Ryan Fitzpatrick has played in a lot of stadiums. He has never felt one the way he felt at Buffalo's new Highmark Stadium last Thursday.
The former Bills
quarterback was inside the building for Buffalo's 41-31 win over the Lions, the first game ever played there. Josh Allen ran for two touchdowns and threw for three more, and watching him come out of the tunnel got to Fitzpatrick in a way he did not expect."I'm sorry, Tate, but I don't think I cried when you were born," Fitzpatrick said on Fitz & Whit, the podcast he co-hosts with Andrew Whitworth. "I was tearing up when Josh ran out of that tunnel, though. It was weird. I was like, 'Is this emotion coming out of me?' The hair was standing up on the back of my neck. I think that was the loudest
moment of the night when he ran out of the tunnel."
Fitzpatrick spent four seasons as Buffalo's starting quarterback from 2009 to 2012, years before Allen arrived to anchor the position as the franchise's foundational cornerstone. Two games into the Joe Brady era, the current version of Allen has already become the first quarterback in league history to open a season with five touchdown passes and four rushing scores.
Fitzpatrick's ties to Buffalo and Thursday's opener extend through his own household as well.
"I have a daughter [Maizy] that was born in Buffalo [in 2013] and a daughter [Zoey] that was born in Houston [in 2015], so their teams are the Texans and the Bills," he shared ahead of Prime Video's Thursday Night Football kickoff game. "They came out to that Thursday night game with me last year, which was really special... bit of a rivalry in the house with those two. This was the one game I wanted, we are so fortunate for the NFL to trust us with this game, to open up the Bills' Stadium, the first home game they've ever had in the regular season."
One of the most popular quarterbacks in franchise history is already sold on the new building.
Buffalo goes for 3-0 on Sunday, Sept. 27, when the Los Angeles Chargers make their own visit to the new Highmark Stadium.
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: Ryan Fitzpatrick: Bills' Josh Allen Highmark entrance made him tear up
