Holland Roden Says She’s a Changed Woman After Filming New Hallmark Movie

Actress Holland Roden started 2025 knowing very little about football. But after filming Hallmark’s new “Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story” in Buffalo, New York, this summer, Roden is a changed woman — suddenly “converted” and counting herself among the team’s diehard fans.

“I’d say I, potentially, wasn’t the biggest football fan prior to this movie, but I am absolutely — for life — the biggest Bills fan now,” Roden told Decider while at San Diego Comic Con on July 24, 2025. “They converted this theater girl overnight with the kindness that they show — the players, not only the players, the people behind the scenes, the city of Buffalo.”

Holland Roden Says Bills Mafia Fandom is Unlike Anything She’s Ever Seen, Even Growing Up With the Dallas Cowboys

Roden stars in the new “Holiday Touchdown” movie, the second since Hallmark’s first partnership with the NFL on Tyler Hynes’ and Hunter King’s “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story” in 2024, which was the most-watched cable movie of the year.

The star-studded cast includes “Shadowhunters” heartthrob Matthew Daddario, “Family Ties” alum (and wife of Michael J. Fox) Tracy Pollan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” cast member Caroline Aaron, and “The Sopranos” alum Steve Schirripa, whose first Hallmark movie was February’s “Sisterhood Inc.”

The “Teen Wolf” alum told Decider that she was blown away by the Buffalo Bills fandom while she filmed in upstate New York, even bigger than she saw with the Dallas Cowboys while growing up in Texas.

“I joke that it’s, like, this ongoing election in Buffalo,” she said, “because of the amount of yard signs and murals and memorabilia in restaurants. It is unlike any, kind of, football fandom I’ve ever seen — and I’m from Dallas, Texas, so we’ve got a big one there [in the Cowboys].”

Roden wrapped filming in mid-June on the movie, set to premiere during Countdown to Christmas. While there, she reiterated to local newspaper outlet Niagera Frontier Publications how contagious the Bills Mafia fandom was.

“I come from Dallas – the Cowboys already have a big fan base,” she told the outlet. “So, to see that trumped 10 times over was a really unique experience for me.”

Daddario said he was also amazed, telling the outlet, “I had an expectation. I knew something about the Bills Mafia. I had some sense of it. But I didn’t realize the level to which it would be. And I think that we saw it at Highmark, when we had all the volunteers who came in – 8,000 – and they had to cut it off.”

Holland Roden Calls Buffalo Bills Players ‘Walkable Hugs’

“Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story” features cameos from many Buffalo Bills players, past and present, and they were part of Roden’s conversion into a Bills fan.

The cast includes Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott, running back Ray Davis, offensive tackle Dion Dawkins, tight end Dawson Knox, long snapper Reid Ferguson, defensive tackle DeWayne Carter, and wide receiver Joshua Palmer. Superstar safety Damar Hamlin, who announced the Buffalo Bills movie on social media in March, is also part of the cast.

“They’re walkable hugs, first of all, is what I call them,” Roden told Niagera Frontier Publications. “Dion Dawkins, in particular; but honestly, like Ray Davis – everybody that has come onto our project. I joke that you guys kept the mean Bills players away, but I don’t know if there are mean Bills players.”

She continued, “Damar Hamlin, when I asked him if he had any acting experience, he goes, ‘Oh, yeah. Fourth grade, Peter Pan.’ With a straight face. I was like, ‘Perfect. This is great, Damar. Thank you.’ He was great!”