Kansas City Chiefs fans are taking a page out of the Bills Mafia playbook by donating $13 to a Buffalo hospital to celebrate their 13-second comeback.
Friendly rivalry and good-hearted trash talk is an essential part of the sports fan experience. Some people take it too far, to be sure, but there is a way for trolling to be used for good.
Chiefs fans hit that sweet spot after their wild victory over the Bills in the playoffs.
Kansas City managed to get in range for a game-tying field goal with just 13 seconds left on the clock, so Chiefs fans are donating to the Oishei Children’s Hospital in Buffalo in $13 increments.
By Wednesday afternoon, they raised over $255,000.
Chiefs fans took a page from Bills Mafia by giving to Buffalo hospital
That’s a direct nod to the kind of charitable giving the Bills community has been doing for years. Buffalo fans raised $1.1 million for the children’s hospital last year in honor of Josh Allen’s grandmother. They encouraged people to give $17 in donations for Allen’s jersey number.
The number 17 also featured in charitable giving in 2017 when Andy Dalton’s Bengals beat the Ravens to clinch a playoff spot for Buffalo. It was the Bills’ first postseason berth in 17 years, so fans helped raise $442,000 in $17 increments for Dalton’s foundation.
When the Bills lost to the Bucs in December thanks in part to a missed pass interference call, fans once again came together to donate $40,000 to VIA: Visually Impaired Advancement, a nonprofit that works with the visually impaired community in Buffalo. Making fun of “blind refs” ended up doing a whole lot of good.
That’s why Bills fans will no doubt take this one in stride. They won’t ever want to hear the phrase “13 seconds” ever again, but Chiefs fans are turning that traumatic ending into something worth praising.
There’s nothing better than seeing a fan community come together to do something good for another.