Family Thankful for Team's Gift to a Huge Buffalo Bills Fan
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It's the moments that you may not think twice about that could end up being the most cherished.
"He had his seat right there, he'd put his legs up on the table and watch them."
"If the Bills got a touchdown, he'd be like, yeah!"
"Every year he'd say, they're gonna come back, they're gonna go all the way."
On any given Sunday:
"Whether they lost, whether they won."
"If you stood in front of his TV he would get really angry."
You could find the Lammes family cheering for the Buffalo Bills, right alongside their dad Jim.
"If he wasn't watching it on TV, he'd be in the car listening to it on the radio."
A devoted Bills fan all his life. A father of three girls, Jim Lammes made sure the importance of football wasn't lost on them.
“When I was younger I didn't see the big deal, like it's just throwing a ball. Now I'm like oh, he's a receiver..."
He also coached them in the different sports they played. After surviving a risky surgery in June, the man doctors dubbed Ironman for his quick recovery returned home and was cleared to return to work. However on Saturday, Jim passed away suddenly in his home due to heart complications.
"We just couldn't believe it."
His daughters, searching for a way to give their dad and themselves some comfort, asked the Buffalo Bills for an autographed football to put in his casket.
"I thought they wouldn't get back to us because we are just like normal people."
But shortly after posting the request on the Bills webpage, more than 5,000 likes and countless comments from fellow Bills fans popped up on the page. The girls picked up the ball on Tuesday.
The girls decided to bury their father in a Bills jersey, with the autographed football tucked under his arm. As a new football season begins, Jim's family said they will continue to keep his house, a Bills house.
"He was such a jokester, would play jokes on my sister and I, was just such a good person."
"He would be ecstatic, he would be so happy if he saw this."
Sitting on the couch for the first game of the season will be difficult.
"He's not gonna be here for the game, for our routine of chili and stuff."
But they are going to keep the tradition alive.
“We're gonna watch and pretend he's right here."
Cheering on the Bills, and believing, as their dad did, that they will go all the way.