CURTIS HENRY
Sports Editor
Seventeen years of mediocrity.
I regularly find myself wondering how the entirety of the Buffalo Bills’ fan base — myself included — is capable of rallying each and every Sunday during the fall to go out and support one of the NFL’s saddest franchises.
Perhaps the worst part of the Bills fandom is the team’s affinity for providing the fans with false hope. This hope has manifested itself in each of the past two seasons, with the Bills jumping out to a 4-2 start in 2016 and a 5-2 start this season. Losing is one thing when you’re a fan of franchises like Cleveland or Chicago, where in recent seasons expectations have tanked and the fans have come to expect the losses that have piled on.
Losing is an entirely different thing to swallow when the fans are just beginning to get used to winning. Unexpected and heartbreaking losses — not unlike the one Buffalo suffered in Week 9 to the Jets — have become the norm in Orchard Park. These losses are as hard for the fans to come to terms with as they are for the players and coaches.
Making these losses even worse are follow-up performances like the Bills had on Sunday against the Saints.
71,000 people piled into New Era Field on Sunday for what figured to be a top-notch matchup between the 5-3 Bills and the 6-2 Saints. A majority of that crowd had fled the stadium before the fourth quarter even began, as the hometown team was whooped by a score of 47-10. The loss drops the Bills to 5-4 on the season, and it served as a red flag that this year’s team are “the same old Bills.”
This raises the question: why do Bills fans put themselves through this?
Year after year of new players, coaching regimes and opponents, the results continue to be the same. What is the benefit of liking a team that has been so mediocre in recent memory?
The answer is the tailgate.
There is honestly nothing quite like it. A slew of fans shotgunning beer, taking shots out of bowling balls and destroying tables is a typical gameday morning in Orchard Park. The experience is one that is full of culture; a culture in which being drunk at 10 in the morning is not only acceptable, but encouraged.
The tailgating of the Bills fanbase has grown so notably in recent years that it has actually become its own tourist attraction for the Buffalo area.
“Me and my brother go to a different stadium around the league every year,” said Richard Roe, an attendant of Sunday’s game who made the trip from Detroit, MI. “We had Buffalo circled this year and we knew we had to come to the Red Pinto tailgate. That’s what everyone told us.”
The Red Pinto tailgate is headed by its fearless leader Ken Johnson, more commonly known as Pinto Ron. Sunday marked the 381st consecutive Bills game attended (both home and away) for Johnson.
He’s known as one of the super-fans in the Bills fanbase, not only for his streak of games attended, but for his pregame celebrations. Johnson’s rituals include a cookout on the hood of his 1980 red ford pinto and a ketchup celebration that involves him being doused from head to toe in condiments.
Photo courtesy of Curtis Henry.
“We’re really here just for a good time, man,” said Johnson. “I want everyone here to have a great time before the game and I want to see the Bills win. That’s all.”
The Red Pinto Tailgate has over 5,300 Twitter followers and has become its own legend in fan circles around the league. In addition to the far-travellers like Roe who make trips to witness the tailgating habits of Bills fans, the tailgate attracts people from in and around the Bills organization. Notably Julie Poyer, the mother of starting Bills safety Jordan Poyer, was in attendance at the tailgate on Sunday.
“This is a great place and it’s a great fanbase,” said Poyer when addressing the tailgate Sunday. Additionally, she was able to partake in Pinto Ron’s ketchup ceremony as an honorary participant 90 minutes before kickoff.
The tailgating experience is undoubtedly a reason for the team’s ability to sell out home games consistently, and it serves as an explanation for why the fans keep supporting the team. At this point, there is plausibility to the claim that the tailgate is the only thing keeping Bills fans going in what could be the 18th consecutive season in which the team misses the postseason. The whole production of tailgating almost makes the 47-10 losses and 9 p.m. hangovers seem worth it.
The Bills will suit up next week in Los Angeles against the Chargers. The next opportunity to tailgate for the fanbase will come on Dec. 3, when the Bills have a home tilt against the New England Patriots.