They’re by no means necessities of life, but people sure are passionate about what kind of furniture they can buy and where they watch live football. In some towns there’s a wide array of these stores (there’s even more than one of the same brand!) and world class venues for live sports and entertainment. In others, people argue until they’re blue in the face about the particulars and viability of these new ventures. The escalating fuss about things that don’t even exist yet threaten them from even materializing at all, and distracts the rest of us from some of the real issues that confront our towns.

Sometimes we see commercials of funky-looking shelves that look fun to put together. The ads portray the shelves as unique and odd enough that we have to have them. And if there’s no place in our town to buy them, they become even more exotic. So we take off in the car to the closest town with this store. We come back and brag to others about how fun it was and how our apartments look so much better with said shelves. The demand for this store grows. The store gauges this, and decides to get the wheels in motion to build one in our town. But others catch wind and take issue with where the big box will be placed and how it’ll be developed. So it stalls.

If it’s hard enough getting something like that off the ground, imagine what it’s like trying to build a football stadium! Something that’s bigger but in lesser demand and will need money outside of private interests. The “not in my backyard” people scream even louder, as the stadium proponents take a cookie-cutter to a map and try to figure out just where in the town it’ll go. No matter what, people won’t be satisfied. They’ll debate for years about big buildings that aren’t even there.

The people who want to build these things have lots of money. And those who are against them live in homes they worry are too close. All the while, others in their town go hungry. Others need a home. And others have to deal with violent and unfair circumstances none of us could imagine. But these behemoth projects will keep grabbing headlines, even they’re nowhere close to becoming real. Nowhere near to kickoff, and nowhere near to packing a weird-looking side table into a trunk. Not as real as dying in the street.

Over the weekend the Buffalo Bills signed probably the most polarizing player in the history of the NFL: Terrell Owens. He’s the epitome of a “love him or hate him” pro sports personality. And if he’s on your team, you love him – in the beginning anyway. The Dallas Cowboys released Owens after three headline-inducing years Friday, and on Saturday the Bills signed the free agent to a one-year, $6.5 million contract. It’s a move that’s pretty much split the opinions of Bills fans across Western New York/Southern Ontario, but it’s also one that will only benefit a team trying to redefine itself.

The Bills have been nothing more than a disappointment for almost ten years now. There have been flashes of brilliance here and there, especially early in the Drew Bledsoe years and at the start of the 2008 season. Still, the team has not made the playoffs since the start of the decade and they’ve failed to land any marquee players or generate any long-term momentum. Owens clearly isn’t a long-term solution for the Bills, but he’s the offensive weapon they need to get back into the playoffs.

Even though he’s getting older (35), his stats show he’s still able to make big plays and score. And since he was dumped by his old team, he’s gonna try to spite them as much as he can. Granted, Bills quarterback Trent Edwards isn’t as good yet as Tony Romo, but he’s never had as many people to throw to. Now he’ll have Owens and Lee Evans on either side of the field. Edwards has proven his leadership and blossoming expertise over the past couple seasons, and this year he could truly develop into a Pro Bowl calibre QB.

I’m not naive enough to think this is all gonna work out perfectly for the Bills, and they’ll be back in the Super Bowl in 11 months. This has all the makings of a disaster: problem child star receiver working with an inexperienced QB under a head coach with a questionable backbone. But all three have something to prove and they’re at different enough stages in their careers to work together to succeed. There will be times that T.O. calls his team out, but that’s just the way he is. That shtick is running a little dry anyway and I don’t think it’ll be distracting enough to cause the Bills to implode. They’ve done that well enough over the past few seasons without T.O.

So now the Bills finally have a superstar back in the lineup, with a commitment to help them get back to the playoffs. I feel like a bit of a homer posting about this with the NFL season still six months away, but I have high hopes this will work. Until T.O. takes the money and runs anyway.