Up next in 10
One quote from Josh Allen jumped off the page:
"We're gonna win the Super Bowl. There's no other option."
This is how Tyler Dunne explains Josh Allen's attitude. On this episode of Bill Matic, D.A. and Tyler Dunne of Go Long dive into what makes Allen tick.
Why is he so relentlessly optimistic after years of playoff heartbreak?
Why does he still believe the Buffalo Bills will finally break through?
Dunne shares insight from his exclusive conversations with Allen and explains the quarterback's unique psychology:
A one-track mind.
An obsession with the ultimate goal.
And now, a growing family that has given him even more purpose.
As Dunne puts it, Josh has a "why."
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0:00
something that is so interesting about
0:02
the Buffalo Bills, okay, which is why I
0:04
have decided to go all in on chronicling
0:07
this
0:08
because
0:09
unlike the Chicago Cubs in 2015 or 2014,
0:13
unlike the Cleveland Cavaliers before
0:16
LeBron came back, unlike the Boston Red
0:19
Sox in '02 or '03, there is this like
0:22
relentless optimism. No, it's going to
0:24
happen. It's going I mean, Josh feels it
0:26
and the rest of these guys feel it.
0:27
They're talking about it openly. How
0:29
much of that is just this belief like,
0:31
"Hey, we got maybe the best player in
0:32
football, so it and it's the most
0:34
important position, so it's going to
0:35
happen." And or B, this real earnest
0:38
authentic love affair with a city that
0:42
loves them so much that they just feel
0:44
it is their duty to do it.
0:46
>> Josh Allen would say, "Hey,
0:48
the new stadium is across Abbott Road
0:50
now, so maybe it isn't on Indian burial
0:53
ground." I don't know. I mean, that's
0:54
many, many years ago. To me, I feel like
0:56
there still might be some over there,
0:58
but he's hopeful. [laughter]
1:00
>> There was a Seneca Nation observer on
1:02
site building the new stadium, so maybe
1:05
it's not maybe the team's not cursed
1:06
anymore.
1:07
Trying to get to the bottom of that one.
1:09
You're right though, and there is this
1:11
relentless optimism.
1:14
And you could hear it in Josh Allen's
1:16
voice, and you could see it in what he
1:18
said all in that story where
1:20
I mean, this is Think about these
1:21
playoff losses. We mentioned 13 seconds.
1:23
You got a couple AFC Championship losses
1:25
in there. You got the Bengals at home in
1:28
the snow. That that's a dream for Bills
1:30
fans. You lose that one. And they've
1:32
lost in just gut-wrenching fashion. I
1:34
mean, in addition to the defense just
1:36
getting run over, offensively, Stefon
1:38
Diggs drops a 60-70-yard bomb against
1:41
the Chiefs, and Trent Sherfield has
1:43
dropped that game, and Dalton Kincaid
1:45
fourth and five the next year in the AFC
1:47
Championship game where Allen makes this
1:49
incredible escape on a Spags blitz, and
1:52
he's running all over the place, chucks
1:53
a That gets dropped, and now you've got
1:55
the controversial Brandon Cooks play. It
1:58
it could take a mental toll, but I feel
2:01
like they this is a genuinely
2:03
rejuvenated team because they had a
2:06
genuinely rejuvenated quarterback and
2:08
Josh Allen. We we we we covered the new
2:11
coach, the new stadium. It really does
2:13
start at home though. Look, we're both
2:15
fathers. You know what it's like those
2:17
first few months when you become a dad,
2:19
your life completely changes and and
2:21
Josh Allen and his wife
2:23
Haley Steinfeld they haven't just
2:24
outsourced all the parenting to other
2:26
people. I mean he is up from 2 to 3 a.m.
2:28
in the middle of the night trying to put
2:30
his baby girl back to sleep. He is
2:32
changing every single diaper, calls
2:33
himself the diaper king. And I think
2:36
this is awesome. I this this tells me
2:38
everything I need to know about Josh
2:39
Allen.
2:40
Cocomelon is banned forever in their
2:43
home.
2:43
>> Hey, now that's a strong parenting move.
2:46
Well done.
2:47
>> Very strong. I knew I liked this guy.
2:49
>> [laughter]
2:50
>> Just absolute crack that show and baby
2:52
shark. So he said no, absolutely not.
2:55
Our baby girl will never ever be exposed
2:59
to this filth and I think that's great.
3:01
You know, [laughter] I think early on
3:02
with LR first it was like oh, she really
3:04
likes this show. It's great. Then
3:06
a few weeks pass and it's like
3:07
absolutely not. It's banned forever in
3:09
our [laughter] house as I hope it is
3:11
yours as well.
3:12
>> Absolutely. And that's a little heavy
3:13
but I mean he's
3:15
my my kids didn't even get a chance to
3:16
like it or not like it. It was never
3:18
allowed in the house.
3:19
>> You've got sports on of course, right?
3:21
Like that's
3:22
>> Yeah. [laughter] I had a geo fencing
3:24
around it. You It was like get trying to
3:26
get a ticket from Ticketmaster for an
3:27
opposing team. You're not allowed to get
3:29
it inside this house.
3:30
>> I love it. I love it. And and look, it's
3:32
it's
3:32
he says I have a new why. He he repeated
3:35
that over and over and over again. His
3:37
his why has changed. He feels kind of
3:40
reborn in a way to have life that he
3:43
created with his his wife and a new life
3:46
and the new stadium, the new coach, hell
3:48
a new wide receiver in DJ Moore.
3:50
I I think everything kind of happened at
3:52
the right time here for this team and
3:55
this entire team is deriving their
3:57
energy from the quarterback.
3:59
He's in a good place, so I really do get
4:01
the sense the entire Bills team is in a
4:03
good place, but maybe you should ask me
4:05
that in January.
4:06
>> [laughter]
4:08
>> I got throwing the little caveat, right?
4:10
Everything's roses and puppies and
4:12
rainbows, I get it. We can talk about
4:14
like any team right now. Uh Las Vegas
4:17
Raiders, Miami Dolphins and find reasons
4:19
for optimism.
4:20
Uh but you you can definitely sense it
4:22
and it was good to sit down with Josh
4:24
Allen and kind of hear how he has
4:25
processed these losses cuz I mean this
4:28
answers your question, too. He's taking
4:29
it back to when he was 18 years old. You
4:31
wonder how can somebody possibly lift
4:33
themselves off the canvas again and
4:35
again and again? I mean, he's sending a
4:37
thousand emails out. He ain't hearing
4:38
back from any coaches. He went to every
4:41
registry he could. And this is when he
4:43
had that great season at Reedley College
4:45
in Juco. I mean, his favorite team
4:47
growing up were the the Fresno State
4:49
Bulldogs. They didn't even want him as a
4:50
walk-on. Nobody's getting back to him. I
4:53
mean, think about asking a thousand
4:55
girls out and they all say no. And then
4:57
you ask again and again and again and
5:00
finally, Wyoming shows a little interest
5:03
in you and then his life changes. I
5:06
think it is very similar to where Josh
5:08
Allen is right now with the Bills where
5:10
they've had all these playoff losses.
5:11
How do you keep getting back? You just
5:13
do it cuz it's who you are. He said, "I
5:14
didn't have a plan B back at 18 years
5:16
old. It was I'm making football work or
5:18
I I don't know. I don't What he didn't
5:20
even let his mind go there. So, that's
5:21
that's where he is right now. We're
5:22
going to win the Super Bowl.
5:24
There's no other option as far as he's
5:26
concerned.
5:26
>> The one thing I want to end on is his
5:29
quote that really reminded me of Dan
5:31
Marino. I was on Super Bowl Radio Row
5:33
one year interviewing Dan. Dan is a hero
5:36
of mine. I got a poster behind me about
5:38
classic Dan Marino. One of my favorite
5:40
players of all time and he does not like
5:43
being called the greatest player never
5:45
to win a Super Bowl. It really bothers
5:48
him. He does not look at that as a as a
5:51
an accolade. And you ask Josh about
5:53
this, and he said, "That's not a
5:54
compliment. I do not want to be that. I
5:56
do not want to be that." And that's, you
5:58
know, I think the fear that he would be
6:00
Dan Marino 2.0 with all these wonderful
6:02
highlights and records and
6:03
opportunities, but never actually crack
6:05
through. That tells you a lot about this
6:07
kind of single-mindedness of breaking
6:09
through even at 30 years old that you're
6:10
kind of scraping into it this piece.
6:12
>> 100%
6:14
He does not want to go down as the
6:16
greatest player who never won a
6:18
championship, never got a ring. And I'm
6:21
trying to remember the question I asked
6:22
that got that, because I feel like he
6:24
almost brought it up himself. Like he he
6:27
he made a point to say, "We're not going
6:29
down that road. I'm not going down that
6:30
road. It ain't going to happen. We've
6:32
got to win a ring. We've got to win a
6:33
championship. To me, that's not that
6:35
great of an of an accomplishment to go
6:37
down as the greatest who who didn't do
6:40
it. And he wants to win a Super Bowl for
6:42
the right reasons. I mean, this is a
6:43
quarterback who sincerely loves his
6:46
teammates. His door is always open.
6:49
Everybody's always welcome. I think even
6:50
now with a baby, it's probably the case.
6:52
Got guys are at his house all the time.
6:54
It doesn't matter if you're a practice
6:55
squad long snapper or the receiver he'll
6:58
throw to 12 times a game. He He I mean,
7:01
this goes back to his junior college
7:04
days. There was a lineman on the team
7:06
who got kicked out of his dorm, needed a
7:08
place to live for a couple nights. Josh
7:11
took him in. Couple nights turned into
7:13
over a month. I mean, it's just really
7:15
who he is to his core. I think he He
7:17
plays the position
7:19
in a way we all would love to play
7:20
quarterback if we had the opportunity.
7:22
Like I in your backyard, running around,
7:25
leaping over people, chucking it deep.
7:27
He wears his emotions on his sleeve,
7:29
very similar to Brett Favre for for for
7:31
many reasons. In the '90s, teammates
7:33
loved Brett Favre, and and teammates
7:35
loved Josh Allen, because they also see,
7:36
"Look, he played the last month of this
7:38
past season with a broken fifth
7:40
metatarsal in his foot." He couldn't
7:42
walk during the week. He could barely
7:44
walk. He broke his hand in the past.
7:46
He's had all sorts of injuries and
7:48
nobody at the quarterback position has
7:50
started more games in a row than Josh
7:52
Allen right now, the longest current
7:53
streak. Still ways to go from Farve, but
7:56
he that ingratiates himself to
7:58
teammates. So, I really think that drive
8:00
to want to win it all, it's for the
8:02
city, for the people, the same fans who
8:04
were booing the hell out of them when
8:06
the Bills drafted him cuz they wanted
8:07
Josh Rosen. It's for the It's for the
8:09
city and it's for those teammates. And
8:12
now, more than anybody, it's for his
8:14
daughter.
8:15
And that's a good point, too. You know,
8:16
he's Now that I think about it, DA, he
8:18
said, "I want my daughter and my kids to
8:21
be able to see me play." He wants to
8:23
serve it in a as an example for them.
8:25
So, he's got a million whys out there
8:28
for sure.
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