What is 'Bills Mafia?' Here's everything you need to know about Buffalo's beloved fan base

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What is 'Bills Mafia?' Here's everything you need to know about Buffalo's beloved fan base

Cydney Henderson, USA TODAY · USA TODAY Sports

Mon, Jan 22, 2024 ·

4 min read

What is 'Bills Mafia'?

In short, "Bills Mafia" refers to the Buffalo Bills fan base. But for that fan base, "Mafia" means family . And that family is among the most gracious in the NFL, constantly giving back to the community and to charitable causes championed by Bills players and even players from opposing teams.

"We felt like we needed to embrace this, because it had really turned into a community spirit," Ron Raccuia, former executive vice president of the Bills' parent company, Pegula Sports and Entertainment, said at the time. "Our players and our coaching staff have really been engaged with it, and it just became very natural."

How did 'Bills Mafia' start?

Following a 19-16 overtime loss to Pittsburgh on Nov. 28, 2010, Bills receiver Stevie Johnson posted a tweet questioning his faith after he dropped what would have been the game-winning touchdown pass. NFL insider Adam Schefter retweeted Johnson's viral postgame tweet nearly a day later, leading Reid and his friends to troll Schefter with old news updates labeled with the hashtag, #SchefterBreakingNews. Schefter subsequently blocked them.

After the season concluded, Reid encouraged the #BillsMafia to follow all the fans blocked by Schefter in the summer of 2011. The name was born and it continued to build momentum the following season: "Training camp rolled around that year, players started using it. Stevie (Johnson) started using it, Nick Barnett was using it, Fred Jackson was using it. It just blew up from there," Reid recalled in November.

Is 'Bills Mafia' a charity?

No, the fan base is not a charity, but "Bills Mafia" loves going out of the way to help others. They take pride in lending a helping hand, whether in the form of a supportive message or a simple donation, large or small.

"Your fandom can change the life of someone else for the better. That's what's so awesome about Bills Mafia, is that we've all kind of embraced this perspective," Reid told USA TODAY Sports in 2021. "We make a difference, and it's something I'm so proud of."

When the Cincinnati Bengals won a late-season game in 2017 that helped the Bills sneak into the playoffs for the first time in 17 years, Bills fans poured $415,000 into Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton's foundation for seriously ill children. In return, the Dalton family donated to the pediatric department of Buffalo's Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Bills Mafia packed the stands on the opening day of the Buffalo Bills training camp at St. John Fisher University in Rochester on July 24, 2022.

When Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was unable to finish a 2021 playoff game in Buffalo, Bills fans donated nearly half a million dollars in his honor to the Louisville chapter of Blessings in a Backpack. The cause reminded them of Pancho Billa, aka Bills superfan Ezra Castro, who died from cancer in 2019. Every year, Bills fans raise money for Pancho's Packs because Castro's dying wish was for people to not send flowers but fill backpacks for children in need.

"Buffalo Bills fans and charity kind of go together at this point, like peanut butter and jelly," Kristen Kimmick, the founder of Bills Mafia Babes , told USA TODAY Sports in 2021. "It's literally like the cool thing to do in Buffalo is to be kind and charitable."