Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN) - Over the course of the 2025 football season, WBEN will reflect on the legacy and lore of Highmark Stadium in its final season, with a number of current and former players, as well as fans and others with deep connections and memories of the building that has played home of the Buffalo Bills since the 1973 season.
Since he first donned the outfit in 1992, John Lang has, perhaps, been one of the more iconic Bills fans, portraying the infamous "Bills Elvis". Lang can be found on a weekly basis at Bills games in Row 1 of Section 126, located in the corner end zone at the tunnel end of Highmark Stadium along the home sideline.
Being a lifelong Bills fan and Season Ticket holder for more than 30 years, Lang says there's never a dull day at Highmark Stadium when the Bills are at home.
"You've got everybody just screaming and yelling, the passion of 'Bills Mafia' and the camaraderie and the love. Just to walk into my section is really incredible," said Lang with WBEN.
"I think it's just the passion and the loudness of being in this stadium. Everybody's so excited about being here and watching the Bills."
While Lang admits being among the staples of "Bills Mafia" is overwhelming, especially being the Bills' designated Fan of the Year in 2022, he knows he's only a small piece of the puzzle that is the Buffalo and Western New York fan base.
"When I think of it, we're the greatest fan base that ever existed on planet Earth for any sport. We're the craziest, we're the most fun loving. We're also the most generous, because if there's a cause, we get behind it," Lang said.
"Our community, we are the Bills. We just are the Buffalo Bills community. It's really incredible."
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Over the years, Lang has made so many great memories not just with his fellow Bills fans, but also watching some of the greatest games to take place at Highmark Stadium.
"Even the home opener this year was amazing to be at," Lang noted. "Through the years, you think back on the Snow Game in '17, the [Indianapolis Colts] game, where the tailgating was normal, but then all of a sudden, the snow just started pouring down. And my cousin-in-law comes up and he says I had about eight inches of snow just sitting on the top of my head. It was just crazy. I also think back on the cold games in '93, it was the Jets and the Raiders, and it was so cold out here we had to keep our beer in a cooler to keep it from freezing. That's how cold it was, tailgating and everything."
But like many Bills fans over the years, Lang's No. 1 memory in that stadium comes back on Jan. 3, 1993, the day the Bills overcame the greatest playoff deficit in NFL history in "The Comeback".
"My wife and I were sitting there at halftime and was like, 'Do you want to go? Do you want to go?' I was like, 'No, let's finish these beers and we'll talk about it then,'" Lang recalled with a chuckle. "And then the momentum changed, and the crazy winds came in, and that game is just something I'll never forget."
While there have been a number of players to come through Buffalo that Lang has grown fond of over the years, there's a couple that stick out to him more than others.
"I think back on Steve Tasker as always this guy who worked his butt off, and I see him all the time at different appearances and stuff. He goes out of his way to be a good guy, he's a really, really great guy," Lang said.
Along with being a Bills Season Ticket Holder, Lang is also known to frequent games at the University of Wyoming - Josh Allen's alma mater - as well as the University of Montana. Lang ended up developing a close relationship with one former Bills player who played his college football with the Grizzlies in Missoula.
"I got to be good friends with Colt Anderson, that played for the Bills many years back. It was funny, I knew him when he was in college going to the University of Montana, and next thing you know, he's playing for the Bills and he's in my garage having a beer with me," Lang said. "That kind of stuff, it's just unbelievably awesome. It really is."
If there was one item from the current Highmark Stadium that Lang would hope to take with him before the end of the football season in Orchard Park, it's a pretty obvious answer for him.
"I'd love to have Seat 1 and 2 in Section 126 hanging in my garage. That would be awesome, absolutely awesome," he said.
And while Lang will miss the old stadium along Abbott Road, he says he is really looking forward to what's in store for the Bills across the street come next season.
"It's just a beautiful, beautiful stadium," Lang said of the new Highmark Stadium. "They didn't leave out anything, as far as the engineering goes. I love everything they're doing. Everything from the grass field to the bar in the end zone. I just went in a couple months ago and I was like, 'Wow, this is incredible.'"
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