Getty Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs looks over the field before Buffalo's Monday Night Football matchup with the San Francisco 49ers.
Stefon Diggs has been with the Buffalo Bills for almost a full season but he hasn’t had the full opportunity to experience the Bills Mafia fan base until recently. When the Bills arrived at the airport at 1 a.m. after their AFC East title-clinching win over the Denver Broncos on Saturday, Diggs got that first opportunity.
When the Bills arrived in Buffalo, they were met by a contingent of Bills fans waiting just outside the gates as they celebrated the AFC East title. Some of the veterans on the team like Josh Allen and Tre’Davious White knew what type of reception the Bills would get when they landed in Buffalo, but some of the newcomers like Diggs were still a little skeptical until they saw it.
“I’ve never experienced anything like that,” Diggs said during his video conference call on Wednesday. “Not in high school, college, since I’ve been in the league I’ve never experienced nothing like that. So it was like damn near eye-opening, you know what I’m saying? I’ve never had that many loyal fans around, and I was thankful. It felt like good energy. I can’t even imagine what the stadium would be like. Now I’m about to get greedy and try to have some stadium experience.”
Fans cheered on the Bills from behind a fence as the players and staff stepped off the plane. Then, they surrounded the player’s cars as they drove off the lot and Diggs was seen laughing inside of his car as he was pulled away.
Diggs’ first experience with Bills Mafia was like no other, but his encounter in the early hours of Sunday morning is just the start. Diggs could get a sneak peek at what Bills Mafia is really like in their first home playoff game this season. On Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that up to 6.700 fans could be allowed into Bills Stadium
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Veterans Loved to See the Newcomers Get Their First Taste
When the Bills were getting ready to step off the plane Sunday morning, Allen said he took a step back after getting off the plane because he just wanted to see everyone’s reaction as they saw the group of fans for the first time.
“It was awesome to see, just to come home to that at one-two o’clock in the morning, to thousands of fans there, it was nuts,” Allen said in his video conference call on Wednesday. “I was one of the first ones down, I passed everyone and then I just waited because I wanted to see everyone’s reactions. I wanted to see guys like Steff or Gabe Davis who haven’t been around Bills Mafia. To just sit back and watch them and talk to them for a quick second before they left the facility there, the feelings were all mutual about how appreciative we are of Bills Mafia.”
There was a ton of excitement as the players saw the fans cheering behind the fences and the talk about the fans didn’t just stop there. The Bills went home in their separate cars, but the next time the players were in the facility, White said all the newcomers were still excited about it.
“The next day when we got in here when everyone saw each other, everyone was talking about it,” White said on Wednesday in a video conference call. “I told them how it was going to be before we got off the plane because I got a taste of it during my rookie year. It’s something that not many teams get and it’s something that makes this place very unique.”
Fans Inside the Stadium
One thing that makes Orchard Park a tough place to play is Bills Mafia and when the stadium is full it makes it hard on opposing teams but this season has been one like no other. So, if there is an opportunity for fans to get into Bills Stadium, it could give the Bills an even bigger advantage, no matter the number of fans.
“I hope that we can, that would be a huge inspiration for us to have fans back in the stadium and we know how much it would mean to those 6,700 fans that are there,” Allen said during his video conference call on Wednesday “Obviously, we wish we had Bills Mafia in there, this was the year that we’d really use that and I’m sure they are chomping at the bit to get in there.”
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Stefon Diggs Baffled By Bills Mafia Reception: ‘Damn Near Eye-Opening’