'I truly believe I’m stepping into the best version of myself'
Josh Allen is 30 years old and Josh Allen has a lot to say. Subscribers can access our 1 on 1 with the Buffalo Bills quarterback inside.
I’ll never forget exactly where I was when a co-worker at Bleacher Report texted me a warning: everyone was about to get whacked. My truck had just pulled into the Spot Coffee parking lot in Hamburg, NY — a go-to office away from the office. The 2020 NFL season was closing in, fast, and I was eager to chip away at one story in-particular.
That quarterback revolutionizing the quarterback position in Kansas City? Patrick Mahomes? Yeah, the owner of the Buffalo Bills loved him. Terry Pegula was all, all, all in on the Texas Tech quarterback early as October ‘16. Back when Mel Kiper Jr. viewed him as a third-round pick.
Fresh off a funky Year 2 for the Bills’ current quarterback — the 2019 wild card put all talent, all warts on full display — I planned on doing a deep dive on Josh Allen.
Given the Mahomes context, nobody faced more pressure in the league than Allen.
B/R decided it didn’t care anymore about writing and, honestly, the feeling was relief.
The more I learned about Substack and the idea of independent media, the more creating Go Long was a no-brainer. I could not wait to create a forever home for real, raw pro football storytelling. B/R, of course, wasn’t alone. All oligarchs in sports media were ditching longform for lists and BS in the name of clicks and ad revenue. So rather than rely on the vision of someone who doesn’t care that much about journalism, I figured I’d create something for people that do want to invest 20 to 25 minutes of their time reading about the NFL.
Maybe people would respond. Maybe they wouldn’t. I wasn’t sure.
The first thing I did was ramp up the reporting on that Allen story.
In November ‘20, we launched our site with this 2-parter:
Allen delivered.
Allen detonated.
Allen hasn’t looked back.
Your reaction to this mini series helped sharpen our vision. It was clear right out of the chute that there are droves of fans who want to see what’s cookin’ behind the scenes around the entire league. And since I live here in Western New York, we’ve done our best to track everything Bills (and Allen). From 13 Seconds to Allen’s rise to 9/11 speeches to that HC-QB relationship to smashing the title window, sitting right in Sean McDermott’s office, more playoff heartache, several player profiles (like these on Damar Hamlin, Dalton Kincaid and Jordan Poyer) and, then, everything we’ve seen this wild offseason.
This past week, Go Long came full circle in the form of a 1-on-1 sitdown with Josh Allen.
To everyone who subscribes, thank you for making us part of your life. Feel free to email me at golongtd@substack.com if you have any questions or would just like to say hello.
To those on our free mailing list, it’s a swell time to upgrade to read this piece in full.
My promise is to always put your investment to good use. I’ve been traveling the country for more profiles and deep dives this offseason that’ll roll out over the coming weeks and months.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Here are a few quotes from Josh Allen below. Much more insight in the story linked above.
“Every year you go through something. Scottie Scheffler talks about it all the time — the absurdism of ‘Why do I want to win this so badly? What’s the point of going out there and winning?’ Because at the end of the day you win and it’s on to the next. You’re just trying to win again. Those emotions that go on, it’s like, ‘Damn it. Every year that’s gone by, we haven’t gotten it done.’ The fire inside of me continues to push and want to get over that hump. No matter how crazy it seems. I want to accomplish something. I’ve set my mind to it and I want to accomplish it and I’m going to keep trying until I do.”
“This city winning a Super Bowl is the last greatest sports story in all of the world. I really do believe that. I want to be the guy that does it.”
“I’m going to play football how I know how to play it until I can’t. And when I can’t play it the way I want to play it, it’s probably when I’m done. But hopefully that’s still quite some time.”
“I’m a firm believer in no Plan B because it distracts from Plan A. That was my whole thing. I was like, ‘I’m going to figure it out.’ And I’ve always told myself in the NFL that there are two types of players: guys that figure it out and guys that get figured out. So I’ve always wanted to be in the first one there. Figuring it out.”
“I truly believe I’m stepping into the best version of myself.”