Among the most enjoyable parts of Brian Daboll’s return to Western New York as the Bills’ offensive coordinator before the 2018 season was the chance for he and his children to spend more time with his grandparents.
They had raised him in their West Seneca home after Daboll was born in Canada and still lived there. They had supported him when he scrapped his original plan to use his economics degree for a job on Wall Street with Goldman Sachs or Bear Stearns to become a coach. Even though they didn’t have much money, they had tried the best they could to send cash to help him pay rent and put gas in his car when he began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at William & Mary.
“I’ll try to stop at their house either on a Friday night or on a Saturday afternoon just to spend a little time with them,” Daboll said toward the end of the 2018 season. “My grandfather’s going to be 93. Grandma is 84. They’ve done everything for me. So just to go over and sit on the couch with my grandfather, grandmother and watch one of her television shows or watch her sit there and play with our 1-year-old or 3-year-old, it’s pretty cool.”
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Daboll’s grandmother, Ruth Kirsten, died Wednesday, Bills quarterback Josh Allen revealed after the team’s 43-21 victory against Washington on Sunday. Ruth and Chris had been married for 68 years.
The family has asked for donations to be made to St. Jude Research Hospital in her name.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen talks about offensive coordinator Brian Daboll losing his grandmother.
“My heart aches for him,” Allen told reporters. “Our guys on offense would say the same thing. He cares so much about football and being the best version of himself for us and put us in positions to be successful. He takes everything personal about this game, and that’s why we love him. When you see a guy hurting, we rally around him. It’s never an easy situation. There’s nothing you can say to help him or his family feel better. Over time it feels better, but to have that kind of support and share that pain here takes a lot off him.”
Though supportive, Daboll’s grandmother never wanted to go to games and couldn’t stand to watch. Instead, she prayed.
“My grandmother gets so nervous about outcomes – and she’s been this way her whole life – that she won’t even watch,” he said in 2018. “We’ll call my grandmother on the way home. Driving back from the Detroit game (in 2018), she said, ‘Did you win?’ I said, ‘Yeah, we won.’ She said, ‘Oh, thank God! I was praying, I was praying.’ ”
We love you buffalo. This one was for Brian Daboll #YouAlreadyShnow ❄️❄️
— Dion Dawkins (@DDawkins66) September 26, 2021
For Allen, the roles were reversed from loss of his grandmother, Patricia, leading up to the Seattle game last year that spurred Bills fans to donate nearly $1.5 million to O'Shei Children's Hospital.
When Allen returned to the locker room after the victory against the Seahawks, Daboll greeted him, with Allen collapsing in his arms.
“It’s crazy how the roles are reversed,” Allen said. “Last year, I had a heartfelt hug with him. This year, he fell to my arms. He’s a guy that I love dearly. To play that way for him and execute so well, the guys understood the importance of that.”
