Tim Walton
Some things just don’t make sense. For Bills Mafia, it’s a weekend of confusion surrounding New York State mandates and the NFL playoff game between the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens, in Orchard Park.
Bills fans will be forced to watch the game at home. This due to the 10pm curfew that’s in effect preventing bars and restaurants from being open the 2nd half of the game, which starts at 8:15pm.
May sound understandable, until you think about it.
Technically you can safely watch the first half of the game at a bar. That’s until 9:59pm. Don’t think about doing the same thing at 10:01pm. At that time, you have to make your way home, or stay home for the whole game.
What exactly happens at that time?
What would make home gatherings, that are about 50x more likely to spread COVID, a better scenario for the State?
According to Governor Andrew Cuomo, private household gatherings account for nearly 74% of all traced cases of COVID in New York.
In contrary, restaurants which require social distancing, masks when not seated, hand washing and many other safety protocols only account for 1.43% of cases.
The question arises why can’t the curfew be extended? It would make sense not to extend it, if COVID was more contagious after 10pm. If that’s the case, we offer our condolences to every one of the 6700 fans inside the stadium until the end of the game.
The key difference for them however, is food isn’t being served after 10pm.
Is food the magic transmitter?
Those fans can’t eat after 10pm, when the stadium closes its concessions to comply with the 10pm order. We could assume that’s because food is the specific factor, right? Is food only contagious after 10pm? Taking it away, makes the stadium compliant and stops spread COVID?
Then why can’t bars and restaurants stay open after 10pm and just not serve food? Is it only safe to watch the game, and not eat at the Stadium?
What makes that even more confusing, is when you’re ordering a beer, food is required also in dining establishments.
So now we are back to square one. Just when we thought food was the problem, it’s now set as a savior for beer, which when consumed alone appears to be the problem.
However, luckily for the 6700 fans inside the stadium, New Era Field is one of the few places you can safely order a beer, and don’t need to order food also. Is it super beer? Or does the food really have nothing to do with preventing the spread of COVID?
The confusion is everywhere.
You can watch 4 quarters of a football game last weekend at 1pm, but can’t do the same thing at 8:15pm.
If you’re still with me at this point, we all know no one parties like Bills Mafia. So there’s no justifying that it’s safer to drink earlier as opposed to later. Bills fans are flying through tables and chugging beers at 10am or 10pm. If it’s game day, it’s on.
So what happens exactly happens after 10pm in restaurants, that doesn’t happen inside the stadium, or Walmart or Wegmans?
We still don’t know.
Until then, tables will continue to be smashed at home, kegs will be tapped and cans will be shot-gunned. Let’s face it, whether you agree or don’t agree, there’s no denying that Bills fans aren’t sitting at home 4 to a table, masks on, watching the game… and you can guarantee food is being eaten after 10pm too.
