Jordan Poyer took quite a detour to make sure he played in Sunday's Bills-Chiefs game.
The Bills safety, who suffered a rib injury in Week 4 against the Ravens and missed Week 5, wasn't medically cleared to fly with the team due to air pressure on the plane. He was, however, medically cleared to play in the game — he just needed to find a way to Kansas City not on a plane.
So the Bills provided Poyer and his family with a van and driver to travel nearly 1,000 miles across five states in two days. The Bills' defensive leader made it to Kansas City on Saturday afternoon and the following day he helped the team pull out a 24-20 win over the Chiefs, playing all of the Bills' defensive snaps.
Poyer then left Kansas City with his family in the same van, breaking up the drive into two parts like they did on the drive in. Poyer and his family are expected to be back in the Buffalo area by Monday night.
"My hat goes off to Jordan in this case," Sean McDermott said Monday afternoon.
Poyer joined the Pat McAfee Show on Monday afternoon — while still in the van traveling back to Buffalo — to discuss his journey.
"It was tough, man," Poyer shared about the drive and getting his body ready to play.
Poyer explained that he knew early on last week that he wouldn't be able to fly with the team, so he and the Bills worked to find a way to get him to KC. They settled on the van and Poyer and his family turned it into a group trip.
Poyer shared that the whole journey was worth it to be able to get the win over the Chiefs and celebrate with his teammates.
"Anytime you get a victory on the road, it's huge," Poyer said.
Check out the best sights from the sideline and locker room following the four-point win over the Chiefs in Kansas City.