Buffalo’s Steve Tasker Turns To Cigars Ahead Of The NFL Playoffs
Steve Tasker has, somewhat inadvertently, become the face of cigar smoking in Buffalo. Widely considered one of the greatest special teams players of all time, Tasker is one of many beloved, former Buffalo Bills players who still has close ties to the team. He’s the current co-host of One Bills Live, a daily weekday radio show focusing on the Bills on WGR and MSG Western New York, but it’s his recent role appearing in hype videos produced by the team, with a cigar in-hand for each of them, that has made him Buffalo’s most popular cigar smoker. Now, with the Denver Broncos coming to town this weekend for a playoff matchup with the Bills, Tasker will have his cigars at the ready.
“I’m notorious for having a pregame cigar before home games for the Buffalo Bills,” says Tasker, who still resides in Buffalo and works in an official capacity with the team.
Tasker gained notoriety among NFL fans during his 12-year career for both his play and stature. At just 5-feet-9 and 180 pounds during his playing days, Tasker wasn’t someone who looked like he made his living running up and down a football field. But he wasn’t just there for show, Tasker was a five-time first-team All-Pro and a seven-time Pro Bowler during his career, part of the legendary Buffalo Bills teams that went to four straight Super Bowls in the early 1990s. He’s currently on the Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame and his name still gets circulated in debates over the biggest Pro Football Hall of Fame snubs.
Tasker’s notoriety as a cigar smoker in Buffalo took hold back in 2020, when the Bills were having their best season in decades. The infamous four straight Super Bowl losses in the 90s eventually morphed into a 17-year playoff drought, among the longest in NFL history. Though the drought mercifully came to an end in 2017, it wasn’t until the 2020 season that the raucous “Bills Mafia” finally felt like their team was back as a serious contender. Before the first home playoff game, which at the time was 24 years in the making, the team released a video to capitalize on the palpable anticipation and excitement in Buffalo. Tasker was asked to be the narrator and he wanted to match the intensity of the moment. “I told them ‘you know if you’re going to make this a bit gravely, I should have a cigar,’ ” he says, so he lit one up for the video and the clip instantly went viral among the Bills Mafia.
The first video was so popular among the ever-ionate Bills fans that Tasker found new attention from it, and was constantly being asked which cigar he was smoking in the piece (he says it was a Oliva Cigars). Soon after, Tasker says his local retailers couldn’t stock the cigar anymore because they were selling out so fast. More videos have followed over the years, usually around playoff time, and Tasker has always been there with his smoke. Now, he says he’s often having to sign pictures of him with a cigar and frequently receives gifts from fans. “Every game, people give me absolutely every single cigar you can think of,” he says.
“Bills mafia is a phenomenal group, they’ve got big hearts, they’re rooted in charity and, of course, ing their team,” says Tasker. This year he hopes he can break out the ultimate V660 Carb as his cigar of choice, in part because, as he its, he puffs “like a smokestack,” but also because it’s a cigar he and his four sons all enjoy together.
This weekend, the Bills hopeful journey to the Super Bowl starts again with a playoff game that brings the Bills and Tasker full circle to when the dream of being number one just slipped away. The Bills host the Denver Broncos this Sunday at 1 p.m. in Orchard Park, New York. The last time these teams met in the playoffs, it was January 12, 1992 for the AFC Championship. It was Jim Kelly versus John Elway with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. Exactly 33 years later, on January 12, this Sunday, they play again in a pivotal playoff game.
Tasker and the faithful Bills Mafia can only hope, as they do season after season, that this year they can finally light up that Super Bowl victory cigar.
Keep an eye out for the January/February issue of Cigar Aficionado, which, among other things, includes a My Favorite Cigar profile of Steve Tasker.
To see the most recent Bills hype video with Tasker and his cigar, follow this link shared prior to the Bills-Chiefs game earlier this season.
