The Buffalo Bills lost to Kansas City in the divisional round Sunday evening. It was their third loss in four years to the Chiefs. Twice in the divisional round, once in the AFC title game.

All have been crushing, and the last two have come in the final moments. On Sunday, Bills kicker Tyler Bass pushed his attempt wide right with less than 2 minutes remaining and Buffalo trailing by three.

Bass shut down his social media accounts after the loss, mostly because some unhinged fans sent him death threats. It wasn’t the first time a Bills kicker felt the wrath of fans after missing a critical kick.

Buffalo has made the playoffs six of the last seven years. They have a talented young quarterback, a good coach, and an organization that finds and develops players.

Their 2017 playoff appearance ended a postseason drought of 18 years, but the run before that, which lasted from 1988-1999, included five conference title game appearances and four straight Super Bowls.

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They famously lost all four. And by the time they lost their third — the first of back-to-back losses to Dallas in 1992-93 — most of the country felt pity for the Bills.

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One of these days, Buffalo will win the Super Bowl, and it will be glorious for upstate New Yorkers who’ve felt decades of heartbreak stretched over two long playoff runs. Until then, though, Bills fans still get to enjoy all that banked joy that comes with being on the national NFL stage and getting the chance to compete for the Lombardi Trophy, especially the early runs.

At least the rest of the country knows Buffalo’s story, which is to say it knows the city’s football pain. And there is value in being seen — and being understood.

The rest of the country is just getting to learn Detroit’s.

No matter what happens this Sunday when the Lions play the San Francisco 49ers, this team, this head coach, this general manager, this owner, have helped finally tell the franchise’s backstory. It doesn’t include aching Super Bowl moments, or improbable comebacks led by all-timers — remember what Patrick Mahomes did to the Bills in just 13 seconds two years ago?

Sure, you do.

But it does include loyalty, and a fan base that’s stuck with their hard-luck franchise in a way that’s uncommon even in the NFL. Stories of individual dedication have hit the national airwaves the last two Sundays, and the rest of the country is starting to understand what the Lions mean to this place.

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No wonder so many football fans are jumping on the Lions’ train, or are at least rooting for them to pull off an upset in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday afternoon. Sure, part of the fascination is the underdog story, and part of it is the new.

Sports fans love it when losing teams start winning and subvert the established narrative. No more Cowboys? Good riddance. The Eagles are out? Buh-bye.

The Lions don’t have any stars on the team just yet, though that may change with another win — or two. At the least, they don’t have any household names. Except for their coach, Dan Campbell, which makes this team, as currently constructed, similar to a college team, where the coach is the face of the program.

This is just as well, as college football teams and their fans are so often linked by identity. And so it is with the Lions. This part of the narrative is starting to become known, too.

Nothing in sports compares to the delirium a fan base feels when their team steps into the light for the first time in years, or decades. This is where Lions fans are now, and it won’t be like this anytime soon again.

Oh, if the Lions lose Sunday or win Sunday and lose in the Super Bowl, and then find their way back in the next few years and win it all, that’ll be the all-timer for the franchise, no doubt. But the run to get there? It won’t feel quite like this.

And why would it?

This winter is a season of firsts ... first division title in 30 years, first home playoff game in 30 years, first playoff win in 32 years, first NFC title game since, well, so many fans can’t remember, because they weren’t alive. Yeah, 1991 was a loooooong time ago. All the losing between then and now adds up, a kind of psychic weight, and getting out from under it after three decades is cleansing like nothing else.

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It’s a special place to be. So, relish it. Let every moment wash over every particle of your football being, because you only get one first.

None of this is to say that winning will become stale. Of course it won’t. But think about how you felt about the Red Wings in the mid-to-late aughts compared to how you felt about them in the late 80s and early 90s, when they were on the come-up.

Same for the Pistons, right?

Their second-generation run to the title in 2004 came from nowhere, and the surprise was a sheer delight. But by 2007? After so many conference title runs?

It felt heavier.

There is a reason coaches who’ve won multiple titles almost always mention their first as their most memorable, most joyful. Before it happens, you’re not sure you can do it. And then you do, and the expectation changes, the relationship you have with winning changes.

Right now, for the Lions and those that love them, which is to say just about everyone that lives or has lived in Michigan, the relationship with winning is so new it may not seem real. Eventually, it will, and that’s not all bad, either.

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As Campbell said Monday, and as he’s said many times this season:

“This is just the beginning.”

That is its own kind of comforting thought, too, right? That this is the start of a journey?

Wherever it ends this season, the journey will almost certainly continue into the next, and the next, and for so many around here, that’s a novel concept as well. Yet this is what the Lions are building.

The trick is to savor, the firsts, the surprises, the revelations, the stories that are finally — and fully — getting told, about this team and the place it calls home.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.

Next up: 49ers

Matchup: Lions (14-5) at San Francisco (13-5), NFC championship game.

Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. Sunday; Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, California.

TV/radio: Fox; WXYT-FM (97.1).

Line: 49ers by 7.

At stake: Sunday’s winner will face the winner of Sunday’s game between the Ravens and Chiefs in Super Bowl 58 on Feb. 11 in Las Vegas.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: The Detroit Lions' story is finally getting told. And so is yours.