Bills fan takes dig at team in obituary

Lee Merkel, a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan, used his obituary to take one final shot at the team.

Originally from Rochester, Merkel died Sunday in Raleigh, N.C., at the age of 83. His obituary describes him as an "avid fisherman and sports enthusiast who had a religious-like devotion to the Syracuse Orange and his beloved Buffalo Bills."

The last line of the obituary reads, "Lee has requested six Buffalo Bills players as pall bearers so they can let him down one last time."

Merkel's son, Mark, told Adam Francis of WKBW-TV that his father was a longtime Bills season-ticket holder who attended all four of Buffalo's Super Bowl losses in the 1990s. Merkel got the idea for the line after seeing it in a Cleveland Browns fan's obituary years ago.

"A Super Bowl win never happened in his lifetime but my dad has several grandkids so he never lost hope that they will see the Bills win the big one," Mark Merkel said.