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Buffalo fans aren't happy at Bills showing love to a couple Leafs stars

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
Sep 17 2023, 7:20 pm
Buffalo fans aren't happy at Bills showing love to a couple Leafs stars

Even on a Sunday afternoon in September, it seems the city of Buffalo is once again riled up about the existence of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Today, Leafs star forward Mitch Marner and defenceman Morgan Rielly headed down the QEW to go check out the Buffalo Bills’ Week 2 contest against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Ahead of NHL training camps opening next week, it’s one of the last times that players like Marner and Rielly will have the chance to travel outside of their city for a road trip before their schedule kicks into full gear.

“Some friends from the North at today’s game!” the team account posted on their social media pages, posting a picture of the two of them while also sharing a shot of Marner and former Bills linebacker Takeo Spikes, who played for the team from 2003-2006.

Except, it seems to have struck a nerve with a certain segment of the Bills fanbase, who weren’t exactly that the team was so welcoming to a few players from one of the Buffalo Sabres’ biggest rivals.

There were more than a few Buffalo fans expressing their disappointment at the Bills showing love to Marner and Rielly:

On the flip side, at least a few Leafs/Bills fans seemed to like the pics:

The relationship between the two cities from a sports perspective has always been a little bit strange: Toronto fans have a longstanding tradition of overtaking the Sabres’ home arena whenever the Leafs play at KeyBank Center, so much so that the team is even reportedly planning on restricting ticket sales to American zip codes for games when their cross-border rivals come to visit this upcoming season.

On the flipside, Canadian fans (and travellers) have made a sizeable impact on the Western New York economy over the last few decades, and even had the Toronto Blue Jays play their home games at the Bisons’ Sahlen Field in 2020 and parts of 2021 due to Canadian COVID-19 restrictions.

At press time, the Bills carried a 28-10 lead over the Raiders after three quarters, so it doesn’t seem that Toronto’s two stars brought anything but good luck along with them.

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