A Bills Mafia girl living in a Barbie world

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The first Barbie doll came out in March 1959. The Buffalo Bills’ first game would take place about a year later. Tina Smith’s story doesn’t begin all the way back to Mattel or Ralph Wilson Jr.

“We were on our way to Alaska to do some deliveries. We stopped at family in Batavia and my grandmothers were both such big Bills fans. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I have a team now,’” Smith said.

The longtime military veteran has been back in the 716 for a while now, drawing inspiration from red, white and blue – a little pink, but almost not by choice.

“When I was unpacking the house here, unpacking all my Bills stuff, I grabbed that jersey,” she recalled. “They come with a little cardboard suction cup cutout thingy that you put the jersey on. And I don’t really know what you do with the suction cup, but I was like, ‘I gotta put that on a Barbie.'”

The collection grows year after year and is displayed throughout the season with an eye for detail, just as the players do with their playbooks.

“They’re definitely different. The wing hat. Oh, ketchup and mustard with the bowling ball,” she noted. “You can sit there and watch it and still not notice everything. And then you come back and see different things.”

In creating this unique collection, Smith has been not only frugal but also practical.

“What I ended up doing with this collection is I ordered a bunch of used Barbies off eBay and cleaned them up. A lot of them had to have their hair removed. So a lot of them have yarn hair,” she said.

A collection of Barbies, Kens and others represents the wide variety of characters within the Bills mafia.

“I love that our city, when you walk down the street during the tailgates and you see all walks of life, we’re not all like crazy people jumping through tables like crazy people drinking. I mean, some of us have this weird, you know, Barbie thing,” she said.

As much, if not more, a community affair than a football affair.

According to Smith, only one of the dolls is directly based on a real member of the Bills mafia, but you can definitely see inspiration from the fans there.

The collection will be on display this season at the Totally Buffalo Store in Amherst.