Behind NFL Player's $900 Uber Ride From Chicago To New York
By Stephen Gossett in News on Jun 9, 2017 3:20PM
New Era Field in Buffalo, NY, which is not Buffalo Wild Wings / Facebook / Buffalo Bills
By now perhaps you've heard the incredible, strange, but true story of the NFL player who took a $900 Uber ride from Chicago to Buffalo, NY. Well, the story is even more incredible than we first realized. Turns out, when the driver first agreed to take Buffalo Bills cornerback Shareece Wright on the long, multi-state journey—and then drive back—he thought he was agreeing to a routine trip to Buffalo Wild Wings, according to the Washington Post. Which in fairness is an infinitely more reasonable assumption to make.
The story emerged when Wright on Tuesday tweeted the evidence of his extended rideshare journey: an epic, eight-hour schlep that cost $632.08, which Wright was generous enough to supplement with a $300 tip.
— Shareece Wright (@ShareeceWright) June 6, 2017
As it happens, Wright was desperate to make it back to the team's OTA workouts, but there were no available flights when he got stranded at O'Hare International Airport. ("OTA," for those with properly aligned priorities that don't include tracking offseason pro football minutiae, stands for "organized team activity.") That's when Wright did the very 2017 thing and decided an Uber would be a reasonable second option.
But when his driver, 26-year-old Hadi Abdollahian, first agreed, he didn't quite know what he was getting himself into. “He told me Buffalo and I thought he meant Buffalo [Wild Wings] grill,” Abdollahian told the Washington Post. "So I said, 'Yeah, for sure.'"
Minor details.
But, it all ended happily. The two bonded well during their journey, with Abdollahian opening up to the pro athlete about leaving violence in his native Turkey as a refugee to the States, according to the Post. Wright made it back to Buffalo—and got in good with the coaches from his act of supreme dedication.