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Buffalo Bills safety Micah Hyde is giving back to a community in need.
The veteran had planned to hold a charity softball game on Sunday, an offseason tradition that benefits his IMagINe for Youth Foundation. Hyde admitted that he considered canceling the event after the shooting in Buffalo on Saturday that left 10 people dead, but decided he could use the game to help bring the community together — and to support the victims of the city’s tragedy.
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Hyde Gives Back
As ESPN’s Alaina Getzenberg noted, the game generated $200,000 for Hyde’s foundation through the Buffalo-area businesses that sponsored it and all the money raised during the event itself was going to help the victims’ families. The community showed up to help the cause, with 10,000 people going to Sahlen Field in downtown Buffalo. As Getzenberg pointed out, less than 2,000 people attended Hyde’s first charity softball game in 2019.
Hyde said he was heartened to see so many people show up to support the community, especially in the wake of such an ugly incident. Officials said the shooting, which took place in a predominantly Black neighborhood in the city of Buffalo, was racially motivated.
“I still can’t believe it,” Hyde said. “But when there’s hate in the world, you kind of erase it with love, and coming out here today and showing the community love and love to the youth, love to the community, love to the foundation. I guess that’s the way to combat it.”
After the game, Hyde took to Twitter to offer thanks to all those who came out to support the event, adding that he was praying for the victims.
The community will be in the spotlight more in the coming week, as President Joe Biden announced that he plans to visit Buffalo on Tuesday.
Bills Leaders Offer Condolences
In the hours after the shooting on Saturday, a number of Bills players and the team itself issued statements offering condolences to the families and heartbreak for the victims. At Hyde’s charity game on Sunday, quarterback Josh Allen had the chance to expand on his comments and said the players plan on doing more to support the victims.
“My heart goes out to the victims and their families,” Allen said, via ESPN. “We really haven’t talked as a team yet. We’ll be in the building tomorrow and I’m sure we’ll talk about it and figure out a way to help the situation, help the families out. It’s something that you never think it’s gonna happen in your community and when it does, it hits home. I was sick to my stomach all day yesterday. I was flying back from my sister’s graduation, and it was just, it’s gut wrenching. It really is.
“And again, we’ll talk as a team tomorrow and kind figure out what we want to do, but there’s no doubt that we’re gonna do something.”
Allen has forged close ties to the community since being drafted in 2018. When his grandmother died in 2020, fans came together to raise more than $1.1 million in donations for Allen’s local charity, the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital. In November 2021, the hospital official unveiled the “Patricia Allen Pediatric Recovery Wing,” the result of the donations.
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