Josh Allen's deleted tweets didn't keep the Bills from trading up to draft him

The Bills traded up in the NFL Draft and took Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen with the seventh overall pick on Thursday. That happened hours after a series of deleted tweets from when Allen was in high school containing racist language first surfaced.

Allen apologized for the comments, and said after the draft that several teams called his agent to discuss the deleted tweets after they surfaced hours before the draft on Thursday. One of those people calling was Bills general manager Brandon Beane, who talked about vetting Allen more after the draft.

“We don’t condone anything,” Beane said, per WGR 550’s Sal Capaccio. “We did our due diligence, spoke to him and his coach again ... he’s going to come in here and own it and has to earn the trust of the fans or organization.”

One of Allen’s new teammates, linebacker Tremaine Edwards, who was also drafted by the Bills on Thursday, was also asked about the tweets on Thursday night.

”A lot of guys don’t say the right things at 15 years old,” said Edmunds, who is African-American. “I think he has to walk through the door in Buffalo, into the locker room and just be straight up about it. If he does that, I think it will take care of itself.”

What exactly did the tweets say?

A day earlier, Yahoo Sports scanned Allen’s Twitter account — @JoshAllenQB — and found a handful of tweets from 2012 and 2013, when Allen was a high school student, that contained racist language.

Three included a variation of the N-word, and another quoted Allen: “Why are you so white ? — If it ain’t white, it ain’t right!”

These were the tweets:

Feb. 26, 2012:

“@FelipeeeeMelo_: Bout to show up these Niggas at pong. Gonna do for @j_prodigy_5 @AFlyer5 and @J_Sal_Forever_5.”:)

June 14, 2012:

“@cheriishhh: i dont think you niggas want a troubled son!”

Feb. 12, 2013:

“@Alpha_Patlan: “@J_Prodigy_5: @Alpha_Patlan (uhh) stay schemin…” Niggas Trying To Get At Me. ” doe

June 25, 2013:

Why are you so white ? — If it ain’t white, it ain’t right! http://t.co/wsLQKZQWG5

This tweet referencing Adolf Hitler also doesn’t appear on his account:

How did Allen respond?

Allen has apologized. By early Thursday morning, he had reportedly told ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith he was “young and dumb.” He further apologized during a red-carpet interview on the network before the draft, where he said he’d grown considerably in the last six years.

The tweets are gone now. ESPN’s Adam Schefter also reported Allen wouldn’t fall because of them, and it now seems unlikely that he did.

A theory two people in the past hour now have floated: another team plotted to have Josh Allen’s racially insensitive tweets put out just before the draft in order to increase the chances he would fall in the draft to that team.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 26, 2018

NFL.com reporter Ian Rapoport also suggested the offensive tweets wouldn’t cause Allen’s stock to drop in Thursday’s first round. He also reported Allen’s team had spent its morning contacting teams to clear the air surrounding the situation.

But at least one front office executive of a team with a top-five selection disagreed.

Top 5 draft team front office source to me on QB Josh Allen's tweets: "That's not going to be good. You can't go into a locker room w/ black players & that be cool with all of them. All it takes is one person taking it the wrong way...Different if he was already established."
— Josina Anderson (@JosinaAnderson) April 26, 2018

Allen had been considered a likely high-first-round pick all along. He was projected to go No. 12 overall to the Bills in SB Nation’s last mock draft before the real thing, and the Bills wound up moving up to acquire him. He is from Firebaugh, California, and played three years at Wyoming after one season at a community college.

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