Sometimes when a legend erupts, there’s a clear origin. Bills guard Ryan Bates can point to his moment.
“I think it all started,” he said, “when I put the chicken wing hat on my head.”
"I'm looking forward to being able to run some plays that he's calling. I've got no doubt that he's going to be successful at what he does,” Allen said about Dorsey.
On Jan. 15 at approximately 10:49 p.m., EST, Tommy Doyle, a Bills offensive lineman, scored a big-man touchdown. It put the Bills up 47-10 in a playoff game over New England.
As the celebration overflowed into the stands, Bates saw a chicken wing hat fall to the ground. He processed what he saw, slowly picked it up, put it on his head, and declared himself and the hat one in the same.
“I was so excited to say I was just like, ‘I'm an effing chicken wing,’ ” said Bates, who did not say “effing” in the actual moment.
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“I think it really started there. And I think the fans kind of saw and took and ran with it. I was never one to enjoy being in the spotlight. I was always very, very quiet and never been a big media guy. I thought about deleting all social media, really.
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“But it was cool to experience that and have a fan base like the Buffalo Bills, Bills Mafia get behind you. It's kind of like getting goosebumps here thinking about it.”
Baptized by foam chicken in sub-zero temperatures, Bates began a new, peculiar journey as a cult hero. The 25-year-old offensive lineman was undrafted, signed with the Eagles in 2019, then was traded to the Bills a few months later. When he got the call about the trade, he assumed he was getting cut.
Instead, he wound up in Buffalo, and in March, he signed a four-year deal to stay.
The chicken-wing moment was pivotal, but he kept no memento.
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“He ended up giving the hat back to the guy,” Doyle told The News in January. “So shout out to Ryan Bates, stand-up guy, he gave the chicken wing hat back to the guy.”
It can mean even more to get something back after you’ve lost it. For a few harrowing days in March, Bills fans went through the same thing with Bates. He entered the offseason a restricted free agent, meaning the Bills could match an offer sheet from any other team.
On March 24, the news broke: Bates had signed an offer sheet with the Bears.
It’s nice to be wanted, even if you believe you’ve found love elsewhere. Bates signed with Chicago in part because he felt the money was transformational for his family, who he describes as blue-collar Pennsylvanians. Still, he felt torn.
Four days later, when the Bills matched the offer sheet, he was relieved. So were his teammates and Bills fans.
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“He is such a funny guy, and I'm super pumped that we've got him back now for another four years because he played super, super big for us at the end of last year,” quarterback Josh Allen said. “And he's only going to get better from here. But yeah, his infatuation that fans had with him, it's real.”
Allen has added to the hype. In December, he gave a introduction worthy of professional wrestling to Bates’ appearance on a Zoom call.
“And now, six-foot … five?” Allen said, his voice cracking, perhaps from uncertainty in the numbers, perhaps from sheer awe. “335 pounds. Number 71. Rick Bates.”
The large man began his news conference.
“I don’t know if I’m quite 335 pounds,” said Bates, who was listed at the time as 302 pounds, “But, one can dream. How’s everybody?”
Through the challenge, Allen was able to secure a $700,000 donation for the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, and specifically to the Patricia Allen Fund.
Bates is a bit accustomed to goofing. But the frenzy of Chicago and Buffalo fans declaring their love for him – which was perhaps outsized for a man who’s started just four NFL contests – was somewhat dauting. Bates balanced feeling flattered with preferring to fly well under the radar.
“It’s very unique. It’s very weird,” he said. “I never thought in my lifetime I'd be in the situation I am right now. It just … it was cool. It's cool. It’s nice to be wanted. It’s nice to be loved. You never want to be hated.
“And so I love the Bears fan base for that, showing their faith in me, and then end of the day, Bills Mafia through and through.”
It was a hectic time, with friends and family sending Bates what people were saying about him. He got tagged in tweets and in Instagram posts. He tried to compartmentalize everything while making the best decision for himself and his family. Bears fans all but prepared to build a statue after grinding through his All-22 film.
“The most beloved athlete in Chicago history,” NFL Network’s Adam Rank tweeted in March, “Michael Jordan, Walter Payton, That lineman from that team whose offer sheet got matched.”
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Through all the posts, there wasn’t necessarily a particular one that stood out.
“It was just the abundance of them, really. That's what stood out to me the most, was just how many of them I've seen, like on Twitter and Instagram, and they'll get sent to me,” Bates said.
“People who have no idea (who I am), have never even seen me play a snap. They had no idea who I was. And the Bears fanbase was ready to die for me. … Nothing in particular stood out, it was really just more of the abundance of how much attention I was getting.”
There were a few reasons for it: Bears fans were clamoring for an offseason move of any kind, especially with a dilapidated offensive line in Chicago and a first-year general manager.
And despite limited play time last year with the Bills, Bates looked strong on the move to block run plays in a playoff win over New England. Bates had kick-out blocks, pulling on running back Devin Singletary's touchdown runs of three and 16 yards in the second quarter against the Patriots.
Bates prepared well and he made the most of playing time. Off the field, he had already established himself as a winner, winning the Bills' Christmas superlative for Most Likely to Ask for a Set of Tools for Christmas. Teammates heralded his extreme dad vibes.
“We call him Rick,” tight end Dawson Knox said in December. “I don't know why. It just kind of became his nickname because he looks like a Rick."
Bates confirmed the nickname origin story, and said in December that he almost changed his name on his locker.
“I want to embrace Bills Mafia through and through,” Bates said. “If they want to keep calling me Rick, I'm Rick – all the next four years if they want.
“So that's something that's not going to probably go anywhere for the next couple of years. And so I'm going to embrace it.”
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There’s a slight catch: He will embrace it up until may be legal ramifications. When it came time to take a pen to the very paper that tied him to the fervent fanbase, Bates reverted to the old ways.
“Well, my government name is still Ryan, so I had to sign it as Ryan,” he said, placing the emphasis on “still” and “had to.”
“He's a quirky dude,” Allen said. “He gets like this little high-pitched voice when you start bagging on him, just making fun of (him). … He's a fun guy to poke at, and he gets to give it right back to you as well.”
Still, he's quiet outside the locker room, focusing on work first.
A big step last season was translating some of the rapport Bates built in the locker room into games. Though he had plenty of reps in practice with teammates and saw action in all 16 games in 2020, he had yet to start.
“It can be different,” Bates said. “You go to practice every day and prepare for the game, but sometimes you get in the game and it’s not always the same. And so it was good for me – it was awesome for me – to have the opportunity to go in there as a starting role and create that game-time bond with the players.”
During the three-game stretch of starts for Bates at the end of the regular season, the Bills did not allow a sack.
His deepened relationships with his teammates was part of why he was so glad to stay with Buffalo. Bates also pointed to his relationship with coach Sean McDermott, who grew up in a nearby area of Philadelphia, as foundational. McDermott has loved seeing Bates’ path unfold.
“For Ryan and I to kind of grow up in the same area and play in the same league in high school, we have a lot of shared stories and experiences,” McDermott said. “That's one of the joys of coaching when you can develop people on and off the field or they can help develop themselves as well. And I think Ryan's done that. He's taken ownership of his own career.”
And with that ownership, and the next step cemented, Ryan Rick Chicken Wing Bates can get back to his natural state: understated.
“Oh, it's so much easier. I can take a deep breath now and just breathe, just because it's all done with,” Bates said. “I know where I'm going to be for the next four years, and I'm very happy with it. I couldn't be more happy. And I can just breathe and relax now.”
