Sean McDermott’s tenure at the Buffalo Bills might have ended prematurely with them never quite going over the line. But ask a Bills fan from 2017, and they’d be thrilled to have the successes McDermott managed to bring to Orchard Park. The mantras he put forth are something that became part of the Buffalo Bills defensive identity after he arrived. One such mantra is what Micah Hyde follows. But for him, the message has become more than just a motivational slogan, it has become a game-day superstition.
During a recent appearance on Buffalo Plus, the former Bills safety mentioned that he wore shark-themed underwear before every game as part of his routine.
“I would say I was a little superstitious,” Micah Hyde revealed on the show via co-host Dan Fetes’ X post. “You know Sean [McDermott], who since he got there in ’17 was more like, ‘Hey, sharks get to the football.’ So every game, I would wear my shark underwear. Even on top of that, before the game, when I’m wearing my shark underwear, I would have to tell Tre’Davious [White] that I’m wearing my shark underwear.”
He didn’t stop there, he mentioned that he went as far as showing his “sharkies” to White before they could go ahead with the day!
Nevertheless, this shark mindset started during Sean McDermott’s first offseason in 2017, when the Bills rebuilt their entire secondary. Buffalo signed Micah Hyde, who had previously played for 4 seasons with the Green Bay Packers, and Jordan Poyer in March 2017 before drafting Tre’Davious White in the first round as the 27th overall pick. That newly formed core quickly ended Buffalo’s 17-year playoff drought.
Micah Hyde snagged a career-high 5 INTs in his first year in Orchard Park, logging 82 combined tackles to get his first Pro Bowl selection and also making it to 2nd Team All-Pro. So no wonder the former Bills safety must have thought a part of his fortune was coming from the Shark underwear beneath his gear!
It wasn’t just him who got all the praise and accolades on Sean McDermott’s defense. Rookie Tre’Davious White ranked 2nd on the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year list, as the two of them paired up with cornerback Leonard Johnson, E.J. Gaines, and safety Jordan Poyer to make a strong secondary unit. According to BuffaloBills.com, this 5-man unit allowed the 2nd-fewest 25-plus yard completions (17), snagged 16 INTs, and held passers to a meagre 77.0 rating, all while facing the league’s 5th-most pass attempts (501).
“With Jordan, we came in together, and we said, ‘This is our opportunity; let’s just go out and do it. We’ve both been to other places before and I don’t want to say we were overlooked, but we didn’t get the same opportunities we got here in Buffalo. We were able to come together as one between me and Jordan. Then from there, we got the other guys on board, and they’ve been playing lights out,” Micah Hyde recalled of the secondary unit in 2017.
The next year, the Bills defense stepped it up a notch, with their defense ranked first in fewest opponent TDs allowed (22) in the 2018 NFL season. Whether it was Micah Hyde’s shark underwear or Sean McDermott’s defensive schemes and personality, the Buffalo Bills defense had become solid enough to make 8 playoff appearances across McDermott’s 9 seasons in Buffalo (2017–2025).