Buffalo Bills Mafia Co-Founder Del Reid is Nominated for 2023 NFL Fan of the Year

On last week’s episode of my podcast, The Buffalo Sports Conversation Room on Driving to the Top Productions, I had the honor of interviewing, Buffalo Bills’ Mafia fan, Mr. Del Reid.

Reid has been going viral for being named the 2023 Buffalo Bills Fan of the Year and also for being nominated for the 2023 NFL Fan of the Year. More importantly, he is the co-founder of Bills Mafia and also owns his own tee shirt business called 26 Shirts.

Besides his good deeds and kind charity work, Reid is a person of high character, and he is a down-to-earth guy, as he hasn’t let his recent fame go to his head.

How #BillsMafia Started

Like any national story, it typically starts with a gentleman like Reid who is just a regular Buffalo Bills fan braving out the drought years.

Picture in your mind, that it’s November 2010, and the Buffalo Bills have gone 10 years without making the playoffs, but during this lowlight season, there is a young receiver on the team by the name of Stevie Johnson.

The week before, Johnson was seen as an up-and-coming star in the NFL with a monster game. A week later in overtime, however, the narrative changed as one bad dropped pass in overtime against the Pittsburgh Steelers cost the Bills the win and Johnson’s good reputation.

Johnson then posted a tweet blaming God for dropping the pass and ESPN host Adam Schefter got a hold of it. The ESPN host then retweeted it and made fun of poor Johnson for that pass.

Reid came in and tried to stick up for the receiver by tweeting out #BillsMafia. He also sent out some other tweets to Schefter, but they were blocked because they didn’t fit his narrative.

“It all spawned out of a dropped pass that Stevie Johnson had in the 2010 season against the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime,” he said. “He went on Twitter that evening and questioned his faith a little bit and questioned god, and Bills fans were rallying around him in that situation.”

Months passed after the blocked tweets and the Johnson situation blew over, but this didn’t stop Reid from supporting Johnson and the rest of the Buffalo Bills team.

In 2011, he made one tweet that seemed like a tease at first, but little did Reid know, it would start a movement that led him to where he is today.

“Fast forward a few months later and I just made a joke on Twitter,” he said. “I called us the Bills Mafia and wasn’t trying to start anything, but it just took off and became popular with fans, players, the media, and eventually the team.”

How Reid was Announced 2023 Buffalo Bills Fan of the Year

Every year, the NFL runs a fun contest on its website dedicating it to die-hard fans of individual teams in the NFL. After all 32 team fans are selected, they will all be nominated for the NFL Fan of the Year.

Reid is happily one of the nominees for the Buffalo Bills, but his journey to becoming Bills fan of the year actually started with the loving support and probably his biggest PR supporter, his wife.

“It’s an online competition that the NFL runs for every team every year,” he said. “My wife found out about it and she said, I’m going to nominate you, and I said, You don’t have to, and she said, We’re doing it, so she spearheaded the whole campaign and it happened.”

Reid’s announcement came as a surprise, as he was invited to Highmark Stadium. He thought he was there to explain to the media about the history of Bill’s Mafia.

It turned out that he and Johnson met face-to-face on the turf, so Johnson could tell him that he was selected as the 2023 Fan of the Year. Johnson pulled his shirt up about his, “Why so serious” game against the Bengals that read, “Fan of the Year”.

“They gave me a cool jersey,” he said. “If you watched the video when they announced it, I got this cool jersey number 23 for the year 2023, it says fan of the year on the back and has a cool patch on it. I also got a couple of tickets to the Super Bowl, so my wife and I will be going to the Super Bowl this year.”

How Reid Gives Back to the Community

Reid is not only just a die-hard Buffalo Bills fan, but he also thinks outside the box, especially with people outside his inner circle. He runs his own tee shirt business called, 26 Shirts. It features Buffalo-themed apparel.

Reid just doesn’t sell these shirts to run a business, he sells them because he is a kind gentleman. He puts others first and has a heart of gold and a personality that drives him to become successful as a Bills fan and also in life.

“Ever since the inception of Bills Mafia in 2011, we started to organize some stuff around it,” he said. “The whole goal had always been to lift up other fans, we never wanted to make it about ourselves, and in 2013, I had this idea of selling tee shirts to help people in the community.”

A donation is given to families or charitable organizations facing adversity for every shirt that Reid sells. He says that it is his faith and his family that encourage him to share the passion to drive a positive change.

Vote For Reid

The 2023 NFL Fan of the Year will be named on February 8, 2024. It will be held during the NFL Honors Award show that showcases the NFL’s best players, achievements, and plays from the 2023 season.

Okay all you #BillsMafia fans out there, you can help our friend, Del out by going on and voting for him to make him the Buffalo Bills 2023 NFL Fan of the Year!

You have until 11:59 pm on February 7, 2024 to vote.

I voted for him, now it’s your turn…

Voting can now take place at NFL.com/fanoftheyear.

For another NFL story, please check out:

Buffalo Bills add Two New Players ahead of NFL Trade Deadline