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Steve Shepherd started his liquid diet for the Buffalo Bills-Cleveland Browns game long before the opening kickoff last Sunday.
After boarding a tour bus in London, Ont., at 7:30 a.m., the 54-year-old London resident said he began downing mixed drinks of rye and Coke.
It was 5½ hours before kickoff.
During the three-hour ride, Clovis Lamirande, the bus driver and a retired police officer, said he warned Shepherd to ease off on the drinking, but Shepherd refused.
At about 2 p.m., Shepherd stumbled back from the stadium to the bus parking lot, after being refused admittance because of his intoxication.
"They wouldn't let me in. I wasn't thrilled, but I can't blame them. I'm drunk," Shepherd said sheepishly, his face scratched and cut from falling down. "I think somebody pushed me down."
Welcome to Buffalo's nationally recognized tailgating scene.
Hours before kickoff last Sunday, tailgating was in full swing in the parking lots outside Ralph Wilson Stadium, featuring plenty of eating and drinking -- actually, more drinking than eating.
Attracting out-of-town fans from Southern Ontario and throughout New York State is part of the Bills' strategy to regionalize their market. That's been a huge success, helping the Bills sell 55,194 season tickets, even after nine straight years out of the playoffs.
But tailgating comes with a price.
Tailgaters drink beer out of "beer funnels," down "bowling ball shots" and dine on a breakfast menu dubbed "kegs and eggs." They engage in drinking games that make the parking lots, filled with discarded beer bottles and smashed beer cans, look like Sunday morning outside a fraternity house.
After boarding a tour bus in London, Ont., at 7:30 a.m., the 54-year-old London resident said he began downing mixed drinks of rye and Coke.
It was 5½ hours before kickoff.
During the three-hour ride, Clovis Lamirande, the bus driver and a retired police officer, said he warned Shepherd to ease off on the drinking, but Shepherd refused.
At about 2 p.m., Shepherd stumbled back from the stadium to the bus parking lot, after being refused admittance because of his intoxication.
"They wouldn't let me in. I wasn't thrilled, but I can't blame them. I'm drunk," Shepherd said sheepishly, his face scratched and cut from falling down. "I think somebody pushed me down."
Welcome to Buffalo's nationally recognized tailgating scene.
Hours before kickoff last Sunday, tailgating was in full swing in the parking lots outside Ralph Wilson Stadium, featuring plenty of eating and drinking -- actually, more drinking than eating.
Attracting out-of-town fans from Southern Ontario and throughout New York State is part of the Bills' strategy to regionalize their market. That's been a huge success, helping the Bills sell 55,194 season tickets, even after nine straight years out of the playoffs.
But tailgating comes with a price.
Tailgaters drink beer out of "beer funnels," down "bowling ball shots" and dine on a breakfast menu dubbed "kegs and eggs." They engage in drinking games that make the parking lots, filled with discarded beer bottles and smashed beer cans, look like Sunday morning outside a fraternity house.
How embarrassing.
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