Listeners of ESPN Radio know Christine Lisi as the longtime voice of several of its shows’ SportsCenter updates.
Lisi’s affinity for the Buffalo Bills, however, is so strong that it has become a talking point on some of the shows she has served as an update anchor on, including The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz and Greeny.
While ESPN personalities wearing their fandom on their sleeves is nothing new, Lisi’s passion for the Bills is more sweet than schtick. And ahead of the team’s highly anticipated matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Divisional Round on Sunday, Lisi explained what the Bills mean to not only her, but the city of Buffalo.
“This game is immense. I just think because we’ve come so close. Like against the Giants in Super Bowl XXV and all the different heartbreaks throughout the years,” Lisi said on Friday’s episode of Greeny. “I was telling my husband last night, Buffalo is such a small market I guess is the best way to say it. They live in — I don’t live in Buffalo, I’m from Olean, New York — they live in people’s neighborhoods. You see them, you help them. I saw somebody post a picture, this lady ran into Gabe Davis at a mall and took a selfie with him.
“I think everything we went through last year as a collective region, from the mass shooting and the winter and the storms and Damar [Hamlin], I don’t know if there’s another team in another sport that is so closely linked with its fanbase. I’m sure people will yell at me about it online.”
Host Mike Greenberg invoked Green Bay’s relationship with the Packers but also noted that they have won multiple Super Bowls, unlike the Bills, who have yet to win one. After Greenberg — who is infamously a New York Jets fan — told Lisi that he was rooting for his favorite team’s AFC East rival on Sunday, Lisi sweetly replied, “I love you my friend. Thank you.”
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While every city has a unique connection with its team, regardless of the sport, Lisi is right that there is something seemingly especially communal about Buffalo’s bond with the Bills. As she noted, the trials and tribulations of the last two years have only strengthened that relationship, with the Bills serving as an ever bigger source of pride than usual for the Western New York community.
