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Do you like the term “Bills Mafia”?


Lionel Hutz

Bills Mafia   

394 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you like using the term Bills Mafia?

    • Yes
      234
    • No
      159


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8 hours ago, Lionel Hutz said:

Now that the Bills are getting all this national attention the phrase seems to be brought up every time the Bills are discussed. It seems like the term is here to stay and will be forever associated with the Bills’ fanbase.

 

I’m curious to know how the fans here think about the term?
 

Personally I’ve never liked it and don’t understand why it ever became a thing. 

I don't like it.  I'm thrilled that the organization has had all the success it has had, and Del Reid and the others deserve enormous credit for what they've done.   It's great. 

 

I don't like the name because of it's criminal connotation.  And I don't like how the national press lumps us all in as members.   It's not the Bills Mafia making all that noise at games, it's Bills fans.  

 

Having said that, I'll take the recognition, even if I don't like the name.  Calling us, calling me, the Bills mafia is better than not talking about us. 

13 minutes ago, Ta111 said:

Mafia is derived from ma familia which means my family. Really it’s about family. Anyone who equates it with the actual criminal organization is a fool.

Words have meanings.  No one is a fool for understanding mafia to have some criminal connection - that's the fundamental meaning of the word in today's language.

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I initially thought it was dumb, but it's taken on its own meaning over time and now I'm cool with it.   I don't think the association with the word "mafia," in terms of the criminal organization, is really a thing when the people talk about the "Bills Mafia."  

Edited by buffalonian
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My understanding of the term has always been that it is an Italian acronym for “death to the French. Cry Italian”.  I remember this understanding of the term ever since I was a kid growing up in Niagara Falls. So, initially, it was not a reference to a crime organization. It has an altogether different history in terms of its origin.

 

I’m fine with it being used for the bills. I think over the years it has taken on a general meaning and it’s more negative history has been quite diluted. Besides, I’m an Italian American and I’m OK with it.

 

As an aside, when growing up in Niagara falls in the 60s my father was an acquaintance of Peter Maggadino who was the brother of Stefano, the head of a major crime family in the country located in Niagara Falls/Lewiston. He owned a funeral parlor (wouldn’t you know it).  I met him once in 1966 when my mother passed and we used them for the funeral. I was 13. He was very nice to me.

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As an old fashioned guy of Sicilian descent, I do not like it at all. But in terms of how it's used pertaining to the Buffalo Bills, it's not the worst thing in the world. Just brings up negative connotations in my mind. 

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I’m happy to see that I am not alone in my lack of connection with this moniker. I am proudly a Buffalo Bills fan, but I am labeled as a Bills Mafia member by friends and fellow football fans. I have never taken to that. I think that it’s the association with the people jumping through tables and getting filmed doing stunts in the lots. It’s hardly the worst thing to be called, and maybe I’m a bit curmudgeonly, but I prefer not to be thought of in the same context as the table jumpers.

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13 hours ago, Lionel Hutz said:

Now that the Bills are getting all this national attention the phrase seems to be brought up every time the Bills are discussed. It seems like the term is here to stay and will be forever associated with the Bills’ fanbase.

 

I’m curious to know how the fans here think about the term?
 

Personally I’ve never liked it and don’t understand why it ever became a thing. 

 

It became a thing because Adam Schefter said something derogatory against Stevie Johnson after he dropped the pass in OT against the Steelers and then seemingly blamed God afterwards and Bills fan lambasted him on twitter and it got so bad he had to block them and then posted about all the hate he was getting for it. One of the posters coined the term BillsMafia as alluding to how we are one big family and they will come after you if you do us wrong and it stuck and started skyrocketing in usage and that's it now. Here to stay.

Edited by Big Turk
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For me everything is context and intent. First time I heard it I knew it wasn't meant to imply followers of the Bills are engaging in extortion and murder. It is taking a hyperbolic and distorted view of what the Mafia has become in popular culture and mashing it up with fandom. And thus was born Bills Mafia, a rabid segment of the fanbase.

 

Would not have been my first choice but I accept it was created with no ill will or bad intent and accept what it has become.

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