They're not ready for some football
All evidence to the contrary, not everyone in Western New York is a rabid Buffalo Bills fan
The Buffalo Bills enjoyed a narrow lead when Gerry Peglau showed up at Tifft Nature Preserve in South Buffalo for an afternoon of hiking.
Peglau couldn't have cared less about the score of the game. He was far more interested in spotting some wildlife.
"I've never really been a football fan," the Hamburg resident said. "I'd rather sit back and enjoy life. This is the place to go."
It turns out that not every Western New Yorker's Sunday recreation time revolves around the Bills.
Pat McCann and Bob Boyd, for example, spent their afternoon on the South Park Golf Course.
"The Bills aren't my top priority," said McCann, after ripping a drive down the center of the first fairway.
The pair teed up at around 2 p.m., in the middle of the second quarter. Both men said they followed the Bills, but not obsessively.
"I'll watch 'em, sure," said Boyd, "but when we can play golf, we play golf. The Bills will still be playing when it's cold out."
Ben Ahlstrom and his 2-year-old daughter, Cora, spent game time tossing stones into a pond at Tifft Farm.
Ahlstrom said he often watches the games but doesn't "live or die with them anymore."
Game day still draws a considerable following in the area. While Ralph Wilson Stadium again was sold out, other area attractions were relatively quiet.
The Botanical Gardens had just a few visitors, as did the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
Tom Ewart and Beverly Gibson traveled from Rochester — not for a seat at the game, but to tour the gallery and grab dinner at Hutch's.
"I'm just not into football," said Gibson.
WNED broadcaster Stratton Rawson reminded his listeners Sunday afternoon during game time that two activities to make a person happier and wiser — instead of watching a Bills game — were reading a book and listening to music.
"They're a football team. They win, they lose," Rawson said in a phone interview. "We overvalue their relationship or their value to the community itself ... They are not in a true sense representative of the community."
At South Park, other than McCann and Boyd, only one other golfer, Pat Greene, strolled the fairways during game time.
Greene said the Bills were of casual interest to him. He even would try to watch some of the game after his round of golf. But he also admitted he hasn't been a big fan since the Jim Kelly era.
"My friend has season tickets, and if he gave them to me for free I still wouldn't go," said Greene, a South Buffalo resident.
The nature preserve — far removed from big-screen televisions and ubiquitous radio play-by-play — was busier, drawing a few dozen wildlife enthusiasts after kickoff.
Peglau was joined by his brother, Michael, also of Hamburg, and Annette Schiedel, of Blasdell.
None of them seemed to care whether Dick Jauron or Vince Lombardi was coaching the team, or whether the Bills stay in Orchard Park or end up in Los Angeles or Timbuktu.
But Western New York's preoccupation with the Bills has its benefits, said Schiedel. It steers people clear of the preserve on Sundays, she said.
"I like it. The fewer people down here, the better," she said.
There were few Bills' fans at the art gallery.
Buffalo State College junior Deion O'Garro acknowledged he's never watched a game and has no idea who Trent Edwards or Ryan Fitzpatrick is.
Still, he added, "I know a few Bills fans."
Ewart expressed a fondness for baseball, although he doesn't totally dismiss the Bills.
"I'm a last quarter kind of guy. I can't watch a whole game. I can't sit that long. I'd rather go out and throw a football," he said.
Some visitors from Toronto gave broader perspective, raving about the Albright-Knox's collection and calling the gallery one of the most important in the United States.
The Bills, on the other hand, are "just a local football team," said Darko Gagro. "You should tell all of these football players to buy some art."
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