The Bills were nothing but supportive after news broke Saturday morning of defensive lineman Ed Oliver’s 2-year-old son’s tragic passing.
While speaking with reporters on Saturday, head coach Joe Brady said he couldn’t find words to describe what Oliver has been dealing with after his son reportedly drowned in a swimming pool on June 28.
“Ever since I found out the news, I can’t fathom what he’s going through,” Brady said. “There’s really not words to describe in those moments. As a coach, as a father, it’s my job to be there for what he needs from me right now. And that’s loving him and giving him the privacy he deserves.
“What ever it looks like, no matter how someone might want to handle it, it’s whatever how he wants us to handle it.”
Brady, who is entering his first season as head coach of the Bills after being on the staff for four years, shared how resilient Oliver has been in the weeks since, noting how he’s been regularly participating in practices and is only now sidelined because of an injury.
drowned at his home. dymondrakell/tiktok
“I can’t imagine it,” he added. “I don’t have the words, but all I can do is just be there for him in whatever way that he needs.”
He also said that it was “unfortunate” how the news of Oliver’s son’s death came out, and thanked writers who might have known at the time but chose not to report on it.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen echoed Brady’s thoughts of the news getting out, saying that many in Buffalo’s locker room already knew, and that it makes him “very, very sad and angry” that Oliver could not announce it on his own terms.
He, like Brady, praised how Oliver was still with the team at training camp just days following his son’s death.
“I couldn’t imagine the strength that it takes to do that,” Allen said. “And for him to be that strong for him himself and his family. I can’t speak enough about it. It’s hard. Like I said, it’s just it’s very hard to wrap your mind around a teammate going through a situation like that, because as you have kids, you understand what what that could be like and what that could feel like.
“And you never want to put yourself in that situation or those shoes, and he’s a strong man.”
According to multiple reports, Oliver and his wife found their son unresponsive in their pool, and the toddler was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead later that evening.
Video also showed Oliver breaking down into tears after speaking with local officials outside of his home.
According to ESPN and NFL Network insider Cameron Wolfe, a source close to Oliver said he is asking for “privacy and prayers at this very difficult time.”
