Here's the ground rules:
The city has to have at least two franchises in the big four professional sports leagues: the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League.
No expansion teams since 1980.
No team in that city has not won a championship in the last 20 years.
The closer that city's team(s) was/were to winning championship but could not close the deal the better (or worst).
The NFL Bills and the NHL Sabres only added to the city's complex. The locals call it the Buffalo Curse, where they have a website chronicling the city's sports teams' misery. The beilef in the curse is so real to them that they blame Hall of Famer running back O.J. Simpson's downfall on his time in Buffalo.
The Sabres:
The Sabres made two Stanley Cup Finals appearances in their history (1971), with the French Connection falling to the Philadelphia Flyers (known as the Broad Street Bullies) 4-2 in 1975 and losing to the Dallas Stars 4-2 in 1999--Buffaloans call it the "No Goal" game.The Bills:
The Bills have not won a championship since sitting atop of the American Football League after the 1964 and 1965 seasons.The Bills floundered in mediocrity for 14 more years, only garnering the National spotlight when Simpson became the first NFL RB to rush for 2,00-yards in a single season in 1973.
The Bills' fortune started to change in 1983 when they drafted future HOF'er Jim Kelly in the first round.
But Kelly opted to play for the Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League for two seasons, of course Buffaloans blamed his decision on the curse.
The Bills drafted HOF defensive end Bruce Smith with the number-one overall draft pick in 1985 and Kelly returned to Buffalo after the USFL folded in June.
The final piece of the puzzle was when they drafted running back Thurman Thomas out of Oklahoma State in 1988 and made the playoffs and advanced to
the AFC Championship game and lost to the Cincinnati Bengals, but the Bills were considered a young, talented and up-and-coming team.
Two years later, they would roll through their scheduled with a 13-3 record and put on one of the most impressive offensive displays in modern playoff history out-scoring Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins 44-34 in the AFC Divisional Playoffs and destroying the LA Raiders 51-3 in the AFC Championship Game.
Down 20-19 late in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl, Kelly drove the Bills 61-yards to set kicker Scott Norwood up for the game-winning field goal. The result is what Bullfoans call Wide-Right!
The Bills would go on to win the next three AFC Championships only to get destroyed, dismantled and dispatched in the next three Super Bowls.
Kelly would retire in 1996, Smith would move on to sign a free agent contract with the Washington Redskins and Thomas would sign a free agent contract with the Dolphins to finish their careers.
Despite benching popular QB Doug Flutie, HC Wade Phillips Rob Johnson in their AFC Wild-Card Game at the Tennessee Titans in 1999.
Johnson managed to mount a 22-16 lead late in the fourth quarter. Phillips decided to have (K) Steve Cristie to kick a high but short kick-off that Titan TE Frank Wychech caught on about the 26-yard line, where he pivoted and lateralled the ball across the field to WR Kevin Dyson (see one yard short post) who proceeded to sprint down the left sideline for a 75-yard kickoff return.
Buffaloans call this play "The Music-City Miracle."
The Braves:
Buffalo was awarded a NBA franchise in 1970 and with their first-round pick they selected North Carolina forward Bob McAdoo.Eight years later, fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, they moved to San Diego and renamed the team the Clippers.
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