The rift can be traced back to a spring day in 2018.
Before that fateful day, Broncos Country was united. Geographically, the Denver Broncos have the good fortune of being an NFL franchise where the nearest competitor’s stadium is more than 600 miles away. That gives the Broncos a huge fan base since it’s the only NFL team around for hundreds of miles in every direction.
It’s the only pro football team within a state that borders Wyoming, and the Cowboy State has always been part of ride-or-die Broncos Country. Even now.
But something changed April 26, 2018.
That’s the day a new team began making inroads into the hearts of Wyomingites, and Orange and Blue generational loyalties began to fray.
Feelings of betrayal toward the Broncos spread in cities like Laramie and Cheyenne, and some say a curse was born that day, miring the Denver team in five straight losing seasons like the Curse of the Bambino.
It was the day the Broncos could have drafted — but didn’t — University of Wyoming football star Josh Allen, breaking the hearts of countless Wyoming Cowboy football fans, and creating new fans for the Buffalo Bills, the team that selected the former UW star quarterback.
Wyoming And Buffalo Seems Natural
Since that day, Allen and the Bills have on a path to stardom while missing on drafting a generational quarterback set the Broncos back another six years.
But this year, for the first time since Allen was drafted, both franchises appear headed for the playoffs and a potential collision that could test the loyalties of Wyomingites who grew up Broncos fans and grew into Bills fans as Allen’s star has risen.
He is widely considered the front-runner for the NFL MVP this season, and nobody outside Buffalo, New York, cheer harder for Allen and their adopted team than the Cowboy State.
“Historically, many Wyomingites certainly cheer for the Broncos,” said Chad Baldwin, a Wyoming native and University of Wyoming spokesman. “But there’s no question there’s a lot of Buffalo Bills fans in Wyoming now thanks to Josh Allen.
“I don’t want to guess how that will break down.”
An informal poll on Reddit last year asking users which NFL team “people living in Wyoming root for” ended up with the Broncos being mentioned 11 times and the Bills — a team whose stadium is more than 1,500 miles away from Laramie — being referred to seven times.
“Broncos country, let's ride!” one commenter wrote.
“Wyoming is Bills country these days because of Josh Allen,” said another.
To understand how a team from western New York could cut into one of the NFL’s most fervent fan bases, you have to know the circumstances in which Allen was passed over by the Broncos and picked up by the Bills.
Perfect Fit
In spring 2018, the Broncos were coming off their second season in the post-Manning era. Peyton Manning is considered one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play football, and he had graced the Broncos with four seasons, two Super Bowl appearances and a Super Bowl victory in 2016.
Since then, the Broncos had gone 14-18. Broncos fans had become used to great quarterbacking play, wide open offenses with gunslingers that matched the Wild West history of the region. Before Manning, there was John Elway, old No. 7, an all-time clutch player with a cannon for an arm that led the team to five Super Bowls and two championships.
But in the 2017 season, the team was led by three different quarterbacks, signaling just how lost the Broncos were at the preeminent position.
Fans went into the 2018 NFL draft hoping the Broncos might come out of it with their next great quarterback.
It all seemed to be lining up for that to happen. The Broncos were picking fifth overall, and the draft was loaded with good quarterbacking prospects, including Wyoming’s strong-armed quarterback who had led the Cowboys to consecutive bowl appearances.
Allen reminded many of Broncos legend Elway, who at the time was the Broncos general manager. Big, tall, mobile with rockets for arms.
It was the prototype Elway seemed to favor, as he had drafted two quarterbacks with similar builds and qualities in previous drafts, both of which washed out after relatively short careers.
Cody Tucker, a Cheyenne native and lifelong Broncos fan who had cried tears of joy after the Broncos first ever Super Bowl win, couldn’t wait for the Broncos selection.
If Allen was available at the fifth pick, he was sure the Broncos would select him. After all, Elway had watched Allen throw three touchdowns while the Broncos executive scouted him on the sidelines of the Potato Bowl just four months earlier.
It seemed like a perfect match.
“He drafted a lot of quarterbacks who were like him,” said Tucker, the founder of 7220sports.com, an online sports site that covers the Cowboys. “Big guys, bigger in stature, who could run.”
Fans across Wyoming couldn’t believe their good fortune. Their favorite collegiate player seemed destined for their favorite pro team.
“You thought, ‘Man, the stars just aligned here,’” added Tucker.
When the fifth selection in the draft came around, Allen was sitting there for the taking.
The Broncos, however, selected Bradley Chubb, a defensive end from North Carolina State.
“It was such an ultimate gut punch,” Tucker said. “My fandom, when he didn’t come to the Broncos, it died.”
Opposite Directions
The fortunes of both the Broncos and the Bills, who selected Allen two picks later, went in opposite directions.
The Bills finished the 2018 season 6-10 but went 10-6 the following year. They have made the playoffs every year since 2019 and have won at least 11 games each season. They now stand at 11-3 with three games to go and have already won their division.
The Broncos, meanwhile, started 14 different quarterbacks after the 2018 draft until the start of this season. Up until this year, the Broncos’ best season since passing on Allen was going 8-9 last year.
Over the past six years, interest in the Broncos has waned with each losing season in Wyoming (and everywhere else) while the Buffalo Bills fandom in the Cowboy state has only grown.
“There is a big interest that shifted toward the Buffalo Bills,” said Trent Weitzel, owner of Double Dub’s, a popular chicken wing food truck frequented by Allen during his Cowboy days. “I know a lot of people are disappointed that he didn’t get drafted by the Broncos and everything.”
But that fandom was not borne out of spite, Weitzel said. It didn’t matter what team drafted Allen. Whoever did was bound to get a huge influx of new fans from Wyoming. That’s just how big Allen was at the University of Wyoming.
“When he got drafted, the Bills Mafia gained hundreds of thousands of fans from Wyoming,” Weitzel said. “I think it was hard for them not to follow him into Buffalo. It would have been hard not to follow him anywhere.”
Bills Mafia West
Weitzel has become part of the Bills Mafia since Allen joined the team. He said he has taken his wing operation on the road to tailgate at least 20 Bills games in Buffalo and elsewhere.
Bills fandom hasn’t just subtly become part of Wyoming. There are team flags flown from cars, and football fans who go to sportsbars just to watch the Bills play since many games aren’t available on local TV.
Tucker said he has seen more than a few people in Bills No. 17 jerseys shopping for game-day snacks Sunday mornings in the grocery store. Last weekend, he was at a sports bar where the Broncos game was on at one side of the bar and the Bills game was on at the other. All chairs seemed pointed at the Bills game, he said.
The University of Wyoming football program certainly isn’t hiding its allegiance.
Before the 2021 AFC Championship game, the Cowboys tweeted a video of mascot Pistol Pete in a Bills No. 17 Allen jersey falling from the bed of a pickup onto a plastic table, busting it, as is a Bills tailgating tradition.
“Proud to rep #BillsMafia today! Bring home that AFC Championship @joshallenqb & @buffalobills!” the UW program tweeted.
“As Josh’s star has risen, I think many people have associated him with the university and Cowboys fans have viewed that with great satisfaction and pride,” Baldwin said. “If he were named the MVP of the league, we would all certainly puff up our chests — not that we had anything to do with it.”
A Lot In Common
Buffalo also seems like a good fit for Wyomingites. It’s a blue collar, beer-drinking town with people who scoff at those who can’t handle snow.
“It’s very Wyoming,” said Tucker, who has attended Bills games in their home stadium at Orchard Park, New York.
Since Allen was drafted, fans in Wyoming who have their allegiances split between the Bills and the Broncos have been forced to pick one side or the other a handful of times, including last season, when the teams met in November with the Broncos eking out a 24-22 win.
But that was a regular season game, and in the end, the Broncos were once again out of the playoffs while the Bills played on last year.
Not this year.
This season, the Allen curse may be broken. The Broncos are 9-5 and in great playoff position with three games to go. They have finally found a field general in rookie Bo Nix who has ended a constant carousel of failing and flailing starting quarterbacks.
Who will Wyoming pro football fans cheer for if the teams meet in the playoffs, which is a very real possibility this year?
“I’m going to say the Bills,” Weitzel said. “But I think a lot of people will be divided.”
He hopes the Bills earn the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage in the playoffs, which as of now would head off at least a first round faceoff between the teams.
That would instead likely match the Broncos up with the Kansas City Chiefs.
And that’s one opponent both the Bills and the Broncos fans have no split feelings about.
Justin George can be reached at justin@cowboystatedaily.com.
