Why Micah Hyde Deserves to Be on the Bills Wall of Fame
The Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame was created in 1980 to celebrate former players, coaches, and administrators who played essential roles in the team’s history. 31 inductees have been enshrined in the Wall of Fame since its inception. However, no one has been inducted since 1962 AFL MVP Cookie Gilchrist received the honor in 2017. With a new stadium being prepped for the near future, why not add more Bills legends' names to the Wall of Fame? This edition will show why Micah Hyde deserves to be on the Wall of Fame.
When the Bills hired Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane, they instantly shifted the culture of the constantly underperforming franchise. One of Beane’s first moves was to take a chance on Hyde and Jordan Poyer, two lesser-known safeties who hit the free agent market in 2017. This big swing turned out to be a home run as they both became household names in the Queen City. After officially retiring this past January, it would be a great time to talk about what made Hyde so great. After spending his entire rookie contract playing for the Green Bay Packers, the team didn’t want to retain him, leading him to get a huge raise in Buffalo before even taking a single snap. The Toledo, Ohio, native averaged $584,527 per year in Green Bay before inking a five-year, $30.5 million deal for the Bills.
With big expectations on his shoulders, Hyde didn’t let Bills Mafia down. In just his first season, he helped the team end their 17-season playoff drought, which had plagued many other players in this series, and was named to the Pro Bowl as well as selected as a Second-Team All-Pro thanks to his five interceptions, 13 passes defended, and 82 tackles. Even though that was his only Pro Bowl season with the Bills, he was consistently playing like one of the best safeties in the league. During his seven seasons in Western New York, he compiled 16 interceptions, 42 passes defended, and 417 combined tackles. After 2021, he looked great after earning another Second-Team All-Pro selection. Unfortunately, disaster struck as he was looking to put together another great season, suffering a neck injury that cost him his season. That was the beginning of the end of his football career, since when he came back in 2023, he was a step slower than before and eventually got replaced by Damar Hamlin before going for one last hurrah in 2024, signing with the practice squad in an attempt for a Super Bowl.
While Hyde was certainly an exceptional player in Buffalo, his legacy will be forever entrenched in the city due to his philanthropy. Since 2019, the “Micah Hyde Charity Softball Game” has been held at downtown Buffalo’s Sahlen Field. Hyde has hosted this annual event for his IMagINe For Youth Foundation, a charity that he and his wife founded to help financially disadvantaged children thrive academically and athletically. Furthermore, in 2022, just one day after a horrific mass shooting took the lives of 10 people in a Buffalo supermarket, Hyde held his charity event where he gave a portion of the proceeds to the families of the victims. Since then, Hyde’s softball game has become a pillar of the Buffalo community, netting more than 10,000 people in attendance every year for the event. Whether it be his play on the field, his extraordinary charity work, or a combination of both, Hyde should see his name enshrined on the Wall of Fame because of his contributions to Buffalo.
