Josh Allen's Iron Man streak deserves an asterisk after Bills shameless Week 18 move

For the physical brand of football that Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has played throughout his entire career, it's undeniably impressive that, in Week 18, he made his 105th consecutive start. That's by far the longest active Iron Man streak among NFL quarterbacks. However, it might need an asterisk with how things actually transpired in the regular-season finale.

Bills head coach Sean McDermott stated throughout the week that Allen wouldn't play the entirety of the team's Week 18 game against the New England Patriots considering that they were already locked into the No. 2 seed in the AFC. The question was just how much he would play.

It turns out, it was literally only to preserve the Iron Man streak and not a bit more. Allen came out for the opening snap of the Buffalo offense and then quickly exited to the sidelines for the rest of the game.

I'm all for exemplifying toughness and durability, but come on.

Bills start Josh Allen for one play to shamelessly preserve Iron Man streak

Yes, in theory, Allen was always healthy enough to play in Week 18 and could've played the whole game. There's just not a ton of sense in that if you're the Bills as the team has their sights set on winning a Super Bowl and protecting the quarterback's health should be of the utmost importance if that's the goal.

At the same time, though, coming in for only one play isn't really in the spirit of the Iron Man conversation, is it? Yes, he's healthy and there are surely many other games in which Allen has been pulled late in the contest in order to preserve his health. This is different, though. The only reason he ever touched the field and put on anything other than a beanie was the streak.

In all likelihood, most everyone will forget about this in the long run, especially if the streak continues for Allen. And I also definitely don't want to take too much away from him in that regard. The fact that the streak was intact for him and the Bills to make a ploy like this is an accomplishment in its own right. It'd probably also feel better even if it was just one full series instead of just one play.

But as things stand now, it just feels a little outside the spirit of what the streak represents to get one play to just preserve it.