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Alaina Getzenberg, ESPN
BUFFALO, NY — Jeffery Shamberger’s son, Jason, had to look through a few new covers for the Madden NFL 24 video game.
When I recognize exactly whose smiling face is right and left buffalo bill midfielder Josh Allen with his arm holding Allen’s right elbow, he immediately sent his father a text message with the photo.
“He said, ‘Dude, look at this. I recognized this picture, this face right next to Josh Allen,'” Jeffery Shamberger recalls. “‘… It is my father.'”
Getting that message was how Shamberger discovered that a casting call had been answered and the subsequent photo session with Buffalo’s signal caller wasn’t just for a website or a magazine. The true use of the photo session was kept under wraps until the cover was revealed in June, and it not only marked the first Bills player on the cover, but also the first in Madden’s history, the cover. featured fans along with the cover athlete. All the fans featured on the cover are real Bills fans from the Los Angeles area, creating a one-of-a-kind experience for those supporters.
“I think the fact that there’s Bills Mafia on the cover, it’s true that for a long time football here may not have been on the right track, but the Bills Mafia is so aggressive and every year is our year. and I like that about them,” Allen said. “They love football as much as I love football, and I’ve said it quite a few times, but by God that when people play here, when people play here, they feel that love, they feel it. excited. “
The casting call was something Shamberger, now retired, heard from his wife, Regina, who was involved in the entertainment business. He became a Bills fan after moving to Buffalo in the 1980s for his first job after graduating from college after growing up in Philadelphia.
He passed on the Bills fan tradition to his son and grandson, Jackson.
Rio Kamimura became a Bills fan while growing up in San Diego thanks to one of his good friends from elementary school from Buffalo. Over time, Bills also became an important part of his life. Currently living in Los Angeles, one of his side jobs is taking acting jobs or making calls like this for Bills fans.
Both Kamimura and Shamberger took videos of themselves to submit for review.
Both fans noted how prominently they were required to do a background check before being offered the job and that was unusual. However, the actual target of the scene remains a mystery, and both appeared on March 23 with their Bills gear. Another tip that shows something else is going on when their phone is taken away during the day.
Makeup artists were on hand to do all of the Bills’ color-matches and the fanbase had plenty of time to talk and discuss their fandom.
“Meet all the people there, and again, these are really Bills fans,” Shamberger said. “They know everything about the team and everything, so I’m really happy to talk to certain people and just enjoy the Bills stories.”
The fans present practiced with people in Bills uniforms, celebrating fake touches and cheering as they leaped into the crowd. Kamimura said that there were rumors that Allen would appear.
Finally, seemingly out of nowhere, the speculation turned out to be true.
“They started recording, and as soon as they started recording, Josh Allen showed up and then he went into the center where he had to start,” Kamimura said. “People just liked, started cheering in an incredible way. Everyone was shocked to know he was actually there.”
During filming, they had a few scenes with Allen before he encouraged the group to cheer even louder.
“I said, ‘Guys, it’s like I scored a goal, like, take me, like we’re winning the game right now, like, let’s make it happen,'” Allen recalled. “So they had a lot of fun, I had so much fun taking pictures with them and supporting those fans because they were on the cover too. …I think that’s pretty special, especially with the Bills Mafia. I think the representation there is very valid and it’s long overdue.”
Shamberger also recalls Allen encouraging him to grab his arm and celebrate appropriately. The impression they both got was how special the experience was, being able to interact with Allen from brief conversations to handshakes. They do the jump about three or four times and do it from a few different angles.
It wasn’t until months later, when the cover came out on June 7, that they discovered their name in the Invoice history. Shamberger is positioned as the most visible face to Allen’s left and Kamimura is behind Allen near the Madden logo.
“I am so proud that I had the opportunity, not only to participate, but also to do something that I really love, in terms of the Buffalo Bills,” Shamberger said. “I mean, this is part of the family, so, like I said, it can’t be the next thing to the Super Bowl as far as I think.”
