Shamrock Pub in LaSalle Park is a fairly unassuming bar, but as I approach the red-brick building, awash in neon lighting from the Michelob Ultra and Bud Light signs in the window, I can see a sea of royal blue jerseys has flooded the pub, threatening to burst out. Flags adorn the glass storefront. This is the territory of the Buffalo Bills Mafia, and they aren’t afraid to show it.
NFL fan clubs are in every city, advertised by each team’s website, but in St. Louis, they take on a new meaning. In the decade since the much-hated Stan Kroenke notoriously moved the Rams back to Los Angeles, stripping St. Louis of a professional sports team, source of revenue, and most importantly, community rallying point, the city’s football fans have been cast into uncertain waters regarding their fandom.
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For many, supporting the Rams today is impossible. Rooting for the nearby Kansas City Chiefs is almost heretical as well, since Clark Hunt, owner of the Chiefs, voted against moving both the Rams and Chargers to SoFi Stadium, instead preferring to just move the Rams.
“When the Rams left, it was very frustrating,” Bills Mafia member James Thompson explains on a recent unseasonably warm October evening as he sips his beer, Buffalo jersey on his back. “I didn’t want to be a fan of Kansas City, because I felt like they had played a part in it.”
“I was a Rams fan for the longest time, since I was a kid,” says Matt Hamilton, in another corner of the pub. “When Stan Kroenke—may he rot in hell—moved the team, I was floundering, searching for a team to root for.”
It is tricky to navigate those uncertain waters, especially burdened by the feeling that your team has abandoned you to become Los Angeles’ second football team. How do unwillingly exiled Rams fans find a new shore, a new flag to fly, and a new home?
The answer takes the shape of this pub, which explodes into cheers and high fives as Bills quarterback Josh Allen completes for a touchdown against the Rams, now representing Los Angeles. The “Bills Shout Song” plays over the speakers as the sea of blue jerseys becomes a roaring wave of high-fives, fist bumps, and moshing. BUF 19, LAR 14.
It is a special night for these former Rams fans.
Across town, on the following Sunday afternoon, the Cleveland Browns Backers meet at the Backstreet Jazz & Blues Club in Maryland Heights. The club is tucked away inside the Westport Mall, and the crowds are a little older and calmer than the Bills Mafia. The Browns are playing the Baltimore Ravens this afternoon, and in every corner you look, there’s a TV, a beer, and a handful of viewers.
The Browns Backers Worldwide, as several members are quick to tell me, is one of the largest fan clubs in professional sports, and their influence has spread across the world, with at least one chapter in five continents (they previously claimed all seven, including Antarctica).
The Browns are notorious for being one of the worst franchises in the NFL, if not in professional sports writ large. But as Browns Backers Roman Kordal, Charlie Brinza, and Scott Lichvar explain, there’s just something about the team that keeps them coming back. Though all three are originally from Cleveland, they’ve been staples of the St. Louis club for decades, ever since Lichvar started it in 1985.
Though they were never Rams fans, these Browns backers can understand the feeling of sadness that accompanies an owner’s decision to move a team. In fact, the similarities between the fan reactions to the Rams move in St. Louis and the notoriously contentious Browns move in 1995 are somewhat striking.
Browns owner Art Modell moved the Browns to a city that offered him newer facilities and a more lucrative arrangement—Baltimore. Modell meant for the move to be just like any other, fully intending the legacy of Cleveland’s team to continue under the same name in Baltimore. Cleveland had been sucker-punched in the stomach.
“It was torture,” says Gary Kubach, current president of the Browns Backers St. Louis County chapter.
Cleveland, however, sued Modell for contract infringement. A new expansion team that adopted the Browns’ name, logo, and history was created for Cleveland in 1999. The former Browns team, owned by Art Modell, became the Baltimore Ravens. Cleveland had won.
When the Rams moved, St. Louis famously sued as well, claiming that Kroenke broke league relocation rules. Kroenke’s claim that St. Louis was unable to support an NFL franchise was an insult, and the city wasn’t going to take it. The city and county were awarded a total of $790 million.
And with zero seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter, Browns kicker Andre Szmyt kicks a 37-yard field goal for the win. BAL 10, CLE 13.
As I make my way through the crowded Bills pub, I’m handed a blue and red plastic chain with a “Bills Mafia” medallion on it and told to grab a glass and a plate—there are plenty of pitchers of beer, and Buffalo native EvaLynn Yurcisin has brought carrots and made authentic Buffalo french onion dip.
Yurcisin’s eyes shine as she tells me how she grew up across the street from Bills MVP Ed Rutkowski, who would host neighborhood barbecues, inviting fellow Bills MVP Jack Kemp and his family.
“They taught the entire neighborhood how to throw the football,” she says. “So I’ve been a Buffalo fan since it started.”
The Bills fanbase in St. Louis has greatly expanded since the Rams move, Yurcisin says, and many regulars in the Bills Mafia are former season ticket holders at The Dome.
“We’re all still angry that the Rams left,” she says. “They really screwed St. Louis.” She glances at the score. “Hopefully we’re going to put them in their places tonight.”
Despite that anger, however, Yurcisin says that many exiled Rams fans have found community with the Bills Mafia. “They found us, and it’s so much fun,” she says. “And it’s family. That’s what the word ‘mafia’ means.”
“Family” is the word most used to describe the fan clubs. Shamrock owners Pat and Steph McGlynn have made the pub a home, says president Jake Haggmark, a New York native who notes that they’ll even be open on Thanksgiving for the Bills v. Kansas City game.
“People will have their birthday parties at Shamrock,” he says. “We’re building a community outside of just watching sports.”
“Yeah, you can stay home,” says Lichtar at the Browns Backers bar. “But it’s not the same feeling.”
For the St. Louis football fan, an NFL fan club is the golden shore of Ithaca that soothes the weary soul. An NFL fan club becomes a place to call home.
And in overtime, at the end of a highly competitive back-and-forth game, the Bills kick a 45-yard field goal to beat the Rams. BUF 37, LAR 34. The pub goes wild. Sure, the Bills have improved their record, and Buffalo fans love to see the win, but it is the St. Louisans in this pub who have really won tonight.
As I drive back to University City, the sense of camaraderie lingers with me. “Come back anytime,” Haggmark told me.
But that warm sense of camaraderie is not the only feeling that lingers. A sentiment that Matt Hamilton expressed at Shamrock has been ingrained as well.
“If [Stan Kroenke] ever dies, I’ll probably piss on his grave,” he said. “And you can quote me on that one.”
See also: Where to find NFL fan clubs in St. Louis
