Congratulations, Buffalo….you’ve finally won something!
According to Sean MacDonald, an NFL fan who spent all of last season traveling to each of the league’s 31 stadiums (a feat I didn’t even think was possible) before writing a book called titled “Ultimate Football Road Trip,” Bills fans take home the crown for drunkest supporters in the league.
An excerpt from MacDonald’s book details his experience at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo:
“What I remember most of all [in Buffalo] is the wild atmosphere, one of the craziest I saw during my travels, with much of it due to excessive alcohol consumption. As you can probably guess, Bills fans are the drunkest I witnessed on my trip. That is true before, during and after the game. I even saw the Bills twice on the road and this observation was merely confirmed. Unfortunately, most of them are unable to hold their liquor and lose control, becoming a danger to others or to themselves. Reports of assaults outside the stadium are not uncommon and last year, a fan decided to try sliding down a handrail along the 300 level, from where he fell onto another fan seated below, sending both to the hospital. In 2012, a drunken fan was ejected for disorderly conduct and later found dead in a nearby creek. After the same game, a visiting Canadian fan was struck by a car and died two months later. ESPN’s Grantland had a long story about these two deaths and the league’s extremely tolerant alcohol policy and the Bills faced nationwide scrutiny about the behavior of the security staff and the stadium policies.
“Based on what I saw last year, little has changed. Inside the stadium seemed like a free-for-all at times, with fans moving around constantly and far too many in the advanced stages of inebriation, especially in the lower level end zone seats. Beer was constantly being spilled on the concourse and stairways to the seats, making things that much more dangerous. Buffalo, like the many industrial cities in the cold northeast, is a hard-drinking town, but too many fans are simply out of control at Bills games. As evidenced by the Beer Time sections in this book, I enjoy my tipples on a regular basis and have been known to have one too many on occasion, so I am by no means advocating prohibition. I believe that most are capable of controlling their alcohol intake, but here, the majority is simply trying to get as drunk as possible. I strongly advise that you avoid imbibing too much during the game and wait for afterwards if you feel the urge to tie one on. Chances are that everything will be fine, but you really want to be alert in this environment (really, at any NFL game) because you never know what might happen.”
Honestly, this doesn’t come as much of a shock to me. I don’t have to travel to every stadium in the league to tell you that Bills fans have plenty of reasons to drink heavily every Sunday. The team has a tortured history. They currently own the league’s longest playoff drought at 14 years and counting. Their current roster. And – last but not least – it’s fucking BUFFALO, the hellhole of the northeast.
