Stroke 17

As a follow up. I was thinking back to the Bills beating the Raiders 51-3 to go to Super Bowl 25. I was in the stands Sec H Row 3 Aisle 2 crying like a baby. I had been to Cleveland for the Harmon drop, I had been to Cincy when the Icky Shuffle was a thing, both losses by the Bills. I had dreams of the Bills hosting a playoff game, now it was the AFC Championship game, cold as hell, freezing beers not caring one bit, tears running down my face thinking FINALLY. There's a tear in my beer and I'm cryin for ya dear!

As I said in an earlier post I was looking for good luck signs pointing to a Bills win. I also mentioned how I made my three daughters crazy Bills fans like my wife and I. I knew when we left the game last week I mentioned how it is going to be a long stressful week for me. I wasn't sure how their week would be until I intercepted texts between them. One a doctor, one a lawyer, and one a teacher, all with kids. So where were their minds this week. Teacher..." Do you think Josh Allen has any idea how much I think about him and the Bills in a day this past week. Do they know I wonder if they can actually win and go to the Super Bowl way too many times a day .Do they know how much I care? Do they care as much? He may have sounded a little sick in the press conference soooo is he getting enough vitamin C. What if he gets the flu or strep? Doctor( Connecticut)......Oh my Josh!!!! this sounds exactly like me. Lawyer.( Pittsburgh)..... What if Dion Dawkins gets ill. I just asked Steve(husband) if Sean McDermott is thinking about the game as much as I am? I am worried about the quality of Josh Allens sleep and his hydration. I keep wondering, CAN THEY DO IT? CAN THEY DO IT? Teache ( Warren,Pa)r,,,,,,,, If we got paid to care we'd all be rich. Going back to the 90's Super Bowl run. My wife and I were fortunate enough to win the ticket lotto and attend 3 of the 4. We had family members who took care of the kids while we were gone. I realized we may have been a little overboard with our fandom when after the 4th loss we called home to check on the kids. My mother- in- law told me the girls did not want to go to school as they would get bullied because of the loss again.....I need for them, me and all of you to experience the THRILL OF VICYORY. GO BILLS They're killin me Whitey, they're killin me

i HAVE A SEASONS FOR 47 YEARS AND RARELY HAVE MISSED A HOME GAME.(2) WHEN MY GIRLS GOT OLDER I BOUGHT THEM SEASONS. THEY FELT MY PAIN FOR ALL THOSE YEARS. LIKE YOU I SURVIVED BUT i REALLY WANT IT MORE FOR THEM THAN I DO FOR ME. AT THE END OF LAST WEEKS GAME I TOLD THEM TO LOOK AROUND AND FEELAND SEE THE HAPINESS AND LOVE IN THE STADIUM. TOLD THEM IMAGINE WHAT IT WILL BE LIKE WHEN THEY WIN THE SB,

ACTUALLY THE STROKE WAS IN 2017

Bills win on Sunday in a game that finally went their way. A play that usually spells doom for the Bills turns our way. On the way home from the game I told my wife I can feel the luck changing. Stopped at the Casino and we both won a few BILL$. Good start to the next game. Monday night bowling hit my first 700 series. Tuesday I had surgery scheduled for a hand issue n State College, PA.. I was wheeled in the operating room and the nurses were reading me for the surgery, IV, monitors and blood pressure sleeve and the like. As the surgery was about to start the anesthesiologist asked me if I was ready.......Just before I was to go under I stopped him and asked him to wait as I heard" Mr Brightside" playing over the speakers in the OR. He and all the others in the room wanted to know why that was notable to me. Before going under I had to explain to them the significance of that song and that it is Championship Week for the Bills and us fans. ANOTHER SIGN? Obviously they are not BILLS FANS.

So I traveled to Buffalo to watch the game with Bills fans. I watched it at a Super Bowl party at a Ramada Inn someplace by the Airport, Seems it was inside a dome like building around or near the Ramada. I can't remember all the details or anything else about this place. Anybody remember it. What happened to it? Gone? Still there?

As they were ling up for the kick all of those around me in the stadium were thinking it but none of us would dare say it. Not one person was breathing when he kicked it, it was pure Fandemonium when the Bills recovered .High fives, hugs primal screams grow nmen with smiles as wide as when their first was born. This could be the year we retire "Billsy."

Don't need the videos it's all etched in my memory. The wide right, the lost helmet, the 4 losses, the hail Mary throw forward, 13 seconds., Fergy limping through a playoff game vs Chargers, I was in Cleveland when Harmon dropped that pass, the 17 QB's between Kelly and Josh, the 2-3 win seasons. I can close my eyes and see the near empty stadium during the 80's. I've seen it all so I don't give a rats a** how any player or fan of any other team feels today. I don't care about Andrews feelings especially considering how Norwood is/was the butt of jokes for years. One went our way, finally. maybe I did feel a little sad for the Lions fans who expected so much more. Seeing their pained faces on Saturday brought back some memories of so many Bills fans. Enough, GO BILLS!

Got 1 in the family section227 for Baltimore game. $235 no fees.

i THOUGHT IT WAS AMUSING TO HEAR THE CREW TALK ABOUT HOW LOU ANAROMA, THE CINCY D COORDINATOR RALLIED HIS DEFENSE AND TURNED THE CINCY SEASON AROUND.mADE IT SOUND LIKE HE TURNED THE D INTO THE 85 BEARS. fIRED TODAY BY THE BUNGELS!

Remember it all. remember the band but to this day didn't remember how they got there. The chip opening, classic. Thanks for reminding me of some of the things that slipped my mind over the years. The rally chips in the back of the Pinto there since the comeback game against the Oilers and the milk still in the car waiting for the owner to come back to claim it. We were all younger and a lot crazier back then. Since then some have passed, some got old married and grew up. Some of us still love the experience but mind and body tell me to slow down. Could be my pacemaker or my stroke but all is well and I love sharing the stories. I have now had all 3 of my daughters drink from the sacred ball and although they have successful careers and live in different parts of the country when they come home to go to a game with me we make the trek to the sacred ground of the Pinto. There was one guy there that thought he was the cool version of Jim Kelly. Always with the short shorts, the 12 Jersey with the towel and a mullet. haven't seen him around in years. So much fun and so many good people. The cardboard cut out of Chris Berman welcoming all to the lot, the Thanksgiving dinner with big cooler full of mashed potatoes just turned upside and dumped on the hood of the car and forks stuck in the potatoes for serving. Won't mention his full name out of respect but remember Jeff D the guy and his dad from my town of St Marys ,PA who would come and party. Sadly he got cirrhosis and had to back off for a few years. Got a liver transplant moved to Florida, did well for awhile before dying. The next season his cousin drove from Florida with his ashes to be spread at the tailgate just before the ketchup ceremony. That is the dedication that all of us have for the Bills. To Kenny and the crew thanks for the memories and looking forward to making more just on a lower level for me. I always remind the younger crowd that we were Mafia before it was cool to be Mafia. May we all live long enough to see the Bills win a Super Bowl and then we cam all take the ketchup bath.

tHOSE OF US WHO GO BACK TO THOSE EARLY 90'S remember the tailgate parties in lot 1 with Kenny and the crew. Every week it was something different but so much of it was the same. Early years Kenny and the Pinto was one of about 4 regular tailgaters who had tents all aligned in a row. It was my tradition to start at tent 1 and do a regular shot. Same at numbers 2 and 3 before the big finish, the bowling ball shot, sign the book grab a handful of peanuts and a wing or a hot dog all before 8 or 9 O clock.(Gates opened at 7 in those years) NOTE: One of the reasons Kenny moved to Hammers Lot was because of the later opening of the lot and the Disney style parking wouldn't allow everybody to get close and with the later opening couldn't get everything set up. Some random memories from those days other than the traditional ketchup and the bowling shots. 1. Every year one guy would bring live lobsters from Maine. A 4 ft piece of plywood was placed at an angle, on the plywood a stripe was painted down the middle to form 2 lanes, at the end of the plywood race track were 2 pots of boiling water, 2 lobsters were placed at he top of the board and tailgaters would then bet on which lobster would win the race to the pot, winner got the lobster dinner. 2.Bringing that kids plastic swimming pool and filling it with grapes was crazy. Kenny would ask people who were just walking by if they would like to remove their shoes and help him make wine. THEY FREAKIN DID IT ! Men, women, kids, young and old would take off their shoes and step into the pool to smash grapes .End of the day put the freshly made juice into a garbage bag, put in behind a tree between the lots to sip the wine at the next game. 3.Flat TV's were replacing the old big Zenith floor models. There's an idea for a tailgate game. Bring the TV, set it up in the lot, use the previously mentioned plywood, make a ramp to the screen. Time to bowl. New twist to the bowling ball shot. Do the shot, instead of the drop now you had to try to actually bowl with the ball across the lot towards tke TV to try to strike the screen. The kicker, the ball was so slippery it was almost impossible to hold snd roll it using the holes, The bal usually was dropped in the backswing. Game was also played with bottles and cans. 4. To take care of privacy concerns when needing to relieve oneself a large box that had housed a refrigerator was brought on site and a door was cut into one side for entry. Inside was the toilet( still currently used as a cooler) surrounded by magazines and a candle. Note: nobody used the toilet it was just part of the show, but it did provide cover to pee. 5.For one important Dolphins game< SQUISH THE FISH" took on a life of its own. Tiki torches were placed all around the tailgate area, Fish,( I think they were suckers) were placed in the torch holder with their heads facing up, oil was placed in the mouth of the fish and then the wick inserted and lit taking on a luau look around the area. Around 11 O clock before Ketchup time the the fish were taken out of the torch holders and thrown on the ground in front of the bowling ball bar. Now doing a bowling ball shot was followed by dropping it on the fish in real squish the fish style .Editor note: It was one of my last bowling ball shots as Im allergic to fish, that and the fact that my wife drew the line of kissing her after seeing all fish parts all over the ground and the slimy bowling ball. Fun fact. I have bowled a 300 game but not with the shot ball. 6. I could go on but I don't want to bore you all. Seeing Kenny hit the 500 game mark and the start of the new year got me to reminiscing. Those 90's were some of the best years for us older fans and now we older and younger fans are doing it all over again. Will we win a Super Bowl, I don't know but the journey is so much fun. Watching this team led by Josh is different than the ones led by Kelly but it seems so much the same as those days. I am still parking in Lot 1 where it all started,( been there since 1974) I still walk over to Hammers couple times a year to see Kenny, Scotty, Pizza Pete, the Professor and all the others but the crowds there are a little much for my close to 70 year old body. (Still wonder how Kenny keeps doing it) but I have the memories from the old days and still looking forward to new ones. When the move to the new stadium happens I will be there but I feel like I am watching an old friend die but a new baby is on the way. THEY'RE KILLIN ME WHITEY, THEY'RE KILLIN ME! GO BILLS

I have to say, on the Pats first possession I thought the Bills had the ball. My eyes played trick on me. Red had me fooled.

Starting to hit home that as a 50 year STH when my time comes to choose I will have to consider that I will be 71 for the home opener in 2026. My PSL fee will be for a shorter time than those of you in your 30's or 40's or even your 50's. Doesn't seem fair I get the same price as younger. I know the resale option and the passing on to my kids but those options may not be viable. So for my 50 years of fandom and probably $20,000 The Bills will be able to resell my PSL when I get too old make the 300 mile round trip or just die. Perhaps if the Bills finally win a SB before that happens maybe it will all have been worth it. GO BILLS!

Well Shaw, like you I have changed. Don't go back to 1960 but started at age 7 in 1963. Only game on TV, NBC and the old AFL. Kemp, McDole, Stratton. Golden Wheels and the like. When I was 11 I delivered The Bradford Era newspaper and they had a promotion, If I got 3 new subscribers to the daily paper I would win a trip to a Bills game at the Rockpile They provided a bus, chaperones and a meal. I bought the 3 subscriptions myself, I wasn't missing the trip. I was hooked. When I turned 17, I got my 1st full time job and bought season tickets and have been there ever since only missing 3 games in that span. Lucky enough to have been to 3 of the 4 Super Bowls. Like you I lived and died with every win and loss. In the last few years I am enjoying the games, the losses still sting but I get over it quicker. My kids and some of my grandkids not so much. Living in the middle of Steelers country it is not easy suffering with the wide right comments or the "we got six." Told my kids on the ride home Sunday night that when I was younger a loss like that was like a friend dying, a younger friend, Now after all these years and all these type of losses it still feels like a friend died but I expect old friends to die, we won't live forever, so enjoy the ride and mount up for the next chapter. Finally on the season tickets, there were years when the Bills really struggled to win games and they were done by Halloween, I remember telling my wife, more than once at the end of the season "that's it I'm done, I can't do this anymore, They're killin me, they're kilin me. The invoice for the next year would come around April and I was like a cocaine addict, I pretend to sniff the invoice and say," just one more time." 50 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of traveling miles I'm still waiting. I will move to the new stadium but I am running out of time in another post we can discuss how the games, the fans and the whole experience has changed over the years. In my opinion not so much for the better. You do a great job. Thanks for posting.