ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. [WKBW] — It has been more than one year since Jordan Poyer’s last drink.
“I was struggling with alcohol for the longest time,” Poyer said. “[I was] scared to ask questions, scared to admit that what I was doing was wrong.”
The 30-year-old Bills’ safety shared his story in March, as he described his first anniversary of sobriety. Poyer said he was an alcoholic and detailed how he drank every day for five straight weeks after the Bills wildcard loss to the Houston Texans in January of 2020.
In a recent sit-down with WKBW, Poyer said the decision to share his story was not an easy one, but he ultimately decided to go public to help others.
“If I could touch one person, that was my goal. But obviously, there are a lot of people out there that struggle.”
“None of us are perfect, but it’s great to see when a young man has continued to battle through his journey and the challenges that go along with all of our journeys,” Bills head coach Sean McDermott said of his star safety’s battle. “He’s come out on the other end and he’s able to talk about it. So, I love the authenticity of the situation.”
For a player used to battling on the football field, his battle at home was even tougher. But amid his journey, he discovered a new passion that gave him a new outlook on life.
In his first interview of training camp, Poyer told reporters:
“Golf was kind of the thing that I believed save my life”
During the height of the pandemic and Poyer’s journey to sobriety, he spent countless hours on the golf course crafting his game.
“It was a way for me to just get away from everything and get away from the stressers of life,” Poyer said. “Those were a lot of the reasons why I was drinking.”
When he first started, he admits his game wasn’t great. At the beginning it didn’t matter. But now that he’s taking the sport more seriously, Poyer is striving for continued growth on and off the course.
“It [golf] gave me a sense of pride, a sense of commitment and love that I hadn’t found before, that I hadn’t seen before, that I hadn’t felt before.”
So as Poyer continues pouring his heart into his newfound passion, he realizes what the game helped him overcome.
“I’m still gorwing. I’m nowhere near where I want to be in life. I still need to grow on and off the field. But that’s something that put a bigger perspective in my life and that was the biggest reason I wanted to come out publicly…if I could touch one person, that was my goal but obviously there are a lot of people out there that struggle.”