Buffalo Bills safety Jordan Poyer canceled his annual charity golf tournament in Florida this year after he said both participants and sponsors withdrew from the event due to it being held at a course owned by Donald Trump.
Poyer shared the news in an Instagram video Saturday where he called off the tournament scheduled for July 10 at the Blue Monster at Trump National in Doral.
The tournament was set to “raise funds for the Buffalo community,” according to Poyer’s marketing representatives from Avalon Sports.
One of the organizations helping with that goal was the ECMC Foundation, which works to improve higher education for career success among underserved populations, according to its website.
Poyer said the foundation pulled out after several participants “up north” backed out and then emailed ECMC. The organization backed out soon after.
“They decided they didn’t want to take part in my tournament in which they took part in last year because of where it’s at, at Trump National Doral in South Florida,” Poyer said. “ECMC decided they can no longer take the pressure from up top, from the people above them and it probably has nothing to do with ECMC at all.”
A spokesperson for ECMC told the Buffalo News that the foundation was a beneficiary, not a sponsor of the tournament.
Poyer didn’t say exactly how many golfers withdrew. He did lament how politics was affecting people’s willingness to get involved for a good cause.
“I hope that we could get past that and it seemed we did, but we haven’t,” Poyer said. “It seems like our egos get in the way of being a good human being. And that’s sharing love, sharing conversations, sharing laughter with people who may not believe in the same things that you do, it’s a huge problem in America right now.”
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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