BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) Buffalo Bills Safety Jordan Poyer, who suffered a rib injury in the game against the Baltimore Ravens on October 2nd, was medically cleared to play against the Kansas City Chiefs. But he was not cleared to fly with the team.
"Jordan was cleared to play with his rib injury, but he was not cleared to fly because of the air pressure on the plane," said Sal Capaccio, Buffalo Bills sideline reporter for WGR 550.
"The team arranged for a car service to drive Poyer to Kansas City." It's about a thousand miles or 15 hour trip by car. His wife and daughter went with him.
"He was a big part of the Bills defensive performance and it's a pretty incredible story," added Capaccio.
"I was talking with one of the Bills assistant coaches, after Jon Scott with Spectrum News broke the story, and the first thing out of the coach's mouth was, are you surprised? You shouldn't be."
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Capaccio said this just shows Poyer's dedication and determination to the team.
"What level of commitment, right?” coach Sean McDermott said on Monday, a day after news of Poyer’s travel arrangements were revealed following the win.
“Just that level of dedication and commitment, I think, goes a long way on our team. And he’s not the only one. We’ve got a lot of guys, that would do that as well. So my hat goes off to Jordan in this case.”
Poyer is looking for a new contract.
"It would have been so easy for him to shut it down and say I'm not doing that." But Capaccio said that's not who Jordan Poyer is."
Poyer had four tackles in the game against the Chiefs.
Poyer isn't the first NFL player to have to rely on ground travel to make it to a game. Former Houston quarterback Deshaun Watson, now with Cleveland, took a 12-hour bus ride to play in the Texans' game at Jacksonville in 2018 after sustaining a similar injury.
