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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, AuguST 13, 2022
SPORTS
Poyer, Bills on target for big season
Astoria grad in his 10th year
MORE SPORTS
Five locals combine for 10 medals in
regional Special Olympics meet • A5
By GARY HENLEY
The Astorian
Finally, a more routine offseason for
Astoria’s Jordan Poyer.
No masks required, his youth football
camp was back in session, the golf tour-
nament made its second appearance, and
Poyer will be entering the 2022 NFL sea-
son more motivated than ever.
There is a contract issue, but all that
will take care of itself. Either way, Poyer
is returning for his 10th season of profes-
sional football, this time as a first team
All-Pro safety. And assuming he’s still
with the same team, he and the Buffalo
Bills are considered by many to be the
leading candidate to be on the field for
Super Bowl LVII, Feb. 12, 2023 in Glen-
dale, Arizona.
The Bills recently made their annual
trek to St. John Fisher College in Roch-
ester, New York, site of their training
camp. A minor elbow injury kept Poyer
out of action for a week, while — as of
early this week — Poyer’s contract rene-
gotiation is still unresolved.
But with Poyer, it’s all about being on
the field. As he recently tweeted, “I’m
just excited to be back and playing foot-
ball with my teammates again. I want to
be here and continue to be a leader for
this team.”
Earlier this summer, Poyer was on
the field and the golf course for one fun-
filled weekend in his hometown, where
the former Astoria High School star did
a lot of fundraising, autographing and
some golfing with the locals.
For the first time since 2019, he was
able to conduct his one-day youth foot-
ball camp, teaching young athletes the
basics of football for four hours at CMH
Field.
“It’s been a good offseason,” Poyer
said during his brief homecoming. “My
daughter (Aliyah) is 5, going on 18. And
it’s fun to have the camp again … we
didn’t have it during COVID, and last
year we did the (Jordan Poyer) Experi-
ence,” where fans got to witness a rou-
tine offseason Poyer workout.
Two days after the camp, Poyer was
the host for his second annual “Jordan
Poyer Open” golf tournament at the
Astoria Golf & Country Club.
Along with locals who took part,
Poyer brought teammate and fellow
Buffalo All-Pro safety Micah Hyde, who
was making his first-ever visit to Oregon.
“Another star coming to Astoria,”
Poyer remarked. “Every year I’m going
to try and get somebody big to come out
here.”
Meanwhile, Hyde’s offseason was
much the same as Poyer’s.
Hyde also hosts a camp and an annual
charity softball game, in which Poyer
takes part. The two teammates often
attend each other’s offseason fundrais-
ing events.
“I actually owe him a couple,” Hyde
said, “because he’s been to several events
that I’ve had. It’s good to get up here and
see where he’s from. We kind of come
from the same type of place.”
Hyde and Poyer are literally broth-
ers in arms when it comes to their NFL
experience.
Both were drafted in 2013 — Hyde
by the Green Bay Packers, Poyer by the
Philadelphia Eagles — and both signed
with the Bills in 2017.
The two have spent over half their
careers playing opposite each other in
the defensive secondary. Both are 31
years old and played football (as all-state
quarterbacks), basketball and baseball
in high school, Hyde at Fostoria High
School in Fostoria, Ohio, and Poyer at
Astoria.
Having Poyer playing opposite him
in the secondary has “meant a lot” to his
career, Hyde says.
“As safeties, we’re able to see things
alike and communicate on the field. I
feel like I’ve become a better player
playing with Po, and I think it’s the other
way around, too.
“Each and every play we’re commu-
nicating. We’ve played so many snaps
together, at times we don’t even need
to communicate. Thousands of snaps,
games and practices.”
With the season opener less than a
month away — the Bills and the Los
Angeles Rams play the first game on
Sept. 8 — all the NFL experts are busy
making their final predictions for 2022.
At or near the top of every list are the
Buffalo Bills, who seem to be the con-
sensus pick to represent the AFC in the
Super Bowl.
There’s no such thing as a sure thing,
but Hyde and Poyer both know 2022
could be a special season for the Bills.
“Every year is different, but you
always have high expectations for your
team and yourself,” Poyer said. “Obvi-
ously, we have a very good football team,
but that doesn’t mean anything. We still
have to come in and work, take one day,
one game and one play at a time.”
Even before suffering a hyperex-
tended elbow during training camp,
Poyer said, “injuries happen. Stuff that
can change things really fast. It’s not
always the team that’s the most talented
didn’t have social media. Social media, to
me, is not real life. What you do, how you
speak, how you act … that’s real life.”
Golf tournament host
Gary Henley/The Astorian
Jordan Poyer was back in Astoria this summer having a good time during his youth football camp at CMH Field.
Poyer has only in recent years taken
up golf. Now it’s to the point where the
Jordan Poyer Open, held June 20 at the
Astoria Golf & Country Club, is not the
only Jordan Poyer golf tournament of the
summer.
Less than a month later, Poyer hosted
the “Jordan Poyer Celebrity Open” at
Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lau-
derdale, Florida. Originally intended to
benefit the Erie County Medical Center
in Buffalo, the medical center partnered
with Poyer to help raise funds for the
Buffalo 5/14 Survivor Fund, as a result
of the mass shooting on Buffalo’s east
side May 14.
A number of Buffalo teammates
took part in the tournament, along with
former Bills running back Thurman
Thomas and current Miami quarterback
Tua Tagovailoa.
Painful ending to 2021
Buffalobills.com
Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde during Buffalo’s recent training camp in Rochester, New York.
at the end that wins it. It’s the team that
stays together through all the adversity
and stuff that goes on during the season.”
During his short time in Astoria,
Poyer touched on a few different issues
surrounding football, on and off the field.
Flag or tackle football?
A recent debate among parents of
youth football players — should their
kids be playing flag or tackle?
“Especially at a younger age, I don’t
think kids are out there smacking that
hard,” Poyer said. “They’re just learning
the game. Flag football at a young age is
good to learn the game. Some kids want
to go out there and hit a little. But (flag
football) is a lot safer at that age than it
is when you get to the older levels, when
they’re learning to tackle.”
He added, “it’s just important to learn
the fundamentals of football at a young
age.”
For Poyer, “I was in first, second, third
grade playing tackle football in Ilwaco,
and it was a great opportunity for me to
learn the game, learn the fundamentals
and how to tackle. Kids at that age aren’t
out there going ‘Ray Lewis’ on people.
The helmet weighs more than they do, so
they’re more grabbing and pulling peo-
ple to the ground. I do encourage par-
ents to at least look into getting their kids
out there on the football field at a young
age.”
Rule changes
Speaking of tackling, some of the
ways Poyer once learned to tackle are
almost illegal nowadays, with target-
ing and helmet-to-helmet rules for
defenders.
“The game is definitely changing,”
he said. “They’re trying to make it a lot
more safer, which makes it harder on
defenders trying to come in and make a
bang-bang play.
“You look at films from the ‘80s and
‘90s, if (receivers) came across the mid-
dle, there were really no limitations for
defensive players. Now the target area is
so small, when a guy is coming across
the middle, that puts an extra thought
process in how you’re going to take him
down.
“Obviously, you don’t want money
to come out of your pocket,” Poyer said,
referring to fines. “It’s a tough game
to play as a defender. It’s an offensive
game now. It’s what football is … scor-
ing points, and people want to see that.”
Social media
Poyer has learned that anything he
tweets or texts on social media will go
viral, especially if it’s the least bit con-
troversial. There is no privacy for profes-
sional athletes.
“I don’t like social media nowadays.
It feels like you can’t say anything with-
out it being magnified. Whether you
have an opinion on something or not, it’s
going to get skewed and thrown around
in different ways.
“It’s tough for athletes nowadays,
especially the ones coming up. After a
game, you can scroll and read what’s
being said, and that can really mess up
a kid’s thought process. It’s tougher now
than when I was growing up, when we
Thirteen seconds away from winning
a divisional playoff game at Kansas City,
the Bills watched as the Chiefs rallied
and won in overtime, ending Buffalo’s
season in dramatic, heartbreaking fash-
ion. Had they won, the Bills would have
hosted Cincinnati in the AFC Champi-
onship game.
Unless you win the Super Bowl,
“every team goes into the next season
with that bad taste,” Poyer said. “There’s
nothing we can do to take back that
game. It was an amazing game, and a
blessing to be a part of it. We were on the
wrong side of it, but you learn so much
from it, use it as motivation, and try not
to make those same mistakes again.”
Hyde — who has missed the play-
offs just once in his nine-year career —
said “until you win a Super Bowl, there’s
always a motivation. Whether you fin-
ish 32nd or second the year before, the
object of the game is to win a Super
Bowl. We’re still chasing that, and until
we do it, everyone is going to be chomp-
ing at the bit to get back.”