Why do Buffalo Bills fans donate to Ravens players?

When a player on the opposing team makes a big mistake in a big game, it’s a joy for many sports fans. Our team will win! We cut it, you stink!

But not all sports fans.

With a minute and a half left in Sunday’s NFL playoff game, the Baltimore Ravens scored a touchdown to close the gap on the Buffalo Bills, making the score 27-25. A 2-point conversion ties the game.

“The whole season comes down to this game,” said TV announcer Jim Nantz.

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson threw the ball to tight end Mark Andrews, who was on the line. He took it … and threw it away. In fact, he looked like he was slipping when the ball hit Buffalo’s snowy field. But he threw it away.

The whole season came down to that game. And the crow blew it, and lost the game. Their season is over.

But at least some Bills fans felt compassion, even in the midst of their defeat.

Andrews has type 1 diabetes, and two Bills fans planned to raise money for Breakthrough T1D, a charity that supports diabetes research and awareness that he supports. Their language seems a little different from the fiery rhetoric that football fans like to use when talking about the game.

“We just want to spread love; that’s what we love to do,” said Ryan Patota, 20, a sophomore at Canisius University in Buffalo and a lifelong Bills fan. Patota and Nicholas Howard, also a sophomore, who runs a Bills fan Instagram page, decided to start a charity event with that goal.

“I mean, you hate the other team,” Patota said. “You want your team to win. But we want to bring the two camps together and say, ‘Hey, this is more than a game.’

Howard said: “I have a lot of respect for Mark Andrews. Even if he played with us.”

The effort had raised more than $100,000 as of Thursday afternoon, after more than 3,000 private donations. The initial goal is to raise $5,000. “I never expected it to explode like this,” Patota said.

At first, the donations came from Bills fans, he said, but as word spread, fans of the Ravens and other NFL teams joined in.

Andrews pricks his finger 30 times per game to check his blood sugar and uses an insulin pump. “Type 1 diabetes is very difficult, but I refuse to let it affect my work or my life in any way,” he said in a post on the UMass Chan Medical School website.

The Ravens did not respond to a request for comment from Andrews, who is 6-foot-5, weighs 250 pounds and has played in the league for seven years, three of them in the regular season. Pro Bowl.

Elite athletes often receive hate from opposing fans, but those who get it wrong can also face scorn from supporters. Of course, angrier and more outspoken Ravens fans have been dumping negativity about Andrews all over social media following the arrest. This behavior encouraged the organizers of the car, they said.

“There are a lot of keyboard warriors who make disgusting comments,” Patota said.

Howard said, “Maybe they lost the bet, but that doesn’t give them the right to spread hate.”

David Whelan, a football fan who kicked in $25 for the fundraiser, wrote, speaking to Andrews on the donation page, that he felt it was “too bad some Ravens fans seem to have short memories It’s ridiculous and you’ve forgotten how big a contribution you made to his team as one of the best in the NFL” (Andrew caught 55 passes in the regular season and five. there (early in the playoffs.)

Despite the falling out of the relationship, Patota said he remained a Bills fan. But, moving forward, “we’re definitely going to have a soft spot for the Ravens.”