Vibe Check: Go Bills!
The Bills Mafia at PJ's allows an outsider to watch the game with them, wacky winter weather and party pictures with heart.
I’ve long heard that of the rabid fan bases supporting the NFL, the Buffalo Bills’ is especially die-hard. (Full disclosure—and I ask true football fans to keep reading anyway: I’m one of those people who watch the Super Bowl for the commercials and snacks and by the following year have absolutely no memory of who played.) But while working on an article by Dan De Federicis about Ralph Wilson, the team’s founder and owner (until his death in 2014), I fell in love with the Bills’ story and history and wanted to see the local “Bills Mafia” for myself. So I set out to find the most loyal fans in town to write about on this Game Day—the Bills host a Dolphins rematch tonight at 8:15 in a rare Saturday night game. Let’s get pumped up for it!
According to Dan’s article (if you don’t already know from his regular Bills posts on the What’s Going On Saratoga? Facebook group, he’s from Buffalo), I was to go straight to PJ’s BAR-B-QSA. PJ and his wife, Carolyn, also hail from Buffalo and have been season ticket-holders for decades. Pre-renovations, the joint’s parking lot signs teased, “Bills fans parking only,” and the bar is decked out in Bills gear and memorabilia. The couple’s genuine fandom made the PJ’s bar area so popular for Bills games that the BBQ folks not only filed to be an official Bills Backers bar in 2018, but the crowds also forced them to make Game Day members only.
You read that right: While walk-ins are welcome to join the club, you must be a paying member to watch the Bills play at PJ’s.
So I invited myself to join them for a game and set out to PJ’s in a dark blue sweatshirt that was the closest thing I had to Bills colors. Bills aside, I was nervous, for starters, about how badly I would stick out among such bona fide football fans. Although, I learned that you have to be careful about claiming you know “nothing” about football—before anyone else starts to explain to me what a touchdown is...I know the basics, people!
So in a bar where we joked that an under-your-breath aside about “wide right” and Super Bowl losses might start a physical fight, how harshly would my outsider status be treated? Short answer: There are no outsiders at PJ’s. (No groaning—it’s true!) Everyone was warm and friendly, just wanting to share their story about their own Bills journey.
I arrived early to check out the scene and was told my reserved spot was at the end of the bar. So civilized! I could already see the appeal of a PJ’s Bills membership. Soon, it was snowing at the game and it was snowing outside the window in front of me. It was almost like we were there.
Tasha was behind the bar prepping, and she gamely started to fill me in. Once a loyal Jets fan, she was decked out in the official Bills club T-shirt. (“You can’t work here and not become a Bills fan,” she told me.) This year’s design features the famous raging buffalo superimposed on a horse racing starting gate. Each year’s shirt features a different nod to horse racing in order to bridge Saratoga and Buffalo. (Bills founder Ralph was a huge horse racing fan who owned horses and made it to the Saratoga meet more than 50 years straight.)
Some basic facts about a Bills Game Day at PJs:
Every TV is turned on to the Bills game only; if you prefer checking in on other games, you’re in the wrong place.
A smoker? There are two outdoor TVs so you don’t miss a thing.
There’s a door prize raffle during every game—the club also does a 50/50 raffle to raise money for the John R. Oishei Children's Hospital, where quarterback Josh Allen opened a pediatric wing in honor of his grandmother Patricia.
The four-top that’s the closest table to the TV has been dubbed the “Lucky Table” because the people who sit at it win the raffles so often.
And if you go, you will most likely meet Mark, whom everyone calls “Boots” because—urban legend or not—he wears a different pair of cowboy boots to every single Game Day. “I went to school in Buffalo and have been a fan ever since,” he told me. “We had a lot of good times at ‘The Ralph’ [nickname for the stadium where the Bills play]. They were terrible, but we didn’t care.”
This touches on a point: The Bills have had a rough go for years, but now they’re good. Very good. And yet, not one Saratoga Bills Backer showed any bitterness towards the new fans that have been jumping on the Bills bandwagon now that they’ve gotten it together to vie for the Lombardi trophy.
Now I had been warned that the crowd at PJ’s on Sunday was half the size than normal, but they were a vocal bunch. The party erupted at the first big play, which was fun. When the Bills scored? The bar played the catchy Bills fight song, “Shout,” and everyone clapped and sang along. On CBS, they cut the tune off to switch to a commercial break—an Old Spice moisturizer commercial—but at PJ’s, the song continued to the very end just like at the stadium. After a later score, the song cut off even at Pj’s, but the group dutifully pressed on acapella.
After tha game, I stayed late, in order to hear more tales from PJ and Carolyn about their friendship with the great Ralph Wilson. First, PJ told me how they met, when Ralph and his wife, Mary, stopped in for some BBQ after hearing the place was owned by Bills super-fans. “One of the employees comes to me and says, ‘Hey, PJ, the owner of the Bills is in the restaurant.’ I said, ‘Yeah, sure…sure he is.’ But I looked out—and there he was! He and his wife. Wow. He told us to come by his owner’s suite at a game. Don’t you know it, two weeks later I’m knocking on his door—’Hi! Remember me, Mr. Wilson?"‘ It was cool to be hobnobbing with the owner.”
I also loved this very Saratoga anecdote: When being interviewed for a story on Channel 13, PJ was told that if Ralph was in Saratoga with the horses he owned, he had to go to great lengths to watch any games that weren’t aired locally—even going down to the Channel 13 studios to watch by himself with a bag lunch. “He’d watch the Bills game while eating his little tuna fish sandwich,” PJ says. “He was a very down-to-earth, great guy.”
So who’s watching the game tonight? (The PJ’s bar will be open with a downsized menu. Just $25 gets you a one-year club membership, entry during Bills games and a T-shirt.) Go Bills!
—Abby
Quote of the Week
“I risked my life walking in high heels in slippery slush down a steep hill for this.”
Overheard at Putnam Place Thursday night
The Snow Storm That Wasn’t
Saratoga was under a winter advisory from Thursday 4pm to Saturday 7am, but instead of watching a spectacular storm out the window, most locals instead saw on the news that a foot of snow dumped all around us, making us a safe little pocket. First, the snow was promised overnight Thursday. But anyone who raced outside upon waking saw only some anticlimatic slush. Walking was tricky and slippery, but that was it, although afternoon flakes were big and beautiful. Then it was promised to make up for lost time Friday night. Again, a peek out the window yielded maybe an inch or two of the white stuff—on top of the now-frozen slush, but otherwise a tame event overall. Most places were lucky to get two inches—but that snow did dump 12-24 inches to the north, east and west of us. Flying home for the holidays? You should have no problem. Wanting to make a snowman with the kids? You might have to wait for the next storm.
Hats Off to Rosa
A member of the Saratoga Senior Center has put her idle time—and love of crochet—to good use. Rosa Royal has so far crocheted 111 winter hats for seniors in need. The handmade head warmers are on display at the center, adding a “festive look” to the place. Rosa volunteers at the center on Wednesdays and plays bingo, and is a loyal member of the Knit & Crochet group. Not good with yarn? There are still plenty of other ways to help out at the Senior Center, so give them a call. In other senior news, Senior Support Services and The Giving Circle are caroling tomorrow at various senior housing locations, and December 21 is a big day for Senior Center members: An afternoon holiday party boasts a buffet lunch by Prime and a visit from Santa. Two days later, Garland Nelson is stopping by for a holiday sing-along.
Giving Season
More than 200 giving-minded folks hit Putnam Place on Thursday night to honor 10 local do-gooders whose stories were told in the current holiday issue of Saratoga Living/Capital Region Living. Pick up a copy and read up on the honorees today. And then check out Tuesday’s edition of SLAH for a full recap of the inspiring evening and more great party pics.
This Week in Saratoga Living After Hours
On Monday, we were puzzled by a day drinking-inspired mini crossword.
And on Tuesday, we asked Saratogians what gets them to make the long trek (we kid) over the Twin Brides.