by Full Frame is Sports Illustratedis an exclusive newsletter for subscribers, highlighting the stories and personalities behind some of SI’s photography every other week.
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The Kren family hangs out in their garage while they wait for the Buffalo Bills game to start.
Abby Curtis
Clay Patrick McBride, 54, is taking photos Sports Illustrated covers and stories for nearly 20 years. He has worked with publications including ESPN, Rolling Stone and New York Magazine, as well as other big name companies like Disney, Nike and Sony Music. But it wasn’t until McBride was in his 40s that he got “swept up” in teaching, he says, which gave him a sense of purpose outside of the world of commercial photography. It all came to fruition in December 2022, when he, now a senior lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology, brought three of his students with him to photograph a story for SI. McBride, along with two photojournalism students, Ariana Shchuka and Vincent Alban, and an advertising photography major, Abby Curtis, were hired to help capture the Bills Mafia tailgate.
Detail on the jacket of Eljay Harman, age 10, of Lancaster, NY
Vincent Alban
“Really a golden teaching moment, a place to get published in a magazine—that is, for me, when that started happening to me, I felt a sense that the doors were opening,” says McBride. “There is hope. And to give the students that experience, and that validation, and that credibility.”
A cardboard cutout of Bills QB Josh Allen sits atop a Buffalo street sign.
Ariana Shchuka
Curtis, 21, is originally from Buffalo. During her freshman year at RIT, she did a project on the Bills Mafia’s impact on the town itself, so she spent time photographing tailgates and scenes at Highmark Stadium. But, she says, the photos had more meaning this time.
Buffalo Bills fans gather together as they hijack.
Abby Curtis
In May, a shooter killed 10 people at a Buffalo grocery store. A deadly blizzard killed nearly 50 people in the area just days before Christmas. Less than two weeks later, a cardiac arrest threatened the life of Bills safety Damar Hamlin before the eyes of the entire fandom. With all that in mind, Curtis says she was grateful that her “first big job” was something that highlighted the welfare in her hometown.
“It’s been a scary time for Buffalo lately, and just being a part of something that will help give Buffalo a little more love – which meant everything to me,” Curtis says of the photos and story, which published Jan. 12.
Ken Johnson, or Pinto Ron as he’s known to Mafia Bills, earned his moniker by grinding on the hood of his 1980 Ford Pinto wagon and being misidentified as “Ron” in a magazine article 25 years ago .
Abby Curtis
And Buffalo love was evident throughout the gate, the four photographers agreed. It’s an amazing experience, full of table slamming, dizzying bats and shots flowing from the thumb of a bowling ball. But even more than that, Bills Mafia is known for its deep sense of community and charity, according to Steve Rushin’s story.
A young Bills fan gets a haircut in the parking lot.
Clay Patrick McBride/Sports Performances
The moments reminded McBride of a photograph he took in 2004, one of his early projects at SI. He was photographing a chess tournament in a prison in New Jersey, and after a big celebration among the inmates, the writer turned to him and said, “That’s the sport.” McBride never forgot that sentence, and he found it again in Buffalo, he says.
“I’m always just taking pictures of the MVP or the All-Star, but there’s so much more to sports than that, you know?” says McBride. “So that picture in the bar, for me, that writer in my head still saying to me like, ‘Did you get that?’ … That’s the sport.”
Abby Curtis
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