The Buffalo Bandits Are Currently The Most Electrifying Team In Pro Sports
Every so often a team comes around in professional sports that is just so ridiculously nasty that it looks like they're hardly even playing the same sport as their opponent. The Edmonton Oilers of the 80s. The Chicago Bulls of the 90s. Tiger Woods in the 2000s. And that's the current situation we're dealing with here with the Buffalo Bandits in the NLL. Because if the Bandits are playing lacrosse, then I have no idea what everybody else is playing.
A behind-the-back feed from Josh Byrne to a between-the-legs goal in transition for Chase Fraser. Just some filthy, nasty stuff from the Bandits. And in most cases, a goal that pretty would be the only goal worth talking about in a game. But for the Bandits that was essentially just another ordinary play. Because when Josh Byrne isn't dishing out BTB assists, he's casually levitating through the air.
Josh Byrne takes off at 7 seconds into this video. He doesn't land until the 8-second mark. Just for reference, a google search will tell you that Michael Jordan's longest hang time was 0.92 seconds. So Michael Jordan and Josh Byrne are basically the same here. Only MJ got to dunk on an empty rim and Josh Byrne had to figure out a way to not only dive through a defenseman but put the ball past a goalie.
And speaking of some insane dives in this game, Connor Fields got in on the action as well.
That little fake backhand flip right before taking off causes the defenseman and goalie to freeze up just long enough for him to tuck that one into the back of the net. You just can't teach that. You also can't teach simply being bigger and stronger than anybody else you play against. Which is exactly what Tehoka Nanticoke was right here. Too Big. Too Fast. Too Strong.
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The only thing that bringing a double team to Tehoka is going to do is give him one more defenseman to bully.
But yeah. The great people of Buffalo deserve a truly elite team to root for. I'm sure some of them wish it were the Bills. I'm sure some of them wish it were the Sabres. But the great people of Buffalo have the Bandits and that's more than most people can say.
Sidenote: Speaking of awesome goals in lacrosse this past weekend, this shot from Delaware's Mike Robinson to kick off the Blue Hens' comeback win against Georgetown was wild.
Behind-the-back from like 8-yards out. Down by 2 in the 4th quarter. Just wild stuff. And then Delaware would score twice more in the final moments of the game to knock off #2 Georgetown. We'll have a full recap of the first round of the tournament coming up on tomorrow's episode of The Crease Dive. The haters might be furious, but lacrosse is so back.