Raccuia rode with Vice President of Communications Derek Boyko. There were other staff members picking up players. GM Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott even picked up players and coaches who lived near their homes.

Many players living in the areas hit hardest by the storm couldn’t get much past their front doors let alone find their cars under multiple feet of snow.

“We felt compassion for a lot of our players,” said Raccuia. “Their houses were surrounded by snow. They hadn’t been plowed out. Their families were nervous. They hadn’t experienced this before. We’re about to take them out of town and they’re leaving their families behind, and they ‘re stranded.

Raccuia and Boyko initially set out to pick up S Cam Lewis and OL Bobby Hart, but they called Harkins to tell them they had gotten out and could make it on their own. Raccuia and Boyko shifted their assignment to picking up Dion Dawkins.

“He was our main focus because he was in Hamburg and he was completely snowed in,” said Raccuia.

Hamburg was second only to Orchard Park in total snow accumulation, with 73 inches.

“It took us an hour and 25 minutes to get from near the stadium to Dion’s house in Hamburg, one way,” Raccuia said. “We tried at least three different ways to get there, and we kept getting turned around.”

After finally finding a way into Dawkins’ development, they found his street plowed, or so they thought. It was only plowed a third of the way down the block.

“Neighbors told us that the plow gave up.” Raccuia said. “So I just got out of the car, Derek called Dion to tell him I was walking to him. I went through waist deep snow to Dion’s house and led him back out. There were a handful of neighbors outside trying to move the snow around their homes and they were saying, ‘Good luck this weekend Dion!’ It was really cool.”

Much like Dawkins, RB Devin Singletary’s street had not yet been plowed and he had to walk about a quarter of a mile in waist deep snow to get to his ride on Southwestern Boulevard in Blasdell.

“I had to walk from my house out to Southwestern so (Assistant Director of Pro Scouting) Chris Marrow could pick me up,” said Singletary. “The snow was up to my waist. Walking through that snow was like a beach workout. I got to the end of my driveway and had to take a breath. Some of my neighbors filmed me walking down the street. I saw it later on social media.”

Dawson Knox was one of a handful of players who documented their snowbound circumstances on social media as his neighborhood residents came to his aid.

“It’s the City of Good Neighbors man. It’s hard to believe, but we pulled it off,” Knox told Buffalobills.com. “I was carrying my suitcase over my head trudging through the snow. Tommy (Sweeney) was with me. Thanks to an assembly line of neighbors shoveling we were able to get out. They just all showed up and got to work. I have a long driveway, so there was no way we would’ve gotten out. It was amazing to see.”