Some time after this article runs, someone will call to say how nonpolitically correct it is, but that’s OK. At least it won’t be because it was or wasn’t by mail.

On Saturday night, the NFL’s Buffalo Bills beat the rival Baltimore Ravens to move on to the AFC Championship next weekend.

The Bills’ fan base is affectionately known as the Bills Mafia. OK, we aren’t supposed to find the mafia (which the Mafia claims doesn’t exist) something to admire or to be an organization to hold in high esteem. But this Bills’ Mafia is another type of mafia altogether.

In this case, the oath they swear to is not Omerta. Omerta is the real or imaginary oath sworn by mafia members to accept death if they ever betray another member.

These Bills fans are loyal and sincere. But over the past few years, they have acted over and above the responsibility of any fan to support humanity and address others’ suffering.

Most importantly, their efforts go way beyond the interests of the home team. After Baltimore’s star quarterback Lamar Jackson was knocked out of the game with a concussion, Buffalo fans took to the internet and started making donations to his favorite charity in his honor. Out of respect for another team’s player, the Bills’ Mafia donated more than $150,000 to his charity, Blessings in a Backpack, a child hunger organization seeking to feed the less fortunate in Louisville, Ky., where Jackson went to college.

More than 5,500 fans gave donations. The $150,000 collected will feed 1,200 kids for a year. And this wasn’t the first time they stepped up like this. In 2017, they donated $450,000 to a charity in honor of the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback who won a game that put Buffalo in the playoffs. You could look at it as rubbing it in the other team’s faces, but not when you use it in such a great humanitarian way.

Maybe the name “mafia” isn’t the best term, but the fans have no rivals, in our opinion. Since the Steelers are done and already working on their golf swings, we propose throwing the support of the Steelers Nation behind these kind, generous and devoted Bills’ fans.

Thank you Buffalo and the Bills Mafia for showing NFL fans what a real team is about. Best of luck. Go Bills.

And please wear your mask.

— RV