Josh Allen is "very, very sad and angry" about how the news of Ed Oliver's son's death surfaced. He's right to be sad. His anger needs a better target.
The 2-year-old boy died on June 28 after being found unresponsive in a swimming pool at a residence outside Houston, according to ESPN. The news didn't break until August 22, via ProFootballTalk. That's nearly two months of silence. It wasn't a secret inside the building, though. As PFT reported, "many were aware" before the story went public.
So who actually betrayed Ed Oliver? Not the reporters who eventually published. The information was already circulating. It leaked from within the Bills' orbit, from someone who couldn't hold a private tragedy close. That's the leak Allen should be furious about.
Instead, his public statement frames this as an us-vs-them battle between players and media. That's the convenient story, and it's wrong. The media didn't dig through court records or chase grieving family members. The news was out there. The outlet that broke it simply confirmed what a dozen people already knew and put it into a headline.
Allen's anger is understandable. Any teammate would feel it. But by making this about how the news emerged, he forces the conversation onto process instead of the actual loss. A 2-year-old boy is dead. Ed Oliver is burying his son. The question of who told whom is second to that.
If Allen wants to protect Oliver, he should channel this into keeping the spotlight on Oliver's healing, not into attacking the messenger. The Bills need a support system that handles player crises better than the rumor mill does. That's the lesson. Allen's rage is the symptom, not the solution.