Tackle Spencer Brown felt like he was inside a snow globe. He also realized he didn’t have a shovel. Safety Damar Hamlin asked the internet who has a snowmobile. Tight end Quintin Morris echoed Hamlin’s request.
“Pick me up too,” Morris tweeted. “I’m down (the) street.”
As the Buffalo Bills prepare for Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns, they’re doing so under unusual circumstances. The game will be played at Detroit's Ford Field instead of Highmark Stadium because of a lake-effect storm pummeling parts of Western New York. The decision came Thursday, a few hours before the snow.
I don’t own a shovel, my trash can lid is about to put in that work pic.twitter.com/BIRXHNoIMW
— Spencer Brown (@TooTallo_o) November 18, 2022
When coach Sean McDermott jumped on to a video conference with players Friday morning, he was greeted by creative backgrounds, a light mood, and tales from first-time lake-effect witnesses.
“It's kind of a cool experience to see some of the smiles and looks on the guys' faces who have never been around snow, whether it be from the West Coast or down south,” McDermott said. “And then, there is the caution side, with trying to navigate life and snow and conditions like this. …
“We're all there for one another.”
The Bills coach thinks the shared experience can even bring his team closer. It will certainly be memorable, as the team quickly navigates a bit of chaos.
At McDermott’s Friday morning news conference, the exact Saturday flight time was still being determined – a status that will likely hold until close to takeoff.
“We want to head out tomorrow as close to the normal time as possible,” McDermott said Friday. “However, again, seeing what's happening around us right now, just want to make sure that all the staff and players families are safe and dug out before we try and get out of here, just so everyone's mind is in the right spot, knowing that their families are all safe.”
The team is anticipating that snow in the Orchard Park area will slow early Saturday morning, giving players time to dig out, head to the facility and fly to Detroit.
The Bills did not leave Thursday ahead of the storm, with General Manager Brandon Beane saying it could have been a consideration had the league’s decision to move the game come earlier in the week.
Maintaining some semblance of routine was also a factor, on top of the logistical frenzy of getting out of Western New York in a matter of just a few hours before the snow started. The team and league announced the change at 4:15 p.m. Thursday. Beane said the Bills learned of the decision about 30 minutes before that.
Beane had noted the possibly of – if necessary – flying Sunday morning, but McDermott did not want to entertain the idea of leaving Sunday and potentially delaying the game, when asked. The Bills have a 12:30 p.m. game on Thanksgiving, so a later start Sunday would eat into an already rapid turnaround.
“I don't even really want to go down that rabbit hole right now,” McDermott said. “And I don't even know if either logistically or by NFL rules, if that's even allowed. That's kind of outside of my lane right now. So we're just focused on everything going off at the normal time, Sunday at 1 o'clock.”
The Browns plan to take buses to Detroit, coach Kevin Stefanski said Friday.
Both teams have quickly made a number of adjustments, the game plan surely included, with the shift indoors. Still, as the forecast for Sunday in Orchard Park had been more windy than snowy for a few days now, Beane said Thursday that the change of elements and the effect on the game plan weren’t as significant. The weather forecast for the game itself did not dictate the decision to move to Detroit, but the change was motivated by the desire to not take resources away from the community by hosting the game.
Buffalo will be making its preparations on an abridged week of practice. The team did not have enough players to have a full practice Wednesday. Then, Friday’s practice was canceled, with weather conditions keeping players and staff from One Bills Drive. All meetings were held virtually.
The ways the entire league had to adapt the last couple of seasons helped the Bills adapt on that front.
“If this was prior to Covid, I don't even know if we'd be able to do this, like we're doing it here on Zoom,” McDermott said.
Instead, players were able to easily jump on and have time to change their backgrounds.
Zooming from home, with his family upstairs, and with shoveling outside the house on McDermott’s to-do list for later, the coach knew that Friday’s meetings were about more than just going over plans for Sunday.
Bills won't be the only ones feeling impact of game moving Sunday
“I want to make sure I can look guys in the eye,” McDermott said.
Some players lost power and were not able to join. Orchard Park was hit particularly hard by heavy, wet snow Thursday night and Friday morning, which downed power lines. But overall, the team seemed to have gotten through the first wave of the storm without too many problems.
“For the most part, everyone looked like they were safe and doing well,” McDermott said.
While the meetings would focus in part on game prep, McDermott also wanted to emphasize the bigger picture.
“Sometimes things get a little bit bigger than football,” McDermott said. “I think the thing we also have to understand and remember is that there's people out there that are working in this and having to get to hospitals and whatnot. So, there's a lot a lot more going on that's more important than football today.”
It’s a message he’s felt reinforced, too, as McDermott was also on the receiving end of check-ins during the extreme snowstorm.
“We're all human beings and people are checking on us here, whether it's text from friends or calls from family,” McDermott said. “I think my family is upstairs on a call with my folks and they're checking in on us. So yeah, that's all the human part of all this. … Some things are a little bit bigger than football right now: Just making sure everyone's OK.”
Walking back through knee deep wet heavy snow in Orchard Park.
