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Buffalo Bills head coach Joe Brady offered public support for player Ed Oliver after the defensive tackle’s 2-year-old son, also named Ed, died after reportedly drowning in the family’s pool.
“I’m a parent and, ever since I found out the news [about the toddler’s death], I can’t fathom what he’s going through,” Brady, 36, told reporters during a press conference on Saturday, August 22. “There’s really not words to describe [the situation] in those moments. As a coach, as a father, it’s my job to be what he needs from me, right now.”
Brady — who shares two children with his wife, Lauren — stressed that he wanted to give Oliver, 28, “the privacy he deserves” as he continues to mourn the loss of his son.
“Whatever [mourning] looks like, however someone might want to handle it, it’s however he wants us to handle it,” Brody noted. “Look, he’s not here right now [at Saturday’s preseason game] because of an injury and dealing with that. This [tragedy] isn’t the reason he’s not here.”
He went on to say, “It’s hard. It’s hard whenever I see him. I can’t imagine it and I haven’t had the words since. I don’t really have the words 1787471833 but all I can do is just be there for him in whatever way he needs.”
Bills general manager, Brandon Beane, announced that Oliver’s son had recently died earlier on Saturday, sharing public “condolences” on behalf of the NFL franchise.
“On behalf of the entire Buffalo Bills organization, we want to publicly express our condolences to Ed Oliver and his family on the devastating loss of his son,” Beane, 50, said in a statement. “It’s an unthinkable tragedy for any parent.”
The Bills GM added, “We will continue to support Ed and his family as we all grieve this loss.”
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office later confirmed that officers responded to “an in-progress life-in-danger call” at Oliver’s Texas home on June 28. Once first responders arrived on the scene, they were told that the 2-year-old child was found “unresponsive in the pool” by his parents. (ESPN and TMZ were first to report the news.)
The toddler was transferred to a local Houston, Texas, hospital where he was subsequently pronounced dead at 7:18 pm, per officials. Oliver was not directly named in the Harris County Sheriff’s Office’s statement.
Us has reached out to the sheriff’s office for comment.
ESPN reported that the Bills organization has been “aware of the incident since it occurred” and that the team was “aligned” with Oliver in terms of sharing condolences.
Oliver has been participating in training camp activities with the Bills this summer but was held out of the team’s preseason game against the Cleveland Browns on Saturday due to a “minor injury,” according to ESPN. (The Bills beat the Browns, 31-7.)
The tackle has spent his entire professional career playing with the Bills, after being picked ninth overall in the 2019 NFL Draft by the organization. Prior to that, he was a standout college player for the University of Houston Cougars from 2016 to 2018, during which time he won the prestigious Bill Willis Trophy in his freshman year.
Oliver also shares a daughter, Eva, with his partner Dymond Gladney.
In September 2025, Oliver opened up during a press conference about the way becoming a father impacted him on and off the field.
“I really attest a lot of my maturity and just my growth to my kids,” Oliver said at the time. “Having kids and having to be the head of a household and a leader and trying to guide them you know that that’s kind of then trickled over into football. Then, I got [to] become more patient and more, I guess, [observant] and paying attention to different things. … I don’t know what specifically they do, but they got a weird way of making you grow up real fast.”
For more vital, life-saving information on pool safety, see Bode Miller’s tips and visit Coverstar’s website.
