As tragic as the news of Buffalo Bills DT Ed Oliver losing his two-year-old son in June was to hear this week, Oliver and the Bills pretty clearly did not want the story to go public during his grieving process. So when one reporter found the story and published it against the team’s wishes, it got some members of the team – including MVP QB Josh Allen – pretty upset.
Speaking to the media after today’s preseason win over the Cleveland Browns, Allen admitted that he was “very sad and angry at the same time” over how the news was made public. He offered thanks to those that knew the story and chose not to report on it against the team’s wishes and further admonished the person who first made the story public.
“It’s very sad in how it came out. It makes me very sad and angry at the same time,” Allen said. “It’s very unfortunate how it came about. I appreciate (those) that knew and didn’t want to bring it up. It’s no one’s place to really let that out there except him and his family’s when the time came for it, but we roll now and be there for him as teammates.”
Ethics of Newsbreaking
The response to the post has certainly triggered a larger debate on X over what’s ethical to report on and when to do so. But the wider response is that the standard is simply different when it comes to children.
“A very personal, tragic matter is nobody’s business if the people involved don’t want it to be. Ed Oliver and his family had every right to keep the matter private and it’s crap that people couldn’t respect that,” one user wrote on X.
Brett Davis-Imagn Images.
“I love that they tried to protect him and keep it private for as long as they could. I don’t know what else to say. All of this is just so awful,” wrote another.
“Let it be a lesson to all the pod cast bros and (expletive): When it comes to kids, until the family says it’s ok, you do not publish the story. Thank you,” a third wrote.
“Yes today is a good day to say who deserves privacy. If a player and his family ask for privacy and not for someone to report the tragic death of a 2 year old. Give them privacy and don’t report it, you absolute (expletives).”
Lesson learned (hopefully).
