- The Bills are scheduled to play the Steelers at 4:30 PM ET after being moved up 24 hours
- But Orchard Park is still covered in snow on a frigid Monday morning
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
The Buffalo Bills posted a photo of the ominous scene inside a bitterly cold Orchard Park stadium just hours before they are scheduled to play the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL playoffs.
The game, which was moved from Sunday to Monday because of bitterly cold and snowy weather in Western New York, was at risk of being moved again after another day of snow raised the possibility of another postponement.
It remains to be seen whether the show will go ahead on Monday afternoon. The weather service expects heavy lake effect snow from Lake Erie to move into New York state, adding to the 1 to 2 feet of snow already blanketing the region.
On Sunday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she expected the game to start as scheduled, but the scene around the stadium suggested that
The Bills are even paying fans $20 an hour – and getting free hot drinks and breakfast – to clear the snow in an effort to keep the game going.
The Buffalo Bills posted a photo of the ominous scene in a bitterly cold Orchard Park
A worker helps remove snow from Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park on Sunday
Footage posted overnight from one of the volunteers showed huge piles of snow still covering the stands and the field.
Walkways from the hall towards the field were also closed and the field resembled an ice rink.
Logan Eschrich came to Buffalo to witness the snowstorm, and he even stuck around to shovel.
When the professional storm chaser saw the Bills inviting fans to help dig out a snow-filled Highmark Stadium for their postponed playoff game against the visiting Steelers, now scheduled for Monday, Eschrich couldn’t resist.
Sniffling and shivering from the cold, Eschrich described the seemingly impossible task he and the estimated 85-man shovel crew faced while being paid $20 an hour.
Winds were blowing at 30 mph (48 kph) and snow was falling at a rate of 2 inches per hour at what was supposed to be the game’s 1 p.m. EST kickoff, which was postponed to Monday at 4:30 p.m.
‘It would have been absolutely impossible (to play). We could barely see the next row from us. And unfortunately that’s still the case,” Eschrich told The Associated Press by telephone in mid-afternoon. “We’ve made progress on shoveling, but not much.”
Fans, like this man, were invited to clean up the Bills’ stadium in Orchard Park for $20 an hour
Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park is no stranger to snow, but additional workers were still needed
He said the bleacher seats were completely covered in snow, adding that it was treacherous to travel just two blocks to the stadium from where he camped overnight.
“I’m very happy that they put the travel ban in effect,” said Eschrich, who works for Live Storms Media, and made the 16-hour trip north from Alabama, where he planned to take videos of tornadoes. “No one should be here.”
The Buffalo region, which includes the Bills’ home in Orchard Park, was largely at a standstill, with a travel ban due to a dangerous lake-effect storm that began Saturday and was expected to last until Sunday evening.
The storm was expected to dump between 1 and 3 feet of snow, with the heaviest accumulation around Orchard Park.
With the storm expected to weaken by Sunday night, the National Weather Service forecast Monday a chance of morning snow showers and a high of 19 degrees Fahrenheit (minus -7 degrees Celsius), but with strong winds that made it feel like minus- 5 (minus-21).
Bills players and staff spent Sunday at home. The Steelers arrived Sunday afternoon after travel restrictions were lifted at Buffalo Niagara International Airport and northern parts of Erie County.
More to follow.