Stories of Bills' Highmark Stadium tunnel ahead of final game: 'Ours is dumb'

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- The space is tight and unassuming.

The enclosed tunnel is 192 feet long and 23 feet side to side, marked by a gray concrete floor that exaggerates the many wheels and shoes that go up and down it.

The blue walls are painted with black accents. The trek from the field to the tunnel features a 7% incline. At the top there are two locker rooms -- one home, one away.

The tunnel, in the middle of the east end zone, belongs to Highmark Stadium -- a stadium that has had many names but always been home to the Buffalo Bills.

Entering into the tunnel after an NFL game is walking into organized chaos.

The visiting team trudges equipment up and out, venturing the incline that can get slippery with inclement weather outside. Loud beeps accompany trucks or carts driving through. Entrances for the Bills' equipment room, an officials locker room, access to news conference and photographer workrooms, and a drumline dressing room all live in this one space.

On non-game days, former Bills player Steve Tasker (1986-1997) described the differing environment, "You may as well be on the moon surface when it was empty. And then when you come out there and 80,000, it seems like you're standing in a crowded room."

This type of tunnel, with its size and singularity, is not expected to ever be seen again. Its functionality is no longer logical for the modern needs of a stadium.

There is some romance to this. Every player who has put on a Bills uniform since 1973 has walked down that tunnel. Countless Pro Football Hall of Famers along with all sorts of personnel. Concert acts, high school football players and hockey players -- including for the inaugural NHL Classic in 2008 -- have all taken the walk.

A single-tunnel venue is hard to find these days, existing only in some older college stadiums and in the NFL, in Detroit (opened in 2002) and Kansas City (1972), but neither of those venues has the same space limitations or has a tunnel as close to the core of the stadium in the same way Buffalo's does.

"The fact that we only have one tunnel and there really isn't a great way to solve that challenge, was a driver, certainly, of why we got off of the potential for renovating the existing stadium and moved pretty quickly into design of a new one," Bills vice president of stadium development John Polka said. The tunnel has witnessed many special moments between players and fans who have called the place home for 53 years -- and more than a few fights.

Sunday's home game against the New York Jets (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS) will most likely be the final game for the stadium affectionately called "The Ralph," after founder and longtime owner Ralph Wilson -- unless playoff magic ensues. Based on simulations from ESPN's Football Power Index, the Bills are projected to play at the Jacksonville Jaguars in the wild-card round.

The revered structure, which hosted its first football game on Aug. 17, 1973, will soon be a parking lot. The building that brought the Bills to Orchard Park is entering its final days of being occupied. Next season, the team will play its home games at the new Highmark Stadium.

It's directly across the street, with an unobstructed view of every last: the last regular-season home opener, last big comeback and last time every inch was covered in snow.

The nostalgia for the old is effusive. Memories of improbable wins, "The Comeback Game," 1990s AFC championships, the "perfect" playoff game by quarterback Josh Allen against the New England Patriots. The new stadium will open with state-of-the-art amenities.

There will be plenty to bring across the street to accompany those new luxuries. The memories, the noise and electricity of the packed stands, the "Hey-Ey-Ey-Ey" chant to start games, and the "Shout" musical cue after every Bills score.

And the most significant constant is what the tailgaters and fans bring and epitomize about football in Western New York.

A building can represent so much more than a physical structure. In the new stadium, there will be multiple ways in and out. But the journey up and down the old tunnel will forever be a hallmark to those who experienced it.

Here are some of the stories of those who have stepped or even rolled through it, including former greats in Tasker and Jim Kelly, today's players, the people who make things go on gameday, and those in the stands.

Get in and get out.

In years past, the tunnel was more of a mode of transport to get on and off the field.

"Anytime you got close to the stands, even at home, you put your helmet on and kind of put your head down and got out of the way," former Bills tight end Pete Metzelaars (1985-1993) said. "Because you never knew if someone was going to throw something down on the field or who knows what was coming at you."

That proximity to the fans can be bittersweet. For some seasons, a canopy was placed over the tunnel from the garage door to almost field level toward the side the visiting team exited to add extra protection. The clips that kept it up remained on the wall long after.

"As you're going out in or out of the tunnel, [the fans are] right over you," former Bills kicker Steve Christie (1992-2000) said. "They're literally right over you on either side. So, if you had a good game, you'd hear it, and if you had a bad game, you'd hear it."

Former Bills player Lou Piccone (1977-82) doesn't recall much conversation between teams during his time, outside of a bit of overspill postgame. "There was nothing said because you let action speak much louder than words. So both in and out, unless there was personal vendettas, I don't think anything really got too close."

The tunnel space right outside the Bills' locker room turned into a "front porch" of sorts, as Tasker recalled, making it a meeting place for teammates and personnel.

Tasker got his introduction to Bills fans' hatred of the Miami Dolphins in the 1970s and 1980s via the tunnel in Week 11 of the 1986 season, his first with Buffalo.

"You got people hanging over the side of that tunnel for the Dolphins. The place is packed, too, which back then, it didn't happen very often. But they were screaming at the Dolphins players, man," Tasker said. "They hated those guys. And I got caught off guard by that the first time it happened."

"You always got the tenor of the game from the fans when you came down that tunnel," Tasker said. "You always knew exactly where the fans were that day emotionally."

Deep-seated animosity against the Dolphins has come into sharp focus over the years. Goalposts were once taken down by Buffalo fans after the Bills ended a 20-game losing streak against Miami to open the 1980 season, and in 1993, Dolphins linebacker Bryan Cox walked out of the tunnel with his middle fingers up after claiming fans threw batteries and was then the target of racist messaging. Cox was fined by the NFL for his actions.

Current Bills defensive tackle Jordan Phillips, who has experienced Highmark on visiting teams, noted how opponents can hear cheering from the opposite locker room.

The feelings toward opposing players are made clear in what former Bills quarterback and current Jets quarterback Tyrod Taylor described as a college environment and rowdy atmosphere. "As the away team, it's not as welcoming, obviously."

Jets defensive lineman and former Bills player Harrison Phillips is a fan: "In the new stadium, please don't get rid of this. Because that is one of the most fun, chippy things -- win, lose or draw. I love it. I know it's like an operations nightmare, but it is fun to be jawing with people."

Hearing your name

The walk through the tunnel to the field has always been special.

Former Bills quarterback and Hall of Famer Jim Kelly (1986-96) recalled his first time.

"First time walking down that tunnel, knowing that I finally made it to the NFL," Kelly said. "[My family] being out in the stands and knowing that dream came true to take care of mom and dad and make my five brothers proud of me, right there in the forefront."

Kelly, in what became a superstitious tradition, would walk down the tunnel with Tasker before every pregame and warmup. If one wasn't ready, they waited for the other.

When Sean McDermott became head coach in 2017, the whole team ran out of the tunnel together, per his instruction, breaking the tradition of recent coaching staffs. Calling names individually was then brought back over the years and is now a staple once again. The honor of hearing their name announced became an important moment for some players.

"I'll miss the tunnel just because of just the tradition and me running out of my first NFL game and me, the first time I ever got announced as an individual, because in college we didn't do it," current Bills cornerback Tre'Davious White said.

"When people say, what's the one thing that you miss about playing? And it was coming out of the locker room and going down the old tunnel," Christie said.

"Certainly 1 o'clock Sunday afternoon in Orchard Park, coming down the tunnel and walking out on the field, and because I was a kicker ... we were usually the first ones out of the tunnel, and just the feeling of coming out and being cheered on by the fans," Christie said.

Snow game: 'We better figure something out'

If you reference "The Snow Game" in Buffalo, locals will know what you're talking about -- the 2017 regular-season game against the Indianapolis Colts. Eight inches of snow fell between 12 and 4 p.m. for the 1 p.m. kickoff, with 16 inches falling throughout the day. The total wasn't expected as it pummeled down, creating white-out conditions.

Senior vice president of venue operations and fan experience Andy Major remembered receiving a call from an executive in the ownership box asking how the field was being prepared to ensure the Bills and Colts could play. Major reassured them.

"I addressed it very confidently to give our ownership some confidence that, 'Hey, we've got this under control,'" Major said. "And after I hung up, I was like, 'We better figure something out,' because I had no idea what we were going to do."

The lines on the field were shoveled whenever possible with the assistance of 20 snow blowers, as the volume of snow was more extreme than other snowy days. The referees informed the teams that the game could be played only if the yard markers were clear, and the Bills, in the heat of a race to break an 18-year playoff drought, wanted the game played that day.

The transition from a normal winter day to a snowy blizzard was rapid.

"We left warmups and you could still see the field," current Bills long-snapper Reid Ferguson said. "It was snowing, but not hard. And we went, we came inside for, I don't even know how long it is, 25 minutes or so, before we came back out for the anthem, and it looked like Hoth out of Star Wars.

"You couldn't even see the scoreboard coming out of the tunnel. So, it felt like we were in a snow globe, honestly, is what it felt like."

Fighting words: 'We all in the same tunnel'

Plenty of back-and-forths have taken place in the space, and between more than just players. That includes former Bills offensive lineman Eric Wood (2009-2017), who talked some smack, as he recalled, to then-Jets coach Rex Ryan. Soon after, in 2015, Ryan became Wood's head coach on the Bills. "We had a good laugh about it," Wood recalled.

Current Bills defensive end Shaq Lawson has been involved in his fair share of altercations during his on and off years with the team, six in total. During a regular-season game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2018, Lawson and then-Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette broke into a skirmish. Lawson shoved a Jaguars player, which Fournette then responded to by shoving Lawson. Both were ejected for throwing punches.

Lawson had to be held back as the players reached the tunnel with members of their respective teams, and the Jaguars contingent stood to one side outside of the tunnel, waiting for Lawson to walk up first.

On Fournette's way in, a fan in the front row made contact with him, and Fournette briefly confronted the fan. A nearby police officer intervened. Lawson recalled seeing fans throwing water bottles and other items from the stands toward the players, but they didn't go in his direction. "They had great aim," Lawson said.

"The tunnel is very interesting," Lawson said. "You don't know what you're going to get from the tunnel, but it's always good vibes. We all in the same tunnel. We go in the same tunnel, so it could be a fight."

Fournette was suspended for the Jaguars' following game for fighting. Lawson and Fournette became Bills teammates in 2023 and immediately took a video together saying that they were not "beefing" anymore.

"I love it. Cause the boys be talking junk," Lawson said. "Come on, locker room, in the tunnel, your helmet off. Talk junk now. ... That's why I always leave my helmet on the sideline. I love leaving my helmet on the sideline, halftime, walk out and just talk junk."

Not everyone loves the tunnel

"Stupid," current Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins said of the tunnel. "Ours is dumb."

Dawkins said he has only negative memories of the tunnel.

"I got fined for fighting in the tunnel because of a structure layout that somebody planned for the stadium. If they would've did a better job planning and directing traffic, none of that would've happened," Dawkins said.

His most notorious fight in the space took place in 2023, with Jets defensive lineman Micheal Clemons. The fight started with the pair going back and forth on the field in the fourth quarter, an exchange Dawkins allegedly began because Clemons was trash-talking quarterback Josh Allen during a TV timeout.

After the timeout, Dawkins and Clemmons met on a run play, with Dawkins jumping on Clemmons, claiming he didn't hear a whistle. Clemmons shoved Dawkins back to the ground after both got up. The left tackle was fined and penalized for unnecessary roughness.

The interaction continued in the tunnel.

"My management is trying to protect me. 'Dion, let's not shake hands after any game. Let's get you in the locker room as quick as possible.' .... . All right, you're running up to me in the tunnel. So, now what? Are we about to fight? Are we not about to fight? Am I going to let you make an example off of me? Am I going to let you hit me? No, no. So, now we're fighting."

The pair were separated by members of both teams while being whisked up the incline.

Coming out of the tunnel: 'Don't fall.'

The structure of the tunnel and getting to the field provides physical complications, as White, who has eight seasons of experience, plus a visit as the away team last year, at Highmark Stadium describes.

"Every time that I come out of the locker room, it's this mat that's when we come up the steps into the smoke, coming down. It's this mat that if you don't watch yourself, you can bust your ass cause it's so slippery," White said. "Every time I'm walking out, I make sure I jump over it. Every time I step on it, I'm about to bust my ass and pull my groin."

It's an important lesson that White has learned to be aware of during his time with the team, and something he makes sure to pass on to fellow teammates.

"Nobody behind me [slips] cause I'm always telling them, because I've been knowing this mat for nine years," White said. "I mean, but I don't know why, they should put something over it, but I'm telling you, there is a mat that is just slippery and if you walk on it, you're going to f---ing bust your ass. So, yeah, that's the only thing that I think about when I'm coming out that tunnel, "Don't fall."

Safety an issue for everyone going in and out of the tunnel

On game days, the movement in and out of the tunnel is organized mayhem, and keeping everyone safe is the top priority. That can mean restricting those who have access to the area or stepping out of the way when trucks work their way down.

"I'm holding a field security meeting with Chris Clark, our VP of security," Major said. "And while Chris is addressing the security team members that work the field, all of a sudden, here comes some trucks up the tunnel, right? 'Guys, we got to move the meeting over a little more.'"

There is no meeting room down near the field for these types of discussions to take place, so the tunnel it is. Other groups are left to use clubs or other hospitality areas to get prepared.

Pregame is much less of an issue, as the timing of getting things in and out can be more spread out.

Postgame is a different story.

Visiting teams venture to get their equipment off the field as quickly as possible postgame, which often results in media members being moved to the side and even coaches making sure they are in a safe zone if they come off the field late.

To drive a vehicle down the tunnel, you have to know what you are doing. One way only. Drive slowly, lights on, horn ready to sound.

Major said people will "look at me and go, 'I can't believe you have one tunnel.'"

Stadium adds a feeling of being out among the fans

Current Bills linebacker Joe Andreessen has a unique perspective with Highmark Stadium. He grew up in Lancaster, New York with a family of Bills fans. He came of age rooting for the Bills and attended games as a fan at the stadium, a rarity among players. Andreessen attended the University at Buffalo to finish his college career, and then made the Bills roster after trying out during rookie minicamp in 2024.

"I think going out into the stadium itself, it's very, to me, colosseum-like, very old in that way, and I think a lot of new stadiums aren't that way," Andreessen said. "A lot of suites and stuff like that. ... Walking out of the tunnel into that is very cool, and you got a ton of Bills fans cheering you on as you go down there."

Showdown between Bills, Eagles doesn't end so friendly

Bills and Philadelphia Eagles players trudged up the tunnel at the same time last Sunday in Week 17, navigating their way back to the locker rooms between an ambulance and a moving truck ready to take gear.

Fiery interactions on the field left Bills right tackle Spencer Brown feeling as though he had been punched in the left eye. Such contention followed into the tunnel.

The back and forth continued as most Bills players went into their locker room. Several Eagles players lingered outside the Bills' entrance for a short period and the chatter continued for some.

The singular tunnel, and therefore the proximity to the host team, does not make for the friendliest of interactions: "That's f---ing weird. They need to change that s---," Eagles offensive tackle Fred Johnson said. "Put their locker rooms somewhere else, dog. That s--- was so weird. I've never seen anything like that in my life."

A staple for Bills fans: 'Are you coming back next year?'

Janet Gallo, 86, says she has missed just three Bills home games in her life, and only for health reasons. From the day Rich Stadium (Highmark's original name) opened more than 50 years ago, she has sat in the front row on the left-hand side of the tunnel as people come out.

She has become a fixture Players know her -- specifically Kelly, who still remembers her and looks for her when he returns as a visitor to the field. For the past four years, Gallo has actually entered the stadium through the tunnel to safely get to her seat instead of trekking countless stairs.

When there's a special guest in pregame or to be honored, in front of Gallo they all stand.

She hass been given countless memorabilia from her seat, most of which she has given away. Now she lets kids up to her row to get their chance for autographs or items. Her favorite interactions have come with Kelly. Current Bills running back James Cook gifted her hats three weeks in a row.

"I have a picture with [Bills founder] Ralph Wilson coming to me where I sit," said Gallo, who does have seats at the new stadium. "And every Sunday after a game, he would come and shake my hand. And you know what he would say? 'Are you coming back next year?' Well, we were only like 12,000 people there and I'd tell him, 'Yeah, I'll be back.'

Additional reporting by ESPN's Tim McManus and Rich Cimini