As the media roots for Josh Allen to win a Super Bowl while telling Lamar Jackson he needs to win a Super Bowl, Bomani Jones took note of the bias.
Josh Allen played great in the Buffalo Bills’ Divisional Round loss to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday night. But he still lost to Mahomes and the Chiefs. Again.
Yet instead of seeing the last two AFC quarterbacks standing dominate the conversation Monday morning on ESPN, Jones couldn’t help but notice the love Allen was receiving.
it’s been the same for six years. unlike any quarterback i’ve ever seen, people WANT IT for josh allen so bad. it’s the damnedest thing. https://t.co/Zb6uKCUCFP
— bomani (@bomani_jones) January 22, 2024
“It’s been the same for six years. unlike any quarterback I’ve ever seen, people WANT IT for Josh Allen so bad. It’s the damnedest thing,” Jones tweeted after noting Rex Ryan claimed “Eventually, he’s gonna land the hook,” of Allen on Get Up.
so i just saw rex ryan say about josh allen: “eventually, he’s gonna land the hook.”
this is where it’s good to be…josh allen. when you’re josh allen, you eventually will. when you’re not, and you haven’t so far, it’s about how you *have* to.
that tricky benefit of the doubt.
— bomani (@bomani_jones) January 22, 2024
“This is where it’s good to be…Josh Allen,” Jones wrote. “When you’re Josh Allen, you eventually will. When you’re not, and you haven’t so far, it’s about how you *have* to.”
While there’s a growing narrative that Lamar Jackson must win to silence his critics, Allen seemingly receives the benefit of the doubt despite getting knocked out of the playoffs by Patrick Mahomes for the third time in four seasons. With an 0-3 record against the Chiefs in the playoffs, the lead talking point surrounding Allen Monday morning should be whether he’s capable of beating Kansas City in January.
“I was watching Get Up before I got in here to record,” Jones said on the latest episode of his podcast The Right Time. “It was driving me crazy because they hold television shows about Josh Allen. It was about Josh Allen.
“I’ve talked about some of this before, I do think the NFL has a little bit of a – I don’t want to call it a crisis, but something’s changing that they never had before which is, the best quarterbacks are Black. Part of the success of this league has been built around the fact that they had all these great athletes and they still had white faces to sell everything.”
“When I’m talking about those four guys in the AFC, it’s three Black dudes and Josh Allen,” Jones continued. “So yeah, I do think some people are gonna give Josh Allen too many points, because me and Domonique [Foxworth] also talk all the time about the times in our lives that we all gave Black dudes too many points.”
The Tom Brady-Peyton Manning rivalry worked so well because both quarterbacks were on the same level. As much as the media might want to portray Allen vs Mahomes as a new-age rivalry, Allen has not held up his end of the bargain.
Jackson vs Mahomes will get its chance to prove they’re the better Brady-Manning comparison this weekend. But if Jackson loses his first AFC Championship game and proceeds to go on an 0-3 run against Mahomes in the playoffs, it’s hard to imagine many good-faith media narratives claiming things like, “eventually, he will win.”
