LONDON — As the Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills got ready for their Jan. 11 matchup in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs, Charlie Nelson had a problem.
Nelson is vice president of the London Bills Backers, a group that regularly hosts watch parties at the cozy Fitzrovia Belle pub in the capital of the United Kingdom. For the playoff game, the Bills Backers were allocated 140 tickets to the pub due to space limitations and sent out a sign-up form on the morning of Jan. 5.
Less than 24 hours later, all 140 were taken.
“We’ve been turning people away all day,” Nelson said the day of the game. “We can only fit so many people in.”
The Bills Backers started as a group of about a dozen fans looking for people to cheer with. Soon after they started, the Bills made the 2019-20 playoffs. Even though the team lost in the first round to the Texans, that game showed the London Bills Backers what their organization could become.
Six years later, the group takes over the Fitzrovia Belle every NFL Sunday.
One step inside the Belle, and it’s clear why capacity can become an issue. The two-room bar is packed shoulder-to-shoulder with Bills fans from around the country and world.
Simon Palmer grew up about two hours east of London. The Super Bowl was one of the only games broadcast in the United Kingdom when he was a child in the ’90s. He fell in love with Jim Kelly-led Bills, who lost four of them in a row between 1991 and 1994.
Decades later, Palmer is far from the only British Bills fan traveling multiple hours for the playoff matchup.
“It feels like home,” Palmer said. “They’re just my sort of people.”
The Bills made the playoffs each of the past five seasons. All five postseasons were ended by either the Kansas City Chiefs or the Cincinnati Bengals. With neither of those teams there to stop them in the 2025-26 playoffs, confidence was high Sunday night at the Fitzrovia Belle.
But that optimistic energy quickly turned into nerves. The Bills led by one score throughout the second and third quarters, until a six-yard touchdown pass from Trevor Lawrence to Parker Washington gave Jacksonville a 16-13 lead early in the final frame.
Buffalo responded with a touchdown of its own on the ensuing drive. But a 10-play, 77-yard touchdown drive by Jacksonville meant the Bills trailed by four points with 4:03 left in regulation.
That drive was catapulted by a 31-yard deep ball by, once again, Washington. The 5-foot-10 slot receiver finished the game with seven catches for 107 yards — and drew a plethora of profanity-laced jeers from the Bills faithful.
But hope wasn’t dead. There was 4:03 left on the clock for Josh Allen, a man who’s become the Bills’ biggest folk hero in decades. One look at the back wall of the Fitzrovia Belle cements that.
On that wall rests the London Bills Backers’ prized possession: a Union Jack flag featuring Josh Allen in a crown with the words “God Save the King” written above him.
With 1:10 left in the fourth quarter, the Bills season came down to one play. On fourth-and-1 from Jacksonville’s 11-yard line, “the King” lined up under center with fullback Reggie Gilliam behind him in the “Tush Push” formation.
The “Tush Push” is usually expected to pick up, at most, two or three yards. But Gillam and the Bills’ offensive line helped push Allen 10 yards, right up to the edge of the goal line.
Another quarterback sneak on the next play gave Buffalo the lead. The pub broke out into a Josh Allen-themed song one would expect from a Premier League crowd; not an NFL one.
Cole Bishop’s interception on the first play of the Jaguars’ final drive sealed the game. What ensued was pandemonium one can only expect from a fanbase like Bills Mafia.
Amid the chaos, Buffalo native Rachel Eagan summated why her fanbase was the most passionate in England.
“There’s no such thing as a part-time Bills fan,” Eagan said.