In the Bills’ 31-10 derailing of the Rams, wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie used his touchdown celebration to announce that his younger sister, Yliani Rivero, is expecting a boy.

Rivero told McKenzie – and only McKenzie – about three months ago. McKenzie made a promise right then: He would help share the news, and he would do so in primetime after scoring a touchdown.

Immediately, Rivero had the same question that would eventually follow the viral video: What if McKenzie had not scored? But the Bills’ longest-tenured wide receiver never entertained that idea. Instead, as McKenzie prepared for an expanded role in the slot, he let his nephew motivate him.

“I obviously went in camp and then had a chance to compete for the slot role. So, in my mind, I was like, ‘OK, well, if I can get the slot role, then I can score touchdowns.’ Because if I’m the starting slot, that means Josh has to throw the ball. He has to throw the ball to me sometimes,” McKenzie told the Buffalo News. “During camp, sometimes I thought about: ‘Okay, well, I gotta do this because I want to do this.’

“So it was kind of positive talk in a way, like: ‘OK, I gotta win the starting role, because I have a job to do on Thursday night for my sister.”

When McKenzie talks about the moment, even three days later, the excitement pours out of him. But even with months to prepare, when the game rolled around, he almost missed his moment.

“I kind of forgot about it during the game,” McKenzie said. “Because I was supposed to write it on my shirt underneath my jersey, but I didn’t write on my shirt. I kind of forgot. … I had remembered when the cameras in my face.”

The camera crew caught McKenzie right after the seven-yard touchdown. Just a few seconds earlier, on first-and-7 on the Bills’ opening drive of the second half, McKenzie ran an option route.

“The DB was playing outside leverage, and there was a safety over the top, and they were kind of doubling me, like they wanted me to go inside,” McKenzie said. “… I broke in, caught the ball, and rolled into the end zone.”

The camera showed his initial celebration with his teammates. Luckily, they circled back around. It was not on account of coordinating with McKenzie.

“No, no, no,” McKenzie said. “Nobody knew.”

He didn’t mention it to quarterback Josh Allen, either. There was no lobbying for plays, even with the news at stake.

“I didn’t want to put pressure on anything,” McKenzie said.

He took out his mouthpiece and yelled “It’s a boy!” to the cameras. Some of his teammates were confused at the deviation from dancing.

“I was like, ‘Don’t worry about it! You’ll find out tomorrow,’ ” McKenzie said.

He did clarify to a few teammates that he does not have a baby on the way. McKenzie felt they didn’t fully realize what happened until they saw the video the next day.

“Obviously, nobody believes Isaiah McKenzie till it happens, you know?” he said.

McKenzie didn’t get to hear about the full reaction to the reveal until well after the game. Eventually, he would see the videos of them all watching him on screen.

“I was like, ‘What if they weren’t watching the game?’” he said. “I would have looked like a complete idiot. … That would have been bad if I did that, and they weren’t even watching it. It would have been sickening.”

The family and friends at the restaurant did know there was going to be a gender reveal, but they didn’t know what exactly it would entail. They quickly all got wrapped into the game, Rivero included.

“She totally forgot that I was supposed to do it, because she was so happy that I scored a touchdown,” McKenzie said.

When probed about his backup plans, McKenzie exudes confidence again and again. He was going to score because he had to. He had a promise to his sister. Eventually, he allows that there were two other options: saying it during another teammate’s touchdown, or, more likely, doing it at the upcoming game, Monday night against the Titans. Ultimately, there was no need

“Everybody’s just been excited,” McKenzie said. “Everybody says it was one of the best gender reveals they ever saw, and a lot of people say they don’t even like gender reveals, but that was pretty cool. And I was like, ‘OK, well, I guess I did a good job.’ … It’s been a success story.”

His next task? McKenzie is planning the baby shower. The baby is due in January, and he’s planning it for the bye week where he’ll have some extra time to spend with his family. But until then, he gets a little more time to revel in announcing a boy as the Bills announced their presence.

“It was pretty fun. The whole game, we go against the Super Bowl champs, and we go do what we did to them, and then I get to do a gender reveal,” McKenzie said. “It was a magical night. A great night.”