The Bills were the only team to speak to Josh Allen directly before the draft to ask him about his offensive tweets from high school. It was probably a good sign Buffalo would be the team to draft the Wyoming quarterback, though other teams called his agent.
“We had a talk on the phone,” Allen said of the Bills. “They just basically wanted explanations for everything, and I gave them to them. I owned up to my mistakes, told them exactly what happened. They trusted me. They trusted my judgment. I think they did their due diligence in talking to my coaches, talking to teammates. There’s never been a problem with me and my teammates. I love those guys, and I guarantee you they would say some really good things about me.”
Someone leaked the tweets, which included use of the “N” word, to Yahoo. Allen was asked if he knew who or why the tweets were made public.
“I think somebody knew what they were doing,” Allen said. “There were some tweets that were already deleted probably a few months, if a year ago. Somebody knew what they were doing. It’s out there. It’s my fault. I can’t blame anybody else for my own mistakes. Success is the best revenge, . . . and the plan is to win football games and earn my teammates’ respect and my coaches’ respect.”
The question was the last of the night for Allen, with no chance of a follow to ask why somebody wanted to make him look bad.
He earlier said he will address the issue with his new teammates, making sure his black teammates understand “there was no malintent” on his part. Allen said he does not expect an extra layer of scrutiny.
“It happened so long ago. I am who I am today,” he said. “I wasn’t that guy six years ago when I was 15 years old. Obviously, I’ve had to man up, and I have to take it on the chin. What happened was not acceptable, and it’s never going to happen again. I’ve learned. It just reiterates the lessons I’ve learned the past few years being in such a diverse culture in my locker room at Wyoming and at my junior college. I’ve met some special dudes in my life, and none of that is ever going to change.”
