It should’ve been a night to remember for Mia DeCamilla, a young 49ers fan and cancer survivor who was attending her first NFL game in Orchard Park on Sunday.
And it will be, but for all the wrong reasons.
DeCamilla was shoved out of her seat and down the stairs in Highmark Stadium by an allegedly drunk Bills fan during the third quarter of Sunday night’s game, her family tells WIVB, a CBS-affiliated TV station in Buffalo.
Though the 8-year-old fan was not physically hurt, her family said they decided to leave the game after the altercation.
Police were alerted, though the family opted not to file a report.
A Rochester native, DeCamilla tells WIVB that she inherited her 49ers fandom from her father.
“Me and my dad, [when I’m] in the hospital, we’ll watch football together,” DeCamilla said. “And then when I come home, sometimes for breaks … I will sit down and just relax and watch football all day. That’s what I like and how I made my team.”
DeCamilla has battled — and beat — liver cancer twice. Since reaching remission for the second time in May 2023, she’s been featured by WIVB on the station’s “Shine Gold” segment, helping to raise money for other children battling cancer.
On Sunday, DeCamilla arrived at the winter-strewn Highmark Stadium in style: decked in 49ers red and sporting a hand-drawn sign that read, “I beat cancer! My first NFL game!”
The family was seated in section 312 and saw the raunchy fan making his approach, Mia’s father, Mike DeCamilla, told WIVB.
“He said, ‘I’m going to push through all these Niner fans,” the elder DeCamilla said. “He actually bumped me and my son a little bit and then got past me and pushed her. [She] almost slid off the stairs…
“He had to be 6 foot, and she is less than 100 pounds … I know that there’s competitiveness and whatnot, but there’s a point where it’s a family event.”
His daughter, though emotionally disturbed by the incident, didn’t let it ruin her night.
“My favorite part was getting to see Brock Purdy,” she told WHAM, an affiliate station in Rochester. “He’s my favorite player and I have his jersey, too.”
As DeCamilla’s story picks up traction across the internet, Buffalo fans have rallied to show the family support and dispel the notion that one fan’s antics are representative of the fanbase as a whole.
Bills mafia are world-renowned for their rabid fandom and their bare-chested table pummeling, but also for their compassion and charitable endeavors. And those efforts have never been confined to Western New York.
Ever true to form, hundreds of Buffalo supporters have donated to a GoFundMe page, the “DeCamilla Family Fund,” which was organized to ease the financial burden of Mia’s treatments. As of Tuesday morning, the fund has reached over $20,000 from nearly 750 donors.