Ryan Fitzpatrick & the Buffalo Bills: "A love affair that won’t be ending any time soon"

Our conversation is transcribed inside. There's only one FitzMagic. He guides us through his roller-coaster NFL career.

Getty Images

Ryan Fitzpatrick wants everyone in Buffalo, NY to know he’s coming. His Amazon crew will be on-site to call the team’s Sept. 18 game against the Miami Dolphins — he’ll be in town early, he’ll be ready to party.

There’s also a very good chance he’ll be popping the shirt off, too.

Even though the longtime quarterback never had a winning season with the Bills, he sure made a special connection with the entire fan base that’s only gotten stronger. And stronger.

You can watch or listen to our conversation with Fitzpatrick on the pod here:

GL Pod: FITZMAGIC!

The full transcription is below.

It’s no accident that Fitz managed to play 17 seasons for nine different teams and have seven kids in seven different cities.

We relive all of the highs and lows.

Dunne: First, we’ve got to start here. Fitz, you give hope to men with an abundance of chest hair everywhere. So I just want to say thank you for making that cool, making that trendy. When did you realize the chest hair should be wielded as a lethal weapon?

Fitzpatrick: I’ll tell you what, I was a real late bloomer in that department and even the beard department. It took me a long time to be able to grow all the hair follicles. But it's such an important part of who I am. The chest hair just oozes personality. It's got a personality of its own. So I appreciate that you are with me in that department. I think you probably need to show it off a little bit more. Don’t be so reserved about it. Take another button down. But it’s something my kids are always like, “Why are you so hairy, Dad?” It’s just who I am, man. It’s just who I am.

Dunne: You’ve got to own it. I thought that maybe we just do the podcast with our shirts off, but we don’t want to scare off everybody.

Fitzpatrick: It would be a more comfort setting if this was just audio, but since we have the video going, too, let’s just go ahead and keep the shirts on and let the people dream about what they’re missing.

Dunne: That’s right. Keep an element of mystery. I will say once I started dating Gina, my wife, early in that process, once I knew she was OK with a bald and a chest-haired fellow, I had to lock it up. Get that done. I think your wife probably saw the transformation, Ryan, because you guys were together in Harvard.

Fitzpatrick: She was along for the ride. She actually said the other day to my girls — because one of my friends had sent an old photo of me in college — and she was like, “That’s the guy I fell in love with there. Not what you see here.” This is all something she’s got to live with now. But man, this podcast is getting off to a good start here. Almost like an OnlyFans.

Dunne: But here’s the hard-hitter right here. What’s your stance on back hair?

Fitzpatrick: This is interesting because I’m a — as you could imagine — a pretty Au Naturel guy. Now, I did last year for the first time, trim my back hair. I've only done it once in my life. It’s back in full force.

Dunne: Back with a vengeance.

Fitzpatrick: I always grew up a big Seinfeld fan growing up. When Kramer starts shaving his chest and then Jerry starts shaving his chest and then Kramer shows him what happens. It grows back even fuller in the shower. And so that’s my only concern with the back hair. I did it once. I got to admit, I don’t think I'll do it again. Very comfortable with lots of hair.

Dunne: Same exact process here. I think there were a couple times in the past. Maybe ahead of the honeymoon, right? Probably going to be walking around without the shirt on. Don’t want to scare off everybody, but when you’re married you don’t care. But that’s probably the No. 1 reason not to do it — it grows back fast and full and itches just like Jerry on Seinfeld becoming a werewolf. I’m with you. Just own it.

Fitzpatrick: I’m against shoulder hair. Let’s just say that and then we can move on. I’m certainly against shoulder hair. I’m fine with back and chest hair.

Dunne: We’ll stop there with the body hair. We’ll draw the line right there if that’s cool with you. So, there you are at Highmark. You rip the shirt off, you’re going nuts that playoff game against the Patriots and I don’t know how many former Buffalo Bills — players, quarterbacks, anybody — could pull that off and be an absolute icon. It was nuts here locally, nationally. But you were beloved here those four years. That was the drought, 17 years not making the playoffs. You’re 20-33 as a starter, but people hear your name and they think of “FitzMagic.” They think of the 2011 Patriots game. But why do you think you resonated so well with Western New York and Bills fans?

Fitzpatrick: Yeah, I think we just got each other. Part of it was my playing style. During those years, ’09 was my first year in Buffalo and that was Dick Jauron’s last year. Rest in peace, Dick Jauron. And then Chan Gailey came in and I think those next few years — if you remember in 2010 — Trent Edwards started out that season as the starter and then essentially for the next 14 games and then two years after that I was able to come in and bring in a little bit of excitement. I feel like there were a lot of underdogs on the team at that point. If you look at that offense, it was all seventh-round picks and undrafted guys. I think the heart that we played with really resonated with the fan base. We had some real high moments and when you play for Buffalo, they love you so hard. So when you love them back, it really resonates with the fan base. And it’s just the place where I played where I felt the biggest connection with the fans and that continues to this day and continues to grow to this day, which is nice.

My household is interesting with my kids because my 16-year-old is — it’s tough to say the ‘biggest Bills fan ever’ — but he's up there. He is up there with all the rest of the card-carrying members of the Bills Mafia. But I also have a split household. I've got a couple other kids that are fans of different teams and it’s very strange on Sunday for everybody not to be head to toe Bills gear rooting for the Bills, but we’ve got to stay true to some of these kids with where they were born. We can’t fault them for the fact that they’re not Bills fans because my youngest was born in Tampa. He’s a huge Baker Mayfield fan and that’s OK with me. He loves the Bucks. I’ve got a Texans fan. Somehow, I have a Dolphins fan, which look, I had a great time and loved every minute of Miami. But it’s a split household. So Sundays are very interesting in my house.

Dunne: Seven kids born in seven different cities, right?

Fitzpatrick: Yeah, we do have a Jets fan, too, in there. So the Bills fan has been living pretty good the last few years.

Dunne: Take me back to 2011. Week 3. You’re down 21-0 to New England. Tom Brady. Here they are again, kicking Buffalo’s ass, blowing ‘em out in Orchard Park. And next thing you know, Brady throws five picks, Fitz and Fred Jackson and Donald Jones and Drayton Florence.

Fitzpatrick: Yeah, he got on the cover of Sports Illustrated for that interception.

Dunne: What was that day really like? Because when you look back at that entire 17-year run, an entire generation where the Bills didn’t make the playoffs, I feel like if you were to power-rank the most memorable moments, that might be No. 1.

Fitzpatrick: You remember Week 2 was the Raiders game, too. That game was insane. It came down to a fourth-down conversion at the very end. I think David Nelson was on the receiving end of that. We won 38-35. So there’s a ton of excitement. So to follow that the next week with coming out laying an egg, being down 21-0, and then that comeback, I think it was nice for me that that happened in Year 3 because I was really able to understand it and fully grasp what it meant to the fan base, what it meant to guys like Kyle Williams and Fred Jackson. It was just such a special moment for me. I have so many good ones in the stadium, so it’s a little bittersweet for the new one to be going up and for this to be the last season. But that Patriots game is right up there with any of them. And I think a lot of it was just being on the field afterwards and fully embracing and feeling that moment with the fans and how important it was to them. Because at that point, I think it was 15 games in a row that the Bills had lost to the Patriots.

Getty Images

Dunne: How loud was it? It seemed loud from afar.

Fitzpatrick: It was so insane. I’ve heard it loud in there plenty, but that one was pretty insane. I feel like when I was just back for the Baltimore playoff game, I lost my voice immediately after leading the charge. But that also was up there in terms of the noise factor and what I had heard in that stadium before.

Dunne: Brady felt like this indomitable, immovable object to the entire franchise. So you mentioned that moment after the game and you’re kind of soaking it in, a few seconds later you’re going out to midfield to shake Tom Brady’s hand and he is nowhere to be found. Is that correct?

Fitzpatrick: Yeah, I mean I’ve talked about this moment plenty. But that certainly added fuel to my fire every time that I played him thereafter.

Dunne: You played him a handful of times, too.

Fitzpatrick: So many. He beat me so many times. I think I was 3-11 against him.

Dunne: Why did that piss you off? You think, quarterback to quarterback, that should be a moment where you meet, you shake hands, win, lose or draw and own it?

Fitzpatrick: Yeah, I mean it’s just a sign of respect. Competitors going at each other and it’s something that you, for me doing a lot of coaching now with my kids, it’s just one of those fundamental things that you teach at a very young age. And I think the biggest part of it is just it’s a sign of respect. Hey, good game, thank you. And then you move on. Wonderful.

Dunne: So, 2011, things are going great, 5-2, you get the contract, right? We’re thinking this is going to last long term. What in the hell happened? It just felt like that magic evaporated out of nowhere.

Fitzpatrick: Yeah, it was a tough ending to that season. We went to Toronto, we played Washington, we beat them. I think John Beck got sacked nine times in that game. (10!) Then it all kind of fell apart, man. And it’s one of those things with my career, it was so up and down and certainly some of those highs in the 2011 season at the beginning were ultimate highs. But it was another experience for me where I had to learn from it and try to do the best I could to get better to not allow that to happen somewhere else again. And that was hard. That was hard for me because it was kind of the first time. I’d spent two years in St. Louis, got traded to Cincinnati, had spent two years there, and Buffalo was really the first shot I got at being a full-time starter, and it was that first big contract that I got to feel a little bit of stability. And for me, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fulfill that. I wasn’t able to win enough games and play well enough to be that long-term starter for a while. So that was a harsh reality for me to get cut, to have to move on, and then to have to find myself again to go back to that backup role. Tennessee. Worked my way up in Houston and really after that year in Houston where I learned a lot from Bill O’Brien and George Godsey and that coaching staff, that kind of helped propel me to a better second half of my career.

Dunne: Didn’t have to end really. Did you think about wanting to stick around at all? Obviously Buddy Nix backed himself into that corner: We’re drafting a quarterback. It was projected to the world in more ways than one. Did you think about mentoring an EJ Manuel or did that competitiveness kind of kick in to start somewhere new?

Fitzpatrick: I played another nine seasons after that. I got cut before he got drafted. So that wasn’t even really an option. Doug Marrone came in with Nathaniel Hackett and they decided to go a different direction. So that kind of stuff in the NFL, there’s never any hard feelings. It happens. You move on. You’re probably going to see ‘em again on another team at some point. But more so than having spite or looking at the ways I was wronged, it was more, “OK, what can I do? Why did I put in this situation? How can I get better? How can I improve?” And that really helped me throughout the course of my career, especially like I said, that back half of my career, those last eight, nine seasons.

Dunne: It’s so refreshing too. I don’t know how many quarterbacks today think that way when things go wrong with their first team, let alone their second or third or their fourth. What kicked in? What’s going through your mind then when you are rejuvenated, you get somewhere else, you get another chance. What is that virtue that I imagine you’d like to pass down to your kids?

Fitzpatrick: Yeah, so that was a cool thing for me. As I got later on in my career, my kids were old enough where they’re going to remember some of this stuff. They’re going to remember going to the games. They’re going to remember — especially my two oldest boys — being in the locker room after the wins and after the losses. Getting to throw passes in training camp to Brandon Marshall. Those type of things will be core memories for them. So it was always important for me in the face of adversity, in the face of a tough loss, to always be the same person, to not treat them differently or treat anybody else differently because I was upset or because of my failures. I always wanted to be the same guy day-in and day-out. And I think that was something that was really important to me. And as I got older, it became easier to me because I always had these eyeballs looking up at me every single day, looking at their Dad, seeing the way that he reacted. And so that part was really cool for me. As I grew, I was able to show my kids some of those lessons along the way.

Getty Images

Dunne: How did you do it? We just had our third. Rocco is a month old and it is busy. We’ve got a five-year-old, 3-year-old and one-month-old and I’m just thinking of Ryan Fitzpatrick with seven kids in the NFL moving team to team. How is that even possible? I can’t wrap my head around how your family was able to not only function, but thrive.

Fitzpatrick: There’s a lot that went into it and I think the No. 1 thing that I have to point out is my wife is amazing. Liza, everywhere we went, we would move into a new neighborhood and people would be like, “Oh my gosh, that’s Ryan, there’s the quarterback right there.” And then I was quickly brushed aside when they met my wife because she is so amazing everywhere we went. We viewed it as an adventure. Every time we had to pick a big move, it wasn’t, “Woe is me.” It wasn’t, “Why do we have to do this again?” It was, “Oh my God, I can’t wait to get to Houston. I can’t wait to go to New York. I can’t wait to go to Tampa.” And just viewing it as an adventure, making sure that the kids knew that this was something where we could dive in, we could form relationships. Every school we went to was incredible. My oldest son went to 10 schools in his lifetime. So those are things that I didn't experience when I was a kid. I was always kind of same school, same school district. My wife was kind of same school, same school district. But for him to have those experiences and some of our older kids to have those experiences where they had to be the kid that walked into class and didn’t know anybody and you had that lump in your throat and you had to figure it out, those are things that are really going to help them in life as we keep going and things that I’ll certainly never take for granted because we loved everywhere we lived and we love the friendships that we were able to make and maintain to this day.

Dunne: How were you able to stay this force of positivity? Many times over, you could have gotten so just discouraged, pissed off. You hear your GM on a prank call talking about about, “Oh yeah, we’re looking for another quarterback.” You’re on two teams that seem to be tanking (2010, 2019) and you’re trying to win games and you’re getting benched when you shouldn’t get benched. I’m thinking of that year in Miami. Time and time and time again, you had a reason to get spiteful, get angry. And maybe you were angry to do a degree, but to not allow that to consume you and to stay optimistic and this positive — how were you able to do that repeatedly throughout your career?

Fitzpatrick: Yeah, I mean there’s certainly points where I’m angry, upset. Whether it was in my play or whether it was in decisions that were made. Certainly not everything is unicorns and rainbows. But that being said, there was a distinct turning point in my career after 2016 with the Jets. I had a great year in 2015 in New York, had a miserable year in 2016. It was the first time in my life I couldn’t watch football. I was over it. I didn’t want anything to do with it. I had a really bad season. I feel like I let a lot of people down and I just had to take a step away. And from that point on — when I got a call from Dirk Koetter in Tampa — and he said, “Would you like to come and be the backup?” My wife and I immediately got on Google Maps. I saw it was an hour away from Disney World and said, “Hey, why not?” From that point on, it was like, “This is going to be fun.” And I think people saw that direct shift even in my personality in the interviews and the way I played the game. I always tried to play the game free and light and with a lot of fun. But from that Tampa moment on, I really saw it as this is all icing on the cake. Let’s go out there and have a good time because I love playing this game. This game has given me a lot and I want to show my kids a great time. I want to show all the fans I played for a great time. And so that was a big point for me in my career where I could let everything else go away, realize that everything was icing on the cake and just go out there and play.

Getty Images

Dunne: It was that abrupt. Was it really a specific moment? When did that epiphany kick in?

Fitzpatrick: Because 2016 was so miserable for me, you have to reevaluate your why — why are you playing this game? What is the purpose? So the joyful game that we all grew up loving playing, why are you continuing to put yourself through this and your family through this? And for me, I had to re-find that love of football and I did. I mean, I had so much fun in Tampa with that group of guys and being out there on the field and that carried over for the rest of my career. Miami, I would argue that I had more fun playing in Miami with that group of guys than at any other point in my career. And part of it relates to what we were talking about earlier with that Bills team: 2010, 2011, 2012. It was a bunch of cast-offs, it was a bunch of misfit toys. It was a bunch of guys that everybody had kind of stopped believing in. And for me, towards the tail-end of my career, it was like, “How can I get these guys to have confidence and believe in themselves?” And so there were guys on that Miami roster like Devante Parker and Mike Gesicki who had been beaten down. I think the confidence in themselves was wavering a little bit. So to be able to come in — and lift those guys up — that was two of the more rewarding years of my career to be able to do what we did there. Even though it didn’t result in a championship, it didn’t result in going to the playoffs. It did result in a lot of wonderful bonds for the rest of my life and a lot of great memories. When Scottie Scheffler was talking the other day about how thankful he was to be a golfer and to win. You put all this work into it and you win and then it’s such a fleeting feeling. You get it for 10, 15 minutes and then you move on to the next tournament.

I think football is different because football is such a team game and there’s so much that goes into those relationships with the guys that you play with. And so at the end of the day, that season is viewed as a failure because the Dolphins didn’t make the playoffs and the Dolphins didn’t win enough games and all these things. But the amount of people that were affected, not just on that team but in that building, in those two years in such a positive way, to me, that's something I hang my hat on and something that I love that I was able to be a part of.

Dunne: That’s so cool because I think on the outside looking in, I’m rehashing some memories of those two seasons in Miami,, and the first year you’ve got “Tank for Tua,” or Herbert, or Burrow, whatever you want to call it. And you're wondering, “OK, is management going to the quarterback? Is that an awkward, strange feeling?” And then in Year 2, hell, I think you had the team at 4-3 when you got benched and that was a heartbreaking moment. And then you guys are kind of yo-yo’ing there at the end. You had that amazing comeback against the Raiders and still Flores goes back to Tua. You could look back and think that was totally frustrating and you could be upset about how things went, but you’re looking back at these relationships and what football provided and those were good times. Great times.

Fitzpatrick: Great times, man. They were great. Of course there was frustration along the way in a lot of different places. But at the end of the day, the relationships were the thing that fueled me and the relationships were always the thing that kept me going and were something that I’m very proud of — the way I was able to foster different relationships in different places throughout my career.

Dunne: Who was your best teammate in Buffalo?

Fitzpatrick: Fred Jackson, No. 1, no doubt. Freddie J!

Dunne: Why is that?

Fitzpatrick: The way the dude played the game, the ultimate competitor. Such an underdog. When I was in Buffalo, they drafted Marshawn Lynch and Freddy was like a cockroach that wouldn’t die. They drafted Marshawn Lynch. They were always bringing in different guys. They drafted CJ Spiller. And Fred Jackson was always the best player on the team. And you put him in a Combine, probably not a Combine guy, but if you look at Fred as a football player — not just his ability to run the football and his vision, not just his ability to catch the ball — but how smart he was as a player. How tenacious he was. You saw the effort and the grit every time he had the ball in his hand. And I think that really embodies what Buffalo is. And he's a guy — I’ve said this and I’m going to continue to say it — his name needs to be up in that stadium. And there’s going to be a lot of people probably that are not Bills fans that won’t understand it or didn’t hear a lot about him. But in terms of a guy, if you’ve ever been a Buffalo Bills player that you want to represent that team with his name up on the stadium, Fred Jackson should be up there.

Dunne: I’ll never forget 2015 training camp, his last one there in Buffalo. This is when Shady McCoy is there. They drafted Karlos Williams. Boobie Dixon’s on the roster, too. When Fred Jackson walked onto the field at St. John Fisher, the fans went nuts. They’re chanting his name — for a training camp practice. Roaring for this guy. And I think that's why fans were able to connect with you. It’s something beyond wins and losses, statistics, any of that that the locals here in Western York can relate to. I know “grit” is overused, but it is grit. It is that personal story of Ryan Fitzpatrick, seventh round pick, team to team, laying it all on the line. Fred Jackson, Coe College, they’re trying to replace him at every turn. You’ve got to have a Fred Jackson story. What does that look like up close when somebody’s fighting like hell.

Fitzpatrick: I will say Freddy has the record that’ll never be seen again in the NFL, which is in the same season he had over 1,000 rush yards and over 1,000 return yards. There’s nobody that’s going to put their starting tailback there to return kickoffs. And it’s what he did. Whatever it took for the team to win, its what he did. And he was more competitive off the field than he was on. I mean, the amount of times the dude was wrestling, it could be a Saturday during a walkthrough and he’s wrestling the biggest dude on the team. Hip-tossing him in the locker. And you’re just like, “Dude, we’ve got to chill. We’ve got to make it to Sunday.” But he was so amazing as a teammate and I was able to catch up with him two years ago. I went out for his football camp that he holds in Ankeny, Iowa. And I believe his son Braeden is now going to the University of Iowa to play, which is really cool. But that’s how you know you’re getting old. All these little kids that you saw back in the day that we used to wrestle around and play with, they’re now going to college. But he’s ready to create his own legacy and I’m sure as long as he has half of his Dad’s heart, he’s going to be a great player.

Dunne: Who’s he taking on in the locker room? Who’s he wrestling?

Fitzpatrick: It didn’t matter. Anybody. Like Kyle Williams, Schobel. It was a lot of Marshawn early on. They’re both knuckleheads, but never me. I didn’t want to mess with that dude. He was too strong.

Dunne: To the canvas rolling around? Serious wrestling?

Fitzpatrick: Usually carpet or turf, but yeah. To this day he’s probably still doing the same thing.

Dunne: I’m picturing Chan and Buddy in there trying to break it up: “Hey, save it for Sunday, guys! Come on now!”

Fitzpatrick: A lot thicker southern accent, but yeah.

Getty Images

Dunne: I was going to attempt a Buddy Nix but I wouldn’t do it justice. I’ve heard you talk about these Bills today and that you think this is the year. I guess you can’t really say otherwise.

Fitzpatrick: Always the year, always the year.

Dunne: But you genuinely believe this could be the year that they finally slay the dragon.

Fitzpatrick: We had a great discussion, Andrew Whitworth and I with our podcast. We had Brandon Beane on and had a really cool discussion with him. It was before the draft and essentially he wasn’t afraid to say that they needed to beef up the defensive line. They needed to get the defense going a little bit. And certainly if you look at what they did in the draft, that was the goal and they’re going after it. They picked a lot of dudes, especially early. I think it was their first five picks. And so I’m excited to see that. I think Babich did a great job last year, first year as a coordinator. I know he’s been there for a little while now. But I want to continue to see that get better and better. And I think the biggest thing with the Bills that I would love to see is — in those gotta-have-it moments on defense, can they get to stop — stopping guys and getting ‘em off the field on third down. Those are the moments that we’ve been missing the last few years. And you’ve seen Josh kind of do it time and time again on offense, the things he’s done, but that’s the big question mark going into this year: How are those guys that they drafted going to perform? How is this defense going to continue to get better? But they’ve got the right guys in place and I think team chemistry goes a long way and that’s something that the Bills are very strong in right now.

Dunne: Josh Allen. Is there a relationship there? And what do you think makes him different than his contemporaries?

Fitzpatrick: I love Josh. From the moment I met him — whether he was going to be a great football player or not, he has this youthful joy about him. He has an infectious personality and now you’ve been led in and able to see it. His humility. The moment he won the MVP, it wasn’t about him, it was about everybody else. You start to hear some of these wonderful stories that he’s not broadcasting or putting out there — the lives that he’s affected and those small moments where he feels the need to just take the time to talk to somebody to make their day. He’s an incredible guy. Hasn’t changed bit from the moment I met him before he got drafted by the Bills to playing golf with him at the American Century in Lake Tahoe last week. Obviously life has changed a bit for him. He’s such a public figure now. He does have to pull back a little bit because of his popularity. But he’s still the same human. A wonderful, wonderful dude with a huge heart and I think that’s why guys gravitate towards him in the locker room.

Dunne: Is that rare for a quarterback of that magnitude to be yourself, stay yourself when you’re an MVP and married to the Hollywood actress?

Fitzpatrick: Yeah, I think as the fame continues to grow and as the team around you continues to grow and you have a lot more people on the payroll that are basically just “yes men,” I think it’s hard to stay grounded. And I think it’s something that he’s done a phenomenal job in doing. That says a lot about his parents. It says a lot about the way he was raised. But I also think he’s the kind of guy that was built for this moment in time. He was built to be the face of the NFL and to be an MVP and hopefully to lead the Bills to a Super Bowl because of how grounded he is, because of how humble he is. And that being said, he’s also the ultimate competitor and that fire still burns in him and I can’t wait to see all the cool matchups that he’s going to have this year.

If you’re a Bills fan and you’re going to these home games this year, you’ve got Lamar Jackson you’re going to get to see. You’ve got Joe Burrow. You’ve got Baker Mayfield. You’ve got Patrick Mahomes. And you’ve got Jalen Hurts. Those are five of the quarterbacks outside of your division that get to come in to the last year of Highmark Stadium and you get to watch them play against Josh Allen. That’s a pretty good way to have a finale of a stadium season in Buffalo.

Getty Images

Dunne: And you contributed to some FitzMagical moments along the way. Ryan Fitzpatrick. Before we lose you, we talked so much about that Week 3 game. Any other moments that will stick with you forever inside that stadium?

Fitzpatrick: The Week 3 game’s great. Maybe the worst moment of my career, the 2015 season with the Jets. I think it was January 2016, last game of the year we’re 10-5 looking to make the playoffs. I think the Bills were 7-8 at the time. Kind of a meaningless game for them and we lose 22-19 and Pittsburgh wins the last week of the season and we missed the playoffs. That was maybe the most gut-wrenching moment of my career and it was able to be in that stadium in the visitors’ locker room. And then the post-playing career stuff, ripping the shirt off after seven straight touchdowns in maybe the most amazing playoff performance I’ve ever seen where they beat the Patriots. To be able to lead the charge with my dad and my three boys standing essentially right next to me on the sideline as I’m ripping my shirt off and the crowd is going nuts. There’s been some really special times in the stadium and really some big-time lows as well. But it means a lot to me. I’m excited. We get to go out there for Thursday Night Football. I think it’s Sept. 18 vs. the Dolphins. I’ve been able to do that once before and just kind of walk around to all the tailgates, interact with all the fans and just to show them my appreciation for them and everything they’ve given me over the years. So it’s a love affair that won’t be ending any time soon and I'm really looking forward to that game in September. We’ll get to walk around and interact with everybody again.

Dunne: And for those who don’t know, seven degrees that day at Highmark (in 2022) when you rip the shirt off and that’s no wind chill. I think there was a little wind as well. How cold was it?

Fitzpatrick: A little nippy. I’m not going to lie. But there are heaters in the 200 levels, so there’s a red glow. Again, we’ll go Seinfeld reference. Like the Kenny Rogers Roasters chicken or whatever where Jerry is in Kramer’s apartment. But seven degrees is seven degrees. Let’s just say that the beer — if you didn’t drink it fast enough, the beer was freezing. So that’s how cold it was in Highmark that day.

Dunne: A little liquid courage, I’d imagine. How many beers deep are you when you rip that thing off?

Fitzpatrick: I mean, maybe two or three. Nothing too crazy. Had the kids with me, so had to be responsible.

Dunne: It’s true. That’s true. Got to set an example when we’re ripping our shirt off at football games. I hear you there. Well, chest hair to chest hair. What a great spot to end. Ryan, thank you so much for hanging out. This was fantastic. Any final message to everybody here in Western New York and beyond?

Fitzpatrick: I mean, the biggest message I have to Western New York: Lucky enough for Thursday Night Football. We get you twice this year. The second time is in Houston, right before Thanksgiving. But Sept. 18, be ready. We’re going to have a time. I’m coming early and I’m bringing my friends and we’re going to get after it, so I can’t wait to see everybody. A lot of hugs to go around on that day.