Buffalo to Ban Beer Sales at Playoff Games

The Buffalo Bills will ban beer sales at playoff games next month because a mob of fans raced onto the field at Rich Stadium after the Bills clinched the AFC East title, team officials said.

“People actually went down there with knives, attempting to cut pieces out of the turf,” said Bills General Manager Bill Polian, referring to the mob scene after the team defeated the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, 24-14.

Thousands of fans spilled onto the field and tore down the goalposts.

“I would categorize what went on not as celebration, but as thuggery,” Polian said Wednesday.

The Bills will ban beer sales at the team’s first playoff game Jan. 12 or 13, Polian said. If the Bills advance to the AFC Championship Game Jan. 20, beer sales also will be banned at that game, he said.

“We’re not going to take the chance, because that (beer) fuels the fire, no question about it,” Polian said.

He also said the team intended to employ “very different means than were used Sunday” to deter fans from storming the field. By most accounts, little resistance was offered by the 150-man security force deployed in the final moments of the Dolphins game.

Besides tearing down the goalposts, the mob injured police and security people and damaged the field’s playing service, Polian said.