Joe Cribbs still inspires Bills Mafia from afar

HERNDON, Va. – When Jimmy Cirrito was 13 in 1980, he saw a Buffalo Bills game in person for the first time. Everything about that day was etched in his memory: going with friends. Cheering for the Bills. Feeling the energy of the audience.

He has since spent much of his life recreating the magic of that moment at his own rowdy Bills bar, Jimmy’s Old Town Tavern, in northern Virginia. Things came full circle on Sunday when Cirrito introduced ex-Bills running back Joe Cribbs to the crowd gathered to watch the Bills play the Houston Texans.

“My childhood hero,” Cirrito said. “He scored the first NFL touchdown I ever saw.”

Bills games are always a festive time at Jimmy’s, but once a year Cirrito takes it up a notch with a tented festival in an adjacent parking lot, allowing him to double the size of his usual rowdy crowd. He estimates he had about 600 Bills fans on Sunday, dining on plates of wings and weck and kielbasa.

Cirrito invites a few former Bills for meet-and-greets at the festival every year. Sunday’s celebrities were Scott Norwood, who lives nearby and comes almost every year; Thomas Smith, who lives in Arlington, Virginia, and has performed several times; and Cribbs, who flew in from Alabama for the first time.

After Cirrito picked Cribbs up from his hotel about an hour before Sunday’s kickoff, they sat in the lobby for a while. That’s where Cirrito showed Cribbs his ticket from September 14, 1980: Rich Stadium, Section C, Aisle 8, Row 32, Seat 10. Price: $12.

“You could buy a lot for $12 back then,” Cribbs said with a smile.

That day, the Bills defeated the New York Jets 20-10 to start the season 2-0. In the second quarter, Cribbs gave the Bills a lead they didn’t relinquish when he dove over the middle from 3 feet out.

“Maybe,” Cribbs said of the piece. “I don’t know anymore.”

“What, you don’t remember me in the stands?” Cirrito said. “I was the one yelling, ‘Joe!’ ”

They both laughed at that. Cribbs is 66 years old and Cirrito 57. Cribbs lives on the Gulf Coast of Alabama and Cirrito in the suburbs of Washington, Virginia, men from different backgrounds and regions connected by Buffalo.

“I don’t remember that second game” of the 1980 season, Cribbs said, “because that first game was so important.”

The Bills defeated Miami 17-7 in their 1980 opener, snapping an unthinkable 20-game losing streak against the Dolphins. Cribbs scored the go-ahead touchdown with 2:02 left. Delirious Bills fans took down the goalposts.

“I was shocked,” he said. “It was my first competition. I didn’t know the history.”

The Bills had selected Cribbs with the first pick of the second round in the 1980 draft. He had 60 yards rushing and 71 yards receiving against the Dolphins. The following week against the Jets, he had 50 yards rushing on eight carries, including the TD that thrilled the 13-year-old boy from Arcade, Wyoming County.

That was the day the Bills inaugurated their Wall of Fame with OJ Simpson, which was only fitting since the Simpson trade with the San Francisco 49ers two years earlier had given the Bills the draft pick they used to select Cribbs.

“I remember sitting in the stands that day,” Cirrito said, “and there was a guy in our section who stood up and got the whole crowd dancing, ‘Let’s go, Buff-a-lo!’ I remember thinking, ‘Is this what it’s like?’ And then I grew up to be that man.”

To this day, Cribbs remains in awe of the fan base that became known as Bills Mafia.

“I always felt, and still feel, that Buffalo fans are the best in the country,” he said. “I’ve played in different places and it takes a special kind of fan to come out when there’s snow in the stands and it’s 0 degrees outside.”

Sunday was balmy in the mid 70s under a tent at Jimmy’s. The crowd went home unhappy when the Texans won with a 59-yard walk-off field goal. Still, most had a nice time.

The New York Times, in reporting on that 1980 Jets game, noted the love in the air that day for the Bills: “Their fans toasted them afterward by staying out in the rain, singing fight songs and drinking cans of beer.” hoist.”

Singing in the rain. Dancing in the aisles. Feeling the feeling. Teen Jimmy fell for all that – and now he tries to recapture it every week at Jimmy’s Old Town Tavern. And on Sunday he got to do it with his childhood hero.

“It doesn’t get any better than that,” Cirrito said. “He’s not an average Joe.”