Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has voiced strong criticism of a sports reporter who disclosed the drowning death of teammate Ed Oliver's young son before the family could make their own announcement. The NFL was informed of the tragedy on Saturday morning when Bills General Manager Brandon Beane released a statement describing the "devastating" loss of Oliver's two-year-old son, who drowned in a swimming pool in Houston on June 28.

The news had previously been shared on social media by sports reporter Tony Farmer, who posted to his followers on Friday evening. Allen addressed the situation after the Bills' preseason victory over the Cleveland Browns on Saturday.

"First off, I want to say thank you to the ones that knew about it and allowed him to have his moment and his time," Allen stated. "It's very sad in how it came out. It makes me very sad and angry at the same time. Obviously, very unfortunate what happened and as a teammate of him, as someone in this locker room, all we can do is love on him. There's nothing that you can say to make the situation any better except being there in whatever ways he needs."

Allen emphasized his disappointment with the premature disclosure. "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."

Farmer, host of the podcast 'Last Men Standing,' had reportedly posted that he discovered Oliver's absence from practice was linked to a personal tragedy in June at his Texas property. He indicated an article he wrote about it was quickly removed from X, formerly Twitter.

Following Allen's comments, Farmer faced significant backlash from Bills fans who urged him to remove his post and questioned his integrity. Social media users stated that not all information needs to be news and that the player was suffering and not ready to go public.

TMZ reported that first responders were called to Oliver's home on June 28, where they were informed that the child's parents had discovered him unresponsive in the pool. The child was transported to a hospital by ambulance but was later pronounced dead. The Harris County Sheriff's Department had noted a toddler drowning incident in a community north of Houston without releasing specific details such as names or ages.

According to ESPN, the Bills organization was aware of the incident since it occurred. Oliver has continued to participate in training camp ahead of the upcoming season and played in a preseason game against Carolina the previous weekend. He is reported to have requested privacy and prayers during this difficult period.

Oliver, a defensive tackle, was selected by the Bills as the ninth overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft. He grew up in Houston.

Oliver is not with the team as they traveled to Cleveland for their second-to-last preseason game, reportedly due to a minor injury, according to ESPN and NFL Network.

This incident is not the first time an NFL player has experienced the drowning death of a child. In 2023, the two-year-old daughter of linebacker Shaq Barrett drowned in a swimming pool at the family's home in Tampa.