FILE - The Highmark Stadium before an NFL football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals, in Buffalo, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

ORCHARD PARK — On Dec. 10, 2017, mounds of snow piled high at New Era Field as the Buffalo Bills hosted the Indianapolis Colts in a game for the ages. Just a month before Buffalo snapped a 17-year playoff drought, fans braved whiteout conditions and dangerous roads to get to the stadium to watch the Bills play in a blizzard.

Rich Jesse, who at the time was President of the Southern Tier Bills Boosters Club, recalled how you could tell who had been waiting longest to walk through the gates by measuring the amount of snow piled on the shoulders and atop the heads of the fans in line.

The official attendance for the game, remembered as “The Snow Bowl”, was registered at more than 60,000 fans. Many of them did not make it to the end, if they even made it to the stadium at all. In those conditions, who could blame them if they didn’t?

During the second half of the game, unable to see anything in the upper deck but the snowflakes falling consistently throughout the afternoon, longtime Bills season ticket holder Barbara Barnes decided enough was enough. As she walked to the end of the aisle to head home, a fan in the seat at the end of the row summarized the dilemma every fan that day faced.

“There is a fine line between brave and stupid,” the man said, as he pat Barnes’ grandson on his back.

Many fans remember that day for the overtime victory the Bills earned, 13-7, on a LeSean McCoy touchdown run in the extra period – a win that proved to be crucial, as the Bills later made the playoffs by the skin of their teeth. Barnes learned of McCoy’s touchdown on the drive back home to Fredonia, after a stop at Five Guys to pick up burgers and fries.

No matter how bad the weather was, tens of thousands of Bills fans packed the stadium in Orchard Park for every home game for more than half a century. They did so to create memories.

This weekend is likely the final time that building will be packed full of Bills fans searching for their next memory. Sunday is almost certain to be the final time that the Buffalo Bills play in the cathedral of sport now known as Highmark Stadium.

While the building has gone by many names since it opened in 1973 – first as Rich Stadium, then Ralph Wilson Stadium, New Era Field, Bills Stadium, and finally, Highmark Stadium – it was always the same home. The power to create memories for tens of thousands of fans at every game remained the same.

Jesse, a 78-year-old Dunkirk man, is one of many fans whose love for the Bills has become part of his identity. Sunday will be the final game Jesse attends as a season ticket holder of 46 years. He only missed four games over those 46 years, while his wife, Jeanette, joined him for the majority of those years. He also served as President of the Southern Tier Bills Boosters Club for 35 years until this past season.

“It’s been fun, a lot of memories from that stadium,” Jesse said.

As the chapter closes on the only stadium Jesse has known as a season ticket holder, he did not feel like it was worth the hassle of fighting for season tickets in the new stadium at his age, though he does expect to go to a game or two at the new facility at some point.

“I’m going to miss being in the stadium watching the game,” Jesse said.

The new stadium – estimated at well over a billion dollars to construct – is located just down the road from the current stadium. It is within sight of the parking lots that thousands of fans have packed full to tailgate for every home game. Jesse was no exception to that tradition.

Over 46 years as a season ticket holder, Jesse witnessed hundreds of memorable games. He was at “The Snow Bowl” in 2017, and swears he stuck it out until the end. He was once interviewed by a Rochester radio station while sitting in the stands in the cold and rain, and recalls the first question he was asked: “What are you doing here?”

His response was simple. Jesse recalled, “I’m a Bills fan. I’m coming, no matter what.”

Jesse remembers one of the greatest comebacks in the history of professional sports, the 41-38 overtime win for the Bills over the Houston Oilers in the playoffs on Jan. 3, 1993. It was a game that Buffalo trailed 35-3 before Frank Reich led a rally that still stands as the greatest postseason comeback in NFL history.

“It was really something. It was crazy,” Jesse said. “When they kicked that field goal and won that game, that was just crazy.”

Like “The Snow Bowl”, “The Comeback”, and every other game, Jesse swears he did not leave early, even at the bleakest times. Tens of thousands of others swear the same is true when they look back on “The Comeback”, but finding a fan who will own up to leaving the game early is even more daunting a task than the comeback was itself.

“I stay no matter what,” Jesse said. “I don’t leave.”

Jesse braved harsh conditions over the years, from snow to wind and rain. He recalls a game in the 1970s against the Jets that he defined as a “mini hurricane”, as both teams struggled to pass the ball all game long.

“That was quite an adventure being there for that,” Jesse said.

Over more than four decades, Jesse has seen every era of the Buffalo Bills, just as the building the team called home did. From Joe Ferguson, O.J. Simpson and the Electric Company to the Blizzard Defense and Jim Kelly’s K-Gun offense, the venue had some of its best years under the name of Rich Stadium.

The team struggled for nearly two decades after Hall of Famers Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed, and Bruce Smith departed, as the field went by the name Ralph Wilson Stadium. After four straight Super Bowl trips in the 1990s, Buffalo went 17 years without a playoff appearance.

The drought finally ended on Dec. 31, 2017. At that time, the stadium went by the name of New Era Field, which it donned from 2016-2019. The name fit perfectly, as a new era of great Bills teams was ushered in by this generation’s version of Jim Kelly in reigning Most Valuable Player Josh Allen.

While many great players set foot on its surface, not only Bills greats have created memories on the stadium’s floor. Jesse recalls storming the field with thousands of fans to take down the goalposts, which was done in 1980, 1988, and 1990.

“I was one of those idiots down on the field,” Jesse said.

Fans have refrained from storming the field in recent years, but the field has still not been exclusive to NFL contests. The Buffalo Sabres played the inaugural NHL Winter Classic game outdoors with a hockey rink on the field. It was a memorable contest won by the Pittsburgh Penguins on a game-winning goal by Sidney Crosby in a shootout. The event was so successful that the NHL has held similar events at stadiums across the country. The Bills’ stadium also hosted an international World Juniors hockey game in 2017 between Canada and the United States.

Additionally, the stadium has served as the home for the Section VI high school football championships for many years, making the dreams of high school players come true with an opportunity to play on the field of their hometown team. The tradition is not expected to continue at the new venue next season, and it is unclear if that will change in the years that follow.

On Sunday, the Bills will host the New York Jets in a game that matters much more in terms of nostalgia than in terms of actual stakes attached to the game itself. The Jets are among the worst teams in the league and have been long since eliminated from playoff contention. The Bills, while headed to the postseason, cannot climb higher than the 5-seed regardless of Sunday’s outcome. That means a home playoff game is impossible in the first round of the postseason, and very unlikely moving forward. With Josh Allen playing through a foot injury, managing the pain like many others on the team do every week, Buffalo could opt to protect its star players from further harm, rather than prioritizing the win on Sunday at all costs.

But one thing is for certain: Sunday will be memorable. Win or lose, tens of thousands of Bills fans will be able to say they braved the weather and witnessed what was the final regular season football game played at the home of the Buffalo Bills for more than 50 years. Buildings eventually fall, and names often change, but memories can last forever.