There is one more big football game to be played in Las Vegas next Sunday – Super Bowl LVIII, for you historians – and if he had his choice, NFL quarterback Josh Allen would rather be in arctic 30-degree Buffalo this week, getting ready for that game, than chasing a golf ball in occasional sunshine along the coast of California.

But as Plan Bs go, Pebble Beach Golf Links is a pretty nice place to be in early February, and certainly helped Allen to ease the pain of another early exit by Allen’s Buffalo Bills in the NFL Playoffs.

For a second consecutive year, Allen teamed with Keith Mitchell in the pro-am portion of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and Friday, the two were on the move. A second-round, 11-under 61 would not be enough to lift Mitchell and Allen to the very top, but it shot the pair up 45 spots, into a highly respectable tie for sixth.

Most importantly, as Allen made his way up 18, one of the most historic fairways known to golf, Allen had something else on his mind: Was he going to beat out fellow competitor Tom Brady, the GOAT himself, who was in Friday’s same group, playing alongside New Englander Keegan Bradley?

“I don’t think I’ve ever beaten him in ANYTHING,” Allen would say later, with a big smile. At 14-under 130 (69-61), he and Mitchell would beat Bradley/Brady by two shots, and also edge another quarterback “nemesis,” Aaron Rodgers, who shot 132 alongside Beau Hossler. World No. 2 Rory McIlroy struggled on his own Friday, but did team with amateur Jeff Rhodes, a 9-handicap, to earn the pro-am title.

Sixth place sat nicely with Allen. He beat the guy he was there to beat. Not many folks take down Tom Brady, regardless of the sport and setting.

“It feels good. It feels real good,” Allen said. “We had a minor bet, not monetary, but some good pride and some other things. Wish I would have had that happen on the football field ... but we’ll take it where we can get it with him.”

Allen, 27, completed 66.5% of his passes and threw for 4,306 yards and 29 touchdowns for the Buffalo Bills this season, helping his team rise from 6-6 all the way to becoming the No. 2 seed in the AFC. The Bills bowed to eventual Super Bowl finalists Kansas City in the second round of the playoffs.

Allen carried a Stroke Index of 9 this week at Pebble Beach, and said he helped Mitchell out on “maybe five” holes on Friday, making a few clutch pars on his stroke holes. He says his love for golf traces to his childhood, when his father would take him out to play. He does share one thing in common with many of the 80 PGA TOUR professionals at Pebble this week: Tiger Woods is the reason he ever got into the game.

“Anytime you saw on the ESPN ticker he (Woods) was in contention, you’re turning on whatever channel he was on and watching him play it out,” Allen said.

Allen’s dad, and sometimes his mom, would take him and his brother to the golf course every now and again during his childhood, and once Allen made it to the NFL, golf would become a good way to pass his idle time in his offseason. Now? “I’m obsessed,” Allen admitted.

“There was this course, it’s not there anymore,” said Allen, a native Californian, “it was called Fresno West. You could putt from about 150 yards out – it was basically dirt. But we would go there quite a bit. Went to San Joaquin in California a little bit.”

Talking about Fresno West, a reporter deadpanned to Allen, “So it wasn’t the Pebble of the Central Valley?"

“It WAS the Pebble of the Central Valley, absolutely,” retorted Allen playfully. “Are you kidding me?”

Allen would not elaborate on exactly what he won in the bet he waged against Brady, stating that he was not able to divulge any secrets. He would only add, “It’s something cool; it’s something you can put in your house.”

And no, it was not one of Brady’s seven Super Bowl rings.

Bradley, a two-time winner last season who moved into a tie for eighth on Friday at Pebble Beach, said he enjoyed listening to Allen and Brady talk about football, and some of the different plays they called and executed. Bradley, who grew up a huge New England Patriots fan, said that Brady has been his idol since he was 12 years old.

The weather is expected to take a rough downturn over the weekend, with rain and high winds on the way – old Crosby Clambake weather. Bradley always has heard the old stories about players needing to hit 4- and 5-irons into the teeth of the wind at Pebble’s shortish seventh – the hole measured 111 yards the first two rounds – and he looks forward to becoming a part of that lore. “Maybe I’ll get my shot at it, too,” Bradley said.

With changes at Pebble this year, and with the starting field shaved to 80 pros and 80 ams and no cut implemented after 36 holes – amateurs no longer will appear on the weekend.

Outside of beating Brady, of course, Allen listed his most memorable moment of the week a Houdini-like up-and-down for par after he short-sided himself at the tough par-3 12th on Friday – from the back of the bunker, he somehow pitched to 2 feet, a miracle save.

He was reminded about the harsh weather coming in, and was asked if he would miss not being able to tee it up on Saturday.

“No,” said Allen, making a timely audible. “I’m out of here.”

But it was great, and it was memorable, right up until he faced a blitz of umbrellas. And even if there was someplace many miles away that he’d rather be.