Getty Image / Kevin C. Cox
- Von Miller shocked the NFL world when he left the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams for a six-year contract with the Buffalo Bills
- Von Miller shared why he chose to leave the reigning champs
- Read more NFL stories here
The past two weeks of NFL free agency have been nothing short of crazy. It has seemed like every other hour there is breaking news of an NFL super start getting traded, paid, staying put, or coming out of retirement. Tom Brady’s decision to come back was the most shocking (so far) but Von Miller’s choice to leave the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams is probably second on the list.
After leaving the Denver Broncos for the Los Angeles Rams and winning a Super Bowl in his first season outside of Denver, Von Miller made another move. He signed a six-year contract with the Buffalo Bills worth $120 million including $51 million fully guaranteed.
On the surface, leaving the Rams for the Bills might seem like it’s about money but Von Miller is a very wealthy man already. He has made $144,475,534 in career earnings. So why did he choose to leave the reigning Super Bowl champs for the Buffalo Bills? Here’s what Von Miller had to say to ESPN’s Alaina Getzenberg…
Von Miller On Why He Left The LA Rams For The Buffalo Bills
Von Miller on why he chose the Buffalo Bills: “I saw what makes Aaron Donald Aaron Donald, and it was hard to walk away from that. The only way you can walk away from that is to walk into something special. And what they’re doing here is extremely special. (The Bills are) gonna win a Super Bowl with or without me. They’ve built an amazing team.”
“When I left Denver and I went to LA, I said I’m not going back. I said I’m not leaving. And it had to be something special. It had to be the Buffalo Bills. What they’ve created here — it had to be the Bills Mafia. This environment that they’ve created here, it drawed me away from that. It’s not gonna be the weather. The weather is gonna be the weather. But what they’re doing inside this facility, what they’re doing in this community, what they’re doing on the football field and off the football field, man, I had to be a part of that.”
Von Miller on his difficult decision: “I wasn’t expecting it to be like that. I was expecting you win the Super Bowl, you got your offers out here, where do you want to go, pick, go back to the Rams. But it was tough man, it came down to the very end. … I feel like I let (the Rams) down. I feel like I’m breaking up with my girlfriend. That’s just me and the way I go about my business. But this was the one time in my life where I had to make a decision for me.”
"When I left Denver and I went to LA, I said I'm not going back. I said I'm not leaving. And it had to be something special. It had to be the Buffalo Bills. What they've created here — it had to be the Bills Mafia"
More from Von Miller's 1st day as a Bill:https://t.co/3HQALcnDln— Alaina Getzenberg (@agetzenberg) March 18, 2022
If the NFL’s overtime rules were different and Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills got the ball back against the Chiefs we could be talking about the Buffalo Bills dynasty right now. It’s not unrealistic to think the Bills could’ve beaten the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams.
One thing about the Rams vs. the Bills is the Rams are built for right now but that organization will struggle to maintain this level of success five years from now. I’m not sure that’s true for the Buffalo Bills who are already Super Bowl contenders (+650) and have a young enough team to stay in the mix for years to come.