A Ravens Player Dropped a Pass. The Hate It Brought Moved Rivals to Give.

A charitable drive for diabetes research in the name of the Ravens receiver Mark Andrews, who missed a pivotal play in a game against the Buffalo Bills, has raised more than $100,000.

When a player on the opposing team makes a terrible mistake on a big play, the reaction for many sports fans is joy. Our team’s going to win! We rule, you stink!

But not every sports fan.

With a minute and a half left in an N.F.L. playoff game on Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens had scored a touchdown to close their deficit to the Buffalo Bills, bringing the score to 27-25. A 2-point conversion would tie the game.

“The whole season essentially comes down to this play,” said the play-by-play TV announcer, Jim Nantz.

The Ravens quarterback, Lamar Jackson, threw the ball to tight end Mark Andrews, who was at the goal line. He caught it … and he dropped it. To be fair, he seemed to slip as the ball reached him on the snowy field in Buffalo. But he dropped it.

The whole season did come down to that play. And the Ravens blew it, and lost the game. Their season was over.

But at least some Bills fans felt sympathy, even amid their triumph.

Andrews has Type 1 diabetes, and two Bills fans have set out to raise money for Breakthrough T1D, a charity supporting diabetes research and advocacy that he has supported. Their language sounds just a little different from the fiery speech some football fans like to use when discussing the game.

“We just want to spread love; that’s really what we want to do,” said Ryan Patota, a 20-year-old sophomore at Canisius University in Buffalo, and a lifelong Bills fan. Patota and Nicholas Howard, also a sophomore, who run a Bills fans Instagram page, decided to start a charitable drive with that goal in mind.

“I mean honestly, you hate the other team,” Patota said. “You want your team to win. But we want to bring both bases together and say, ‘Hey, this is more than a game.’”

Howard said: “I’ve got tremendous respect for Mark Andrews. Even though he was playing against us.”

The effort had raised more than $100,000 as of early afternoon on Thursday, after over 3,000 individual donations. The original goal was to raise $5,000. “I never expected to blow up like this,” Patota said.