It should have been a day for celebration for the Buffalo Bills and their fans.
And for the most part, it was.
Sunday afternoon’s 48-20 win over Miami at Highmark Stadium, a euphoric day otherwise, came with potentially significant cost to the Bills’ secondary.
Late in the third quarter, top cornerback Tre’Davious White suffered an “ankle injury,” later clarified as an Achilles injury and confirmed to be a torn Achilles tendon on Monday. He appeared to know it immediately.
On a play where Buffalo’s Ed Oliver sacked Tua Tagovailoa on fourth-and-short, White pulled up feeling something wrong on his right leg while running in coverage of Tyreek Hill, essentially a non-contact injury. A frustrated White flung his helmet down the field as trainers attended to him. Buffalo’s entire team surrounded White before he was placed on a cart. Safety Jordan Poyer, inactive for the game with his own injury, rode to the locker room with his emotional teammate with a stadium full of fans chanting “Tre! Tre! Tre!”
THE FOURTH-DOWN sack seemingly snuffed out any chance of Miami’s high-powered offense coming back Sunday. Oliver celebrated before seeing his teammate in distress.
“I honestly didn’t see the play. Didn’t I get a sack on that play?” Oliver asked, with confirmation from reporters in the room. “I was like, celebrating, and then I turned around and saw Tre on the ground. I walked up and you could tell he was obviously emotional. It just really sucks because he does everything to take care of his body and get back to playing at a high level, an All-Pro level, and then I don’t know what happened; I didn’t see it. But just to see anything go wrong to where he’s visibly emotional, it’s crazy.”
FOR PLAYERS in Buffalo’s locker room and at the press conference table Sunday, the topic of White’s injury brought out emotion, introspection and empathy for their teammate.
White already missed a year of his career after tearing his left ACL on Thanksgiving night 2021 — returning late last season and appearing to be close to his former All-Pro or Pro Bowl form this year.
“It breaks my heart. It really does,” quarterback Josh Allen said. “I don’t really know the extent of it, but you never want to see your teammates on the floor pounding their firsts. It just … it sucks. He’s worked his (butt) off to get back to playing the way we know Tre playing football and truly it breaks my heart.”
Center Mitch Morse referred to white as “a consummate professional” and someone who’s “universally loved on this team.” He recalled the season-ending injury to offensive lineman Tommy Doyle in the preseason.
“He’s a guy that doesn’t want the limelight,” Morse said of White. “He would do conditioning before training camp practices, which I’ve never seen in my life. He does it for all the right reasons. And to see that today, I know it’s the parity of this league … you saw it earlier with Tommy Doyle, and I know a lot of people have spoken on it, but it’s a damn shame and hopefully you guys keep him in your prayers because he means so much to this team and does it for all the right reasons, and he’s a father of three. This game means a lot to him and being a good teammate and being there for his teammates means a lot to him, so just keep him in your prayers, please.”
SITTING NEXT to Morse, wide receiver Stefon Diggs echoed the call for prayers for White, a player he’d often go up against in practice. Diggs’ brother, Cowboys star corner Trevon Diggs, suffered a season-ending knee injury last week.
“It’s been a rough week with some injuries,” Diggs said. “It’s a guy that really loves the grind, a true professional, a lover of the game as well. It’s crazy. He really nursed himself back. He really worked to get himself back into where he was and to see him kind of get into a flow, it was rough.
“With everything he’s already been through, really keep him in your prayers. At this very moment, it’s easy just to be like, ‘it’s unfortunate,’ but it means the world to him. Football meant a lot to him and you can tell about how he works, how he grinds, how he approaches each and every day. He doesn’t care about the limelight, he cares about the grind and being the best player and teammate he could be. So I ask you to do more than just keep him in your prayers and really lift him up, because a time like this, it’s rough.”
I’m reminded of basketball star Klay Thompson, who tore an ACL in the 2019 NBA Finals and rehabbed for a year, only to tear an Achilles the following offseason in a pickup game. Sidelined for two years, it was fair to wonder if Thompson would return, let alone ever be the same player. But sure enough, he returned in 2021-22 and helped Golden State lift a Larry O’Brien Trophy that season.
I know it’s a different sport, and White has a long road ahead. But maybe there’s hope we’ll see him again at a high level. But for now it’s hard not to feel devastated for a player who already fought hard to be on that field on Sunday.
