About Buffalo Bills
National Football League
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 as a member of the American Football Conference East division. The team plays its home games at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York and are building a new stadium which will be completed in 2026.
Founded in 1959 as a charter member of the American Football League , they joined the NFL in 1970 following the AFL–NFL merger. The Bills' name is derived from an All-America Football Conference franchise from Buffalo that was in turn named after western frontiersman Buffalo Bill. Drawing much of its fanbase from Western New York and Southern Ontario, the Bills are the only NFL team that plays home games in the state of New York. The franchise is owned by Terry Pegula, who purchased the Bills after the death of the original owner Ralph Wilson in 2014, and a coalition of private equity funds and investors who purchased a minority stake in the team in 2024.
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. They returned to consistent postseason contention by the late 2010s, 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.
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.
The Bills began competitive play in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League led by head coach Buster Ramsey and joined the NFL as part of the AFL–NFL merger in 1970. In the first two seasons, the Bills went 5–8–1 and 6–8 under Ramsey. The Bills won two consecutive American Football League titles in 1964 and 1965 with quarterback Jack Kemp and coach Lou Saban, but the club has yet to win a league championship since.
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