Football and Wings

             In the world of chicken wings, nothing goes better with a nice bucket of wings than sports. The John Murphy Show was hosted at Duff’s Famous Wings on Niagara Falls Boulevard, and had some prominent former Buffalo Bills’ players liven up the event for all spectators who experienced it.

             Duff’s was packed at the beginning of the show with sports fans and chicken wing lovers alike. It was a tightly packed house, as the line for seating was about a 15-minute wait. Everyone’s eyes were attracted to the table -- where the radio show was being conducted. The show also included some fan interaction like questions about the Bills and the fans input for the upcoming season.

“Pretty big,” Tawny Sacilowski, manager of that Duff’s location, said when asked how this event is for Duff’s. “We are sponsors. We are part of the Bills Corporation. So we get to host events like this.”

            Both Steve Tasker and the voice of the Bills John Murphy reflected on this event and what it means to their fans of Buffalo.

“Well yeah. It beats a sharp stick to the eye,” Tasker jokingly said about the event. “Sometimes I wish it was more comfortable for people. Duff’s here is nice. Everybody has a place to sit; there’s no line or anything like that.

“And usually if it’s an autograph signing or anything like that, I can find everybody who wants my autograph in under 30 minutes and that’s about all there ever is. So it’s good for me.”

Murphy added that this is the third or fourth event they have done at a Duff’s in Western New York.

“Yeah, it’s fun,” Murphy said. “They are always great. It’s bar food and people come here with sports on their mind. It’s a perfect venue for us, you know? And most of these people are Bills’ fans. There’s something about the intersection of wings, beer and sports that kind of puts people in a good mood.”

With the Buffalo Bills’ offseason being the focal point of the show, questions surfaced about the relationship between football and chicken wings.

“It is like hotdogs and baseball, I guess,” Tasker said. “That’s the way it is. I think it is the new hotdogs to baseball with wings to football.”

Murphy believes the combo is so successful because of the extensive advertising of wings during the football season.

“I mean, I don’t have any stats to back this up but I would guess that it is one of the most popular tailgate food,” Murphy said. “Stuff that people eat at football games are chicken wings. You [have] seen the TV ads during the Super Bowl. It is all chicken wings. They built whole campaigns around it. Pushing wings to football audiences. It’s kind of a natural fit.”

Buffalo is known for wings, but how important was chicken wings to Buffalo and its history?

“I think it is a sense of identity [to Buffalo],” Murphy said. “I mean I am older enough to remember when wings first came on to the scene, I want to say in the mid-70s, when places started offering them. I was an 18- to 20-year-old and suddenly there is this incredible bar food that went really well with beer. And it is an international phenomenon.”

Tasker believed in the opposition; Chicken wings do not make up a significant part of Buffalo.

“Buffalo would be fine without it,” Tasker said. “It’s a cool thing, don’t get me wrong, but we would be fine. Buffalo is Buffalo, not because of the wings, but because of the people. It would be worse if Buffalo’s people weren’t the same.”

Both Tasker and Murphy had different taste buds on what’s their favorite wings.

“I like basic wings that they have here,” Murphy said. “I like barbeque, a little bit, but I don’t like things too crazy. I like basic, medium to medium-hot wings.”

Tasker had a specific place in mind that he wanted to share that sells “the best wing.”

“Bar Bill [Tavern] in East Aurora,” Tasker confessed. “I hate to say it in Duff’s, but it’s the medium wings in Bar Bill.”

             The John Murphy Show at Duff’s combined two aspects that Buffalonians love: good food and sports. The event created an amusing atmosphere and was full of curious fans. Buffalo wings and Buffalo sports, what more can you ask?

What wing would you want?

When most people hear the words ‘chicken wings,’ they think of the original bone-in wings covered in their favorite sauce with celery on the side. Is tradition or lack of marketing and availability of boneless wings the reason behind why bone-in wings dominate the sales?

People usually like foods that are easier to eat. The McRib, from McDonald’s, is easy to eat because it has no bones and is a huge seasonal food that comes back every year. Both seedless watermelons and chicken nuggets are common eats because of their simplicity and not having to dig out bones or seeds.

That begs the question, why would you prefer to bite around a bone with tendons and –in some— veins to get to the meat on a chicken wing, when there is an option of a pure meat chicken wing?

What is the difference between these two wings?

Most can argue boneless wings are not normal and are fabricated from other pieces of the chicken. Technically they are not wings at all, they are pieces of the chicken breast. But are we neglecting this artificial wing’s taste due to its makeup?

Boneless wings are simple to eat; people do not even need to use their fingers, all you would need is a fork. This is pleasing to the folks who dislike greasy, messy fingers.

Bone-in wings are not always an easy meat-peeling-off-the-bone, juicy wing with sauce dripping everywhere and even covering your fingers. Sometimes you get the tough chewy chicken wings with veins or tendons. But the wing’s structure look like the wings we are used to, whether it’s the drumstick or the flats.

Buffalo Wild Wings is known for selling both bone-in and boneless chicken wings. Jeni Sieperierski, general manager of Buffalo Wild Wings in Hamburg for two and a half years, sees the trends of chicken wings and why people buy them.

“Thirty percent of all our sales, within the restaurant, are traditional wings,” Sieperierski said. “We are known for our wings, beer, sports; that’s our trademark.”

Bone-in wings are most often preferred in restaurants because it is the tradition of the consumer. Boneless wings are not available in smaller wing retailers, like pizzerias. Boneless wings are relatively new and still haven’t reached the smaller markets.

“I like traditional drumstick wings,” Sieperierski said. “I do not like the flats; they are too much work.”

Kyle Beaver, captain at Buffalo Wild Wings, added to the discussion, “Boned wings definitely, especially with the spicy garlic.”

Bone-in chicken wings are classic. When people ask for chicken wings, the question following that is, ‘what sauce would you like on it,’ not ‘would you like bone-in or boneless wings?’

“I believe there is die-hard fans on both sides, but for the most part I feel that [there are more people who like] traditional wings best,” Sieperierski said. “Buffalo is home of the chicken wing…so the Buffalo stores are affected by this.”

Seiperierski also added the fact that Buffalo Wild Wings was founded on the original bone-in wings. Maybe it is too early to evaluate or to compare bone-in wings to boneless wings.

We are a society of traditions, whether it is tradition to going to a football game every Sunday or working every weekday from nine to five. We like to stay with what we know and not what is new and upcoming. But similar to the cliché, “don’t knock it, until you try it.”