Detroit, Mich. (WBEN) - Ahead of more than 70 inches of snow falling in Orchard Park between late Thursday night and into the weekend, the National Football League and the Buffalo Bills announced the scheduled game against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday at Highmark Stadium would be moved and played in Detroit, Michigan at the confines of Ford Field.
It is the second time in eight seasons where inclement winter in Western New York forced the move of a Bills game from Orchard Park to Detroit. The last time came back in 2014 when the memorable "Snowvember" storm forced a Bills game against the New York Jets to be played at Ford Field.
And just like the last time in 2014, the Bills were able to find a way to overcome the adversity during the week and get a win as the home team on neutral soil. This time, it was the work of a well-rounded offensive effort to earn a 31-23 win over the Browns to snap a two-game losing skid in the process.
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However, this game in Detroit will not be the only game this season played in the "Motor City". In fact, the Bills will head right back to Detroit this upcoming Thursday when they take on the Lions for a Thanksgiving Day matchup at Ford Field.
Shortly after the NFL announced the relocation of the Bills-Browns contest to Detroit, the Bills made a number of presale tickets available for the game on Friday, with season ticket holders having first availability. In the end, the approximate 56,000 tickets made available sold out in less than three hours.
Upon hearing of the Bills-Browns game being moved to Detroit, that sent members of the Detroit Bills Backers into a frenzy.
"It was a mix of. 'Oh, shoot. Where are we going? What are we doing? What our plans? Where we get tickets? How can we support the team?' It kind of hit us fast and furious," said Kim Showalter, co-President of the Detroit Bills Backers chapter. "Myself and Fans of Buffalo, we were already planning, obviously, some things for Thanksgiving, so it became 'What can we kind of steal from Thanksgiving Day plans that we can repurpose for Sunday?' So we made that happen. A bunch of people were flooding our Facebook with questions and messages and comments. We kept it up, we were able to turn around a tailgate plan within about 2-3 hours after the announcement.
"It was just a bunch of chaos. It was all very exciting chaos. We were already excited just to have one Bills game in Detroit, and the fact that we get to see our team twice in Detroit in five days, everyone is so excited."
Showalter says more than 50 people had contacted her via Facebook, Twitter and emails on a number of different issues, including tickets and hotels for fans looking to attend the game. This included a number of Bills fans who were already planning a trip to Detroit for the Thanksgiving matchup on Thursday.
"Honestly, a lot of people said, 'Hey, we are going to come for Thanksgiving, but since this happened, we're just going to come early, we're going to change our flights, we're going to book extra nights our hotel,'" Showalter said. "There are a bunch of people who are just staying in Detroit, which is great for Detroit. Obviously, Detroit and Buffalo share a lot of similarities in the working class cities, the cities who know what it's like to go through some tough times, and I think it's great."
When it came to the few days leading up to game day and the game itself on Sunday, Showalter felt it all played out extremely well for the team and all the fans who made the trek to Detroit.
"I think it was amazing," she said. "I don't think Detroit; they knew we were coming and they know enough about us, but we only play each other, usually, every four years in the regular season, and never in a situation where the Bills are the home team, not since last time in 2014. We had every single lot that was available for tailgating in downtown, you'd pass and you saw Bills flags, you saw Bills fans. We had the Browns, and the Browns definitely had a presence. They might have been a little bit louder than us in the first quarter, but I think once we started to click, there was no chance that the Browns fans that we did have at Ford Field were going to overpower us.
"We were there to make it feel like a home game. I'm pretty sure that the Detroit fans and the fans who came in from not just Buffalo, but we had people telling us they were coming in from Alabama, from Georgia, from Chicago, we made it feel like a home game and I'm pretty proud of that."
The Detroit Bills Backers started during the team's playoff drought about 10 years ago when co-President, Jerry Siconolfi came to Detroit from Rochester and looked for a local bar to watch the Bills at. That bar ended up being the US 12 Bar and Grill in Wayne, Mich.
It was about five years ago when Showalter moved to Michigan from Niagara Falls, and she went looking for a Bills Backers bar in Detroit. She eventually showed up to the US 12 Bar and Grill, saw Jerry, and knew she was in the right spot.
"It started off with just him and I, a handful of fans, maybe some friends he had kind of forcibly converted out of pity from Lions fans to Bills fans on Sundays," Showalter said. "It was pretty quiet and small to start, and then it's just grown bit-by-bit. He recruited me, he doesn't really do social media, so he grabbed me. I re-did our Facebook page, started to promote us as much as I possibly could, get us out there. It's now to the point, fast forward five years to right now, and I'd say most game days we have 20, 30, 40 people at our bar.
"I know it's small potatoes compared to what some of the other Bills Backers bars around the country can do, and I've seen it. But for us going from two people on a game day to double-digits, it's been amazing."
The last time the Bills had played in Detroit was the 2014 season when they beat the Lions with a late field goal, 17-14. That game took place roughly seven weeks before the game against the Jets that was forced to take place at Ford Field due to inclement winter weather.
This time around, the Bills will be featured in back-to-back weeks in Detroit, which is certainly a rare and unique situation in a given season. For Showalter, to have the Bills in her new home away from home once in a season is a luxury. To have it come twice in as many weeks is a whole new level of excitement.
"Just as a Bills fan living in Detroit, if you had told me this was going to be my life over the summer when they announced the schedule, I would have called you crazy, said, 'Nah, I'm just happy with one game in Detroit. That's enough for me.' Then obviously things got turned around on Thursday, and I'm rolling the punches, I'm trying to make sure that everyone coming in has all of the information they need, everything that they need to find tickets and tailgates and hotels and places to stay. It's been wild, but it's just so fun to be a part of this right now," Showalter said.
While plenty of Bills fans were able to enjoy an impromptu weekend of fun and excitement in Detroit, cheering on the Bills for a neutral site game, there's plenty of fun and excitement planned for "Bills Mafia" in the coming days leading up to the Thanksgiving Day affair against the Lions.
"We have a welcome party at our home base bar, the US 12 Bar and Grill on Wednesday from 12-6 p.m. EST. We're doing a physical food drive, we've partnered with a really amazing community food bank, Gleaners, in Detroit. That will be kind of Stage 1 of the welcome party, and then we'll give folks an hour to migrate, if you will," Showalter explained. "Then we will be in Downtown Detroit at the Tin Roof for, kind of, welcome party Part 2, pay your own way. Then Thursday morning, we have a giant lot reserved for all you care to eat and drink. They'll have breakfast foods and traditional Thanksgiving foods, we'll have chairs and heated tents. Everyone will just come, buy your pass and join us. Then we're all, a merry band of us, just walk on down to Ford Field together."
Hear more of our conversation with Showalter available in the player below: