When you’re the face of a franchise in the NFL, and one of the league’s rising stars to boot, you can expect plenty of time in front of a microphone. As would be expected, Josh Allen spoke with media during a press conference following’s Tuesday’s session of OTAs for the Buffalo Bills. What wasn’t expected, per Jay Skurski of The Buffalo News, was how the appearance ended.
According to a tweet from Skurski, Josh Allen’s press conference was “rather abruptly cut short by Pegula Sports and Entertainment director of communications Don Heins.”
Heins is filling in with the Bills because a member of their communications department was recently hired for a promotion with the Los Angeles Rams. That’s not the story here.
Skurski was unable to elaborate on why this quick end to the presser might have occurred, and when directly asked responded: “Not sure. That’s why I pointed it out. It was odd.” You can watch the video yourself and see if you can figure out the Buffalo Bills edition of Unsolved Mysteries.
We’re live with QB Josh Allen after an OTA practice at One Bills Drive!#GoBills | #BillsMafia https://t.co/R74T1nGEK7
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) May 25, 2021
Clearly based on the conversation, many Bills reporters still had their hands virtually raised in the virtual press room.
There is one possible clue thanks to ESPN reporter Marcel Louis-Jacques. When responding to an unrelated question, Louis-Jacques tweeted “we’re not allowed to report on strategy, lineups or rep counts.”
The final question recorded on video asked about specific things Allen was working on this season. The Bills’ quarterback gave a very detailed response including aspects like route types they were working on. It’s possible a similar question “derailed” the conversation too far toward strategy for the team’s liking.
Many people on social media speculated that the rationale was to avoid COVID-19 and vaccination discussion. However, the media session included numerous questions and answers from Allen on those topics already. Could there have been one question too many?
Tremaine Edmunds followed and his entire Q&A lasted less than ten minutes, about half of Allen’s availability. Maybe it was just time management for QB1.