They left at 5:40 a.m. and arrived about five hours later for a Buffalo Bills-Pittsburgh Steelers wild card game that wouldn’t start until 4:30 p.m.
Their provisions included three cases of Twisted Tea to fortify them before entering Highmark Stadium for the game – a bucket-list item for one member of this trio.
They fit right in among the fans who braved the winter weather to show up for Monday’s rescheduled playoff game, except for just one thing:
They wore black and yellow instead of red, white and blue.
“We’re going to get treated terribly, but it’s alright,” Cody Yurkiewicz, 22, of Pittsburgh, said with a smile.Â
Yurkiewicz; his brother, Austin; and their friend Josh Koval were the exceptions to the Bills boosters who slowly streamed into the lots surrounding Highmark Stadium late Monday morning for a game that wouldn’t begin for another six hours.
The fans rooting for the right team said the one-day delay for a game originally scheduled for Sunday and the prospect of more snow didn’t scare them away.
Though prices on the secondary ticket market had dropped by Monday – StubHub was offering tickets for as low as $54, not counting fees, early that afternoon – fans in interviews outside the stadium said they wouldn’t miss the game for anything.
“The sun’s out. It’s a gorgeous, cold day. I’ve been here when it’s 95 (degrees). I’ve been here when it’s 5,” said Sam Cook, 66, a Bills fan and season-ticketholder from Oswego who has missed one home game in the past five years. “This is football.”
Blue skies – along with temperatures in the high teens – greeted early-arriving fans in Orchard Park, but there was still considerable snow in the stands and around the stadium. The team had put out a plea for more shovelers that morning, and Bobcats were working to scoop and push snow out of the parking lots.
Orchard Park police had urged fans not to arrive too early in order to give plows time to clear the lots. By 10:30 a.m.,…
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