Buffalo Bills fans watched their team fall, 38-21, to the New York Giants in a wild, windy, wet game Sunday afternoon in Ralph Wilson Stadium.
But maybe the highlight of the day - arguably the season - was completely out of view of the stadium crowd.
It came two hours before game time, when tight end Kevin Everett stepped out of a stadium golf cart and walked unaided into the Bills locker room.
Those few simple steps were extraordinary, considering the last time Everett was in the stadium, Sept. 9, it was uncertain he would ever walk again.
It meant a lot to have Everett back in Buffalo watching the game, said tight end Robert Royal.
"There are just some things more important than football, and that's one of those things," Royal said.
Sunday was the first time the 25- year-old Everett had been back in Ralph Wilson Stadium since he suffered a potentially fatal spinal injury in the Bills' season-opening loss to the Denver Broncos during a kickoff collision.
Since that severe spinal cord injury initially paralyzed him from the neck down, Everett's remarkable recovery and the cutting-edge technique doctors used to treat him have captured the nation's attention.
Most recently, his story was on the cover of the Dec. 17 issue of Sports Illustrated, which reported he can walk up to 50 yards without help.
And Everett continues to improve as he goes for treatment five days a week in Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital rehabilitation center. He can raise his arms above his head with effort. He is regaining the motor skills in his hands. Everett spent about 15 minutes in the locker room before the game, wishing his teammates good luck and joking with them, as always.
"Same old Kevin," tight end Ryan Neufeld said after the game. "It was just really nice to see him up and walking around. The last time we saw him, he was in a hospital bed and in pretty bad shape."
There was some speculation last week that Everett would make a more public appearance in front of the stadium crowd, maybe even come onto the field prior to kickoff. The fans were ready and waiting.
"He's here? Cool," said Gordon Snyder, 46, of Cheektowaga.
Snyder wore a No. 85 T-shirt over his rain-soaked parka.
"We wore our [Everett] shirts today just to honor him," Snyder said. "Even though he's here today, he has a long struggle ahead of him to get back to some normalcy."
But as Sunday drew closer, there were questions about whether Everett would even come to Buffalo at all. Everett, a quiet, soft-spoken person, didn't want to take away from the game or be the center of attention.
In the end, Everett did show, although there was no media access to him.
"He just wanted to see the game," said Scott Berchtold, Bills vice president for communications.
After visiting the locker room, Everett was taken to a private suite in section 109, where he sat in a wheelchair and watched the game with his family, including his fiancee and his mother.
But he couldn't totally escape the public attention.
Cheers and whistles erupted from the fans mingling in the corridor when Everett first arrived at the suite.
"When he first showed up, everyone just kind of stopped and stood there," said stadium usher Brian Doyle, 27, of South Buffalo. "No one knew what to do."
Then Everett stood up for a second, sat in the wheelchair and was taken into the suite.
"Everyone just started clapping," Doyle said.
"It was heartwarming, a sigh of relief that he is getting better," said usher Rennick Gilbert, 38, of Buffalo. "He looked good. He looked healthy."
Snyder, the fan from Cheektowaga, said it's incredible to think Everett's injury happened in the season opener, and that he was back Sunday for the year's last home game - walking.
"That," said Bob "Tiger" Wright, a Bills season ticket holder, "is the best part of our season."
