Buffalo’s Steve Tasker Turns To Cigars Ahead Of The NFL Playoffs

JohnS · January 12

Steve Tasker played 13 seasons in the NFL (2 for the Houston Oilers and 11 for the Buffalo Bills) despite being only 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) tall and weighing 180 pounds (82 kg) when he played. Currently, he's the 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 promotional videos, with a cigar, that has made him Buffalo’s most popular cigar smoker..

Buffalo’s Steve Tasker Turns To Cigars Ahead Of The NFL Playoffs

Jan 9, 2025 - By Garrett Rutledge

Buffalo’s Steve Tasker Turns To Cigars Ahead Of The NFL Playoffs

Photo/Ben Green/Buffalo Bills

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.

Steve Tasker

What Tasker lacked in size he made up for with his versatility and ability to make an impact in numerous ways. (Photo/PETER NEWCOMB/AFP via Getty Images)

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.

Steve Tasker

Tasker (right) enjoying a cigar with fellow Bills legend and teammate Darryl Talley. (Photo/Ben Green/Buffalo Bills)

The first video was so popular among the ever-passionate 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 Nub Cameroon, made by 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, supporting their team,” says Tasker. This year he hopes he can break out the ultimate victory smoke with a long-awaited Buffalo Bills Super Bowl win. Plus, he already has a cigar in mind, the massive CAO Flathead V770 Big Block. “It’s almost a statement cigar,” he says. “If the Bills ever go to and win a Super Bowl, you can bet I’m whipping out a 770 for a victory cigar.” Tasker prefers thick ring gauge smokes, pointing to the V660 Carb as his cigar of choice, in part because, as he admits, he puffs “like a smokestack,” but also because it’s a cigar he and his four sons all enjoy together.

Steve Tasker

As of fan of Nub cigars, Tasker might regret sharing the secret with Bills fans who bought so many Nubs the brand became out of stock in Buffalo. (Photo/Ben Green/Buffalo Bills)

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.

Source: https://www.cigaraficionado.com/article/buffalo-s-steve-tasker-turns-to-cigars-ahead-of-the-nfl-playoffs