By the time you’re reading this, the 2026 NFL season will be well underway. And I’m making a change.

Go Bills.

Buffalo? Why? We’ll get there.

This starts, of course, with the Browns. To recap: A few years back, the Browns made what is widely considered to be the worst trade in NFL history, when they gave up a pile of draft picks — and a pile of money — to sign a mediocre quarterback who also happened to be a serial sexual abuser. It was an awful football decision; it was a worse decision for the community of Browns fans, who are loyal enough to have stuck with the team through its theft by Baltimore and years of terrible football. I was horrified by the decision, and I vowed to set the Browns aside until this guy was gone. 

As it turned out, he was not only a mediocre quarterback but a fragile one as well. Two separate achilles injuries kept him off the field and I got used to him not being on the field. The football was still awful, but I gingerly retrieved a few things — a couple t-shirts, a couple hats, a hoodie — from the storage bin in the attic and started watching the Browns again.

This is significant. I am a sports guy. I love football, even with its flaws. And while my college football fandom outweighs my Sunday football fandom by several metric tons, my history with the Browns goes back as far as I can remember. I grew up during Archie Griffin’s run at Ohio State, but Arch wasn’t my first football hero; that was Leroy Kelly, the hall-of-fame running back who became the Browns’ workhorse in 1966 — the year I was born — after Jim Brown’s sudden retirement.

I could go through my entire history with the Browns, but I’ve done that here before. And I’m not here to reminisce.

What changed with the Browns? Two things. First, there was the decision to start the sexual abuser this season. Simply, it’s a terrible football decision. The coaching staff can maintain that he gives the Browns the best chance to win, but the truth is that this team wouldn’t win even if a mid-1980s Bernie Kosar walked through the door. He won’t help, and his presence on the field means that quarterbacks who could be gaining experience will be sitting on the bench instead.

The second thing goes even deeper. Ownership is moving ahead with a new domed stadium in suburban Cleveland, and the Haslam family has proudly announced an average ticket price would put Browns games out of reach for many of the team’s fans. The Haslams will be able to host all kinds of fun new events, like Final Fours or World Cup matches — and average Browns fans won’t be able to afford those either. And then came the decision to play the abuser, when it was clear that fans didn’t want him because he’s an awful player and a worse human being? The bright thing to do would have been to cut a check for what they owe the guy, release him and move on. That’s what most fans wanted.

I’m not naive, and I’m aware that NFL owners are in this business to make money. But to be so completely tone deaf, to show such disregard for a fan base that has continued to support your team through decades of terrible football? Unforgivable. I’m tired of it. There is zero joy in being a Browns fan, and as long as the Haslams own the team, that’s not going to change.

So why the Bills? And why not, say, the other team in Ohio or the one that plays in a stadium that’s just an eight-minute drive from our house? I honestly tried with the Bengals a few years ago, when the abuser arrived in Cleveland. And it would be stupid easy to pick up with the Stillers; they’re pretty much omnipresent around here. But in both cases, it just feels … wrong. Those are the two teams Browns fans want to beat above all others, and I don’t think it’s possible for me to set that aside after all these years. 

The Bills got my attention about a week ago, when the team said it would start playing “O Canada” before their home games. The Bills are definitely trying to preserve the team’s fan base in Ontario, at a time when President Cheeto has made relations between our country and theirs embarrassingly difficult, but they’re also doing this knowing full well that at some point, they’ll draw the Cheeto’s ire because of the move — and they did it anyway.

I asked Bills fans on Threads what I should expect if I started following their team. That post got 99 likes and 72 responses, nearly all of them positive and welcoming. Nearly everyone mentioned the years of heartbreak I should be ready to endure; as I said to a few of these folks, “Guys, I would be coming to this after years of being a Browns fan — heartbreak that includes regular playoff appearances would be a welcome relief.”

There are other things. Lake Erie is still right there. Rust-belt town and team. They’re only not afraid of the weather, they embrace it — the new stadium still welcomes the elements and Buffalo’s cold-weather games. And I already hate the Patriots and the Jets.

Best of all: The Bills seem to be a franchise that doesn’t embarrass its fans. I’m not talking about football, either — the team seems to know and appreciate its fans and community, and that’s a thing I can no longer say about the Browns.

So let’s give this a try. My welcome was warm, and Josh Allen — a guy the Browns could have drafted in 2018 — has already run for two TDs against the Texans. Let’s go Buffalo!

Also: Can anyone loan me an old table? I need to practice.