Bills Mafia article from The Ringer

[Lurker]

17 minutes ago, Margarita said:

I don't know why any Bills fan would want to disassociate themselves from a moniker which yes does include antics of lunacy but is so much more than that...evidenced by the number of charitable causes that have benefited from our generous nature most notably $17 donations to Andy Daltons charity which received nationwide GOOD  publicity for Bills fans whom are known as the Bills Mafia whether you approve of all they do or not.....

 

I may be wrong, but I suspect the folks drinking from bowling balls and slamming tables are probably not the same ones writing checks to charitable causes... 

[Marv's Neighbor]

Would/could this happen At a new stadium location?   I certainly hope so!

[Kelly the Dog]

3 minutes ago, Lurker said:

 

I may be wrong, but I suspect the folks drinking from bowling balls and slamming tables are probably not the same ones writing checks to charitable causes... 

I would imagine a lot of them are. It mostly came from $17 donations and I saw a lot of tweets and the like from that kind of fan.  But surely a lot of Bills fans who donated disassociate themselves from BillsMafia.

[buffalo2218]

If tables are to be sacrificed, at least have someone dress up either as Brady or someone with a Pats jersey and put them through a table

[Kelly the Dog]

5 minutes ago, Marv's Neighbor said:

Would/could this happen At a new stadium location?   I certainly hope so!

They would just jump into full formal table settings, like at a state dinner.

[Gugny]

13 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said:

We decided last week, its not a team, or a fanbase, Its a lifestyle !!!

 

Were we born this way?

[plenzmd1]

1 minute ago, Gugny said:

 

Were we born this way?

you mean an butthole? No, i worked really hard to get there!

[Moose]

2 hours ago, macaroni said:

 

 

Why yes there is … I'm a charter member.

 

instead of shots of whiskey from the thumbhole of a bowling ball we drink shots of Metamucil from a sippy cup, instead of leaping and crashing through a folding table we just kind of ease ourselves into a Barcalounger. Our version of an all nighter is to sleep through the night with out having to get up and pee.    

 

Great - I think I can keep up with that! ;-)

[macaroni]

13 minutes ago, Moose said:

 

Great - I think I can keep up with that! ?

 

We also roam the parking lots post game looking for a 70 year old woman wanting to "earn" a Cookie Gilchrist jersey ?

[iinii]

It is a great article for outsiders. Gives a nice take on the Buffalo game day experience and pride. 

[Haslett_Stomp]

My friends and I tailgated next to a group of Sabres players back when Cody Hodgson was with the team.  Now those guys could party!

[Buffalo716]

To all the people who think Bills mafia has a negative meaning or that they are all crazy drunks... Or this is new age stuff..

 

The name might be relatively new but the shenanigans are not

 

I remember crazy things going at down at war memorial ... I remember people bringing keggers into the stadium and tons of things that wouldn't be allowed today

 

Bills fans have been partying hard for a long time

 

 

[Kelly the Dog]

21 minutes ago, Haslett_Stomp said:

My friends and I tailgated next to a group of Sabres players back when Cody Hodgson was with the team.  Now those guys could party!

After Bills wins on Sunday afternoon, Danny Gare used to fire up the Sabres players before the game by yelling that if we lose, the Bills players will get all the hot girls at Mulligans on Sunday night, which was the nightclub of choice back then.

[blacklabel]

1 hour ago, corta765 said:

 

I have no clue looking back on my early 20s how we would get there at 7 sun or snow and drink and party until 12:45 and then go to the game.

 

These days we are far tamer and just do 9-12:30 so we can get in for kickoff.

 

Ive never had a problem with how people party but like you said I DO have a problem when people party past their limits and stuff like you said occurs. I won’t even consider bringing my son to a game until he is 10 because of this and I think fan behavior has gotten better compared to 5-7 years ago. The KC home opener in 2012 some drunkhead passed out behind my wife and his gum fell onto a little bit of her hair. Thank god we got it out with ease but it was an unnecessary rude thing to have been part of.

 

I agree with this to an extent. Bills tailgating is an Alamo to the league of corporate controlled everything. People are stunned with how loose and natural our tailgating is compared to the cookie cutter BS that other teams force on their fans.

 

Haha, I remember those days from my 20s as well, but it was typically in bars on Friday and Saturday nights. That's another thing, I have a cousin who lives out of state and on occasion when he comes home he'll go to a game, but he'll go out and party with his buds on Friday and Saturday and then keep it going straight thru Sunday. I just can't keep up with that. 

 

I agree with holding out until your boy is 10 for a game. It's kind of unfortunate that the crowd can get so rowdy that it becomes an unsafe environment for kids. A few years ago Tim Graham wrote an article about the family atmosphere kinda fading away in favor of the table dives and all that. It's been a minute since I've been to a game (I think the last one was the big win over Rodgers and the Packers in 2014, thank the foosball gods that Jordy Nelson dropped what would've been like a 70-yard walk-in TD) so I haven't seen if it's gotten less rowdy or not but if it has that's definitely a good thing.

[dave mcbride]

Loved the piece. Thanks for posting. I'm with them in spirit, although I never drink until *after* the games. 

[Kelly the Dog]

5 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

Loved the piece. Thanks for posting. I'm with them in spirit, although I never drink until *after* the games. 

Baby.

[dave mcbride]

22 minutes ago, Kelly the Dog said:

After Bills wins on Sunday afternoon, Danny Gare used to fire up the Sabres players before the game by yelling that if we lose, the Bills players will get all the hot girls at Mulligans on Sunday night, which was the nightclub of choice back then.

Speaking of Bills and bars, all of my fantasy teams in baseball and football have forever been named "The God Squad" after what a friend of mine who bartended at Jim Kelly's bar termed the trio who showed up together often after games but never drank: Frank Reich, Metzelaars, and one of the other white born-agains (Mark Pike? Can't quite recall).  He said they were always really nice, though! 

 

EDIT - I did not know this about Mark Pike at all. This is about his son: https://www.si.com/college-football/2016/12/26/zeke-pike-auburn-tigers-louisville-cardinals

 

Another edit: Now I recall -- it was Tasker. https://www.si.com/vault/1991/09/02/124827/special-effects-the-choirboy-there-was-the-devil-to-pay-when-the-angelic-steve-tasker-landed-on-the-bills-special-teams

Edited September 26, 2019 by dave mcbride

[Kelly the Dog]

5 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

Speaking of Bills and bars, all of my fantasy teams in baseball and football have forever been named "The God Squad" after what a friend of mine who bartended at Jim Kelly's bar termed the trio who showed up together often after games but never drank: Frank Reich, Metzelaars, and one of the other white born-agains (Mark Pike? Can't quite recall).  He said they were always really nice, though! 

 

EDIT - I did not know this about Mark Pike at all. This is about his son: https://www.si.com/college-football/2016/12/26/zeke-pike-auburn-tigers-louisville-cardinals

Ha. The God Squad would be almost half the Bills team now. It's cool of them to show even if they were not going to indulge though.

[dave mcbride]

7 minutes ago, Kelly the Dog said:

Ha. The God Squad would be almost half the Bills team now. It's cool of them to show even if they were not going to indulge though.

It was definitely Tasker, not Pike. And he said Bruce Smith was an awful tipper.

[BuffaloBob]

4 hours ago, Kelly the Dog said:

Funny little story about the Dawg Pound. The original dog pound guys used to bring in that dog house on their shoulders. It took a couple years IIRC for the cops to realize that 4-6 guys carried it in and two carried it out. That is because it held a half keg of beer. To the Browns credit, when they found that out they just made them sign a paper saying they wouldn't do it again rather than ban them from games.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/417030-six-points-before-the-dawg-pound-was-neutered

 

Thanks for sharing that. That really is kind of awesome.