Are You Ready for Some (Real) Football?

The Buffalo Bills are back—and this time, it's for real!

That's what Rogers' resident revisionist historians would have us believe, anyway. The first of the eight-game "Bills Toronto Series," a tepid preseason affair back in August, has been more-or-less dismissed as an experiment, a mere dry run in anticipation of today's "actual" game between the Bills and the Miami Dolphins. It's a convenient way of explaining away some of that game's glaring issues—notably a reported ten thousand comped tickets—but it's also an insult to the fans who paid good money to witness what was, to all intents and purposes, a practice session. In fact, their tickets cost exactly the same as they do for today's contest.

Still, this afternoon should be better. It's the first-ever regular season NFL game in Canada—and it might even be reasonably entertaining, which few people would've anticipated when it was originally announced. The Bills are 6-6 and on the fringes of the AFC playoff race. The Dolphins are actually one game ahead of them—not bad for a team that was widely predicted to be among the league's bottom-feeders. That should ensure a better atmosphere and better ticket sales, which should make the game a more compelling experience. If you're attending, enjoy! And if you're not, be forewarned: several roads around the Rogers Centre, including Blue Jays Way, Bremner Boulevard and Rees Street, will be closed from 9 a.m. onwards. Moreover, in order to accommodate the tailgate party at Wellington Street West and Blue Jays Way, parts of Wellington and Clarence Square will also be closed—so plan accordingly. Later tonight we'll have a better idea if these measures, coupled with a more meaningful game, make Part II of the "Bills Toronto Series" a bigger success than Part I.

Photo by hyfen from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.