Hey Eagles fans, show some sympathy to Buffalo Bills lifers. You were just like them once.

For a long time when it came to sports, Buffalo was Diet Philadelphia. Similar, but with a little less. A smaller city, yes. Half as many major pro franchises, yes. But those teams — the Bills in the NFL, the Sabres in the NHL — have always occupied an outsized importance within the culture of the region. They mattered to the people of Buffalo as much or more than the Eagles, the Phillies, the Sixers, and the Flyers mattered to the people of Philadelphia.

Oh, and there was one other common thread for decades: None of those teams ever won a championship.

Not ever ever, but close enough. The Bills won back-to-back titles in the American Football League in 1964 and ’65, and Philadelphia had that wonderful 10-year stretch, from 1973-83, when the Flyers won two Stanley Cups, the Phillies won a World Series, the Eagles reached a Super Bowl, and the Sixers won an NBA championship. But for 25 years — until the Phillies won the 2008 World Series — then another nine-plus, the towns could bond through being blue-collar bridesmaids.

Recently, though, the Eagles have altered that dynamic. They won a Super Bowl in 2018, then another earlier this year, and as they prepare to face the Bills this Sunday at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., they have quelled much of the anger and anxiety that once characterized Philadelphia sports fandom. It might not seem that way, with the attention paid to Jalen Hurts’ play and the worry over the Eagles’ chance to repeat as league champs, but it’s true. The atmosphere was much worse during the Buddy Ryan and Andy Reid eras.

For Buffalo, though, there has been no great expulsion of joy and relief. In their 55 years of existence, the Sabres have never won a Stanley Cup and have reached the Final just twice, losing to the Flyers in 1975 and to the Dallas Stars (on Brett Hull’s disputed triple-overtime goal) in 1999. What’s arguably worse, for a city that loves hockey as much or more than any in the United States, is that the Sabres haven’t even qualified for the playoffs since 2011 and haven’t won a postseason series since 2007, when one of their best players was Danny Brière, now the Flyers’ general manager.

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Steve Watson, a friend and former classmate of mine, has lived in the Buffalo region for most of his life. His son, Eli, is 12. Eli has never seen a Sabres playoff game.

“It’s sad,” Watson, 50, who has been a reporter for the Buffalo News since 2001, said by phone Tuesday. “When the Sabres are good, and they have been good for a lot of their history, you see the little flags people put on their cars. We embrace the team, but they’re losing this current fan generation. They took a great hockey town and tarnished it.”

The situation with the Bills has, if possible, been even more painful, for all their near misses. Even a casual football fan is familiar with the Bills’ four consecutive Super Bowl losses from 1991 to 1994 and all the tragic heroes from that period — Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed, Bruce Smith, Frank Reich — and the comeback from 35-3 against the Houston Oilers, Scott Norwood and wide right against the New York Giants. But the aftermath has been just as rough.

The Bills went 17 years, from 2000 through 2016, without making the playoffs. Now they have Josh Allen, who was the NFL’s Most Valuable Player last season, who is regarded as the second- or third-best quarterback in the league at worst, and who has led the Bills to the postseason for seven straight seasons … and to no Super Bowls. Either Patrick Mahomes or Joe Burrow has been in their way, or they’ve had a bad day at the worst time and squandered home-field advantage, or they’ve stood under a ladder staring at a broken mirror while a clowder of black cats strutted past them. They’re 11-4 this season, and Allen has again been outstanding, but now their intradivisional nemeses, the New England Patriots, are back atop the AFC East after a few years of mediocrity. The cycle seems without end.

This excruciating history wouldn’t generate much sympathy from anyone, let alone from Philly’s famously competitive and insecure sports fans (“Oh, you think you’ve had it rough? Lemme tell ya about the night Joe Carter …”), if we were talking about an area of the country whose lifers didn’t care so much. But that ain’t Buffalo. The people there bleed for their teams just like everyone down here does. After all, sports is their only salvation from spending three-quarters of the year with snowshoes strapped to their feet.

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“It’s up there with chicken wings,” Watson said. “It’s up there with our lovely weather. It’s our identity. We are blue collar. We are the city of good neighbors. And we’re a big sports town. I used to write more obituaries for the News, and it was always painful for me to write, ‘Lifelong Bills fan … Lifelong Sabres fan.’ They never got that payoff for their years of suffering.”

Look, if you’re an Eagles fan, you don’t have to root for the Bills — certainly not on Sunday, certainly not if the two teams end up facing each other at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8. In many regards, though, you and those fans near Niagara Falls were kindred spirits for years. So if and when the Eagles do bow out of the playoffs, and if Buffalo’s hopes for a Super Bowl victory are still alive, send some good thoughts toward western New York. They’re still waiting for their moment in the warm sun up there, and Lord knows they’ve already suffered enough.