Bills Mafia flies to Detroit for a possible Super Bowl preview

Hundreds of football fans in downtown Detroit wore blue, and it wasn’t just the Lions’ Honolulu blue. It was a royal blue. Buffalo Bills Blue.

They are the Bills Mafia, a cheeky self-imposed name for Buffalo Bills fans. The mob descended on Detroit in droves on Sunday, eagerly awaiting the matchup between the Lions and Bills, two likely SuperBowl contenders. In the parking lots surrounding Ford Field, hordes of Bills fans endured the cold, wet weather and enjoyed the camaraderie of the fan base in anticipation of the high-speed offense’s showdown at Ford Field.

The Bills Mafia is notorious for their pregame antics, which often go viral on social media. Among their many pranks, the Bills Mafia is perhaps best known for jumping from high places onto folding white tables – the Bills Mafia Table Slam.

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And at the corner of Gratiot Avenue and Brush Street, the Bills Mafia gathered to do just that. At a large tailgate hosted by Fans of Buffalo — a group that promotes itself as the “leading Buffalo sports travel group” — white plastic tables were crushed throughout the day.

From a distance, it might have seemed like an act of violence when Alex Cauley, a big, burly Buffalo fan in Bills-style Zumbas overalls, threw Ryan Petras, a Lions fan, through a table from a cinder block. But they were friends, they said, and they celebrated downtown and had a good time regardless of who won.

Petras, 31, comes from Troy. Cauley, also 31, is from Kansas City. The two met while working together years ago and hooked up with Tailgate before the game. Both plan to serve as witnesses at each other’s weddings.

“He’s a good guy, even if he’s a Bills fan,” Petras said before being thrown through the table.

The Buffalo fans gathered around the table in celebration as Cauley led them in a chant before throwing Petras (and himself) through the table, falling to the ground and laughing – also wincing in slight pain.

“I’ll feel that tomorrow,” said Petras.

This season, the Bills Mafia had a significant presence at all away games. The goal is to make every Bills game feel like a home game, even if they are hundreds of miles away.

Kym Eiss, a Bills fan who was born in Buffalo and now lives in Toledo, was at the tailgate early in all her Bills gear. Her reason for coming out?

“It’s the mafia. What do you think?” said Eiss. “I bleed red, white and blue, my whole family is from Buffalo.”

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Eiss said she has some respect for the Lions and said she expects this game to be a preview of this year’s Super Bowl. But of course their belief was behind the powerful offense of Josh Allen and Buffalo.

“The Bills, Josh (Allen), they look good. There’s no other way to say it,” Eiss said.

On the same street packed with people on Mechanic Street, DJ Myers, a 29-year-old Lions fan from Troy, said there were just “too many” Bills fans in Detroit, but he wasn’t intimidated by their presence.

“(Lions) fans were as good as ever this year and you saw the Lions blue wave in Arizona and Green Bay,” Myers said. “Our noise is so important to the product we bring to market.”

Myers has been to every Lions home game this season and traveled to Arizona in Week 3 to watch the Lions beat the Cardinals. Lions fans are just as dedicated as the Bills Mafia, Myers said.

“That’s why this is the most expensive ticket in the NFL this year,” Myers said. “This is no coincidence”

Liam Rappleye covers breaking and breaking news. He can be reached at [email protected]

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Bills Mafia flies to Detroit for a possible Super Bowl preview

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