BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) The Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals play Sunday for the division. The winner advances to the AFC Championship game.
The two teams are not division rivals.
In fact, the two teams bonded during Damar Hamlin's medical emergency January 2nd at Paycor Stadium. The two head coaches have mutual respect for each other. Bengals players were comforting Bills players on the field.
Bengals fans were supportive of Bills fans in the stands and even held prayer vigils at the hospital for Hamlin.
"It was so terrifying at the time," recalls Bengals Play by Play announcer Dan Hoard, who grew up in Jamestown, N.Y. "And then it became uplifting as Damar recovered so quickly. "Thank heavens he's progressing as he is. If it hadn't, it would have been difficult for a lot of players to even return to the field," he said.
The bond between the two teams is not new. It developed in 2017. Then-Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton threw a touchdown pass to Tyler Boyd to win a game that allowed the Buffalo Bills to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in 17 years. Bills Mafia responded by pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into Dalton and Boyd's charities.
Fast forward to this week, and "It's kind of unusual to have a playoff game with so much at stake where the two teams are showing a lot of mutual respect and admiration for each other," said Hoard. "It adds a nice air of sportsmanship and camaraderie to the game."
Come kick-off on Sunday, Hoard expects it to be all business for both teams.
In person, it seems fans are welcoming. Online, however, it may be a different story. Bengals fans have been a little "salty" over how things shook out with the league after the Bills Bengals game was canceled on January 2nd.
"You're right, they're kind of salty," said Hoard. "But it's not directed at the Bills. It's directed at the NFL for the potential coin-toss scenario they came up with that didn't help the Bengals at all, whereas the Bills were given the opportunity to play a neutral site championship game against the Chiefs. There was really nothing like that for Cincinnati. They, too, lost the opportunity to potentially earn the number one seed."
As for Damar Hamlin, Hoard said it would be absolutely awesome if the Bills Safety would be able to be at Sunday's game. "That would be an incredible moment. We better have some Kleenex ready if that happens because all of us would be moved to tears to see him prior to the first meeting between these two teams since that happened."
