When the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills take to the field at Highmark Stadium in Week 18 of this NFL season, more than a few tears will be shed at the end of the game.
The stadium is located at One Bills Drive in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York. Just 15 miles south of the downtown district of “The Empire State’s” second largest city, there have been enough NFL memories created to last conversations well into the night many times over.
Erie County in Western New York where Highmark Stadium sits has been the site of three American Football Conference championships games (all won by the Bills).
In total, during the glory years of Buffalo’s run that landed them in four consecutive Super Bowl appearances (1991–1994), the Bills’ home stadium was THE place to be. As recent as last season, in January 2025, Buffalo came up just one game shy of making a fifth Super Bowl appearance. A 32–29 loss to the visiting Kansas City Chiefs squashed that dream.
Heading into this Sunday’s clash on the road with the Cleveland Browns, Buffalo, at 10–4, sits in second place in the AFC East behind the 11–3 New England Patriots. The two final regular season games for the Bills are to be played at home; Week 17 with the Philadelphia Eagles, and against the New York Jets in Week 18, at the stadium they have called home since the 1973 season. After the Jets fly back downstate, barring any postseason home games, the lights will be turned off permanently on Bills football in the stadium.
Across the parking lot from their current Highmark digs, Buffalo football for the 2026 NFL regular season will christen a new 67,000-seat stadium. The estimated price tag of the newest version of the Highmark venue of $1.7 billion surpasses the cost of the current Bills’ home when it was built in 1972. $22 million was needed to erect the then state-of-the-art stadium.
Over the years of Buffalo football, long before Highmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Western New York signed on with a 10-year agreement for naming rights in 2021, the Bills went through what seemed to be a laundry list of sponsors to the building.
When the stadium swung open its gates in 1973, up until 1998, football fans knew that the Bills played home games at Rich Stadium. Rich Products of Buffalo produces a myriad of food products. Following the Rich Company exiting its deal for naming rights, until 2015, where the Bills played was called Ralph Wilson Stadium, or “The Ralph,” in honor of the team’s original owner.
Next up, for four seasons (2016–2019), Buffalo football fans entered New Era Field. The Buffalo-based hat and apparel giant had its name and logo plastered throughout the stadium.
One season (2020) referred to as simply Bills Stadium would be followed by Highmark’s coming aboard as the building’s main sponsor.
While the Bills’ community acquaints themselves with new signage and seating arrangements at the new Highmark Stadium, for those who played on the artificial turf surface for more than a half century at the original venue, it’s the experiences created that will linger.
Lou Piccone, who split his nine-season NFL career as a member of the Jets (1974–1976) and Buffalo (1977–1982), offers a unique perspective of the on-field conditions that he and his teammates were subjected to in the often unforgiving, frigid weather conditions.
“When I was with the Jets, I remember heading into the tunnel after a game in Buffalo and wishing that I'd never be traded to the Bills,” Piccone told The Epoch Times on Friday. “The very next season, I was traded to the Bills towards the end of the pre-season.”
In 1974, Piccone’s first visit to Rich Stadium, the September game in Western New York had pouring rain and gusty wind conditions. Coupled with a rapid temperature drop from kickoff time to the game’s fourth quarter, and Piccone knew he was in for an afternoon of difficulty beyond what the opposing players brought. Standing inches deep in water due to what Piccone recalls as poor drainage in the still relatively new stadium, this initial visit to Buffalo remains clear to the former wide receiver and special teams star.
“I returned punts and kickoffs. My first game in Buffalo, it rained, sleeted, snowed, and the winds were incredible. In the matter of three hours the temperature dropped more than 20 degrees. I don’t remember a pass being completed that afternoon.”
Surprising to many given the routinely brutal weather conditions that blows through Buffalo, for certain by November and December, is that the new Highmark Stadium isn’t equipped with a dome. For a fringe player like Piccone, “home sweet home” in Buffalo, despite all the snow and below freezing temperatures, was nirvana compared to the conditions he endured while playing on the semi-pro level; football’s minor leagues.
Piccone, 76, after playing college ball in West Virginia at Division II West Liberty State University, signed up for a $50 game check, when playing for Youngstown (Ohio) of the Midwest Football League in 1972. Having gone undrafted by NFL teams, Piccone, in 1973, played for the Bridgeport Jets in the minor leagues. As a member of the New York Jets’ affiliate, Piccone upped his game-day check to $100.
Understanding how to make the cuts running a pass pattern or punt return, or what type of shoe was best to wear at what time of season the Bills were home on a Sunday, this was a learning period that Piccone cherishes. Like thousands of Bills fans, Buffalo’s alumni are going to have to clear their throats, to get rid of that lump forming, when the final game of Week 18 is in the books. Along with the furniture from the Bills’ office, so will the memories be moved across the street in 2026 for the next phase of Buffalo football.
