As the Buffalo Bills prepare for their American Football Conference showdown against Kansas City at Highmark Stadium – and as thousands and thousands of spectators reflect on watching Monday’s victory over Pittsburgh, from stands encased in snow – I’ve spent the week reading emails or taking calls about quiet and memorable tales involving the past few days.
Here are a few, though I wish I could share them all:
Monsignor Francis Weldgen spent decades as the team’s Catholic chaplain before retiring after last year’s playoff loss to Cincinnati. Yet Weldgen admits he badly misses the team, and he jumped at the chance two weeks ago to fly to Miami and co-celebrate a pregame Mass for some players and coaches before the division-clinching win over the Dolphins.
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Grateful, he was determined to attend the playoff game against Pittsburgh. Marty McLaughlin, an old friend and the Bills director of security, advised strongly against it, warning Weldgen – who endured a stroke seven years ago – that a lot of snow was still there, the footing was treacherous and it would be “extremely risky,” as Weldgen, 87, wrote later in an email.
“I didn’t listen,” Weldgen said.
Assisted by old friends Michael Apa and Jerry Christensen, he managed to find his way down the stairs to his seats, near the bottom of the section. There was so much snow he spent the entire game on his feet, with one foot “on 5 inches of snow and the other on 2 inches of frozen slush.”
Deep in the fourth quarter, “with the victory secured,” Weldgen turned to leave – and realized he faced a long climb up a stairway that had basically turned into a bobsled run.
His friends did what they could to help. He started inching his way up. It seemed impossible.
That’s when the hands began reaching out.
For the most part, they…
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