The day I drove to the location of the Bills Highmark Stadium Experience, in a nondescript strip mall in Williamsville, NY – almost exactly two years now ago to the day – I had still not made a final decision on the long-term commitment to costly seat licences and to ten pairs of much more expensive football tickets each and every year until I reached the age of 92. But I sort of knew deep down that I would probably decide to do it, as long as the seats were good and the other details seemed reasonable. I had been ruminating about the long-term prospects for the NFL in general and for the Bills in particular. I was worried that the Buffalo market might not have the capacity to absorb NFL tickets priced at $347 USD each (which mine are for this season) in, say, fifteen years time when Josh Allen is long-retired, the team is struggling competitively and perhaps the juggernaut of popularity enjoyed by the NFL over the last 25 years is waning. Those December games with both teams sporting 2-11 records are hard to sell at any price. I know this from bitter experience during the 17-year playoff drought which ended with the hiring of Sean McDermott. Even in good times like now, they can be hard to get rid of. $350 (plus inflation) to sit in an outdoor stadium late in the 2041 season to watch two teams out of playoff contention could be a big ask. Maybe too big. Very low on the list of considerations I was mulling over on that September morning was any concern for unforeseen political developments on either side of the border.
But here we are only three days from the first regular
season game at the new Highmark Stadium. I’m pretty excited about it with a
couple of reservations to mention. I won’t comment here about the current political
situation except to say that I am really wondering if the Bare Naked Ladies
rendition of O Canada on Thursday night will attract boos. I hope not but I
suspect there will be at least a smattering. The other worry I have is about my
own late-night stamina and endurance as I prepare for an 8.15pm kick-off and a
3am (or later) arrival home. I really REALLY hope that the egress from the
parking lots will have improved (as promised as part of the seat licence sales
pitch) but my assigned lot this year is exactly the same one I been parking in
for several years now so I’m not especially optimistic about it. I’ll start
practicing staying up late tonight I guess. For someone who is often in bed by
9.30pm, It’s kind of like dealing with anticipatory jet lag.
The Bills opened the 2026 season with a win in what has been
a hostile building for them throughout the Josh Allen era. As with every close
football game, a few key plays, had they either not been made or gone a way
other than they did, determined the outcome. The Houston Texans and their fans
will look to Kamari Lassiter’s dropped interception attempt late in the fourth quarter
in the endzone. Josh Allen threw up what CBS analyst Ross Tucker called a
“YOLO” pass in the general direction of Josh Palmer which Lassiter had in his
hands as he fell backward in the endzone. As is so often said with these kinds
of plays, Lassiter makes the interception on the play nine times out of ten.
But he bobbled the ball and, as fate would have it, on the next play, Allen hit
Palmer with a perfect pass on a deep post route for what would stand as the
game-winning touchdown. If Lassiter holds on to the ball on the previous play,
the Texans win. This is what league parity looks like.
Two players on the Bills side stood out for me in the game.
Josh Allen – “doing Josh Allen things” - as CBS play-by-play man Ian Eagle
(whose first name is, for some reason, pronounced “eye-on”) said after his
first touchdown – or maybe it after his second or third or fourth touchdown.
Allen was magnificent: over 300 yards passing, two rushing touchdowns, two
passing touchdowns and no turnovers. On the other side of the ball, Deone
Walker, the six foot seven 331-pound nose tackle drafted last year by the Bills
in the fourth round from the Kentucky Wildcats established himself yesterday as
one of the premium interior defensive lineman in the league with a dominating
performance. He posted six tackles (two for losses) and was a force on
defensive coordinator Jim Leonard’s new “three-four” look as nose tackle. From
now on, opposing teams will need to game-plan for Walker and I expect that he
will be double-teamed (and sometimes triple-teamed) in a way that Bills fans
probably haven’t seen since the days of Bruce Smith. Speaking of Smith, who was
drafted first overall in the 1985 NFL draft (as opposed to Walker who was
picked 109th overall), he will be the first Legend of the Game in
the new stadium on Thursday. Steve
Tasker says that Smith is the greatest player ever to don a Bills uniform. For
Deone Walker, that’s a high bar but something to shoot for.
After their thrilling week one win, the Bills now play three
straight games at Highmark Stadium. Knowing that I would not be missing the
opener on Thursday, a few weeks ago, I listed my tickets for the week three
game against the Los Angeles Chargers (a Sunday 1pm game) for sale for $740
each – a sort of “YOLO” listing which I had frankly forgotten about. At some
point during the tense fourth quarter yesterday, an email came in to my phone
which I checked at the next commercial break. The Chargers tickets had sold for
$1,480 USD. Not only does this bode well for the near future, it will easily
cover my three remaining seat licence payments. I clearly made the right
decision by investing long-term in the Buffalo Bills, in the National Football
League and in the United States of America, right?
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