Sunday's NFL playoff game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills was a tight one, but the Bills came out on top with a 27-25 win. They'll go on to play the Kansas City Chiefs next weekend in the AFC Championship game, and the winner of that match-up will play either the Philadelphia Eagles or the Washington Commanders, née Redskins, in the Super Bowl.
Obviously, Ravens fans and players weren't too happy with the loss. More specifically, many Ravens fans weren't too happy with tight end Mark Andrews. Andrews made a couple of mistakes in the fourth quarter, including a dropped pass that would have tied up the game.
The two-point conversion is no good 😳
— NFL (@NFL) January 20, 2025
📺: #BALvsBUF on CBS
📱: Stream on @NFLPlus and Paramount+ pic.twitter.com/s1DAo0tdm1
Andrews was understandably upset with his performance, despite the fact that his quarterback, Lamar Jackson, tried to comfort him on the sidelines. "We're a team, bro. We're a team. It's all of us, bro. It ain't just you," he said.
But Jackson was a lot more understanding than many Ravens fans. Things got so heated after the game that Andrews' girlfriend had to turn off the comments on her Instagram account, according to the New York Post. Some even went as far as to make death threats. Look, I'm a huge football fan, and I can talk smack with the best of them (much to our Texas Longhorns' readers' dismay), but when you threaten someone because they lost a game, you lose me. It's disgusting.
When the Bills Mafia — a community of diehard Buffalo Bills fans — heard about the way Ravens fans were piling on Andrews, they decided to do something to show that not all football fans are jerks, so they started a fundraiser.
Andrews, who is 29, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was just nine years old, and he wears an insulin pump at all times (aside from when he's playing football). He's been outspoken about living with the illness and isn't shy about raising awareness or helping others who live with diabetes. He even made headlines last year for helping a diabetic woman on a plane who was having a medical emergency.
Related: 'Angry' College Football Fan Uses His Newfound Fame for Good
Bills fan Nicholas Howard set up the GoFundMe with a goal of raising $5,000 for Breakthrough T1D, a "type 1 diabetes research and advocacy organization" that was founded in 1970. At the time I'm writing this — just after midnight on Thursday morning — they've exceeded their goal to the tune of approximately $92,000.
The Baltimore Ravens thanked Bills fans on X, as did Breakthrough T1D:
Shout out to Bills Mafia for showing support to our guy Mark Andrews and donating to the @BreakthroughT1D organization, which works towards curing and improving the lives of those dealing with Type 1 diabetes. 💜https://t.co/tQfjchcmOx
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) January 22, 2025
In an effort to support Ravens’ tight end Mark Andrews following a tough loss to the Buffalo Bills, #BillsMafia has come together to raise over $80.4k (and counting!) for Breakthrough T1D.
— Breakthrough T1D (@BreakthroughT1D) January 22, 2025
Thank you to everyone who has donated, and thank you, Mark, for continuing to be an… pic.twitter.com/XkFIpKizfV
According to Sporting News, Bills Mafia has a history of doing this type of thing when a player for the opposite team is hurt during a Bills game. Earlier this year, they raised money for Tua Tagovailoa's charity when the Miami Dolphins quarterback suffered a nasty concussion.
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