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40 years of friendship, football and family

Mike & Pete have seen the ups & downs over the decades

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Meet Mike Fitzgerald and Pete Battaglia. 

Best friends for decades.

These guys equate themselves to Statler and Waldorf, the grumpy seniors on the Muppet Show. It was during a second consecutive 2-14 season when they had the crazy idea to get season tickets.

Mike recalls, "It was pouring rain, but we could sit in literally almost any seat we wanted to. And we looked at each other and I said 'you know, we think now's a good time to get season tickets sold from that day on in 1986 was the first year we became season ticket holders." 

Over the years they’ve seen a lot of bad football, but of course things have improved recently.

The Buffalo Bills are now among the NFL's elite teams.

And with only a few exceptions, they’ve watched every game together for the last 40 years.

That includes watching the away games too.  If they’re not in the same room, they’re at least on the phone together.

Both guys have lovely and understanding wives. Mike is married to Kelly and Pete to Janet. And for their families, and perhaps yours:  Football means family. Multiple generations get together root on the good guys.

Know a great Bills fan story?   Email Kevin O'Neill   kevin@wgrz.com

You can watch previous Meet the Mafia stories on the Channel 2 YouTube page

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