Bills safety Jordan Poyer said he will go forward with his charity golf tournament days after announcing he would have to cancel it.
Multiple sponsors and teams dropped out of the tournament due to its location: the Blue Monster course at Trump National Doral Miami, which is owned by former president Donald Trump.
"I was really excited for this tournament," Poyer lamented in a 12-minute video posted to Instagram last weekend. saying Blue Monster is one of his favorite courses.
Now he'll still get to play host at the course the weekend of July 11 after a new sponsor stepped in.
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Jordan Poyer charity golf tournament controversy, explained
Poyer said people wrote to Buffalo's Erie County Medical Center demanding that it pull out of the event. While Poyer referred to ECMC as one of the tournament's biggest sponsors, the hospital says it was only set to be a beneficiary of the event. In a statement, ECMC said it was "fortunate to be a beneficiary of Jordan Poyer's golf tournament" but did not deny dropping out.
The Pro Bowl safety said he's thankful to ECMC and doesn't blame them but seemed to call out people who pressured the company to drop out.
"It seems like our egos kind of get in the way of being a good human being," Poyer said, adding that ego is "a huge thing that's wrong in America."
While Poyer admitted he might not agree politically with everything Trump believes, he said, "I still went and put my ego aside to help those that needed help."
Poyer continued on, arguing that people need to put aside differences and talk about real issues that affect others. "I like to say the quiet parts out loud," Poyer told his Instagram followers.
As it turned out, doing so helped him get what he wants in this case. Poyer announced during a Fox News interview that the tournament is back on thanks to a new sponsor, PublicSq. The company's founder and CEO, Michael Seifert, issued a statement to the New York Post about its sponsorship:
PublicSq is proud to partner with Jordan Poyer. We’re glad to see he’s standing against the cancel-culture mob that tried to shut down this charity event and we will always support freedom-loving Americans like Jordan whenever there is an opportunity to do so.
While a sponsor is back in place, it's unclear who will join Poyer in playing in the tournament.
Events hosted at Trump-owned golf courses have caused some controversy over the years, though the embattled former president has hosted multiple LIV Golf tournaments and even made an appearance at an LIV Golf event at his Washington D.C.-area course in May.
This will be Poyer's second annual charity golf tournament. He hosted a Celebrity Open last July at Coral Ridge Country Club in Florida, but the new location this year ruffled some feathers.