Buffalo Bills
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.
Founded in 1959 as a charter member of the American Football League, the team joined the NFL in 1970 after the AFL–NFL merger. The team's name is taken from an All-America Football Conference franchise from Buffalo that was named after western frontiersman Buffalo Bill. Drawing much of its fanbase from western New York and neighboring 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—the only major professional sports championships for 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. They became perennial postseason contenders in the late 1980s; from 1990 to 1993, they appeared in a record four consecutive Super Bowls and lost each one. From the early 2000s to the mid-2010s, the Bills endured the longest playoff drought in the four major North American professional sports, a 17-year span that made 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, but not the Super Bowl. Their four Super Bowl appearances are the most among NFL franchises that have not won the Super Bowl, a record they share with the Minnesota Vikings.
In 2024, the Bills became one of the first NFL teams 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.
History
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.Once the AFL–NFL merger took effect, the Bills became the second NFL team to represent the city; they followed the Buffalo All-Americans, a charter member of the league. Buffalo had been left out of the league since the All-Americans folded in 1929; the Bills were no less than the third professional non-NFL team to compete in the city before the merger, After the Indians/Tigers of the early 1940s and an earlier team named the Bills, originally the Bisons, in the late 1940s in the All-America Football Conference.
After the AFL–NFL merger, the Bills were generally mediocre in the 1970s but featured All-Pro running back O. J. Simpson. After being pushed to the brink of failure in the mid-1980s, the collapse of the United States Football League and a series of highly drafted players such as Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith and Darryl Talley allowed the Bills to rebuild into a perennial contender in the late 1980s through the mid-1990s under head coach Marv Levy, a period in which the team won four consecutive AFC Championships; the team nevertheless lost all four subsequent Super Bowls, records in both categories that still stand.
The rise of the division rival New England Patriots under Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, along with numerous failed attempts at rebuilding in the 2000s and 2010s, helped prevent the Bills from reaching the playoffs in seventeen consecutive seasons between 2000 and 2016, a 17-year drought that was the longest active playoff drought in all major professional sports at the time.
Mike Mularkey coached the Bills in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. He went 9–7 but missed the postseason in 2004 and 5–11 in 2005. He resigned from the team after the 2005 season.
From 2006 to 2009, the Bills were coached by Dick Jauron. After three consecutive 7–9 seasons, Jauron was dismissed after a 3–6 start to his fourth season. Perry Fewell finished out the season as interim with a 3–4 mark.
From 2010 to 2012, the Bills were coached by Chan Gailey. The team had Ryan Fitzpatrick as their quarterback in those seasons. Gailey was fired after three consecutive last place finishes in the AFC East.
Doug Marrone was hired to be the Bills' head coach before the 2013 season. The Bills went 6–10 in the 2013 season and improved to 9–7 in the 2014 season. Marrone decided to step down as head coach after the season. On October 8, 2014, Buffalo Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula received unanimous approval to acquire the Bills during the NFL owners' meetings, becoming the second ownership group of the team after team founder Ralph Wilson.
Before the 2015 season, the team hired former Jets head coach Rex Ryan to become the next head coach of the Bills. The team went 8–8 in 2015 and 7–9 in 2016. Ryan was dismissed with one game remaining in the 2016 season, with Anthony Lynn finishing the season as interim.
Sean McDermott era (2017–2025)
Under head coach Sean McDermott, the Bills broke the playoff drought, appearing in the playoffs for seven of the next eight seasons. The team drafted Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen with the seventh overall pick in the first round of the 2018 NFL draft. The team earned its first division championship and playoff wins since 1995 during the 2020 season, attributed to the Bills' own development of a core talent including Allen, Stefon Diggs, Matt Milano, and Tre'Davious White. In the 2020 season, the Bills reached the AFC Championship for the first time since the 1993 season. However, their run ended with a 38–24 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bills won the AFC East with a 11–6 record in the 2021 season. The Bills defeated the Patriots 47–17 in the Wild Card Round before falling to the Kansas City Chiefs 42–36 in overtime.In the 2022 season, the Bills won the AFC East with a 13–3 record. The season saw a cancelled game against the Bengals due to a near-fatal medical episode with Damar Hamlin, who eventually recovered and returned to football activities the following season. The team defeated the Miami Dolphins in the Wild Card Round 34–31 before falling to the Cincinnati Bengals 27–10 in the Divisional Round. In the 2023 season, the Bills won the AFC East for the fourth consecutive season. In the Wild Card Round, they defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 31–17 before falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round 27–24. In the 2024 season, the Bills finished with a 13–4 record and won another AFC East title. After wins over the Denver Broncos in the Wild Card Round and the Baltimore Ravens in the Divisional Round, the Bills lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship. The following season saw the team's streak of consecutive division titles end, as they finished with a 12–5 record. They defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Wild Card Round before falling to the Broncos in the Divisional Round. Two days later, McDermott was fired after 9 seasons.
After Kim Pegula was incapacitated by a 2022 vascular brain injury, a portion of her stake in the team was transferred to her stepdaugher Laura, with a 20% stake in the team sold to a coalition of private equity investors and former Toronto athletes Jozy Altidore, Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady in December 2024. The Bills announced plans to build a new stadium to replace Highmark Stadium to be ready by 2026.
Logos and uniforms
For their first two seasons, the Bills wore uniforms based on those of the Detroit Lions at the time. Ralph Wilson had been a minority owner of the Lions before founding the Bills, and the Bills' predecessors in the AAFC had also worn blue and silver uniforms.The team's original colors were Honolulu blue, silver, and white, and the helmets were silver with no striping. There was no logo on the helmet, which displayed the players' numbers on each side.
In 1962, the standing red bison was designated as the logo and took its place on a white helmet. In 1962, the team's colors also changed to red, white, and blue. The team switched to blue jerseys with red and white shoulder stripes, similar to the Buffalo Bisons AHL hockey team of the same era. The helmets were white with a red center stripe. The jerseys again saw a change in 1964 when the shoulder stripes were replaced by a distinctive stripe pattern on the sleeves consisting of four stripes, two thicker inner stripes and two thinner outer stripes all bordered by red piping. By 1965, red and blue center stripes were put on the helmets.
The Bills introduced blue pants worn with the white jerseys in 1973, the last year of the standing buffalo helmet. The blue pants remained through 1985. The face mask on the helmet was blue from 1974 through 1986 before changing to white.
The standing bison logo was replaced by a blue charging one with a red slanting stripe streaming from its horn. The newer emblem, still the primary one used by the franchise, was designed by aerospace designer Stevens Wright in 1974.
In 1984, the helmet's shell color was changed from white to red, primarily to help Bills quarterback Joe Ferguson distinguish them more readily from three of their division rivals at that time, the Baltimore Colts, the Miami Dolphins, and the New England Patriots, who all also wore white helmets at that point. Ferguson said, "Everyone we played had white helmets at that time. Our new head coach Kay Stephenson just wanted to get more of a contrast on the field that may help spot a receiver down the field."
In 2002, under the direction of general manager Tom Donahoe, the Bills' uniforms went through radical changes. A darker shade of blue was introduced as the primary jersey color, and nickel gray was introduced as an accent color. Both the blue and white jerseys featured red side panels. The white jerseys included a dark blue shoulder yoke and royal blue numbers. The helmet remained primarily red with one navy blue, two nickel, two royal blue, two white stripes, and a white face mask. A new logo, a stylized "B" consisting of two bullets and a more detailed buffalo head on top, was proposed and had been released, but fan backlash led to the team retaining the running bison logo. The helmet logo adopted in 1974—a charging royal blue bison with a red streak, white horn, and eyeball—remained unchanged.
In 2005, the Bills revived the standing bison helmet and uniform of the mid-1960s as a throwback uniform.
The Bills usually wore the all-blue combination at home and the all-white combination on the road when not wearing the throwback uniforms. They stopped wearing blue-on-white after 2006, while the white-on-blue was not worn after 2007.
For the 2011 season, the Bills unveiled a new uniform design, an updated rendition of the 1975–83 design. This change includes a return to the white helmets with "charging buffalo" logo, and a return to royal blue instead of navy. The set initially featured striped socks, but by 2021, the Bills gradually reduced its usage and began wearing either all-white or all-blue hosiery without stripes in most games.
Buffalo sporadically wore white at home in the 1980s, including all eight home games in 1984, but stopped doing so beginning in 1987. On November 6, 2011, against the New York Jets, the Bills wore white at home for the first time since 1986. Since 2011, the Bills have worn white for home games, either with their primary uniform or a throwback set.
The Bills' uniform received minor alterations as part of the league's new uniform contract with Nike. The new Nike uniform was unveiled on April 3, 2012.
On November 12, 2015, the Bills and the New York Jets became the first two teams to participate in the NFL's Color Rush uniform initiative, with Buffalo wearing an all-red combination for the first time in team history. Like the primary uniforms, the set initially had red socks with white and blue stripes, but in 2020, it was replaced with red socks without stripes.
A notable use of the Bills' uniforms outside of football was in the 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships when the United States men's national junior ice hockey team wore Bills-inspired uniforms in their outdoor game against Team Canada on December 29, 2017. This game was also played at the Bills' home stadium, Highmark Stadium.
On April 1, 2021, the team announced they would wear white face masks during the upcoming season and beyond.
On December 22, 2024, the team debuted a brand new uniform combination consisting of their red Color Rush uniform and white pants.
On July 22, 2025, the Bills brought back the 1984–2010 red "charging buffalo" helmet as an alternate, which they would wear January 4, 2026 against the New York Jets with the primary blue uniforms. This set was paired with red socks, which the team wore with the red helmets during its original run. Additionally, after last wearing the "standing buffalo" throwback in 2021, the Bills brought back the design for two home games to mark original Highmark Stadium's final season.
On August 28, 2025, the Bills unveiled a "Rivalries" uniform, which they would wear once per season at home against each of their AFC East opponents over a three-year period. The all-white uniform, dubbed the "Cold Front", featured silver numbers trimmed in blue and a modified "charging buffalo" in silver with blue trim, along with silver and blue stripes on the helmet. Red was not featured in the uniform, as it signified warmth.