Buffalo Bills say they never requested a police escort to get around a blizzard driving ban

• The Bills say they never asked for a police escort home in the middle of the Christmas weekend blizzard.

• “We did not ask for or receive special treatment,” the Bills executive vice president and chief operating officer said.

• Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said the Bills requested an escort from Rochester to Buffalo.

The Buffalo Bills have denied ever requesting a police escort home after returning from Chicago amid the city’s major Christmas weekend snowstorm.

Insider reported Wednesday that Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said the Bills requested a police escort during a driving ban imposed on the city over the weekend and were shot in accordance with the ban because they were not “essential workers.”

But, according to the football team, that’s not exactly how things played out.

Ron Raccuia, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Bills, told the Buffalo News that the team made a “very difficult decision” to return to storm-ravaged Buffalo, New York, after their game at away against the Chicago Bears on Saturday due to their 150-plus, the traveling group wanted to be home for Christmas. Raccuia that they “tried to do it as safely as possible.”

He denied ever requesting a police escort from county officials or state police to help them get home.

“We have been careful not to divert needed resources into any part of our community,” Raccuia told the Buffalo News. “We were in constant communication not only with them, as well as other agencies throughout Western New York, from the day we left for Chicago on Thursday until the day we returned. But we didn’t We didn’t ask for or receive special treatment. We didn’t want to do that.”

When asked for a response to the Bills’ denial of his account, a representative from Poloncarz’s office told Insider that “the county executive is done talking about the Bills.” He added that “a lot of people who weren’t the Bills rode during the storm.”

The Buffalo Bills did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

When the Bills landed in Rochester after Saturday’s road victory in Chicago, nearby Buffalo was being hit by heavy snow and winds of up to 70 miles per hour. The storm left dozens dead.

Poloncarz said at a news conference Wednesday that when the team landed, the Bills asked the Erie County Sheriff’s Office for an escort back to Buffalo, about a 75-mile drive west, despite the travel ban.

Poloncarz said their request was denied because sheriff’s deputies were responding to “life-threatening situations.” The team therefore led itself.

“They weren’t allowed to travel. They did,” Poloncarz said. “At that time there was still a lot of snow. I don’t want anyone to think that Erie County gave the Bills preferential treatment.”

Buffalo police did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

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