THE CLOCK TICKED past midnight, and the Sunday night when the Bills lost to the Chiefs, falling short of the Super Bowl in the process, melted into Monday morning. Brian Stamm sat in his kitchen, with his wife, Melissa, and his sister-in-law, Lisa Schult, with music in the background and Buffalo on the brain.
"We should go to the airport," Lisa said.
It was creeping ever closer to 1:30 by this point. It was dipping into the low 20s outside (this being Western New York and all), which meant it was actually kind of balmy, at least for this corner of the state.