World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler caused a stir with some existential comments in his press conference ahead of the 2025 Open Championship. But another top athlete, NFL MVP quarterback Josh Allen, only has gratitude for the words Scheffler spoke that day.
The Buffalo Bills star explained his appreciation for Scheffler’s Open comments in a recent interview with CBS Sports.
First, let’s look back at Scheffler’s comments at Royal Portrush last week.
By Sunday night, everyone was talking about Scheffler’s dominant Open victory while throwing around comparisons to Tiger Woods. But ahead of his second major win of the year, Scheffler was the talk of the town for another reason: his thoughtful but controversial press conference comments.
‘What’s the point?’ Scottie Scheffler gets existential in fascinating presser
Scheffler’s complicated thoughts were encapsulated in a four-word pull quote: “What is the point?” But his lengthy comments revolved around his realization that his many golf accomplishments do not provide him with deep fulfillment. For that, he looks elsewhere, to his faith, friends and family.
“This is not a fulfilling life. It’s fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it’s not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart. There’s a lot of people that make it to what they thought was going to fulfill them in life, and you get there, you get to No. 1 in the world, and they’re like what’s the point? What is the point?” Scheffler asked before the Open. “Why do I want to win this tournament so bad? That’s something that I wrestle with on a daily basis.”
As if predicting the many ways in which his thoughts would be interpreted over the ensuing days, Scheffler tried to clarify his point.
“I don’t know if I’m making any sense or not,” he said. “I love being able to play this game for a living. It’s one of the greatest joys of my life, but does it fill the deepest wants and desires of my heart? Absolutely not.”
The media firestorm that followed was only somewhat quieted when Scheffler hoisted the Claret Jug in the air on Portrush’s 18th green.
Which brings us to Allen. Beyond being one of the best football players alive, Allen is an avid golfer who often takes part in celebrity events and pro-ams.
Like most golfers, he tuned into Scheffler’s play at the Open Championship. But Allen was also attuned to Scheffler’s controversial comments before the tournament, as he revealed in his recent CBS Sports interview.
While he took home the NFL MVP award last season and has consistently been one of the best players in the league, Allen has not yet won an AFC Championship, let alone delivered Bills fans their long-awaited first Super Bowl title.
But as he explained in his interview, he’s had to put things into perspective not to let his teams’ playoff failures weigh on him.
“I’ve come to grip with this, sometimes the ball is going to bounce the other way. And you’ve got to be OK with that,” Allen explained in the CBS Sports interview. “That’s where it’s like ‘Hey I gave it my best effort, I put out everything I could do.’ Sometimes when that ball is in the air the wind can change and take it the other way.”
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Then, when asked if he found that reality “maddening,” Allen invoked Scheffler’s wise words at the Open and expressed his appreciation for them.
“Yea it’s maddening, but at the same time I think it helps put things in perspective in terms of what really matters in your life, and you figure out what that is fairly quickly. Scottie Scheffler had that really good interview before the Open [Championship],” Allen revealed. “It spoke a lot to me, and I really appreciate him sharing those words. It’s kind of crazy. Where you’re just kind of coming out here and you’re doing everything you can for a quick enjoyment of it and then you’re onto the next. It’s like the MVP award, I don’t look back and think about that night. It happened, it’s over with and I’ll never think about it again to be honest. I’m so moved on to trying to help this team win football games this year.”
You can watch Allen’s interview clip, including his comments about Scheffler, below.
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