The Allen family has several sayings. One of them stands out.
Bloom where you’re planted.
With each game, each game-changing play, each interview, each viral soundbite, bloomed a love affair between the people of Buffalo and their very own superhero.
“I think there’s a lot of people that see a little bit of themselves in Josh,” Bills fan Leslie Wille, one of the co-founders of the Bills Mafia movement, told The Athletic.
Josh Allen is seemingly everywhere you turn in Western New York — on clothing, cars, street signs, billboards, front yards, Christmas lights, menu items. And near the beginning of the season, even in the local produce aisle.
Straight from the farm where he was raised in Firebaugh, Calif., the Allens sent melons to be sold at select grocery stores in the Western and Central New York regions.
Yes, melons. Cantaloupes. And honeydews. And they were gone — quickly.
“I’ve never seen anything like this from a player,” Bills fan Patrick Moran told The Athletic. “There’s been a lot of great relationships… but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything on this level.”
The Allen Family’s cantaloupes have made their way to Buffalo.
This is magnificent and we bet they taste amazing. pic.twitter.com/F9J8UUclnS— BillsMafiaBabes (@BillsMafiaBabes) September 12, 2025
With each passing year, the community has found more and more reasons to claim Allen as the de facto son of Western New York.
“It kind of makes me emotional just to think like, a movie, you know?” Bills coach Sean McDermott told The Athletic. “A movie, and that’s what it is. It’s for the city of Buffalo, Buffalo Bills fans. I drive up in the community, and you’re seeing the street.
“I’m seeing that. I’m just like, boy, oh boy, does he really even know the impact he’s made on this community? It’s just… It’s incredible.”
Allen’s unflinching desire to reward Buffalo with a Super Bowl championship is part of the allure, especially given the team’s history. But it’s much more than that.
When he arrived in 2018, it was yet another kick at the can for a Bills franchise that had failed to employ a franchise quarterback for two decades. The names of full-game starting quarterbacks since Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly’s retirement after the 1996 season are voluminous and, at times, groan-inducing.
Todd Collins. Alex Van Pelt. Doug Flutie. Rob Johnson. Drew Bledsoe. J.P. Losman. Kelly Hoclcomb. Trent Edwards. Ryan Fitzpatrick. Brian Brohm. EJ Manuel. Thad Lewis. Jeff Tuel. Kyle Orton. Tyrod Taylor. Nathan Peterman.
Sixteen starting quarterbacks until they found No. 17.
And right away, something felt a bit different about Allen compared to all the others through the 17-season playoff drought. The Bills scouted for a quarterback with talent first in 2018, but with an important aside in mind. McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane spent a full season in Buffalo ahead of that NFL Draft, and quickly realized that they needed to go for more than just talent.
“No knock on anybody else, but when it came to the box of, ‘Would he fit in Buffalo?’ And I’m not talking about, yes, there’s the physical, throwing-the-ball-in-bad-weather way. Yeah, that’s important, too,” McDermott said. “But now it’s the personality, the DNA with the people of Buffalo. The match. I think that’s huge. And we thought he would, and he does. I mean, to a T.”
A street sign honoring Josh Allen was installed in the West Seneca suburb in Buffalo in 2021. (Joe Buscaglia / The Athletic)
To understand why Allen’s hold on Buffalo is so unique, you first have to understand the people of the “City of Good Neighbors.”
The winters are long, and the gray skies can wear on a person, but all of that creates a real sense of community. As residents dig out from the handful of big snowstorms every year, there is a feeling of camaraderie and a resolute desire to look out for one another. Decades of seeing outsiders scoff about Buffalo as a place to live have built a tough exterior.
And until Terry and Kim Pegula purchased the Bills in 2014, there was a bubbling anxiety that the moment ownership changed hands, the team would be moved to a ritzy big city that’s the antithesis of Buffalo.
There were four straight Super Bowl appearances without a title. The long playoff drought. It all plays into one central theme: Buffalo is the NFL’s consummate underdog. And now, that hardened mentality is worn by its residents like a badge of honor.
People from Buffalo want you to count them out — in fact, they dare you to. They want to defy every misguided notion about the place they live and love.
The real secret is that there are few places quite like Buffalo, especially among cities that are home to an NFL team. And unlike most football cities, when players take the time to understand what makes people from Buffalo tick, their devotion to the player can be everlasting.
“The city loves its players. They do. They love the team,” Bills legendary special teamer and Hall of Fame hopeful Steve Tasker told The Athletic. “And I think the thing that sets Buffalo apart and when you really start to be embraced by the city and the fans is when the fans and the city know that you love them.
“When the fans really believe you love it here, man, you’re family. There’s no going back.”
Tasker knows better than most what it’s like to have an enduring emotional connection with the city of Buffalo. Tasker was a Bills waiver claim in 1986 and went on to have a 12-year career with seven Pro Bowl appearances as one of the best special teams players in NFL history, during the apex of their Super Bowl story in the early 90s. He became one of the most beloved players in franchise history, too.
The undersized Tasker played bigger than his measurements, and that resonated with fans. But it was how he made Buffalo his home, both during and after his career, that has continued his legacy well past his playing career.
Thurman Thomas (left), Jim Kelly (middle) and Steve Tasker (right) carved out special places in the hearts of Buffalonians, but there’s been nothing quite like Josh Allen. (Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)
In Buffalo, there is a gravitational pull to players like Tasker.
The 17-year playoff drought was long, but it unearthed another gem in the eyes of the fan base smack dab in the middle of it: wide receiver Stevie Johnson.
Johnson was a seventh-round pick in 2008 but didn’t get a legitimate chance at playing time until 2010. As he awaited his opportunity, he poured himself into the fan base.
“My mindset was, how do I get involved with the community to where I’m more than just a jersey and as a seventh rounder, you don’t get many opportunities,” Johnson told The Athletic. “But what I did was, I used to check out the message boards and I saw how committed the fans were. I want to give the energy that they give on the message boards on the field to them.”
Along the way to proving himself with three straight 1,000-yard seasons and memorable moments and celebrations, Johnson got involved in the community and was the key player figure in the grassroots Bills Mafia group started by fans. Bills Mafia has since blown up and become the team’s moniker.
“You get what you put in with the community,” Johnson said. “I haven’t played ball there in (12) years, and it seems like I only just got off the field a few years ago.”
Later, in the McDermott era, came Micah Hyde — yet another underdog. He was a Day-3 pick by the Green Bay Packers, but then he was overlooked during free agency until the Bills came calling. Hyde has maintained his annual charity softball game and a special connection with the area.
“It feels like home,” Hyde, an Ohio native, told The Athletic. “Guys that have gone away to other teams find their way back to Buffalo. If you allow yourself to really just become a Buffalonian, then you’ll learn so much.”
Though all their paths were slightly different, the end result was the same. In Buffalo, you get what you give to the fans and community, and it’s a bond for life. There are many more players like them who have learned that the emotional connection forged between a player and the Buffalo community is as strong as it gets when you look across the NFL.
“I think the whole ‘Keep Buffalo a Secret’ mentality and the idea that, you know what, they can hate all they want, but I’m going to show them. I think that mentality lands on Buffalonians,” Bruce Nolan, a popular Bills fan and social media presence, told The Athletic. “And I think it lands when you have a player like that who connects with this culture, because you see them as one of us.”
So, then, what is it about Allen?
When you look at the basic facts, Allen doesn’t scream Buffalo underdog. He was a Top 10 pick in 2018, he was the NFL MVP less than a year ago, and he’s married to Hollywood superstar Hailee Steinfeld.
But just as the residents of Buffalo will tell you about the city in which they reside, there’s more than meets the eye with Allen.
When the Bills drafted him in 2018, the pick was instantly maligned by fans across the country. His accuracy was mocked. As each isolated training camp miss surfaced on social media, the ridicule grew louder. A Buffalo-bred underdog was born.
With each insult hurled his way, Buffalo increasingly bonded to him because of how often it happens to its residents. He was a sleeping giant continuing to hone his craft.
Allen’s well-documented story of going under-recruited, then to junior college, then to Wyoming all adds to it, too.
“I think it’s is as powerful as I’ve seen as a fan,” Nolan said of Allen’s hold on the area. “I think that really when you are part of a culture like the Buffalo sports culture, what you want is you want someone who’s not from Buffalo to see what Buffalo is about and what you believe to be true about Buffalo … That level of satisfaction gives you a lot of pride, a lot of civic pride in this idea that, see, all of you are wrong.”
Very early into his career, Bills fans realized what they had in Allen on the field, and soon after, the NFL realized it, too. With each hurdle, with each fastball through a tight window, with each touchdown — all 301 of them — and with every win the Bills have racked up over his tenure, Allen has put the franchise, and the city, on the NFL map in a way it never has been in the social-media era. Their underdog-turned-superstar never left the meaningful things from earlier in his career behind.
Bills fans at a popular photo spot in 2022. (Adrian Kraus / AP Photo)
Along the way, Allen has poured himself into the community.
“It feels to me like he doesn’t come off as somebody who acts like he’s better than anyone else he’s around, no matter who it is. It could be the cleaning lady or it could be a Hollywood star.” Moran said. “It feels like just a perfect storm of player, personality, talent level, charitable and the fans reciprocating, and giving back to him in ways that they can.”
Allen’s work with charities throughout the area goes a long way, and the fans that encounter him speak to his authenticity.
Proceeds from the Allen family melon sales went to the Patricia Allen Fund, benefitting John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, to which Josh Allen has contributed time and money over the years. The fund was developed by Allen and his family to provide ongoing support to the pediatric critical care team.
“Just knowing that the smallest things can make the biggest differences for, especially, kids — and that’s kind of where I try to focus my attention, to is with the kids,” Allen told The Athletic. “I think it means a lot to me that, it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to go out of your way and fist bump or high five or say hello to a kid and go visit the hospital and things of that nature. It makes it really cool for me.
Now eight years in, Allen can create a movement with one simple, unplanned sentence. As Allen wrapped up his MVP award speech last year, he ended on one phrase that immediately captivated the fan base.
“Be good, do good, God bless and go Bills.”
It now resides on t-shirts, hats, heck, even lawn ornaments scattered throughout the city and surrounding suburbs, a shining example of how much he means to those in the area.
“For me, as a coach, one day my days will be, I won’t be coaching here anymore,” McDermott said. “I already reflect on it… To see a person, a young man, come here and change the belief in a community and give them hope and someone that they can see themselves in a little bit, and yet he’s so good at what he does.”
“He’s one of us,” Wille said. “He’s just a regular guy. He could be the guy you went to high school with, just happened to be really good at football, and he made it, and it hasn’t changed him.”
A moment that MVP Josh Allen will cherish for the rest of his life 🏆 @Invisalign
📺: #NFLHonors on FOX & NFLN
📱: Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/GaafXND5pV— NFL (@NFL) February 7, 2025
As the 2025 season enters the postseason, it will be the last of Allen’s 20s and the eighth of his Bills career, and the fan anxiety is real. How long will Allen’s prime last? He doesn’t have a Super Bowl trophy, let alone a Super Bowl appearance.
But one Hall of Fame quarterback had a similar experience and relates to the chatter surrounding Allen.
“Josh is living the same kind of start to the career that I did,” Peyton Manning told The Athletic. “It’s kind of the, ‘Yeah, but…’ right? I mean, ‘yeah, all these great things, but…’ And, look, he owns it. I owned it. You can’t try to talk your way out of it. That’s a fact.”
Manning, like Allen, had no Super Bowl appearances to show for his gaudy statistics and status as one of the best quarterbacks in the league through his first seven seasons. Along the way, his Colts had playoff appearances almost every year and an excruciating loss in an AFC Championship Game.
“I’d rather have my heart ripped out being closer, right? Because that means we are close and we’re knocking on the door,” Manning said. “I think Josh and Sean [McDermott] have that same mentality just to keep grinding and keep putting themselves in position. And I believe it’ll happen.”
Eventually, in Manning’s ninth year and age-30 season, the Colts broke through, snapping a three-plus-decade drought without a Super Bowl appearance, and won it all in the 2006 season. It would be quite a parallel tale for the Bills with Allen.
The wait almost made the victory that much sweeter.
“It’s a great feeling,” Manning said. “And the reason it’s a great feeling is because you do it with your teammates and coaches and the fans who have also been there with you through those disappointments. When you go through some close opportunities, or you get there and lose, when you do win it, you certainly realize how hard it was and how special it is.”
Acknowledging the hardship, both past and present, is part of the path, and Allen has accepted it since his arrival.
A scene outside the final regular season game ever played at Highmark Stadium. (Jason Miller / Getty Images)
As the Bills begin their playoff journey on Sunday in Jacksonville, it’s undoubtedly their most difficult path of Allen’s tenure and a reversal of their usual postseason. While the usual AFC behemoths and their superstar quarterbacks — Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow — aren’t in the tournament, the Bills are assured that their first two games, should they advance, will be on the road.
The rhetoric surrounding Allen for these playoffs is already building. Just hours after the playoff field was finalized, messages of “no more excuses for Allen” began, alluding to the unproven AFC playoff entrants around him. Fair or not, it’s the life of an elite NFL quarterback.
While Allen may not acknowledge or even give credence to that imposed burden, there remains a self-imposed responsibility. It goes back to his unwavering desire not only to return the Bills to the Super Bowl for the first time in over three decades, but also to deliver the championship that has eluded Buffalo.
“He’s more than capable. It is a big responsibility… but I don’t see it wearing him down,” McDermott said. “He handles it extremely well. He’s got a great disposition where you know he takes things seriously from a competitive standpoint, but he also has a great sense of humor. And I think that helps him, from time to time, manage that weight of the responsibility.”
Fittingly, on Sunday, in what likely was the final time Allen would run out of the tunnel at the old Highmark Stadium for a Bills game, Allen was ultra-present for the moment and knew just what it meant both to him and all in attendance. As “No. 17, Josh Allen” reverberated through the stadium, only to be replaced by a loud pop of cheers, Allen grinned ear to ear and began his run, blowing a kiss to the fans and slapping his red helmet twice.
Allen has avoided letting a moment get too big for him in a game, while still allowing himself to be in the moment. He feels what the fans give him, and he’s aimed to give right back to them in grand fashion. Buffalo is Josh Allen’s legacy, because part of Buffalo’s legacy is Josh Allen.
“When I got here day one to where I am now, I feel like I’m a completely different man,” Allen said. “I see things from a different light.
“But I think my love for the game and my want and my hunger to bring a Lombardi to the city will not change and will not waver.”
Two defining pieces of the pain that have tormented generations of Bills fans, that Allen wasn’t a part of whatsoever, that he’s taken head-on to give fans the moment they’ve only dreamed of. And if he’s successful, Allen will have helped the very place that helped him bloom into the person he is today, to bloom all the same, in a way it never has.
