Detroit, MI
Bills Mafia invades Detroit ahead of potential Super Bowl preview
Bills Mafia does table slam at tailgate in Detroit
Ryan Cauley, left, and Ryan Petras, right, are friends. But on Sunday, before the Bills and Lions kicked off, Cauley launched Petras through a table.
Hundreds of football fans in downtown Detroit were wearing 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-given name for Buffalo Bills fans. The Mafia came in droves to Detroit Sunday, anxiously awaiting a matchup between the Lions and Bills, two likely SuperBowl contenders. In parking lots all around Ford Field, hordes of Bills fans were bearing the cold, wet weather and enjoying the camaraderie of fandom, anticipating the showdown of high-speed offenses at Ford Field.
The Bills Mafia has become infamous for their pregame antics, which often go viral on social media. Among their many hijinks, the Bills Mafia is perhaps most known for jumping from high places onto foldable white tables — the Bills Mafia table slam.
And at the corner of Gratiot Avenue and Brush Street, the Bills mafia congregated to do just that. At a large tailgate hosted by Fans of Buffalo — a group that advertises itself as the “premier Buffalo sports travel group” — white, plastic tables were getting crushed all day.
From a distance, it might have looked like an act of violence when Alex Cauley, a big, burly Buffalo fan in Bills-themed Zumbas overalls, threw Ryan Petras, a Lions fan, through a table from atop a concrete block. But they’re friends, they said, and were partying downtown and having a good time regardless of who might win.
Petras, 31, is from Troy. Cauley, also 31, is from Kansas City. The two met years ago while working together and linked up to tailgate before they game. They both plan to be groomsmen at each other’s weddings.
“He’s a good guy, even though he’s a Bills fan,” Petras said before getting thrown through the table.
Ceremoniously, Buffalo fans gathered around the table while Cauley led them in a chant before launching Petras (and himself) through the table, crashing to the ground and laughing — wincing with a little bit of pain, too.
“I’ll feel that tomorrow,” Petras said.
This season, the Bills mafia has brought a considerable presence to all of their away games. The goal is to make every game for the Bills feel like a home game, even if they are hundreds of miles away.
Kym Eiss, a Bills fan born in Buffalo, now living in Toledo, was out early for the tailgate in all of her Bills gear. Her reason for coming out?
“It’s the Mafia. What do you mean?” Eiss said. “I bleed red, white and blue, my whole family is from Buffalo.”
Eiss said she has some respect for the Lions, saying that she expects this game to be a preview of this year’s Super Bowl. But, of course, her faith was behind Josh Allen and Buffalo’s high-powered offense.
“The Bills, Josh (Allen), they look good. There’s no other way to put it,” Eiss said.
On the same strip of tailgaters on Mechanic Street, DJ Myers, a 29-year-old Lions fan from Troy, said there were simply “too many” Bills fans in Detroit, but he wasn’t intimidated by their presence.
“(Lions) fans this year have been as good as ever and you’ve seen the blue wave from the Lions in Arizona and Green Bay,” Myers said. “Our noise is so important to the product we put out on the field.”
Myers has been to every Lions home game this season, and he traveled to Arizona in week three to see 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. “It’s not by accident,”
Liam Rappleye covers breaking and trending news. He can be reached at LRappleye@freepress.com