Hyde looks back on Bills' season as Super Bowl nears

FOSTORIA — Not having stepped on an NFL field since 2023, Micah Hyde watched the 2025 season unfold from afar.After spending the last two months of the 2024 season on the Buffalo Bills' practice squad as a defensive backs mentor and emergency backup — he practiced but never did suit up for a game — Hyde, 35, was officially retired this year and watched his former team from the comfort of his San Diego home, which he shares with his wife, Amanda, 5-year-old son Micah Jr., and 3-year-old daughter Maverick."This year, I've kind of had a back seat," Hyde, a former All-Ohio performer at Fostoria High School who went on to play 11 seasons in the NFL, said in a phone interview this week. "I've watched the games unfold each and every week and it's been fun."I follow the league pretty well. Every Sunday we do our family pick-ems, so I know something of how teams are and their strengths and weaknesses and stuff like that."During his seven seasons with the Bills as a starting safety, Hyde had his fill of dealing with typically strong New England Patriots squads and, like much of America, developing a healthy disdain for them. So, it's easy to understand his feelings with the Pats and the Seattle Seahawks set to meet Sunday in Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California."I think it's safe to say I'm not excited about the Super Bowl just because the Patriots are in it," he said. "I was hoping the Bills and the Seahawks would be in it. But it'a all good."Though all may be well in the end, the situation wasn't exactly optimal for the Bills or their fans in the immediate aftermath of a 33-30 overtime loss to the Denver Broncos in the AFC's divisional round of the playoffs. The game ended on a controversial interception by Denver's Ja'Quan McMillian in which McMillian wrestled the ball away from Buffalo receiver Brandin Cooks.A few days later, Bills owner Terry Pegula clumsily handled a press conference at which he announced his firing of nine-year coach Sean McDermott, who had considerable overall success in Buffalo but never reached a Super Bowl.Hyde joined the Bills in 2017 along with McDermott. Hyde arrived in Buffalo after four seasons with the Green Bay Packers; McDermott had been the Carolina Panthers' defensive coordinator for six years before getting the job with the Bills. The two became close during their time together."It was another difficult way to lose," Hyde said. "Anytime you don't win a Super Bowl, it's difficult. But it's just, like, the Bills, year in and year out, have controversial calls to end their season. ... I guess, at the end of the day, somebody wins the Super Bowl and everybody else goes home. It is what it is."The Bills are trying to get over a hump, and they thought that a coaching change was a pivotal move so they can get over the hump, and, obviously, time will tell. I'm a big fan of Joe Brady," Hyde said referring to the Bills' new head coach and the team's former offensive coordinator. I was very disappointed with the whole Sean firing, but the NFL is going to continue to go on. It's somebody I know and it's in-house and (Brady) is going to continue to do a good job with the pieces that they have in Buffalo."Jordan Poyer, Hyde's longtime running mate at safety with the Bills, and other Buffalo players joined Hyde in expressing dismay over McDermott's dismissal and how Pegula handled the situation, which including admitting that the team's failure to defeat the Broncos was the tipping point in McDermott's firing."I don't think (Pegula's) presentation of the whole thing was 100% flawless by any means," Hyde said. "(Those at the press conference) were all saying (the Denver game's final play) was a catch, it should have been a catch and they should have moved on (in the playoffs). But since they lost, he said he made the decision to fire Sean. It was, like, well, 'You're speaking out of both sides of your mouth. If you would have said at the beginning of the season that it was Super Bowl or bust ... it would have been understandable.' But then he said it was a catch and he fired him after the game. It was an emotional response."I don't necessarily agree with that, but life goes on. It's always going to be hard for an owner to get rid of a coach, especially someone who's changed your organization and did everything right for the last nine years. It's just going to be a tough decision. I think the message and the narrative around it could have been a little bit different."But it is what it is. Next year, if the Bills win a Super Bowl, everybody's going to forget about what Pegula said in the press conference and stuff like that."Hyde said he's spoken to the 51-year-old McDermott since the firing, and he thinks the former coach's decision to take a year away for the sport is a good one."He's a positive person; it's not like I needed to do that for him," Hyde said of contacting his former coach. "He was a little sad about the way it transpired, but he understands. He's been in the NFL for (24) years, right? So, he understands the whole business of the league — being let go and being hired and this and that. It's not the end."And, certainly, the end of Hyde's football career has only been the end of one chapter of his life. He noted that Hyde's Hail Mary, his THC-infused drink, is doing well and work is progressing at the Foster Block building, located on Main Street in Fostoria, that he and his wife purchased in recent months.Online registration will take place in March for the Micah Hyde Football Camp, which annually takes place on the first Saturday in June at Fostoria's Memorial Stadium. That is operated through his Fostoria-based Imagine for Youth Foundation, which also hosts May's Micah Hyde Charity Softball Game in Buffalo. Hyde has become increasing active in foundation activities since retiring from football.And, Team Hyde will have a new member in the spring, with Amanda being pregnant with the couple's third child."We're excited," Micah Hyde said.