Event tickets now exist only electronically in our Apple Wallets, Google Wallets or any other phone-based wallet apps which may exist. It’s quite straightforward really – you just open the ticket on your phone and scan it on the reader at the gate. It’s much more secure than any form of paper tickets they tell us and I am sure they’re right about that. During the tailgate festivities outside Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park yesterday afternoon, I was catastrophizing about the chaos which would ensue should the wallet / scanner system go down for any length of time before the game. Tens of thousands of fans would either be late or might decide to crash the gates. What a nightmare something like that would be, I mused. Then shortly after 5.30pm, once through security, I scanned my phone several times and received not the reassuring beep of a successful scan but a series of incomprehensible error messages - not what you want to see on your phone with 70,000 well-lubricated Bills fans lined up behind you. This attracted the attention of a stadium staff member with a tablet in hand who pulled me aside and offered to help. There was a major issue today she explained with a Google Wallet update which had not reached many Samsung phones, obviously including mine. She could not have been more helpful and said several times that this was not my fault and that we would sort it all out. After verifying my identity (she had my season ticket account details on her tablet) she sent me a text message with a security code for me to re-type into an email and send somewhere. Helpless without reading glasses as I was, I handed her my phone and asked her to drive. She obliged and a couple of minutes later I was able to “scan in” on her tablet and I was finally on my way. I was worried enough about containing Derrick Henry and didn’t need that kind of stress as game-time approached. These electronic app-based systems work just fine – until they don’t.
I started on my journey as a fan of the Buffalo Bills in 1978
and 1979 and by 1980 I was fully committed. In January 1981, still on Christmas
break from university, I was picking up some hours as a dishwasher at the Crock
and Block restaurant in St. Catharines, Ont. In the bowels of the kitchen
there, on Saturday January 3rd I was able to catch the great Van
Miller’s radio play-by-play call of the Bills first playoff game since 1974 as
they fell in the Wildcard Round to the Chargers in San Diego. A year later they
won a Wildcard game at Shea Stadium against the Jets then lost a heart-breaker
at Cincinnati in the Divisional Round where on the potential game-tying touchdown
drive, Joe Ferguson’s fourth down pass to Lou Piccone for a first down deep in
Bengals territory was called back on a delay of game penalty. The Bengals then faced
the Chargers a week later in the AFC Championship Game in what became known as
the Freezer Bowl. The game-time temperature was minus 23C with sustained winds
of 40kmh making for a windchill of minus 50C. I watched the game in London, Ont
and I can clearly recall wondering why Americans choose to make football a
winter sport. I’ve been wondering the same thing on-and-off ever since.
Weather forecasts in the days before last night’s NFL Divisional
Round playoff game in Orchard Park portended the coldest weather to be experienced
in this part of the world since the retreat of the glaciers some 10,000 years
ago. No amount of insulated clothing or charcoal or electrified heated socks could
keep us warm for six hours in conditions this harsh, we were warned. Turns out
that the actual extreme cold weather is set to begin today and had not arrived
by game-time yesterday or even by the time the game ended. Was it cold? Sure.
Minus 8 or so which was fine with proper clothing which we certainly had. The game-changer
was the battery-powered heated socks which performed and lasted as advertised.
They seemed like a bit of a frivolous investment at $250 but the thought of
them keeping my feet warm through many more January Bills home playoff games in
the years to come actually makes my feet feel warmer even sitting here at my
desk in north Toronto on this Buffalo Football Victory Monday.
What a game it was to be at: an electric crowd (maybe partly
from the socks), a high stakes playoff game with light snow falling throughout
and, in the end, a Bills win. The breaks certainly went their way as the Ravens
turned the ball over three times to the Bills none and their long-tenured and
reliable tight end Mark Andrews could not close the deal on a two-point conversion
with a minute and thirty seconds remaining as the Bills hung on for a two-point
win. Overtime seemed likely as I watched Lamar Jackson’s pass appear to land in
his breadbasket but when the Bills fans in the section behind him erupted in joy,
I knew he had dropped it. An easy recovery of an onside kick then one first down
and it was time for victory formation. Now another January trip to Kansas City –
this time for a berth in the Superbowl – is next week’s assignment for the
Bills.
I got to bed just before 3am and I can say that I definitely
haven’t been up that late since last year’s Divisional Round game against the
Chiefs. Sitting in the parking lot for a solid hour after the game was much
more enjoyable this time around as the Bills had won and the callers into WGR
were happy. It took so long to finally get moving that as we inched along
Southwestern Blvd toward to the 219, a convoy of sheriff’s vehicles escorted a
group of buses around us and the traffic jam. We assumed that it was the Ravens
players and staff enroute to the Buffalo airport for their miserable flight
back to BWI. 30 minutes at the Peace Bridge then a series of lake-effect snow
squalls were the last hurdles of the long but ultimately successful and
enjoyable day and night.
“The right to play another week; another chance to go 1-0”
is how Josh Allen described what his team accomplished last night. The Chiefs,
with an extra day to prepare and playing at home will be ready. Can the Bills finally
reverse the trend of playoff losses to the Chiefs? That’s why they play the
games.
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