Bills safety Poyer says he’s one year sober

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo Bills safety Jordan Poyer has reached one year of sobriety after battling alcoholism, he announced on his Instagram page Saturday.

Poyer, 29, said that after the Bills lost to the Houston Texans in the AFC wild-card game during the 2019 season, he was so distraught that “for the next 5 weeks, I drank every damn day.”

“I was an alcoholic,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “I’m writing this knowing there are others out there like me that realize they too need help. My first step was realizing I had a drinking problem. Cause I did.

“I couldn’t drink just to hang. When I drank I had to drink to get F’d up. I used alcohol to avoid all my issues in real life. My family, my job, my friends … when I drank I could forget all of my issues. I didn’t have to deal with them face on.”

Poyer said with the support of his family and friends, and on advice from his mother, he attended three Alcoholics Anonymous meetings — which helped him put his life into perspective.

Four days after his decision to quit drinking, Poyer signed a two-year contract extension with the Bills worth $19.5 million. He had a career season in 2020, leading all safeties with 124 combined tackles.

The Bills’ captain said even though he felt writing the post was shameful he wanted to be an example to anyone else struggling with alcoholism, even offering his help and support to anyone who needed it.