Bills Mafia: Andre Reed Joins Bodog at Buffalo Tailgating Party
It was fitting that the Buffalo Bills should beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a game that saw legendary wide receiver Andre Reed honoured as the Legend of the Game.
Running out 24-18 winners against the Bucs, the 59-year-old watched on as his former team improved their record to 5-3.
Before the game, Reed joined Bodog and mingled with the Bills Mafia for another memorable tailgating afternoon.
Why Canadian NFL Fans Love the Bills
Geography. Given that Canada doesn’t have an NFL team to boast of, having a team a stone’s throw away across the border seems to do the trick for the thousands of Canadians that attend home games at the Highmark Stadium throughout the course of the season.
They might not be the competitive force of the 1990s, or even as prevalent in the Super Bowl betting as they were a season or two back, but Josh Allen and his troops know how to rally a crowd still to this day.
While there are some genuine CFL to NFL success stories, the Bills taking some of their home games to Toronto in recent seasons will have helped boost their popularity north of the border, even if American Bills fans weren’t as thrilled with the agreement.
Until the CFL becomes a genuine threat to the NFL – however unlikely that may seem – then the bond between Canadians and the Bills will remain as strong as ever.
Andre Reed: A Profile
After excelling at Kutztown in college football, Reed was selected by the Bills in the fourth round of the NFL Draft in 1985.
He ended his career in 2000 with the Washington Redskins, but is known for those 15 seasons in Buffalo, where he won Pro Bowl honours an incredible seven times. Even more impressively, those seven honours spanned in consecutive seasons for 1988 to 1994.
To this day, Reed is the franchise leader for the Bills in receiving yards, receiving touchdowns and receptions, and was named to the Bills 50th season All-Time Team back in 2009.
Only Jerry Rice with 33 can top Reed’s 27 receptions in Super Bowl games, with that number being recorded in just four finals. Rice and Lynn Swann are the only two players to top Reed’s 323 Super Bowl receiving yards.
Undoubted Bills royalty and an NFL icon. It is understandable why the Bills Mafia attending the recent tailgating experience went so crazy to see their man up close and personal.
Reed on Bills Mafia Tailgating
While the tailgating fanatics were clearly overjoyed to see their hero join them ahead of the big game, the loves and respect clearly flows both ways.
“The Legend of the Game means that not only on the field, but off the field,” Reed explained. “As you can see, they just love you as a player, they love you as a person. That’s the best compliment you can get from fans. The best compliment you can get from the team is doing a Legend of the Game, or your name’s up on the wall for the Wall of Fame, or you get your jersey retired or something.
“There’s nothing like fans because they kind of pour it from the heart. These people are so passionate about their team. They’re passionate about their city. They’re passionate about being here on Sundays at 1 or Thursdays at 5. They’re so passionate about that, they drop everything they’re doing just to be out here with their friends and Tailgate, and that’s part of their life. And to come through here and be able to interact with them and see their Winnebagos and ask questions.
Clearly appreciating the time spent with his adoring fans, Reed continued on how this experience allowed him to get to know more about the lives of such a passionate fanbase.
“I’m not going to know all that kind of stuff. You don’t get that only from the insight of really what fans do. This is what Bills fans are about. This is what they love to do. They love their team, they love their town. They know how to tailgate.
“Every city thinks they’ve got the best tailgating fans. They’ve got to come and bring it correct. With the Bills fans, they got to come correct.”
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Take a look at the full Tailgating experience video as Bodog’s Alex Narvaez links up with Reed to talk football table smashing, Winnebagos, chicken wings and much more.