On the eve of his showdown with the Seattle Seahawks, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen’s preparation was shattered by gut-wrenching news. His grandmother had passed away unexpectedly at the age of 80.
Allen decided to play and dedicate his performance to her. “She'd want me to play the way I usually play with fun and the sense of pride when I represent the Buffalo Bills and on my back, my family,” Allen said.
With the extra motivation, Allen went out and gave America another reason why he has a growing MVP bandwagon, throwing 31 passes on 38 attempts for 415 yards and three touchdowns. Allen would also tack on a rushing touchdown, pointing to the sky after leaping into the endzone.
Word of Allen’s grandmother’s passing soon spread across the Bills Mafia, first on the r/BuffaloBills subreddit before jumping to other social media platforms. Fans encouraged each other to donate to Buffalo’s Oishei Children’s Hospital in memory of Allen’s grandmother.
The most popular donation of Bills fans was $17, Allen’s jersey number. A button decked out in the iconic Bills red, white and blue Zubaz pattern to donate $17 was quickly added to the donate page of the hospital’s website.
Oishei’s Twitter page quickly became filled with their thanks to the individuals and local businesses jumping on the $17 trend.
In addition to Bills Mafias' hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, Buffalo-based Independent Health Association, Inc. donated $17 for each of their 1700 employees. East Aurora-based toy company, Fisher Price, also donated 30,000 face masks to the hospital.
Buffalo News meteorologist Andrew Baglini teamed up with the charity Extra Life to raise $1717 during a 24-hour gaming marathon livestream.
Allen himself would push the campaign to a new milestone as his $17,000 donation put the fundraising drive at over $500,000 on the evening of Nov. 13.
Oishei Hospital was chosen by Bills fans due to Allen’s running partnership with the hospital. Allen serves as a spokesperson for the hospital, appearing in fundraising commercials and occasionally visiting patients.
Allen has also fundraised for Oishei through collaborations with businesses, designing a special edition hat with New Era Caps and teaming up with Wegmans to release Josh’s Jaqs cereal, with both benefiting the hospital.
The cause of Oishei Children’s Hospital is personal for the quarterback. Growing up, his brother would make frequent visits to their local children’s hospital with a rare condition affecting his blood vessels.
“I remember it was very tough on him, tough on my family,” Allen said to The Buffalo News, “to go there and be at Children’s Hospital … it’s heart-wrenching. But at the same time, to go into these rooms and see these kids’ faces light up … it’s the most meaningful [experience] to me.”
The Oishei drive is the latest in a string of donation sprees for Bills Mafia.
In 2018, when Bengals Quarterback Andy Dalton threw a miraculous touchdown on 4th and 12 to snap the Bills’ 17-year playoff drought, Bills fans responded by donating $415,000 to his charity.
A contested loss in a 2019 NFL on FOX twitter poll after a Tennessee Titans fan cheated by buying twitter bots to vote against the Bills prompted Bills Mafia to donate over $14,000 to the Nashville Children’s Alliance.
The whole experience has deepened the emotional connection of Allen and his family to Buffalo. “Every time I call my parents and let them know the new number, they just start bawling all over again,” Allen said, “It's truly a special place. My family is forever engraved here, myself included. I don't ever want to leave.”