No One Trolls Like Buffalo Bills Fans
Bills supporters have innovated a new form of fandom. What might they do if they win it all?
Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, Jacob discusses his favorite NFL trend…
Bills Mafia has done it again. Back in 2018, Buffalo fans donated more than $400,000 to Andy Dalton’s foundation after Dalton’s Bengals helped the Bills snap a 17-year postseason drought by beating the Baltimore Ravens in the final week of the season.
Now it's Ravens tight end Mark Andrews on the receiving end of a Bills moneybomb, though the circumstances are a bit different this time around.
“As many of you know Ravens TE wasn't able to catch the the [sic] game tying 2 point conversion and upset Ravens fans,” Bills fan Nick Howard wrote on a GoFundMe page that has since blown past its initial $5,000 goal. “The TE has been receiving death threats and nasty comments atter [sic] his performance last night. We want Bills Mafia to donate to Marks [sic] charity for Juvenile diabetes.”1
The page has raised roughly $100,000 from more than 3,000 donors as of Thursday afternoon.
Buffalo’s fans actually have an impressively long resume of fandom-based donation drives.
$1 million in the name of Josh Allen’s late grandmother, Patricia Allen, to a Buffalo children’s hospital
$18,000 for the Tua Foundation after Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was knocked out of a game against the Bills with a concussion
$360,000 to a youth nutrition charity in Lamar Jackson’s honor after the Bills eliminated Baltimore from the playoffs in 2021
$400,000 for a new cat shelter in Tyler Bass’s name after the Buffalo kicker missed a pivotal field goal attempt in a 2023 playoffs loss
$7,000 to the Alzheimer’s Association just last week in the name of Baltimore radio personality Jerry Coleman (whose mother suffered from the disease) after he called Buffalo a “city of losers”
All told, that’s something like $2.5 million donated in the last few years.
The spotlight of the NFL playoffs has become particularly valuable for charities. Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown is already thinking about how he can boost his youth empowerment efforts after he went viral reading a book on the sidelines earlier this month. (It’s worth also noting that some non-profits struggle to properly maximize the flood of donations. Sportico has written at length about how Damar Hamlin’s charity struggled in the wake of the $8+ million that flowed his way after he collapsed during an NFL game.)
While all the money’s generally great, my favorite versions of these stories are the ones like the last in that list above, or what might be currently happening with Andrews.
Sure, the diabetes research donations are being made out of the goodness of Bills fans’ hearts, who recognize that their joy comes at another man’s cost. But don’t you think at least some of the motivation also arises from Buffalo’s chance to show that it has better fans than those Baltimore bullies sending Andrews hate messages?
While Western New York will always have its challenges recruiting free agents, these donation drives certainly help its reputation.
It’s the best version of kind-spirited trolling: a bit of holier-than-thou taunting that says, We know this is just a game but also F*** ya Go Bills!!
I hope it catches on more broadly. Can we get a 28-3 Community Kitchen going in Atlanta? Or can the rest of the NFC East’s fanbases get together to build a tutoring center in Dallas that they donate to every time another year is tacked onto the Cowboys’ Super Bowl drought?
Folks, we can be petty—and productive!
If the Bills finally win a championship this year, who’s to say how their fan base reacts? But I’m confident a bunch of them will be opening their wallets with a smile on their face and a bit of mischief on their mind. For that reason, I’m rooting for them to go all the way.
Eben’s ⚡ Take: I would like all Bills fans to know that I dropped a bowl of cereal this morning, it was very embarrassing professionally, and my Venmo routing number is 41983*****.
In all seriousness, this is very cool! By the end I was thinking also about the Green Bay Packers “stock” certificates. Fans pay hundreds for a piece of paper that doesn’t appreciate and cannot be resold, but they feel like part of the community when they do it. There are so many things you could get fans to contribute to en masse if you just structure it the right way. And these Bills examples are way better than having your fans buy snow.
🚨 CFP Trivia & Bracket Update 🚨
We witnessed perfection this week—no sympathy donations needed.
Ohio State’s victory meant Brian Cronin completed an 11-for-11 bracket and won a $50 apparel gift card. Meanwhile, TO went 12-for-12 on trivia!! They’ll get a free month of the paid version of Club Sportico, which will include more trivia contests soon.
Thanks to everyone who participated in either game. We had a lot of fun hosting them and are already thinking of our next opportunity to test you all!
Programming Note: The Pick Six now comes in a separate post, in your inbox every Saturday AM. We’ll be updating everyone on our College Football Playoff pool next Monday, before the title game.
Club Sportico is a community organized by Sportico, a digital media company launched in 2020 to cover the business side of sports. You can read breaking news, smart analysis, and in-depth features from Eben, Jacob and their colleagues at Sportico.com, and listen to the Sporticast podcast wherever you get your audio. Contact us at club@sportico.com.
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