As a loyal native of Buffalo, and a registered-independent voter who was justifiably terrified by the prospect of the 45th President of the United States becoming the 47th, I know whom to blame for Donald Trump turning successfully from business to politics - Deutsche Bank and the owners of National Football League franchises.
Trump almost joined that select group of wealthy men and women. (This came to mind on the eve of the current 2025-26 NFL season.)
He didn't. And he had time to turn his attention to running for the White House.
"If I bought that team," he told Associated Press during his 2016 presidential campaign, "I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing."
In 2014, Trump, who had owned the under-performing New Jersey Generals in the now-long-defunct USFL (a spring-time challenger to the supremacy of the established NFL), decided he wanted to upgrade; he wanted to become an owner of an NFL team. For other rich men like him - it's usually men - with big egos who thrive on the excitement and prestige of owning a pro sports team, the NFL is the pinnacle, an NFL team the epitomal toy. (This thought again came to mind with the Bills - still in Buffalo - about to compete in the NFL playoffs this coming weekend, for the eighth time in nine years.)
After unsuccessful bids to buy the league's Baltimore Colts, Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots, Trump set his sights on the then-available Bills.
His MO: first, disable the competition; he spread rumors that musician Jon Bon Jovi, the front-runner to purchase the Bills, would relocate the team to Canada, making Bon Jovi, in the words of New York magazine, "the Most Hated Man in Buffalo."
According to published reports, Trump pursued the Bills with the same ruthlessness he had displayed in his business and political dealings. To bolster his case, he passed out copies of a Forbes list of the top-paid entertainers in the U.S. - Trump was then host and co-producer of "The Apprentice" on NBC.
In short, he tried to buffalo the people whose ranks he wished to join or those who opposed him.
Trump offered $1 billion in cash for the team, but declined to open his books.
Sound familiar?
He approached Deutsche Bank, which has loaned him more than $2 billion since the early 2000s, to finance his Bills venture.
This time the bank, doubting his declarations of wealth - exaggerations that figured in prominently in the New York State civil fraud trial that alleged he inflated his net worth to dupe banks - declined to extend him the credit he needed to make the purchase. In the end, the NFL owners accepted the bid of Terry and Kim Pegula, owners of the NHL Sabres, who became the new owners of the Bills, succeeding Ralph Wilson, the team's original owner, since 1960, who died earlier in 2014.
The self-declared expert on the "art of the deal" was dealt out. Which embittered him.
ESPN's Stephen A. Smith said Trump vowed revenge on the league. "If they screw me over, I am going to show them," Smith reported being told by Trump. "I'm going to get them all back. I'm going to run for president of the United States."
Deutsche Bank and the NFL made sound business decisions - which left Trump free to pursue a bigger prize. Unfortunately, one bank and some of the remaining 31 NFL owners (the vote on Trump's application to buy the Bills is not a matter of public record, though Sports Illustrated reported that "the league's owners unanimously approved the Pegulas as the new owners of the Bills") inadvertently set him on the road to Washington.
I don't hold the bank or the league responsible for making "President" Trump possible. No one can blame them for doing what was in their best interests. But, in retrospect "
A braggart, as in all matters, Trump became a spoilsport after being turned away from the NFL. "I would have produced a winner," he claimed on then-Twitter. "Now that won't happen." On ESPN he said NFL stood for "No Fun League."
The master of sour grapes, he tweeted "Glad I didn't get the Bills," claiming that year that the league's TV ratings were "down big league," during a Trump-less season that ranked then as the second-most-watched in NFL history.
Subsequently, he never missed a chance to criticize the NFL, threatening to sue the league "for being monopolists," faulting the league for adopting policies that would reduce head injuries, tweeting that there is "no leadership in the NFL," urging teams to fire players who kneeled during the national anthem, insisting that the league arranged to have his election debates verses Hillary Clinton scheduled at the same time as NFL games to reduce the debates' viewing audience, stating that he would "never buy another NFL ticket until they go back to playing football and stop dividing America," pushing for an end to the NFL's non-profit status, and claiming that the league was offering "boring games."
And he insulted Terry Pegula, tweeting that "I hope he does better w/the Bills than he has w/the Sabres." (The Sabres have not qualified for the post-season playoffs since 2010-11.)
While living in Buffalo and Tonawanda, I avidly followed the team, visiting its training camps, going to games in "the Rockpile" and nee-Rich Stadium (now Highmark Stadium, which will be replaced by a new arena with the same name next season), eagerly buying and wearing its merchandise, sometimes keeping statistics for play-by-play legend Van Miller's radio broadcasts. Now living out of town, I remain a fan, enjoying the ability to frequently watch Bills' games on TV during their current run of on-field success. As I type this article, my laptop computer is balanced atop an overstuffed Bills pillow.
My heart remains in Buffalo, my fandom evident around my small apartment.
Like others Bills fans, I ask myself the "what if?" question; what if the NFL owners had told Trump "welcome!"?
Had Trump become the owner of the Bills, it is likely -- his protestations of commitment to Western New York notwithstanding -- that he would have moved the team out of my hometown. Is Buffalo, the 79th biggest city in the country, glamorous enough for him? And it is probable that he would have ruined the team, just as he poisons everything he touches.
Had the team moved out of Buffalo, or collapsed into bankruptcy or irrelevance while remaining there, I would mourn for my city.
But I mourn more for my country with Trump in the Oval Office.
