About a decade ago, Mike Smith tried to capture the sour atmosphere of the customers at his neighborhood bar, Joe Kool's. For years, their favorite sports teams have endured winless stretches, playoff droughts and epic failures, so he designed a T-shirt with a map of Southern Ontario with London in the center and lines connecting Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and Toronto. Above it were the words 'The Epicenter of Losing' and a red arrow pointing to London.
Since then, London has become something of an epicenter of winning. The Toronto Maple Leafs haven't won a Stanley Cup since 1967, but have made the playoffs eight straight seasons (losing in the first round almost every time). Although the Cleveland Browns last won an NFL title the year the Beatles invaded America, the Crosstown Guardians have made the American League playoffs six times since 2016.
The real turnaround, however, are the Buffalo Bills and the Detroit Lions, traditionally two of the NFL's sad sacks. They won their divisions in convincing fashion this season and, with the playoffs starting this weekend, are serious Super Bowl contenders, something that pleases their fans in southern Ontario, which separates the two cities.
“There is mutual respect and sympathy among Bills and Lions fans,” said Charlie Smith, who runs Kool's with his father, Joe. “Rust Belt cities don't get a break, so I'm happy for both teams.”
A four-hour drive just beyond London, the cities have a lot in common: from closed factories to gutted neighborhoods and faded histories. Bills founder Ralph Wilson had close ties to the Ford family, which still owns the Lions. Wilson kept his office in Detroit and for years the Bills and Lions played preseason games. In 2022, the Bills played a home game in Detroit due to snowstorms in Buffalo.
The teams also share a dubious distinction: no Lombardi Trophies. The Lions are one of four teams that have never played in the Super Bowl. Before last season, they had won just one playoff game in 65 years, and their last NFL title came in 1957, two months after the Soviet Union launched the first Sputnik satellite. The Bills won two AFL titles in the 1960s and played in four consecutive Super Bowls in the 1990s, but lost each time.
After long fallow periods, both teams now boast high-powered offenses and sharp defenses that appeal to Canadian fans living between Buffalo and Detroit. That explained the nervous hope masquerading as optimism at Joe Kool's.
“The rust bucket teams never sleep,” says Ross Cockburn, the longtime bartender who started rooting for the Bills when OJ Simpson was their running back. “If the Bills and Lions play in the Super Bowl, it will end in a tie.”
Last Sunday, the Bills played their second stringers and lost to the New England Patriots to close out the regular season. But they had already won their fifth straight AFC East Division crown and were saving their strength for the Denver Broncos, who they will play this Sunday.
The real excitement started when the Lions faced the Minnesota Vikings last Sunday, two teams with 14-2 records and no Super Bowl titles. After a tight first half, the Lions took the game away, securing the NFC North Division title and earning a bye as the conference's top seed this weekend.
“This year I'm going to keep getting myself in trouble,” said Darren Pyne, a Lions fan who didn't want to curse his team and left Joe Kool's at halftime to go home and watch the second half in his “fortress of solitude .”
Canadian fans have other reasons to cheer. The Vikings, Kansas City Chiefs, Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks, all popular teams north of the border, posted double-digit win totals this year, and all but the Seahawks qualified for the postseason.
Their success comes as the NFL expands into international markets in search of new fans and revenue. More than a decade ago, the Bills played six regular-season games in six years in Toronto, an experiment that unnerved fans in Buffalo. Not only did their team lose five of those games, but they saw them as a prelude to the team's move.
However, the games were not well received in part because they did not feature tailgating and were played indoors. The Bills are building a new stadium in Orchard Park, NY, to ensure they stay there. But Toronto remains part of the Bills' home market. About 10 percent of the team's season ticket holders are Canadian, and last year the Bills hired a new executive to expand the team's presence in Ontario, including finding corporate sponsors and media partners.
“Ultimately, we're doing everything we can to theoretically erase the line and make sure that people in southern Ontario and Toronto feel like they can be part of the Bills organization, or as close to it as possible ” said Pete Guelli, the team's Chief Operating Officer. officer.
The Lions, the Seahawks and the Vikings are developing Canada as a market. About 5 percent of the Lions' season ticket holders are Canadian, mostly from Windsor, across the border from Detroit. The team has expanded its reach and doubled its email list of Canadian fans in the past three years. Before Christmas, the Lions held a viewing party in London with the team's cheerleaders and mascot Roary, entertaining more than 3,000 fans.
London is roughly equidistant between Buffalo and Detroit and, with the success of the Bills and the Lions, has turned into a demilitarized NFL zone. For years, fans in London received television signals allowing them to watch Browns and Lions games. But thanks to the league's digital streaming package, they can also follow the bills.
The ubiquity of the NFL is one of the reasons Reid Collins, 9, became a Bills fan. He and his father John wore a Josh Allen jersey and watched the Bills on television at the Dawghouse Pub, a 10-minute drive from Joe Kool's. After following the Bills in the 1990s, “I stopped watching them, but he got me back into it,” John Collins said. “It's nice that he picked it up.”
Like Joe Kool's, there was a mix of NFL fans at the Dawghouse, with customers wearing Chargers, Cowboys, Giants and Packers hats and jerseys. With 14.5 million fans nationwide, the NFL has more than 20 corporate sponsors in Canada, two media packages and its own online store. The Super Bowl is the highest-rated program most years. Nearly three dozen Canadians play in the league.
“As long as the NFL has existed, there have been fans in Canada,” said Gavin Kemp, general manager of the league's Toronto office.
As popular as the NFL is, hockey remains king. If the Canadian national team had made it to the final round of the World Junior Championships last week, Joe Kool would be packed with hockey fans. Instead, only one television showed the title game between the United States and Finland.
In the coming weeks, however, the NFL will be front and center at Joe Kool's and across Canada. Bill Haddow, Charlie Smith's 95-year-old grandfather, who attended the Lions' 1957 title game and held season tickets for years, can't wait.
“I'm nervous now because we've never been in this position before,” he said.
