference affiliations
American Football League (1960–1969)
  • Eastern Division (1960–1969)

National Football League (1970–present)

Uniforms
Team colorsRoyal blue, red, white, navy blue[4][5][6]
       
Fight song
MascotBilly Buffalo
Websitebuffalobills.com
Personnel
Owner(s)Terry and Kim Pegula
PresidentTerry Pegula
General managerBrandon Beane
Head coachSean McDermott
Team history
  • Buffalo Bills (1960–present)
Team nicknames
Championships
League championships (2)
Conference championships (4)
Division championships (15)
Playoff appearances (24)
Home fields
Team owner(s)

The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team plays its home games at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, and is building a new stadium which will be completed in 2026.

Founded in 1959 as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL), the team joined the NFL in 1970 following the AFL–NFL merger.[9][10] The Bills' name is derived from an All-America Football Conference (AAFC) franchise from Buffalo that was in turn named after western frontiersman Buffalo Bill.[11] Drawing much of its fanbase from western New York[12] and neighboring southern Ontario,[13] the Bills are the only NFL team that plays home games in the state of New York.[a] The franchise is owned by Terry Pegula, who purchased the Bills after the death of the original owner Ralph Wilson in 2014,[14] and a coalition of private equity funds and investors who purchased a minority stake in the team in 2024.[15]

The Bills advanced to the AFL Championship Game three years in a row from 1964 to 1966, winning the first two. To date, these are the only major professional sports championships from a team representing Buffalo. They struggled heavily in the latter years of the AFL and for much of their first two decades in the NFL, tallying only five winning seasons and three postseason berths from 1967 to 1987. However, they were perennial postseason contenders from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, peaking between 1990 and 1993 when they appeared in a record four consecutive Super Bowls, an accomplishment often overshadowed by the fact they lost all four. From the early 2000s to the mid-2010s, the Bills endured the longest playoff drought of 17 years in the four major North American professional sports, making them the last franchise in the four leagues to qualify for the postseason in the 21st century.[16][17] They returned to consistent postseason contention by the late 2010s,[18] although the Bills have not returned to the Super Bowl. Alongside the Minnesota Vikings, their four Super Bowl appearances are the most among NFL franchises that have not won the Super Bowl.[19][b]

In December 2024, the Bills became one of the first teams in NFL history to sell part of their franchise to outside private equity investors. 20.6% of the team interest was sold at a valuation of $5.6 billion, including 10% to the American investment group Arctos Partners LP.[20][21]

  1. ^ "Buffalo Bills Team Facts". ProFootballHOF.com. NFL Enterprises. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
  2. ^ "Highmark Stadium". BuffaloBills.com. NFL Enterprises. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  3. ^ "ADPRO Sports Training Center new name for Bills fieldhouse and admin building". BuffaloBills.com (Press release). NFL Enterprises. June 17, 2014. Archived from the original on October 4, 2022. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  4. ^ Ferrara, Kyle (November 11, 2015). "A look back at Bills uniform changes". BuffaloBills.com. NFL Enterprises. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  5. ^ "Buffalo Bills Team History–NFL Football Operations". Operations.NFL.com. NFL Enterprises, LLC. Retrieved January 12, 2025.
  6. ^ "Buffalo Bills Team Capsule" (PDF). 2024 Official National Football League Record and Fact Book (PDF). NFL Enterprises. July 22, 2024. Retrieved January 12, 2025.
  7. ^ Baker, Kelly (April 25, 2019). "Band Together. Press Play". BuffaloBills.com. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  8. ^ "How Mr. Brightside has become an iconic part of Buffalo Bills home games". Buffalo Bills On SI. January 25, 2025. Retrieved January 25, 2025.
  9. ^ "Team Facts". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
  10. ^ "Other football leagues of the past". ESPN.com. December 12, 2008. Retrieved July 31, 2024 – via ESPN Research.
  11. ^ "Important dates in Bills history: How the Bills got their name". BuffaloBills.com. NFL Enterprises, LLC. November 30, 2015. Archived from the original on November 14, 2022. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  12. ^ Meyer, Robinson (September 5, 2014). "Here Is Every U.S. County's Favorite Football Team (According to Facebook)". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  13. ^ Thomas, Thurman. "Canadian Bills fans converge on Toronto for first-ever 'Bills for the Six' event". Buffalo Bills. Archived from the original on September 14, 2023. Retrieved September 13, 2023.
  14. ^ Sessler, Marc (October 8, 2014). "Bills sale to Terry, Kim Pegula unanimously approved". NFL.com. NFL Enterprises. Archived from the original on April 19, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference newminority was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Bergman, Jeremy (December 31, 2017). "Bills clinch first playoff spot since '99 with Ravens loss". NFL.com. NFL Enterprises. Archived from the original on January 1, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  17. ^ "Bills End Their Playoff Drought, and Tears Flow". The New York Times. Associated Press. December 31, 2017. Archived from the original on January 8, 2018. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
  18. ^ Lasting, Dante (January 11, 2021). "Bills Today | Bills reached these five milestones in their playoff victory". BuffaloBills.com. Archived from the original on April 16, 2021. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  19. ^ Boclair, David (February 7, 2021). "Twelve Teams Have Never Won a Super Bowl. Which Ones Are Close?". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on February 7, 2021. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
  20. ^ "NFL Enters Private Equity Era With Bills, Dolphins Stakes". Bloomberg.com. December 11, 2024. Retrieved December 20, 2024.
  21. ^ Reed, Tashan; Graham, Tim. "Dolphins, Bills sell stakes in team to private equity firms for first time in NFL history". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 20, 2024.


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