Super Bowl favorites, the Buffalo Bills, have found themselves on the end of some backlash due to their attempts to get back home after their Christmas Eve win over the Bears.
The Bills ended up getting stuck in The Windy City, having flown in a day early to ensure there would be no hiccups as it pertained to the fixture, given the dangerous snowstorm sweeping the U.S. They were able to fly to nearby Rochester on Christmas Day before being chartered to Buffalo via buses.
There’s now a public dispute between the team and local authorities as the Bills are said to have asked for help getting home despite travel being banned at the time.
The Bills have denied such, yet both the Eerie County Sheriff’s Office and New York State Police are claiming that the team indeed asked for special dispensation and escort services.
On Wednesday, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz stated that the Bills asked the Sheriff’s office for an escort into Buffalo, while state police have also claimed that the Bills contacted them for help getting back from Rochester on Sunday, though it was still snowing heavily.
“There was not preferential treatment given to the football team … the Bills are not considered essential workers,” Poloncarz said.
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So Who’s Lying?
Both departments say they denied requests; the Bills deny asking for help altogether.
Players had already faced heavy criticism for their return to Buffalo after a video showed them digging their cars out of deep snow so they could go home.
The State Police Public Information director Beau Duffy told the Buffalo News the following:
The Buffalo Bills asked state police to escort team buses from the airport in Rochester to Buffalo, and the State Police denied the request. At the request of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, a trooper did assist with briefly escorting the teams’ buses off airport property in Rochester, but discontinued the escort once the buses reached I-490.
Bills executive vice president and COO Ron Raccuia said the team wanted everyone who made the trip to spend Christmas with their families and made the very difficult decision to return to Buffalo, but they never asked for any special treatment.
“We made sure that we were not diverting any resources needed in any part of our community, whatsoever,” he said.
According to local officials, the death toll has risen above 30, while rescue and recovery efforts are still ongoing.
