What is your BEST Bills related memory that doesn't involve a game's result?

[BuffaloBillyG]

Welcome all to QOD: Friday Edition!

 

First off, big time props to those that have posted QODs this week. Some really great topics and I look forward to seeing what everyone brings next week. 

 

As far as my question this week I figured with it being a long Memorial Day weekend I would try a different style topic. 

 

We all love the Bills here and hope for the best. But sometimes the best moments about being a Bills fan take place before or after a game. Or on a day when there is no game. It's the "GO BILLS" you get in random places. It's the ability to have complete conversations with people you've never met before in an airport. It's the way that time after time the "Bills Mafia" rises up and shows support for players, coaches and even fellow fans in need. It's the closeness and almost universal brother and sisterhood of the Buffalo Bills community that makes this franchise special. Honestly, without it and the traditions that come with Bills Fandemonium I am not sure a small market team like us would have made it through a 17 year playoff drought. But the older I get the more I've come to realize that wins are great, championships would be amazing. However, it's the time we share with those we care about that make life worth getting out of bed for. 

 

So, my question is this. What is your fondest memory involving the Bills that is NOT a result of what happened on the field?

 

 

 

For me, the answer is simple. It was the day I got to take my son to his first game. Seeing his reaction to the tailgating. Seeing his face light up when he walked through the tunnel and saw the huge field in person. Watching his face every time we scored (against the Dolphins no less) and seeing the fireworks and singing the SHOUT! song. I felt like I was seeing it all for the first time through his eyes. Not only one of my best Bills memories, but best memories of my lifetime.

 

 

[Steve Billieve]

Had many family get togethers over the years so I'm not sure why this one immediately came to mind.

 

Anyways, we had a black out on tv and we all got together to listen to the game on the radio when I was a kid. I'm not sure why it was so enjoyable, maybe we were all just focused a little more on each other and less on the game. In some ways it was more exciting, you never really knew exactly what was happening, so at any moment a big catch could be a td or not, on tv you would probably know, but listening . . .

[BuffaloBillyG]

7 minutes ago, Steve Billieve said:

Had many family get togethers over the years so I'm not sure why this one immediately came to mind.

 

Anyways, we had a black out on tv and we all got together to listen to the game on the radio when I was a kid. I'm not sure why it was so enjoyable, maybe we were all just focused a little more on each other and less on the game. In some ways it was more exciting, you never really knew exactly what was happening, so at any moment a big catch could be a td or not, on tv you would probably know, but listening . . .

I get that. Especially if it was back in the Van Miller days of announcing. Guy had a way to paint a picture, for sure.

 

That honestly sounds like an amazing memory. Thank you for sharing!

[BarleyNY]

Just getting together with friends and family for games. Even my son, who is not a big fan of sports outside of esports, joins for some big games. Nice to have the whole family together.  

[BBMB Poster]

When I was in High School, there was a Bills vs the Faculty at my high school for charity.  I am a Maryvale Flyer from out in Cheektowaga.

 

This was 1988/89 I believe.  I can't remember the exact year.  I'm old. 

 

But here is my memory:

 

In the Middle of the game Andre Reed dunked on my English Teacher Mr. O'Brien.  Then on a breakaway Steve Tasker 360 dunked.  One of my favorite memories ever in my life.

Edited May 24 by BBMB Poster

[Gregg]

This is more Jim Kelly related then Bills related. Back when I was in high school, I worked at Friendly's in the Garden State Plaza which is a mall in Paramus, NJ. At the time the USFL was around. The Houston Gamblers had just folded, and Kelly signed with the New Jersey Generals. He and Doug Flutie came into Friendly's, and we all got to meet them. Flutie was the big draw at this time. Everyone remembers his hail mary that beat the Hurricanes in college. Jim never played for the Generals as the 1986 season never happened when the league folded. That is when the Bills fortunes changed as Kelly then became a Bill and the rest is history. 

[BuffaloBillyG]

15 minutes ago, BBMB Poster said:

When I was in High School, there was a Bills vs the Faculty at my high school for charity.  I am a Maryvale Flyer from out in Cheektowaga.

 

This was 1988/89 I believe.  I can't remember the exact year.  I'm old. 

 

But here is my memory:

 

In the Middle of the game Andre Reed dunked on my English Teacher Mr. O'Brien.  Then on a breakaway Steve Tasker 360 dunked.  One of my favorite memories ever in my life.

I remember those games! They did them for quite a few years IIRC. Still remember Don Beebe tossing alley-oop passes to himself and dunking. 

 

What was awesome about those games is it wasn't just the low roster players showing up as well. Each squad had a couple real big names on it. Those were so much fun to go to. My mom would bring me to a couple each summer. Thank you for bringing back this memory!

[BBMB Poster]

1 minute ago, BuffaloBillyG said:

I remember those games! They did them for quite a few years IIRC. Still remember Don Beebe tossing alley-oop passes to himself and dunking. 

 

What was awesome about those games is it wasn't just the low roster players showing up as well. Each squad had a couple real big names on it. Those were so much fun to go to. My mom would bring me to a couple each summer. Thank you for bringing back this memory!

Flip Johnson hit a three to end the game...  Talking about guys at the bottom of the roster.

[Dr. K]

That time Scarlett Johansson saw me wearing a Bills hat and came home with me. 

[Sestak4ever]

All right now. This goes back a long time ago. I was 9 or 10 years old and the Bills were practicing in Blasdell I believe at the Camelot motel. They had an autograph session and handed out 8x10 black and white glossies that they autographed. There was Tom Sestak, Darryl Lamonica, Pete Gogolak and Dick Hudson. I remember how massive Tom Sestak seemed to me. Just a giant of a man. I still have those autographed photos! Go Bills!🏈

[dock581]

In 1963 I was an intern at a Boston hospital, a rabid Bills fan in a sea of Patsies fans. We were playing the Patriots in a critically important game. I desperately wanted to go but the game was a sellout and I didn’t have any money anyway. I decided to write Ralph and ask him if there was any way I could get tickets. To my amazement he wrote back a very nice letter with 2 tickets up near the press box. My wife and I went , saw a close game in a snow covered field, but of course we lost when there was a third down and a yard to go for the Boston Patriots when their running back broke through for a long touchdown, game winning run. Ever since then it’s been— wait till next year!!

[Another Fan]

One of my first bosses was a big Bengals fan.  During the interview I noticed he had lots of Bengals memorabilia in his office.  So I mentioned liking the Bills and we kind of hit it off a bit after that.  It was when both teams were both bad so we had some fun.

 

I got the job afterwards.

 

I’ll still say that will probably be the easiest job interview I’ll ever have the pleasure of going on.  

[Dr. K]

9 minutes ago, Sestak4ever said:

All right now. This goes back a long time ago. I was 9 or 10 years old and the Bills were practicing in Blasdell I believe at the Camelot motel. They had an autograph session and handed out 8x10 black and white glossies that they autographed. There was Tom Sestak, Darryl Lamonica, Pete Gogolak and Dick Hudson. I remember how massive Tom Sestak seemed to me. Just a giant of a man. I still have those autographed photos! Go Bills!🏈

I used to ride my bike over to that motel (on Mile Strip Road) and watch the practice on the field behind the motel. Only a handful of other fans would be there, and the players coming out of the motel would joke with them. I remember Harry Jacobs wearing a golf hat instead of a helmet. 

 

The team (and the AFL) was so low-rent back then, it's hard to grasp how different and overwhelmed by money things in the NFL are today. 

[boater]

Best memory....learning football by listening to Van Miller radio broadcasts---not by watching TV.

 

It was 1980-ish. The Bills games were rarely on TV due to blackout rules, the radio broadcast was the only game in town. Listening carefully to the broadcast and visualizing what they were saying was how I learned a lot about football. It was a great experience.

 

I still enjoy radio to this day. The Monday and Thursday night games are so relaxing to listen to that I'm accidentally asleep by the third quarter.

Edited May 24 by boater

[SoCal Deek]

Three priceless memories:

 

1. Taking a photo for Jim Kelly and his family in front of Buckingham Palace. 

 

2. Bumping into Dennis Shaw who had devolved into a recreation director at a local community center I was designing.

 

3. Learning that our daughter had met her future husband because he was wearing a Bills shirt while walking across their California college campus. 
 

[BuffaloBill]

2 hours ago, Dr. K said:

That time Scarlett Johansson saw me wearing a Bills hat and came home with me. 

 

Did you wake up and cry?

[Don Otreply]

Somewhat Recently, the thanksgiving day game vs Dallas a couple years back, when Josh went Beast mode for the first down after the fumble, his I have arrived moment. 

[holla83]

A group of us, including my dad and my brother attended the Bills/Bengals game in 2013. It was the one that Thad Lewis started at QB. There was a father and son sitting in front of us. It was the son's first game. He couldn't have been any more than 7 or 8 years old. Thad Lewis connected with Marquise Goodwin on a long TD pass late that tied the game. This kid turned around to high five my brother. My brother picked him up and held him over his head so he could high five the people behind us. The kid loved it and I don't think I've ever laughed that hard at a Bills game.

[Alphadawg7]

This is easy for me…my first Bills Mafia tailgating experience at the first and only game I’ve ever been to in Buffalo!  The home and season opener against the Steelers in 2021.  
 

My girlfriend, now wife, bought me tickets as a surprise for my first birthday dating her.  Little did she know, I had already purchased an engagement ring and would propose to her a couple weeks after my bday.  So it was also our first trip together as engaged and the whole trip was just incredible.  
 

Thanks in part to a lot of good tips here on the board as well.  Tailgating and getting to meet some of the posters here in person was really cool.  
 

I had also lost a dear friend that June who was a Steelers fan and got to wear a Steelers color patch of his initials on my Allen Jersey to honor him at the game too.  So was fitting that one, my first game in Buffalo was a loss and it was to his favorite team.  
 

Also got to meet Diggs family and Levi Wallace best friends who I am still friends with today on social media.  It was just a great trip and experience regardless of the outcome.  

[Rocky Landing]

I moved to Los Angeles in 1990, and I wasn't able to watch a live Bills game until the Rams moved back to LA in '16. Thankfully, the Bills have now played here four times. In 2022, I had the pleasure of bringing my 11yo son to his first game. He had already been playing NFL flag football for two seasons, and was also really into watching the Bills games with me on TV since he was maybe six-- so... he's a basically a life-long Bills fan. 

 

It was great that the Bills won that game handily. But what really made it special was the turnout of the Bills Mafia. We were maybe 20% of the crowd, but 80% of the noise. It was one of those games that the players later said felt like a home game. And it was for me.