Buffalo Bills Fans Shower Bengals With Money For Playoff Miracle
By Erik Lambert
No one can ever say that Buffalo Bills fans are a selfish lot. In fact they may be some of the most appreciative in the history of the NFL.
That’s not an exaggeration either. This is a fan base that celebrated their great Super Bowl teams of the 1990s with big parties despite heartbreaking defeats. It’s almost too cruel to know that these people had to endure the second-longest playoff drought of the Super Bowl era. This included a span of 17 seasons stretch from 2000 to 2016. Only the expansion New Orleans Saints were worse, going from 1967 to 1986 with postseason play.
So one can imagine the emotions involved on that fateful Sunday during the season finale of the 2017 season. Buffalo had already done their jobs, knocking off the Miami Dolphins to finish their season 9-7. It put them in position to make the playoffs, but with a catch. They needed the Cincinnati Bengals to beat the Baltimore Ravens on the road. A tall order given the Bengals were already eliminated from postseason play while the Ravens got in if they won.
It looked like heartbreak was on the way again as Baltimore took a 27-24 lead late in the 4th quarter. Then? Magic happened. Cincinnati drove down the field and scored the go-ahead touchdown with 44 seconds left to stun the Ravens and send Bills fandom into euphoric celebration.
Bills fans thus made sure they found a way to thank the Bengals
Not long after that the Bills social media crews made sure to send an overwhelming thanks to Cincinnati for the New Years gift. However, that alone wasn’t enough for #BillsMafia. Fans have since begun to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into charities run by prominent Bengals players, most notably quarterback Andy Dalton and wide receiver Tyler Boyd. The two men responsible for the winning touchdown.
Bengals QB Andy Dalton announced Wednesday evening on Twitter that about $250,000 has been raised by 10,000 donors, many Bills fans, since the Bengals' game-winning touchdown Sunday. https://t.co/wT2VUf15Xn
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) January 3, 2018
In addition to Andy Dalton’s foundation, Bills have fans been donating in $17 increments to Bengals WR Tyler Boyd’s cause, the Western PA Youth Athletic Association: https://t.co/kJNct1dlMC
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) January 3, 2018
Yes the amount of charity giving was spawned by the winning of a game, but in the end it’s just further proof of what good the NFL can do. When teams win, it makes people happy. When people are happy they’re much more open to giving back to others. It would seem Buffalo went above and beyond in their efforts.