By Stephen Johns

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.