Bills depart for Monday game vs. Jets
— -- All 53 Buffalo Bills players boarded buses Friday afternoon en route to the airport to fly to Detroit to prepare for their rescheduled game Monday night against the New York Jets.
A team official told ESPN that all of Buffalo's coaches and players were rounded up -- with some pictured on Twitter being picked up by snowmobiles -- for the trip.
A snowfall that brought huge drifts and closed roads in the Buffalo area finally ended Friday, the three-day total reaching an epic 7 feet or more. And that's not all for the forecast. The threat of rain, higher temperatures and feared flooding loom through the weekend.
The Bills are due into Detroit later Friday afternoon and will practice that evening at the Lions' facility.
"This team has bonded more than any team I've seen," one team source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter. "They've really worked together to do this."
The Bills-Jets game, originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Ralph Wilson Stadium, will be played Monday (7 p.m. ET) at Ford Field. The game will be shown on CBS in the Buffalo and New York markets and also will be available to NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers. Bills season-ticket holders will have their accounts credited or can request a refund, while other ticket holders will receive refunds.
"We are pleased to be hosting the Bills and Jets for their game Monday night," Lions president Tom Lewand said. "While our thoughts are with the people of the Buffalo area during this difficult time, our team at Ford Field will do everything we can to be good hosts to their team this weekend."
The Saints and Ravens are the "Monday Night Football" national game from New Orleans on ESPN (8:30 p.m. ET).
Detroit was one of three possible alternate locations, along with Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., sources said. The Lions play at New England on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Bills defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz will return to the Lions' facilities for just the second time since he was fired as Detroit's head coach Dec. 30, 2013. It will be Schwartz's first trip back to Detroit since the Bills' last-second 17-14 victory over the Lions on Oct. 5, when he was carried off the field by two of his linebackers, one of whom said the players were asked to do this during the team's organized activities in the spring.
The NFL has started to think about where the Bills could practice for and play their Nov. 30 game against the Cleveland Browns if Ralph Wilson Stadium is ruled out.
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