Josh Allen gave a relatively evasive answer regarding how he was able to re-enter last Sunday’s game after slamming his head on the ground.
Allen’s head slammed to the turf during the fourth quarter of the Bills’ Week 5 loss against the Texans, and cameras captured him huffing smelling salts before returning to action.
The Bills quarterback spoke to reporters on Thursday and was asked about how he is doing after the incident.
“I obviously went into the tent. I can only control what I can control,” Allen said. “What we talked about there, they deemed me cleared to play, and that’s what happened. That’s as deep as I’ll get into it.”
After Allen went back into the game on Sunday, a number of people were critical of the NFL, which has sought to minimize the effects of head trauma in the sport.
“We all saw Josh Allen seemingly get knocked out, yet they just threw him a smelling salt and right back into the game,” FS1 host and former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho wrote on X. “As if that was going to undo any head trauma he just suffered.”
Dr. Jesse Morse, who owns the site Injury Expertz, was also aghast that Allen was so quickly allowed back in the game.
“Josh Allen appears to have SUFFERED A CONCUSSION, they gave him SMELLING SALTS then allowed him to return to the game,” he wrote on X.
“This should be a HUGE PENALTY and VERY risky for Josh Allen’s health. He could have suffered another concussion which could have caused second impact syndrome, which can be deadly.”
Allen was not formally diagnosed with a concussion.
The Bills face the Jets on “Monday Night Football” in Week 6.
