Many were aware that Bills defensive tackle Ed Oliver’s young son died earlier ithis summer. The vast majority of those who knew decided to wait for the Bills or Oliver to announce the development when they were ready to do so.
The news came out on Friday before the Bills or Oliver announced it. Bills quarterback Josh Allen isn’t happy about that.
“How it came out makes me very, very sad and angry at the same time,” Allen told a group of reporters on Saturday after the preseason game at Cleveland, via Matt Parrino of NewYorkUpstate.com. “Obviously, very unfortunate what happened, and as a teammate of him, and as someone in this locker room, all we can do is love on him.”
Allen said that many of the team’s players knew what had happened.
“What we’ve been doing is giving him his space and time, but at the same time being around him, loving up on him,” Allen said. “But not trying to do anything to to reopen that. . . . Just guys being around him and putting their hand on him and not having to say too much, but ‘I got your back.’”
Although someone decided it was newsworthy to share the story before the Bills or Oliver could do so, most decided that the nature of the tragedy called for discretion.
“It’s very hard to wrap your mind around a teammate going through a situation like that,” Allen said. “Because you have kids, you understand what that could be like and what that could feel like. You never want to put yourself in that situation or those shoes. He’s a strong man.”
Every reporter and/or content creator has to make a decision for themselves as to how they’ll handle situations like this. For most, the right move is to wait. For some, a different decision is made.
And when that decision is made, it opens the person up to scrutiny and criticism by those who believe that the right thing to do was to say nothing until those directly impacted by an unimaginable loss choose to acknowledge it.
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