It’s official this week as the old Highmark Stadium has played their final home game. The Buffalo Bills opened up their current stadium back on September 30th, 1973 in a home game against the New York Jets which they won 9-7. It started with the Jets and ended with the Jets on January 4th of 2026 with a 35-8 victory in the last game of regular season. The Bills ended up being being a wild card spot and 6th seed in the AFC post-season. The last 5 seasons the Bills have won the AFC East which guaranteed them a home playoff game. Not this season as the New England Patriots took the division and at the same time ruined the Bills’ pipe dream of playing a home playoff game giving Highmark stadium one more game. Yes, the Patriots beat the 7th seed Chargers last week which killed the fantasy of the Bills hosting the Chargers in the AFC Championship.

In 1973 when they opened the new Buffalo Bills stadium, it was called Rich Stadium. At the time of the opening, a Buffalo-based food products company called Rich Products signed a 25 year deal for the naming rights. It was a 1.5 million dollar deal. Rich Foods had to pay the Bills $60,000 per season. Rich Stadium lasted from 1973 to 1997. When the name was under Rich Stadium, it was during those great 1990 Buffalo Bills teams with Jim Kelly leading the charge with the hurry up offense. Those Bills of the 1990’s went to 4 straight Superbowls as you know the results there. We will move on to 1998 when Bills owner Ralph Wilson named the stadium after himself. It was Ralf Wilson Stadium from 1998-2015. Then in 2016 it became New Era Field, which lasted three seasons until the finish of 2019. During the pandemic, it just became plain Jane Bills Stadium. Then from 2021 on it has been Highmark Field, the name that will transfer to the state of art new stadium across the street at 1 Bills Drive in Orchard Park, New York.

Before Rich Stadium was ever built, the Bills played on the east side of Buffalo. The Bills were established in 1960 as part of the AFL and played their home games at War Memorial Stadium, aka The Rock Pile. They played 13 seasons there which held a capacity of 47,000. Then in the merger of the AFL and NFL, the Bills had to find a new venue because back then the NFL stadiums had a mandate of 50,000 seats which eliminated War Memorial Stadium. Ralph Wilson explored relocation to cities like Memphis, Tampa Bay, and Seattle. In the end the state and the Bills ownership agreed to stay in Western New York as they landed a new stadium and the rest is history.

It was week 18, the final game of regular season and final regular season game at High Mark. The current Bills came out wearing the retro 1990 helmets that Jim Kelly and those guys played in. The Bills rested many of their starters as Josh Allen did get one play to keep his Iron Man streak alive. The Bills were playing to improve their wild card seed and did not need the starters to get the job done. Back up quarterback Mitch Trubisky led the offense after Allen’s one play and he and the offense lit up the Jets to give the Bills a win to end their season and a W for the crowd in the farewell game. Running back James Cook did have a few rushes in the game before he sat down. Those few rushes won him the NFL rushing title as he becomes the second Bills player to do that since the Juice OJ Simpson wore the uniform before killing his X-wife. It was an emotional farewell as all the Bills chants were being sung proud from all the memories of this old building. On hand were Hall of Fame Bills players such as Jim Kelly and Andre Reed and their Hall of Fame head coach, 100 year old Marv Levy. The atmosphere was festive on a cold day full of warmth watching their team win and enjoying the last memories of the stadium. The jumbo-tron had a farewell video during the post-game with the song Iris from Buffalo’s own Goo Goo Dolls that featured all the cool and great highlights of all these Bills teams that played here 53 seasons. At the end of the game after all the songs and chants were sung and beers drank, the jumbo-tron read, “Thank You Bills Mafia.” Simple & to the point. Not even alien intelligence could think of something better.

The Buffalo Bills had some very bad teams throughout the 53 seasons. Some of the playoff droughts were decades long. The first ever playoff game at Rich Stadium came in 1988, a Bills victory over the Houston Oilers. It was the Houston Oilers that the Bills beat in that epic playoff game in January of 1993 called the COMEBACK.

No Jim Kelly in that game. The Oilers dominated the first half. The Bills made the comeback with back up QB Frank Reich who erased a 32 point deficit in the second half. The best game I ever saw played on the gridiron. The Bills won every home playoff game until the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars came to town in 1996 and upset Buffalo in the wild card round. The Bills were perfect against three teams at Rich Stadium those 53 seasons. They beat all 31 teams at this stadium at least once. They went perfect against 3 teams. They were 5-0 versus the Cardinals, 3-0 versus the Buccaneers and 7-0 versus the Packers. On January 1, 2008 the stadium had the first NHL Winter classic as the Buffalo Sabres skated outside versus the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins. The Orangemen of Syracuse University played a few home games at this stadium. All the concerts over the years and many other events this stadium saw. All those great memories will last a lifetime for everyone who went there to see their beloved team perform. In society today, stadiums, like most things, don’t last forever. I wish we would have more stadiums stay open for over 100 years like Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley in Chicago. The new Bills stadium across the street will be something special based on the looks of it from the outside. The Bills could have easily put up a dome. Especially with all the snow and cold games they have encountered over the decades. The fan base and the ownership chose to go with an open air stadium with grass instead. My feeling and that of every other Bills fan is that the memories will instantly roll over to the new state of the art facility that looks ginormous. Buffalo is like Whoville in the Grinch story. Christmas still came for the Whos in Whoville after the Grinch stole everything. The snow will come, but it never prevents the Bills Mafia from enjoying the Sunday game rooting on the Bills. GO BILLS!!!