ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The chance to see the Buffalo Bills play in prime time is so special that even an iguana hitched a ride to see the game.
His story began last Sunday, when the Sunday Night Football TV crew started packing up in Miami.
"We've seen a little of one or run around the compound ever thought nothing of it," Christian Essom said.
Essom is one of the Sunday Night Football crew members for NBC.
During the course of the week, the crew made the stadium haul from Hard Rock to Highmark, and during the unloading of one of the camera carts ...
"I'm checking my cabling, and I start pulling on a green cable," Essom said.
It wasn't a green cable.
"I thought, 'Why is this there? Oh, no, this is an iguana," Essom said.
Certainly, that's something you don't see every day.
"The iguana was very, very cold," Essom said.
If you're from Florida, you may occasionally see a so-called "freezing iguana" warning. When temperatures drop below 45 degrees, iguanas enter a cold-stunned state. They're very much alive.
Diana Solomon, a Sunday Night Football production coordinator, brought the iguana back to life by getting some hand warmers and a box to warm the iguana up.
But now the TV crew, who still had to finish preparing for the prime-time game on Sunday, had another issue.
"Once he was revived, they realized that they had an iguana on their hands with no idea of what to do," said Gina Lattuca, communications director for the SPCA Serving Erie County.
The SPCA Serving Erie County stepped in and took the iguana to their West Seneca facility for a checkup.
"Obviously a very young iguana," Lattuca said. "Very stressed, very nervous, but seems to be calming down a little bit now."
The iguana was only dehydrated and a little hungry. He's warm now and living his best life at the SPCA Serving Erie County, staff there gave him an appropriate name.
"Stefan Digguana, which is the perfect name," Lattuca said. "He seems to fit the bill already."
Stefon Digguana is expected to get another checkup by an exotic animal vet next week.
Digguana would not answer questions.
"It's never a slow day here at the SPCA Serving Erie County, but you know, Fridays at 3:30, something like this is bound to happen," Lattuca said.
Digguana is available for adoption. If you're interested you can email digguana@yourspca.org or visit the SPCA website.