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?