ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – Rich and Ava Kozak did not attend the final game at Highmark Stadium. Father and daughter said their goodbyes a day early, and they’ll have a better farewell tale to tell than most Buffalo Bills fans.
They spent 9.5 hours alongside other hearty yet wistful souls Saturday, shoveling snow away from the rows of seats for what almost certainly was the final game in Rich Stadium/Ralph Wilson Stadium/New Era Field/Highmark Stadium’s 53-year history.
“People just busting their asses and sharing Bills stories,” Rich Kozak said.
The shovels-for-hire tradition won’t be necessary anymore when the Bills move across Abbott Road into their new home next season. The $2.1 billion stadium will be weatherproof compared to the old ballpark. Seats mostly will be under cover. The field will be heated. Multiple tunnels and widened concourses will allow vehicles to truck out snow more freely and eliminate the need for a battalion of diggers.
The Kozaks didn’t consider it hard labor, although Rich admitted to waking up Sunday in pain. Ava is home from SUNY Purchase, so they viewed the assignment as an opportunity to share one more moment in a stadium that has provided a lifetime of extraordinary memories.
Many fellow Bills fans felt the same nostalgic pull to give back to Highmark Stadium one last time.
“People scoffed at the $20 an hour,” said Rich Kozak, an English teacher for 37 years and Frontier High soccer coach. “They would have done the job for free. To a man or woman, I can tell you unequivocally, each one of us felt we were doing something important and special.”
Ava Kozak was among the snow shovelers who answered the call before the Bills’ regular-season finale at Highmark Stadium, along with her dad Rich Kozak. (Photo courtesy Rich Kozak)
The Bills probably closed The Ralph with a 35-8 shellacking of the New York Jets. We say “probably” because there is an outside chance the Bills return home if the postseason shakes out in a very unusual and specific way. With a wild-card playoff berth secured, zero chance to win the AFC East title and the Jets among the most abominable teams of the 21st century, the Bills’ lineup was loaded with backups.
The cast didn’t matter much. The stadium was the star on Sunday.
“I felt a little guilty at times, looking up in the stands,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I’m supposed to be coaching, you know?”
Sunday’s weather was apropos. Fans tailgated in frigid conditions under gray skies. They trudged around snowbanks on Big Tree and Abbott Roads, through the slushy parking lots and into the stadium’s chilly finality. Snow remained in The Ralph’s nooks and crannies, the occasional snowball making its way from the upper deck to the seats below. Some more fell during the game.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul started her Sunday at Elim Christian Fellowship. She stood before the congregation on Chalmers Avenue in Buffalo to deliver a prayer. With the pastor’s permission, she began with “Go Bills!” They responded forcefully.
From there, Hochul made the familiar trip down U.S. Route 219, to U.S. Route 20-A into Orchard Park and turning right on Abbott Road, driving between the hulking new stadium she helped bring to fruition and the place she attended games while growing up next door in Hamburg.
“I can’t believe we’ll never going to be sitting in this place again,” Hochul said, looking out from her suite before kickoff. She was obviously wired, as she is for every Bills game, but the milestone added to the drama. “This is life. Everybody’s fired up. There’s just so much energy. No rest until it’s over.”
Hochul was in a Bills ballcap and Bills letterman jacket, a No. 57 jersey underneath to denote her spot on New York’s governor list. She had been on the field for a pregame ceremony and spoke with Bills owner Terry Pegula and various Bills legends.
“Pretty intense,” Hochul said. “As I was talking to Terry Pegula earlier down on the field and talking to players, a lot of people just coming up and thanking me because there could have been a scenario where this was the last game the Buffalo Bills ever played in Buffalo.”
True enough, the sexual harassment scandal that drove Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo from office and elevated Hochul from lieutenant governor was a boon for the Bills, who were frustrated with Cuomo’s lack of interest in a new stadium. Multiple Bills sources and local politicians have told The Athletic that the Bills were aggravated enough to explore what it would take to relocate to Austin, Orlando and San Diego, among other cities.
“That was very real,” Hochul said. “I was just coming in as governor, and Terry repeated again that nobody from the previous administration would talk to them about their urgent concern about ‘If we don’t get a new stadium, we’re leaving, and we’re being courted by a lot of people.’ So I got in (office) and took it very seriously and worked hard on the deal.”
On the field, the Bills, in their Super Bowl era red helmets with white facemasks, were being introduced one last time from the tunnel. Josh Allen came last. He emerged in a jog, pointed to his wife in the stands, blew a two-handed kiss to the entire stadium and smacked himself on the helmet as he disappeared briefly into the theatrical fog.
A kiss goodbye pic.twitter.com/crVw1UMlae
— Josh Reed (@4JoshReed) January 4, 2026
The Buffalo United Community Choir sang the national anthem, punctuated by four helicopters from U.S. Army Fort Drum flying overhead. Thurman Thomas – in a Bruce Smith jersey because the all-time sacks leader was unable to attend – and Steve Tasker roused the crowd with the “Let’s go, Buffalo” and Marv Levy’s “Where else would you rather be than right here, right now?” call-and-response chants.
“This is one of the most unifying forces that a community could ever hope for,” Hochul said. “Really, there are people of every political belief out there, and some may not support me on my government side, but they know that we share a love for the Buffalo Bills, and that transcends politics.”
Exactly 45 seconds after she said this, a man wearing an Allen jersey in the seats right in front of her turned around and gave her a lengthy middle finger.
New York State governor Kathy Hochul greeted Bills staff on the sidelines before the Bills’ last regular-season game at Highmark Stadium. (Shawn Dowd / Imagn Images)
Allen took a single snap. He’s proud of his consecutive starts streak and extended it to 135 games, counting the playoffs. Mitchell Trubisky quarterbacked the rest of the game. Running back James Cook played only three snaps, rushing twice for 15 yards before McDermott removed him. That decision created some tension, with Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry 152 yards behind Cook for the NFL rushing title and not playing the Pittsburgh Steelers until Sunday night. Cook held on — barely.
Not much else was in doubt. The Bills’ backups stomped the Jets, who performed like they wanted their offseason to begin a few weeks ago. The Bills took an easy 14-0 lead early in the second quarter and made it 21-0 by halftime.
At the intermission, Levy, who turned 100 in August, delivered a recorded message on the video scoreboard. Eighteen alums — Hall of Famers Jim Kelly, Andre Reed and Joe DeLamielleure mixed among Eric Wood, George Wilson and the likes of lesser-knowns Brad Lamb, Christian Gaddis and Ashton Youbouty — saluted the crowd from the 50-yard line.
“When you think about the stadium, you can’t think about the present players,” Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White said. “You’ve got to think about the guys that laid the foundation before us. A lot of guys on this team will be able to make memories across the street. So I think it’s fitting to think about the guys that came before us.”
Bills legends, including Jim Kelly, were in attendance on Sunday. (Shawn Dowd / Imagn Images)
McDermott did not hide his emotions about the stadium’s last game. He has been soaking up moments all season, but savoring them more deeply as the end drew near. For the game, equipment director Jeff Mazurek made for McDermott a special ballcap festooned with “Bills” written in the same script Levy used to wear.
By pure happenstance, McDermott bumped into Kelly on Friday night at Anthony-Brown Pharmacy in Orchard Park.
“You think I’m lying. I did!” McDermott said. “I was picking up something, and I hear Jim’s voice at the cash register. … So we shared a couple minutes of a conversation. It was good to see him.”
Buffalo’s performance Sunday was just what the doctor ordered.
The stadium’s last plays were in victory formation.
Perhaps concerned about fans storming the field, Allen shot straight up the tunnel and into the locker room after the final whistle. The arena was ringed with extra security and law enforcement to prevent mischief. That allowed players such as running back Ray Davis, offensive linemen Spencer Brown, Alec Anderson and Ryan Van Demark, long snapper Reid Ferguson and White, to linger on the field for a video montage set to the rock ballad “Iris” by hometown band Goo Goo Dolls. The 70,944 fans in attendance stayed in their seats until the very end to watch along with them.
White screamed to the fans who lined the tunnel and, as Allen did to begin the game, blew them two-handed kisses.
Rich and Ava Kozak watched the game at their Lake View home. Memories kept flooding back all weekend. Two of Rich’s brothers-in-law helped build and renovate the stadium. He saw so many concerts there: The Who, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Billy Joel. He attended games in the 1970s, the “counterfeit Bills” during the 1987 NFL strike, wild victories in the Super Bowl years, Kelly’s heartbreaking farewell against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the 17-year playoff blight, the current run of AFC East championships.
Huffing and puffing from all that shoveling, Rich and Ava took one last lap around Highmark Stadium.
“I was lucky enough to be a Western New Yorker and experience that place with so many amazing people,” Rich Kozak said.
“Saturday was a wonderfully disorganized, chaotic, memory-filled, mess of a day. While I’m unbelievably sore right now, I’m glad I did it.”