Special Ceremony Lifts Famous 50 Year Curse on Buffalo Bills Stadium

Are the Buffalo Bills cursed? Depends on who you ask. The team has lost 4 Super Bowls...in a row. The good news is, if the team is cursed, it's been lifted.

The team hasn't won a playoff championship game since moving into Highmark Stadium, formerly Ralph Wilson Stadium, in 1973. Turns out, it's built on an ancient Native American Wenro village and old burial site, that many believe have spirits holding the team back from winning.

Located between gates 6 and 7 at Highmark Stadium is the Sheldon Family Cemetery, a small plot of land dating all the way back to the 1800s. It was said to be on the 50-yard line in the original plans. Architects even wanted to move the bodies, according to the Democrat and Chronicle.

Thanks to efforts by Sheldon family descendants and community history buffs — with some assistance from then Bills owner Ralph Wilson — the cemetery was spared.

John Sheldon was the first to be buried in the family cemetery in 1832, the son of the first Sheldon who settled in the area in 1805. It's marked with a plaque that reads:

First recorded burial John Sheldon Jan 16, 1832. His father, Joseph, was the first Sheldon to settle here in 1805. Cemetery restored by the Junior Yorkers & Orchard Park Historical Society. An early Erie Indian village was also located on the site of this stadium

Valerie Hill, a member of the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada heard about the alleged curse from her family. She drove to the Bills playoff game against the New England Patriots Saturday to lift the curse with a traditional indigenous ceremony, according to WGRZ.

Hill burned tobacco, sage, sweetgrass, and cedar medicines to banish bad spirits and lift the nearly 50-year curse on the stadium and the team.

Whether you believe in the famous curse or not, the ceremony before Saturday's game may have worked. The Bills beat the Patriots 47-17. They'll take on the Kansas City Cheifs in the NFL Divisional Round on Sunday, January 23. Game time is 6:30 PM.