Buffalo Bills fans are some of the proudest (and weirdest) fans in football. Before the Bills (7-7) defeated the donut-holding Browns (0-14) today 33-13, CBS Sports came back from a commercial break of the game to briefly show a short clip of an man (below) within the Bills tailgating area outside of Ralph Wilson Stadium happily getting ketchup and mustard poured on him. It was as if this guy was personifying Kanye's song title "Father, I Stretch My Hands" with the Bills Mafia circling around him to scream his praises.
This Buffalo Bills superfan and classified oddball is known as "Pinto Ron." Born as Ken Johnson, the Rochester, New York resident has been attending the team's games for 30 years. But on Sundays when Bills tailgaters descend upon Orchard Park, New York's Ralph Wilson Stadium to get wasted off beers, cook franks and burgers, and wild out doing various other clandestine activities that these fans participate in, he is known as The Human Hamburger, The Pied Piper of Partying, the King of Ketchup, and the Sultan of Shots.
Pinto Ron simply stands in the middle of a large circle with the drunken, cheery tailgaters screaming "Let's Go Buffalo" as he holds out burger buns and gets doused in these condiments. And apparently, this is a tradition amongst Bills fans that's been going on for 25 years.
In the clip below, he explains this odd rite of passage that he is more than willing to sacrifice himself for The Rapture of too much sauce from people pouring it on him from above his body.
Pinto Ron states how it all started in the clip below, via Democrat & Chronicle:
"Originally, the idea back in '91 was I would hold my arm out, and they would try to stream the ketchup in the air and bounce it off the burger, and get the proper amount on the burger but nothing on me. The guys who were running the shower realized that they got a little bit on my arm, and some would laugh and giggle, then they got more, and then they got more. As the years went by, it turned into something totally different than what we had intended."
Year after year, Bills fans suffer in defeat — and most notably four consecutive Super Bowls — with pride. But with their raucous style of tailgating, at least they have Pinto Ron to make them smile. And drive their hunger for more.
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