One of the underrated plays of the Buffalo Bills’ win at New England on Sunday came on a short completion to Stefon Diggs, which started off the Bills’ third touchdown drive.
Diggs was picked up by Patriots cornerback Myles Bryant after the catch and slammed to the turf on his left shoulder. Diggs stayed on the ground. It was borderline roughing and the kind of hit that could snap a collarbone.
Diggs sat out one play and came back on the field. He took a lot of hits in the game and kept coming back for more.
“I heal up like Wolverine, so I ain’t got no issues,” Diggs said Wednesday, referring to the Marvel superhero. “I can’t ever leave my guys out there. I might take a play or two off, but I love everything about the physicality of the game. That’s why I fell in love with the game in the first place. ... And you’ve got a quarterback who’s 6-2, 6-3, taking hits from D-linemen and linebackers, so I can’t do too much complaining when there’s other guys giving everything they’ve got as well.”
For the record Stef, Josh Allen is 6-foot-5, but that’s beside the point.
The point is Diggs is tougher than he looks. You might expect some highly paid superstar receivers to show a little softness, avoid contact. Not Diggs. He doesn’t play like a diva receiver, and he doesn’t carry himself like a stereotypical diva. Me, me, me.
He has a playful personality that's easy for fans to embrace. And his game-day interactions with fans have become semi-famous.
During pre-game warmups at Gillette Stadium, a young fan in the front row caught Diggs’ eye by hanging two No. 14 Vikings jerseys (one white, one purple) over the railing. He wanted them signed.
Diggs challenged him to a best-of-three rock-paper-scissors game. Diggs lost. He signed a ball for the fan and told him he’d return to sign the jersey after the game. ... And he didn’t forget. He signed as he was walking off the field, which drew shouts of, “He’s for the people!”
.@StefonDiggs was a man of his word after losing rock, paper, scissors 🤝@insidetheNFL | @BuffaloBills pic.twitter.com/IVmoBdl2RL
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) December 28, 2021
For the past two seasons, Diggs has been treating fans in Orchard Park to games of catch during pre-game warmups. Diggs has a pretty good arm, and his throws get well up into the stands.
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“It’s fun,” Diggs says. “It don’t cost you nothing to be nice, especially when it’s dealing with kids because you don’t know how that’s going to impact them.”
Diggs did the same thing during his five seasons in Minnesota. Before the Miami game Oct. 31, he even brought a young fan onto the field for a catch.
“I think he said it was his birthday, so hopefully it was a good birthday present,” Diggs said.
Stefon Diggs going all out to make sure a fan in HIS jersey got a souvenir postgame yesterday. #Billsmafia pic.twitter.com/579eiYW0MP
— Thad Brown (@thadbrown7) December 27, 2021
The reality is a majority of NFL players are good with fans. But Diggs goes an extra, likable mile. Unless you’re the opposition.
After catching a 12-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter Sunday, CBS cameras caught Diggs pointing toward Patriots fans in the first row of the end zone stands and shouting “You, you, you, you and you.” Then he told them where they could go.
“It was a lot of intensity, even before the game,” Diggs said. “I’m a pretty even-keeled person, I’m pretty cool, you know what I’m saying? They like to heckle, I guess is the word for it. ... They want you to lose. So you perform your best with your back against the wall, when people don’t want to see you win. That type of stuff, I live for it. I get more satisfaction out of proving people wrong.”
"He always brings that energy, always brings that juice, that swagger," safety Jordan Poyer said. "He’s one of the leaders on our team. When things aren’t going right, he speaks up. When things are going well, he gives credit. He’s one of those guys that a lot of guys on this team look up to."
It must be acknowledged that Diggs has every reason to be happy in his current situation, unlike in Minnesota where he wasn’t satisfied with the run-heavy philosophy of the offense. Diggs fully appreciates the fact that he’s paired with a cannon-armed, elite quarterback. He understands he’s playing in one of the most pass-heavy offenses in the NFL. He had the most targets in the NFL last year. He has the seventh most this year.
Allen never has to be reminded to throw him the damn ball.
Unlike many receivers who turn into divas early in their NFL career, Diggs didn’t enter the league with a silver spoon. He was a fifth-round draft choice.
Asked if he thinks that still influences his outlook in this, his fifth season, Diggs said:
“I know so. I give the credit to my process. You see some guys go early – first round off the board, second round off the board, third round off the board. That’s all early relative to me," Diggs said. "You see my process was different and that’s why I’m thankful for where I am now. You see later draft picks sometimes surpass or have a longer career than a guy drafted earlier. I’m not saying they’re not working equally as hard, but the guy in the fifth round’s got a little bit more of a chip on their shoulder than a guy drafted in the first or second, just in my opinion.
“It’s just because you’ve got so much to prove – not only to yourself but you’ve got to prove it to everybody. They believed in you, but you weren’t their first choice. You see a lot of fifth-round, sixth-round picks get cut or they don’t make the team. So for me I fell exactly where I was supposed to fall, and it all kind of aligned. So where I’m at in my career, I’m thankful, and I know what it took to get here. I had to grind to get here. Now it’s like grinding is just normal for me. You gotta go through the back door sometimes.”
Prima donnas go through the front door. It’s nice Diggs appreciates how he got here.
