This is a special edition of my former column, Sports on the Air:
Steve Tasker had many Buffalo Bills armchair fans shaking their heads during the team鈥檚 34-25 preseason loss to the New York Giants Saturday at Highmark Stadium when he said the tailgating experience would have been damaged if the new stadium opening in the 2026 season had been a dome.
I wish the Bills game analyst had the time on the broadcast to explain what he meant by that. So, I called him.
鈥淚t will go away completely,鈥 said Tasker. 鈥淭here isn鈥檛 a dome stadium out there with tailgating.鈥
He used Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and New Orleans as examples of the lack of tailgating where teams play in domes.聽
鈥淧eople will stop putting in the effort,鈥 added Tasker. 鈥淚t is too easy to go inside, especially when it gets colder. It may not happen right away, but in two years or so.鈥
People are also reading…
鈥淚 could be wrong, but I don鈥檛 think so,鈥 he added.
Of course, Bills fans will never find out since the stadium being built isn't a dome.
The WIVB-TV (Channel 4) broadcast of the Bills-Giants game had a 21.1 Nielsen rating, which easily makes it the highest-rated program of the summer.
Many network prime-time entertainment programs get ratings in the 1s, 2s and 3 in the summer.
Bills regular-season games generally get ratings in the low to mid-40s.
A rating point in Western New York represents 6,370 households.
Giants fans聽watching in WNY or outside the New York market on The NFL Network (the New York market carried a Giants broadcast) had to be exasperated about the number of times the Bills broadcast went from game action to Bills player interviews by sideline reporter Maddy Glab. There also was an extensive interview with Bills chief operating officer Pete Guelli in the booth by play-by-play announcer Andrew Catalon and Tasker.
If you wanted to watch game action, it was distracting, even annoying.
The number of interviews just reminded fans that these games don鈥檛 mean much 鈥 unless you are a player on the bubble.
Giants fans watching the Bills broadcast here or on The NFL Network especially couldn鈥檛 have been too happy about Guelli being interviewed about the new stadium and the upcoming Hallmark film about the Bills throughout the first drive led by quarterback Jaxson Dart that ended with the rookie's first touchdown pass. Tasker pretty much ignored the big moment for the Giants rookie.
Buffalo Bills offensive tackle Dion Dawkins (73) works against New York Giants defensive tackle Roy Robertson-Harris (95) during the first quarter at Highmark Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. The Bills face the Bears at 8 p.m. on Sunday as preseason action continues.
Glab had an extended interview with Bills tackle Dion Dawkins that included a question about his 鈥渄rifting鈥 鈥 oversteering a car on purpose so it slides sideways 鈥 in the premiere episode of 鈥淗ard Knocks: Training Camp with the Buffalo Bills.鈥
I鈥檓 shocked that more people weren鈥檛 shocked by Dawkins having his young children in his car while drifting. I wish Glab asked him about why the popular Bills player doesn鈥檛 think there is any potential danger in his hobby.
Was I the only one surprised that the University of Wyoming 鈥 where Josh Allen played collegiately 鈥 was one of the advertising sponsors of the Giants-Bills game? As popular as Allen is here, I can鈥檛 imagine many high school graduates would consider attending Wyoming.
On the other hand, the game aired nationally on the NFL Network so perhaps Wyoming officials viewed sponsoring the game as a way to attract students throughout the country. I've asked the Wyoming public relations department to explain why they are advertising and am waiting to hear back.
The Bills second preseason game Sunday against the Chicago Bears is being carried on WUTV, the local Fox affiliate, because it is a national game.
So no Catalon or Tasker.
The Fox announcers on Sunday鈥檚 8 p.m. game will be the network鈥檚 No. 2 team of play-by-play announcer Joe Davis, analyst Greg Olsen and sideline reporter Pam Oliver. Mike Pereira is the rules analyst.
How long will it be before some evil befalls the billboard in Western New York promoting the six-part ESPN Original Series, 鈥淭he Kingdom,鈥 about the Kansas City Chiefs history and attempt to threepeat in the Super Bowl last February?
Kidding.
Bills fans can start hate-watching the series when it debuts Thursday on ESPN, ESPN+ and Disney+. The billboard notes it is 969 miles from Buffalo to The Kingdom. The road to the Super Bowl has seemed longer for Buffalo because of the Chiefs, who defeated the Bills, 32-29, in the AFC title game in January before losing to Philadelphia in the Super Bowl in February.
鈥淥bviously, this is a strategic yet meant-to-be fun tactic not to be taken too seriously 鈥 but figured that鈥檚 what makes it more newsworthy,鈥 wrote John. R. Manzo, ESPN鈥檚 associate director of communications, of the billboards being placed here.
Even a Bills fan might grudgingly concede the first episode 鈥 the only one I watched 鈥 is terrific.
It gives a history of the Chiefs and the founding of the American Football League via the Foolish Club that included late Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr.
There also is file footage of a very young Patrick Mahomes playing baseball when his father was a pitcher for the New York Mets. His dad, Patrick Sr., thought his son was a future major leaguer until he fell in love with football.聽
But the most interesting part of the hour concerned Kansas City's drafting of Mahomes in 2017. They moved up 17 spots in the first round to draft him. The trade was with the Bills, though that isn't mentioned. (The Bills drafted Josh Allen in 2018).聽
Chiefs general manager Brett Veach, who had fallen in love with Mahomes as a college player at Texas Tech, explained before the draft he and his young daughter had recently watched the 2014 movie "Draft Day." In one memorable scene, the NFL general manager played by Kevin Costner was given a handwritten note telling him to pick a certain player "no matter what."
The morning of the draft, Veach's daughter gave her father a note: "Pat, no matter what."
No matter what you may think of all the attention the Chiefs have received, "The Kingdom" looks like a winner based on the opening episode.
It likely will be some time before I receive viewership numbers for 鈥淗ard Knocks," which is carried multiple times during a week and on demand.
But an indication of its popularity was the first episode was listed as the No. 5 most popular show on HBO/Max Monday night. And the series was listed as No. 2 Wednesday morning after the second episode aired. The season finale of "The Gilded Age" was the only program ahead of it.
