If you had told me back in 1990, after a steamy, sweaty and scruffy Goo Goo Dolls show at the old Continental, that the band’s singer would one day be singing “The Star Spangled Banner” before a packed house at Ralph Wilson Stadium as the Bills and the Patriots prepared to duke it out for first place, I would’ve likely laughed in your face.

And yet that’s exactly what happened today, to cap a week during which civic pride became a tangible entity in the Buffalo area, and new beginnings suggesting an era of possibility pervaded, following the Pegula family’s purchase of the Bills.

Choosing Rzeznik to tackle the National Anthem was a master stroke on the part of the Bills, for no other public figure so ably encapsulates our Buffalonian love of “working-class-hero-makes-good” stories. Rzeznik came from tough circumstances, and he and Goos mate Robby Takac faced an uphill battle in their quest for national stardom. People like Rzeznik are not supposed to make it to the big time, just as the Sabres and Bills are never supposed to take top honors in their respective leagues and Buffalo is never going to shed its status as an economic train-wreck.

So Rzeznik’s performance was going to be an emotionally weighted one, even before he opened his mouth.

How’d our hometown boy do? He nailed it, precisely because he approached the fabled tune with a humble spirit, sang it within his natural vocal range and let the melody – and the lyrics, which were punctuated by fireworks where applicable – speak for themselves.

Even listening to the performance on WGR AM 550 radio – the Fox TV broadcast did not offer the Rzeznik performance as part of its broadcast – one could feel the explosive positivity and sense of civic pride in the air. How tangible was this feeling? Put it this: I’m a native New Englander, but today, there could be no mistaking it – my heart belongs to Buffalo.
emali: jmiers@Buffnews.com