Over the weekend, ESPN senior NFL insider Adam Schefter was criticized when he reported that NFL replay assist is expected to expand in the offseason to include plays such as the quarterback slide. Yet Schefter framed the tweet around Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes, ostensibly addressing those that complain that he gets too many calls to go his way. Nick Wright, co-host of First Things First on FS1, replied by calling the article “simply ludicrous [and] poor journalism” by centering the piece on Mahomes and not including that the NFL said the two calls he cited in the story were correct.
While appearing on the Dan Patrick Show on Tuesday morning, Wright was informed that the program booked him on Sunday and would have had him on regardless if the Chiefs won or lost the AFC Championship Game. Yet Wright asserted that this was a lie, articulating that they really wanted to have him on if the team lost, but that he is now able to be correct about the team again as they try to become the first franchise in NFL history to win three consecutive Super Bowl championships.
“I’m angry at how last week got hijacked,” Wright said. “I’m angry at folks instead of just being like, ‘I’m sorry, I was wrong,’ creating a nonsense conspiracy. I’m angry at the way we cover football these days.”
Wright conveyed that he was discussing mainstream media in general with his statement, underscoring an assertion that if the internet is talking about it, the group of media outlets assumes that it is the story. Describing the occurrence as the mainstream media allowing “the tail to wag the dog,” he referenced several accounts on X that seem to be perpetuating these narratives.
“‘MLFootball and Dov Kleiman got 9,000 retweets on this still shot photo of a potential hold, so I guess it’s got to be the B-block today,’” Wright mimicked. “And then a Twitter account with 12 million followers says, ‘Relief is on the way football fans.’ Relief is on the way? Finish the thought. You’re going to put it out there, finish the thought. Relief from what? A rigged game.”
Patrick asked Wright specifically why he believed Schefter put out the story in question on social media over the weekend. Part of it, he believes, has to do with the advent of social media platforms and the engagement niche sports content can generate.
“Because everyone has had their brain rotted by an algorithm and it’s like, ‘Man, this sure gets engagement,’ and I get why the faceless nameless accounts do it. It’s literally how they make their living,” Wright said. “I get it – I don’t respect it, but I understand it. I look at that honestly no different than folks that run any scam that people run just to get by. So be it, that’s your life. I don’t understand why someone who the $1800 extra a month you can make off Twitter engagement means nothing to them, why they would do that, and I really don’t like the hiding behind the, ‘Hey guys, I’m just presenting unbiased facts.’”
Later in the interview, Wright opined that the story of the week should have been about Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and how he was trying to defeat an opponent that has eliminated him from the playoffs three times as they strive for another Super Bowl championship. At the same time, he explained that users engaging with these accounts grants them the power to choose the narrative while also exclaiming that the games are rigged.
“A defining moment in the best and the second-best player in the league’s career will be this football game,” Wright said, “and instead, we’re talking about the flag on Mahomes in the AFC Championship Game from two years ago, and we’re being led down this road by MLFootball on Twitter? I find it cheap and unlikable – that’s it.”
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