It’s fortunate that the Buffalo Bills moved their Sunday game to their rivals in Detroit, as the snowfall in the region was as tall as their star quarterback, Josh Allen.
WIVB noted that the 77 inches of snow that accumulated outside the Bills’ stadium was equivalent to Allen’s height of 6 feet 5 inches and was taller than all but five other players on the New York team’s roster.
The village of Orchard Park in Erie County, where the stadium is located, was one of the hardest-hit areas during last week’s blizzard, according to the National Weather Service.
Due to the heavy snowfall, the Bills’ home game versus the Cleveland Browns was relocated to Ford Field in Detroit.
The New York team tweeted a video of their trip from Buffalo to Sunday’s game, with the caption “Snowshoes. Snowmobiles. Snowplows. We discovered a means to reach Detroit.”
Friday at a press conference, Erie County Sheriff John Garcia thanked the Bills for moving the game.
“I’d like to thank the Buffalo Bills for not having a game on Sunday, as the assets we would have had to redeploy there would have caused a lot of problems,” he said.
Representative of the NFL Brian McCarthy tweeted on Thursday that the decision was made solely to avoid diverting safety resources from the local community.
Mark Poloncarz, the executive of Erie County, stated that the region experienced the largest 24-hour snowfall in recorded history.
“This was an unprecedented storm… “The relatively swift recovery is a testament to the preparation and planning of everyone involved,” Poloncarz tweeted. “The proactive strategy continues to be effective.”
Poloncarz reported that two people died during the storm due to cardiac complications caused by shoveling snow and attempting to clear the ground.
Saturday night, the National Weather Service in Buffalo issued a special weather statement warning of a “burst of snow” caused by a band of heavy snow accompanied by high winds.
Until Sunday evening, the weather service has issued a winter weather advisory for the region.
Sunday, Governor Kathy Hochul requested a federal emergency declaration to secure additional aid for the 11 counties in New York that are currently in a state of emergency due to the storm.