The hidden side of politics

Release of H.S. tweets put QB Allen ‘in a panic’

Reported by ESPN:

Potential No. 1 pick Josh Allen took responsibility for inappropriate tweets that he sent while he was in high school after they were made public Wednesday night, noting that their release put him “in a panic.”

“If I could go back in time, I would never have done this in a heartbeat,” Allen told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen on Thursday. “At the time, I obviously didn’t know how harmful it was and now has become.

“I hope you know and others know I’m not the type of person I was at 14 and 15 that I tweeted so recklessly. … I don’t want that to be the impression of who I am, because that is not me. I apologize for what I did.”

The tweets, sent in 2012 and 2013, no longer appear on his account. However, they contained racial slurs and other offensive language, according to Yahoo! Sports.

The former Wyoming quarterback acknowledged the tweets to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith late Wednesday night and apologized, saying he was young and dumb.

Allen told Smith that some of the tweets made reference to rap lyrics and television, including a saying that was part of an episode from the sitcom “Modern Family.”

On ESPN’s First Take on Thursday, NFL Insider Adam Schefter reported that his sources indicated Allen’s Twitter account was vetted in January and that the offensive tweets were removed then.

Allen told Mortensen he thought he had gone through his Twitter account a year ago.

“I had even typed in keywords to see if anything I had tweeted popped up that I needed to clean up, but nothing like these came up or I just missed them,” Allen said. “My agency went over any past social media, and these didn’t come up after I did the search.”

He said some of the messages may have been sent by friends, as they occasionally took each other’s phones to send tweets.

Allen noted that the attention the tweets have garnered have marred the run-up to the first round of the NFL draft Thursday night.

“It sucks,” Allen told Mortensen. “My family is hurting. We never envisioned a day or night like this.”

Ranked as the top quarterback in the draft, according to ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr., Allen is projected by many to be selected by the Cleveland Browns with the first overall pick.

A team with a top-five draft pick told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that it knew nothing about the tweets and that it had “never heard anything but positives” about Allen.

Allen told Mortensen that no NFL teams have reached out about the tweets. He also said that he hopes his future NFL teammates will understand what happened and how he has changed.

“That’s my plan — to show the type of person I am now,” Allen said. “Whatever team picks me, they are going to get that from me. I will set the record straight for any team, any teammate, the media, and I think once they meet me and they’re around me, see how I act and how I think, that it’s not going to be a problem at all.”

Source:ESPN

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