The 2022 NFL Week 3 Roundup | Buffalo Bill$
Kim Possible
The Highmark Stadium upper deck 300 section is familiar to any a Buffalo Bills fan. It offers the most majestic, commanding views of all-weather action 110 feet beneath in all of Erie County, New York. Section 300 is actually split into two opposing elevated above-bowl sections hovering on opposing sides of the AstroTurf field and is thunderous in its physical resonance when the crowd roars and stomps with hysteria. Its popularity is also found in its budget-friendly price-points, relatively speaking for football. But very recently, Section 300 was mysteriously uncovered to be the main impetus for a taxpayer-funded $1.4B replacement facility (rendered above) just across Abbott Road, a football’s field kick from Highmark Stadium. Not everyone is happy with the latest developments in what many fear to be an upstate snowbound white elephant. But seen enthusiastically pushing the prophetic mammal from behind and at the same time luring it ever-forward with a cash-encrusted carrot-and-stick are predictably the NFL, the Pegula family and civic leaders of all stripes including the Governor of New York state; each with noise-cancelling AirPod Pros tightly affixed. No surprise here then that the recognizable NFL sausage-making factory has happily rambled to life after having given life to recent gems SoFi (LA) and Allegiant (Las Vegas) stadiums. For Buffalo, it’s figuratively — and-actually — Oktoberfest.
Highmark Stadium (originally Rich Stadium) opened as the belle of football venues in 1973 and was famously designed to embrace and amplify the tumultuous foul weather Buffalo proudly stood for. Heating, shelter from the elements, a roof, enclosed concourses? NO need for all that nonsense, stadium designers scoffed. Taking inspiration from the original Spartan-style home of the Boston Patriots (now the New England Patriots) in Foxborough, Highmark carefully eschewed the deluxe, full-service cocooned sporting experiences we’ve all contemporarily come to demand. Without all the need for 2022 trappings 50 years into the future, Highmark was erected on-time within an absurd 17 month construction timetable and a shoestring $22M (in 1973 dollars) taxpayer-funded budget. Highmark opened to local acclaim in August 1973 and that season quickly ignited a revered source of intimidation for visiting teams unaccustomed to the dramatic windshear in the lower bowl and cinematic beauty (and physical torture) of sub-zero windchills and wind-driven lake effect icy snow. Essentially, the 12th omnipresent offensive player on the field. Directly downwind of Lake Erie, no one should have expected anything less. Pity the poor souls who came to town from sunnier climes or hometown venues with quaint walls and a roof. Welcome to Buffalo, kid!
And so, Highmark would proudly pound out a half-century’s worth of browbeating as the home of were true football played out. Out in the elements come rain, snow, ice or fear. The plight of the Team hasn’t been as menacing as the facility its housed in with twin losing back-to-back Super Bowl appearances and numerous playoff appearances stacked in the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s. Relative crickets since. But as Highmark approaches it 50th birthday next Summer, Kim Pegula (Owner and CEO Pegula Sports and Entertainment) looked at the same calendar and saw her Team’s 50th anniversary with Highmark as a pretext for divorce. See, the Bills signed a 10-year lease renegotiation for Highmark with owner Erie County back in 2012; a tense renegotiation that called for capital improvements to the tune of $130M. And as the clock winds down on the team’s latest decade-long agreement, Kim pulled out all the stops to get her Team a brand-new gift wrapped stadium underneath the Bills Christmas tree. Further, a gift fully-paid for by county and state governments without a penny from the Pegula piggybank. At least that was the opening salvo. Free of any tenancy binds beyond 2023, she floated the idea of moving the franchise to Austin as recently as June 2021. Though she or anyone with Pegula Sports and Entertainment ever actually contacted anyone in the Austin about the idea, the instant sting and substance were felt in Buffalo and Albany, if not the NFL.
Local fans could only watch the back-and-fort with a mixture of slight fear, strained humor and abject anger. A new stadium is ALWAYS nice but what’s so wrong with Highmark? And beyond that, why should taxpayers be on the hook for a facility that’s used only 8 or 9 times in-season? $1.5B for what exactly? Kim came prepared to battle-back. And that’s precisely where the vaunted Section 300 comes into play. As part of the expiration of the Team’s current lease agreement, Erie County (Highmark’s owner) commissioned an engineering report on the facility and what returned was a relative showcase of an aged beauty showing some cracks in the veneer. Not exactly irredeemable but not exactly popcorn and peanuts to bring up to modern 2023-and beyond standards. Case in point: Section 300. Recall that back in 1972, Highmark was erected in only 17 months. How is that possible in the harsh winters of upstate New York where concrete curing is, among all aspects of construction, crucially weather-dependent? Well engineers used the then state-of-the-art (now commonplace) technique of off-site prefabrication. This is where concrete components are manufactured off-site under carefully controlled conditions, shipped and installed on-site. This saves countless time and affords innumerable cost savings. Highmark’s critical structural members including above grade pre-stressed seating and floor planks and vomitory walls were all constructed of “prefab” materials. In essence, all of Section 300. The stadium’s challenging weather and open-air design made it, according to the engineering audit, that much more susceptible to degradation. The infiltration of moisture, freeze/thaw cycles and raw exposure to the elements over the course of 50 seasons has begun to weaken the structural supports for the prefab materials. Parred concrete exposing rusting rebar and growing fissures in flooring planks, while not an immediate safety hazard, had to be addressed as part of a comprehensive rehabilitation plan. That plan including electrical, mechanical, lighting, concession and comfort upgrades rang up an estimated $1B invoice in repairs
Kim, along with County leaders, gasped and balked at the price tag. For $1B, her Bills would be receiving a venue that’s STILL 50 years old. That’s when she decided to rip up the bill and tossed it into the wind. She wanted a NEW stadium and didn’t want to pay for it. Kim wanted another 1971-style deal but flowered in 2022 boilerplate yet still be rewarded with a glistening, brand new Orchard Park hulking behemoth. To backup her conviction, those nasty Austin rumblings curiously surfaced and did what a $1B punchlist could not: they barnstormed a multi-faceted deal over the finish line. In the end, Kim is going to have some skin in the game (as she always expected) but smartly minimized her exposure. And astoundingly, County and State taxpayers are underwriting the lion’s share of the project at a time when such deals were long-thought extinct. The new Bills stadium’s (naming rights still unspoken for) cost was whittled down to $1.4B. New York State is footing $600M, Erie County with $250M, the NFL via G-4 loan is dumping $200M. Kim? She’s writing a check for $350M. In return, she’s signed a 30-year lease with an opt-out clause just 15 years hence in 2041. It’s clear where the power resided in these negotiations. Section 300, please take a bow.
In 2026, the Bills will celebrate the arrival of the NFL’s newest trophy venue. It will feature an illuminated exterior larger-than-life mesh curtain to baffle and mitigate the beastly Buffalo winds, “stacked” (read: steep) seating bringing 60,000 fans closer to the field in every aspect, vastly more heated public spaces, a 360-degree enclosed canopy protecting 80% of seated fans from the harshest of weather conditions. The Bills insist the stadium will be built fan-first meaning tailgating will play an integral part in the structure’s physical preamble. Oh, the stadium still won’t have a roof and there still won’t be any quote unquote real walls. But the Team, Kim, County and State leaders including Governor Kathy Hochul promised an unwavering allegiance to the everyday fan when announcing the signed-sealed-and-yet-to-be-delivered $1.4B project to the public this past March. That’s the debatable part of the message where we all know that the Bills held inscrutable leverage over Erie County and New York State. What elected official wants to preside over the exodus of a storied AFC franchise after all. An expiring lease, the freedom to run, a Highmark Stadium engineering audit that to this day remains mysteriously redacted when depicting Section 300, a crummy civic position and an empty bank account. The only superhero in this puzzle is the everyday fan doubling as taxpayer. The Buffalo Bills fan flew in with a Venmo QR-code and Kim happily snapped away. So a fan-first deal? Sure, but not quite in the way project boosters loudly proclaim. All of this hullabaloo stemming prophetically from Highmark’s Section 300, the supposed egalitarian outreach to the Community. Ironic, typical or just plain cruel? Exactly.
As the Season turns 3 weeks old, a flip of the calendar harkens the arrival of Fall and a revision to the mean is now apparent for early-Season frontrunners. Some surprising turnabouts and an unfortunately predictable laggard. WE had the battle of the titans with Aaron Rodgers and his Packers taking on Tompa Brady and delivering the first loss of the season to the Bucs. The further Tom Brady gets into the Season, seemingly the more disjointed he becomes with his Offense. Whether out to injuries (Chris Goodwin, Julio Jones) or suspension (Mike Evans) or even Tom’s own ring finger issues, it’s clear that the yellow brick road to Glendale, AZ isn’t the cakewalk pundits predicted just a month ago. The Packers for their part also aren’t pouring on the points and pressure commensurate with the likes of a Super Bowl-caliber team; oh the glories of aging in place. But there’s plenty of time for both squads and jeez 2–1 ain’t the end of the world. You want to talk Super Bowl-caliber then we’re forced to weigh-in with the Ravens. The City Birds noisily descended upon Foxborough and dropped a walloping on the feeble Pats, 37–26. Lamar Jackson handed over another masterclass outing (18/29 218yds 4TDs 1Int; 11c 107yds 1TD) throwing the ball, running the ball, every which way but loose. Quite the sensation who is elevating the gameplay for all those around him. For New England, things cannot get worse but will. Starting QB Mac Jones suffered a late game high ankle sprain (which will likely require surgery and weeks of recovery time) and sadly for Pats fans, needed to be helped off the field. His understudy Brian Hoyer steps up next week amid minimal expectations against GB. No expectations, no disappointment goes the saying, no? Meanwhile down in DC, the Eagles renaissance has officially taken flight. QB Jalen Hurts, along with Lamar, is one of the few early MVP contenders and is taking the fanfare to the bank. He also took down the floundering Commanders in high style, 24–8. Jalen synced with an acrobatic DeVonta Smith and hit the jackpot. The Ravens, along with the Fins, remain the only unbeaten teams as we dip into Week4.
Speaking of the Fins, there’s a new sheriff in the AFC East and it has a blowhole, a long pliable beak and is encased in what looks to be primer gray rubber. The favored Bills arrived at Hard Rock Stadium only to be greeted with fresh, tropical triple digit Florida heat. The results were not good for Buffalo. MIA QB Tua Tagovailoa continued to synergize with superstar RECs Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle and snag that W, 21–19. There was some drama, though. BUF LB Matt Milano needlessly shoved Tua to the ground and was penalized with a Roughing the Passer penalty. Tua, whose helmeted head resultingly hit the turf violently, for his part shakily retook his footing only to lose it moments later, a clear indication of possible concussive injury. He walked off the field for the rest of the half where he “cleared” concussive protocol and returned to victory in the second half. The NFLPA has launched an investigation. Despite the sour side of football shockingly erupting into the spotlight, MIA’s Defense ground down BUF’s famous O and coupled with their own injured Defense, spelled victory for Miami. Over at SoFi, Justin Herbert continued to nurse an injured rib from last week and decided to make a go of things. He shouldn’t have. His McRib is clearly affecting his accuracy and timing. The results showed in a 10–38 blowout to the Jags. On that side of the ledger, QB Trevor Lawrence, freed from the frothy Urban Meyer soap opera of 2021, is running free and developing under new Coach Doug Pederson as the hidden weapon in plain sight the Jags always knew they wielded. TLaw in LA practiced discipline, alacrity, quickness and accuracy. RECs Zay Jones, Christian Kirk and Marin Jones Jr heeded the call and together punished LAC.
In our Round Robin, the Panthers overcame the Saints in the showdown between two Heisman winners in Jameis Winston (suffering and playing through — unevenly — 4 fractured vertebrae) and CLE castoff and Progressive Insurance star Baker Mayfield. Both QBs offered up meh outings. The 9ers let one slip to the Broncos, 10–11, in a game beset with slop — Jimmy G and Russel Wilson included. The Rams continue in their winning ways when paired up with the Cards (20–12), The Falcons snuck out a WIN at Seattle, and the Chiefs suffered their first loss to the Colts of all teams. A rough week for KC where visible frustration was seen on the sidelines accompanied by heated dialogue and frantic gesticulations on mute. Oh if Gatorade dispensers could talk. The Vikings took on either the scrappiest team in the NFL or the crappiest team in the NFL, the Lions. The Vikings made a paper tiger of Detroit, 28–24, but just barely. And in a return to measured normality, the Jets and the Giants took an L this week. Similarly, the Raiders despite very tight final scores in each of the early weeks of the Season, slide to 0–3 joining with the lowly Texans as the only Teams who have failed to throw anything up on the board aside from grumpy reality. Where is Lady Luck when you need her?
