Sunday was bittersweet for Buffalo Bills fans. Yes, Buffalo rallied in thrilling fashion to beat the Bengals with three fourth-quarter touchdowns, and the snow made for a festive atmosphere. But there must’ve also been some tears in the crowd too, because this was the last holiday game at the old Highmark Stadium.
The annual holiday game is a tradition for Bills fans—for all of Buffalo, really. That’s what I learned from watching Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story, this year’s officially licensed, NFL-themed Hallmark Christmas movie. Last year’s Holiday Touchdown was about the Chiefs, and gave us a scene where Trent Green pockets money meant for charity. It also had higher-end production values, actors, and storylines than the average cable TV Christmas film. Credits for this season's NFL-Hallmark collaboration include such Bills luminaries as Thurman Thomas, Steve Tasker, Sean McDermott, Damar Hamlin, Dion Dawkins, Jim Kelly, Dawson Knox, Joshua Palmer, DeWayne Carter, Reid Ferguson, Andre Reed, and fucking Scott Norwood. Presumably James Lofton was busy. Presumably Billy Shaw would’ve made a cameo if he hadn’t died last year. Presumably you were expecting me to reference a different recently deceased Bills player in the previous sentence.
But the movie’s paint-by-numbers love story takes a backseat to the real star of the movie: New Highmark Stadium. At Defector, we generally try to avoid using a sponsored stadium name. But there’s simply no way to do that when writing about this film, because the stadium itself is, simply put, the star of the show.
Matthew Daddario is Gabe DeLuca, the Bills’ VP of Stadium Development. Morgan Quinn is Holland Roden, a big Bills fan. They’ve known each other for years, and finally realize their love for one another in the final scene. But there are two main plot devices here: the Bills’ old stadium and the under-construction new stadium. The Rodens and the DeLucas cannot stop talking about the transition from the old stadium to the new one, and the characters are obsessed with taking their annual holiday photo at the annual holiday game, which is the last game before Christmas. Per the closed captioning, characters say the words “Highmark Stadium” nine times in the film. I counted nine separate conversations characters have about the annual holiday photo at the annual holiday game.
In real life there is no beloved tradition of an annual holiday game at Highmark Stadium (I asked several Bills fans just to make sure). Behind this genuinely mystifying plot device, there is a kernel of an idea here: Fans are excited about a shiny, new stadium, but will also miss the old dump and the memories they made there. This is real! Throw a football in a parking lot before an NFL game in any number of cities and there’s a good chance you’ll hit someone talking about how they miss peeing in a sink at halftime in some long-gone stadium.
But in the world of Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story, the primary feature of the current Highmark Stadium is its ability to host the annual holiday game. It is possibly the most important day of the year for Bills fans. The only thing they might be more excited for is New Highmark Stadium. At times—the entire run time of the film—the movie feels more like an infomercial for the Bills’ new stadium than a Christmas movie. Roden actually gets a little teary-eyed about the old dump before quickly adding that she’s excited for the new one. DeLuca makes a big speech about how many jobs the new stadium created.
Actually, here: I have made a montage.
In real life, Bills fans generally call this stadium The Ralph. People once gave it a different nickname: “The House That O.J. Built.” Admittedly, that is a little clunky.
