Saturday night's showdown in Orchard Park against the New England Patriots is making Buffalo Bills fans wanna shout.
It's also gonna make them shiver.
Cold weather and Bills games? It happens.
The playoff game may turn out to be one of the coldest games the Bills have ever played. Temperatures are expected to be in the single digits at the 8:15 p.m. kickoff at Highmark Stadium – between about 5 and maybe 10 degrees. Factoring in wind chill, it will feel like 5 to 10 degrees below zero, according to the National Weather Service office in Buffalo.
"Will I be out there anyways – yes, yes I will," tweeted one fearless Bills fan who calls himself Matt the Bearded Photog. "Because I’m crazy & this team and #BillsMafia is family. You do crazy things for the ones you love. Go Bills!"
But seriously, this is not the game for you and 12 best friends to spell out "LET'S GO, BUFFALO" on your shirtless bellies.
The conditions Saturday night, according to meteorologist Jim Mitchell, will be similar to what Buffalo experienced Tuesday. It's going to warm up a bit during the week but then temperatures will plunge – just in time for the big game.
It shouldn't be record-breaking cold, he said.
"It's winter in Western New York," he said. "It's nothing crazy."
But it will be cold, even dangerously cold, if you're not dressed appropriately for the arctic conditions.
His advice: "Bundle up."
The coldest game in Bills' history was played 28 years ago to the day of Saturday's playoff game, when the Bills beat the then-Los Angeles Raiders 29-23 in the 1994 divisional playoffs at what was formerly known as Rich Stadium.
The temperature was zero for that game, with a wind chill of minus-32 degrees, but that formula has changed since then.
It was so cold that day that the Bills training staff had trouble keeping Gatorade cups filled because it kept freezing. The press boxes got so fogged up that the team needed a large squeegee and some de-icer to clear off the 10-foot windows.
While tickets to Saturday's game had not sold out as of Tuesday afternoon, there were plenty of hardy Bills fans vowing that there's no place they'd rather be.
"Are you sure you want to do it?" Joslin Lofton asked her husband, Damian, after looking at the weekend forecast for Western New York.
They looked at each other and nodded.
"You just have to tough it out," said Joslin Lofton. "We're coming. We're coming!"
Joslin Lofton, a federal government worker, grew up in Lackawanna and has lived outside of Washington, D.C., for more than 20 years now.
Her family used to get season tickets and drive back to town for all of the home games, but they haven't done so in a couple of years. This season, they went to one home game and a few of the away games. But when the Bills clinched a berth, Joslin Lofton said, there really was no question.
"It would be crazy NOT to want to go," she insisted.
Lofton will come prepared, she said. She is bringing a pair of UGG boots, a Bills onesie and lots of handwarmers.
"Lots of layers and probably a couple of cocktails, too," she said.
Also making the trek home to Buffalo will be Jason Tartick of Nashville, Tenn. Tartick, who graduated from Williamsville East High School, might be best remembered from his stint in the 14th season of "The Bachelorette." He currently hosts a podcast called "Trading Secrets."
Tartick has made a point of going to one post-season Bills game every year since the team finally ended its playoff drought in the 2017 season, he said, and started making plans even before it clinched, he said.
Tartick recently learned a few good tricks on staying warm at a sub-freezing football game. His fiancee – yes, there was a happy ending – bought him tickets to the Jan. 2 Green Bay Packers game against the Minnesota Vikings. It was on his bucket list to go to a game at Lambeau Field.
"It was so cold that my beer froze," he said.
Local fans taught him to bring two squares of foam – one to sit on and one to put his feet on. They also advised wearing plastic bags under your socks and to buy extended-time hand and foot warmers.
Jon Cross, of Lake View, said he isn't worried about the cold. As a police officer, Army vet and a lifelong Western New Yorker, he has handled worse conditions.
Cross and fellow season ticket holders plan on tailgating just as they normally would.
"Hopefully, we'll have a big fire going in the parking lot," he said.
When the tickets to the playoff game became available, there was no question he would go, Cross said.
"There was never a doubt. No hesitation," he said.
His wife? She's a little concerned. She's making plans to wear extra long body warmers.
"She'll be wrapped in those things," he said.
But as Bills fans, he said, he couldn't imagine a more exciting game.
A playoff game.
At home.
In a stadium filled with fans (unlike last season).
On a Saturday night.
Against the Patriots.
In the bitter, bone-chilling cold.
"It's the perfect recipe for Bills fans," Cross said. "We kind of embrace it."
