A Bills Love Story (Exclusive)

I’m a born-and-raised Buffalonian, which means I’ve been a Buffalo Bills fan basically since birth. And I am also a red-blooded American woman who survives on an annual diet of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies and cut-out cookies as soon as the Halloween pumpkins go into the compost bin. So when I got a chance to spend the day on the set of Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story, suffice it to say my bells were thoroughly jingled.

And when I found out the movie’s plot shares more than a few similarities with my own Bills love story? I was shuffling off to Buffalo before you could say “special teams.” 

Watching movie magic at Highmark Stadium in Buffalo also feels extra special this year: 2025 is the last season before the team moves to its new home currently under construction across the street, and the entire fandom is already nostalgic for our old stomping grounds. I’d never been on a movie set before, so getting to spend the day at the stadium where I’d all but grown up felt like a Mafia dream come true. 

In Holiday Touchdown, proud Bills Mafia members the Quinns and DeLucas have lived next door to each other for decades in the shadow of Highmark Stadium, and real-life Buffalonians will recognize many of the two families’ game day traditions. Pediatric doctor Morgan Quinn (Holland Roden) and the Bills’ VP of Stadium Development Gabe DeLuca (Matthew Daddario) are lifelong friends, but Gabe has always held a torch for Morgan and everybody knows it — except, of course, Morgan. 

When Morgan learns that her Uncle Tommy (Joe Pantoliano) still receives a Christmas gift each year from the anonymous donor who helped her family when he was drafted more than 60 years ago, she decides to find that person as a holiday surprise for Tommy. As the Bills Mafia comes together to help Morgan and Gabe unwrap the gifter’s identity, sparks start to fly between the two of them. And when their plan hits a snag, Gabe must take matters into his own hands to make this is one Christmas none of them will ever forget. 

For anyone who’s not already popping the popcorn, the film also stars Tracy Pollan, Steve Schirripa, Caroline Aaron, Patti Murin and Bills beloveds like Jim Kelly, Dion Dawkins and Steve Tasker.

Bills legend Tasker told me filming a Bills Hallmark movie in Highmark Stadium was a natural fit.  

“They’re feel-good movies. You can always guarantee a happy ending. It’s like mom’s cooking, you know? You know what you’re gonna get,” he said. “And for this fan base, the building is so familiar. We all grew up in this building. This is part of history and for everybody who’s a Bills fan. So it’s iconic.”

Much like Morgan and Gabe, I grew up just a couple of miles down the street from the stadium. My grandma had season tickets for as long as I can remember, and my dad’s family used to park their RV overnight in the parking lot before the game, the better to get the next day’s tailgate started bright and early. 

When I met my now-husband Nick while we both still lived in Buffalo in 2012, I wasn’t yet what you’d call a diehard fan. The Bills were in my blood, but I didn’t really get what all the fuss was about. But Nick showed me there was more to the fandom than crushing beers and smashing tables: It’s traditions like mom making chicken wing dip for every game watch, tailgaters donating money to kids selling fundraising snacks car-to-car, players visiting the local hospitals to check in on sick kids on days off. It’s that blue-collar, Rust Belt optimism that this is gonna be our year. Sure, this family is a little rough around the edges, but I’ll defend it till I die or we bring home a Super Bowl, whichever comes first. 

Stepping into Highmark Stadium felt like coming home. Even on a cold and rainy day in late May with the first kickoff of the season still months away, there’s an undeniable electricity to the place. Empty and silent as a chapel, the locker room still felt like a shrine to potential, every cinderblock of the place soaked with the hopes and dreams of millions of fans. Even the stars in town for the first time could feel the excitement.

“If you’re gonna do a Hallmark film and you get to do it also with the NFL, you get to do it with the Buffalo Bills, that’s the most fun possible combination,” Daddario said. “So I’m having a great time with it. I think it’s gonna make the best Hallmark movie of all time. That’s what I’m gonna say. I’m, I’m gonna call it right now.”

Daddario and I bonded over Buffalo’s iconic food: chicken wings, of course, but he also raved about the beef on weck sandwich (thinly sliced roast beef on a crusty kimmelweck roll studded with salt and caraway seeds). He also marveled at the city’s near-manic support for the Bills.

“I’ve never seen a town where there’s more support for their football team,” he said, noting the Bills paraphernalia prominently displayed at his hotel, restaurants and (of course) all over both of our outfits. “It’s insane. It’s everywhere. It’s like, I feel like you pay your taxes and you have to write Go Bills.”

Maybe I’ll try that this year.

I’ll spare us all the in-depth best wings spot discussion Roden and I got into. Like me, Roden grew up in a sports family and said starring in the film felt like a “nice adult homecoming.”

“‘Devoted to their team is an understatement,’” she added of the Bills. For her, filming in iconic Buffalo locations felt especially poignant. “We get to highlight Buffalo. So it’s been a beautiful love letter to Buffalo.” 

Love was in the air period, as Roden and Daddario shot their big romantic moment on the field. As I watched take after take with my hands clapped tight over my mouth so I wouldn’t squeal with delight and ruin it, I thought back to what Roden told me about her and Daddario’s onscreen chemistry — having “basically just dove in” when they started shooting four days before we met.

“Our director seemed quite giddy because he just kept saying, ‘You guys get along great together. You totally look like you’ve known each other for years,’” she recounted. 

On the shoot day I visited, the tunnel from which players usually emerge to start the game was filled with cast and crew, hair and makeup artists putting the finishing touches on Roden and Daddario’s looks while a gaggle of stunt coordinators discussed the logistics of a Bills Mafia table jump. It was all hustle, bustle, cut and wrap, a hubbub of activity I could decode, well, as about as easily as the first game I ever tried to watch. 

Then I saw Jim Kelly round the corner, flanked by Dion Dawkins and Steve Tasker and I was extra glad I’d thrown a Josh Allen jersey over my coat: otherwise, my heart might have actually jumped out of my chest. And when Dawkins wrapped me in a bear hug so big I probably disappeared from view entirely? Only a Super Bowl win would have felt better.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story premieres on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel and streams the next day on Hallmark+.