<P> In 1947 a contest was held to rename the Bisons, which was owned by James Breuil of the Frontier Oil Company . The winning entry suggested Bills, reflecting on the famous western frontiersman, Buffalo Bill Cody . Carrying the "frontier" theme further, the winning contestant offered the team was being supported by Frontier Oil and was "opening a new frontier in sports in Western New York ." When Buffalo joined the new American Football League in 1960, the name of the city's earlier pro football entry was adopted . </P> <P> After being pushed to the brink of failure in the mid-1980s, the collapse of the United States Football League and a series of high draft picks allowed the Bills to rebuild into a perennial contender in the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, 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 . </P> <P> The rise of the division rival New England Patriots under Tom Brady, along with numerous failed attempts at rebuilding in the 2000s and 2010s, prevented 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 it was broken when the Bills secured a wild - card berth on December 31, 2017 . 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 . </P> <P> The Bills' uniforms in its first two seasons were based on those of the Detroit Lions at the time . </P>

When was the last time the buffalo bills played in a playoff game