Potential No. 1 overall pick Josh Allen has apologised for offensive tweets that were uncovered on the eve of the 2018 NFL Draft.
"If I could go back in time, I would never have done this in a heartbeat," Allen told ESPN on Thursday.
"At the time, I obviously didn't know how harmful it was and now has become.
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"I hope you know and others know I'm not the type of person I was at 14 and 15 that I tweeted so recklessly. ... I don't want that to be the impression of who I am, because that is not me. I apologize for what I did."
Earlier, the former Wyoming quarterback acknowledged to ESPN that the tweets, uncovered by Yahoo Sports, were his, saying he was young and dumb when he posted them while in high school in 2012 and '13.
The tweets, which have been deleted from his Twitter account, contained racial slurs and other offensive language.
Allen described himself to ESPN as "in a panic" when the report of the tweets surfaced.
Considered one of the top quarterbacks in this year's draft, he has caused a divide about whether he should be the first player taken or even the first quarterback drafted. However, some project him to be taken first overall by the Browns.
According to ESPN, a team with a top-five pick said that it knew nothing about the tweets and that it had "never heard anything but positives" about Allen.
The story of the tweets even elicited a rash of conspiracy theories, with some speculating that Yahoo's story was planted by an NFL team in order to cause Allen's draft stock to fall, so that he might slip to the team in the first round.
No matter the story's genesis, the tweets have put a damper on what should've been a time of celebration, Allen said.
"It sucks," he said. "My family is hurting. We never envisioned a day or night like this."
