We Are at a Low Point in the World of Sports Media Aggregation
1. What are we doing?
Every day it seems there is another “story” aggregated across the sports media landscape that has absolutely no grounding in reality.
Let me be clear about something off the top. I aggregate. Sometimes I create clickbait. I enjoy covering absurd sports stories. But when I write about something, I do my best to make sure it’s factually accurate. Or at least I tell my audience that something is clearly fake before continuing to write about it.
But it seems we’ve reached the point where anything and everything gets aggregated across the web, whether it’s true or not.
The coverage of the absurd rumor that Tom Brady left Bucs camp to appear on The Masked Singer was beyond embarrassing. And calling it a rumor is a stretch. A random person posted on Reddit that, even though she had no proof, she thought that Brady was doing the dumb show.
The next thing you know, every single outlet was covering this “story.” Tom Brady didn’t miss a day of football when his mother got cancer, yet the media decided it was fine to run with a ridiculous theory from a person on Reddit.
This type of irresponsible coverage happened again Thursday night after the Bills beat the Rams in the NFL season opener. During the postgame Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen had this exchange with Los Angeles linebacker Jake Gervase.
The next thing you know, there are headlines blasted across the internet saying Gervase “snubbed” Allen.
How on Earth can any rational human being watch that video and deduce without any doubt that what occurred was a snubbing is beyond me. But a handful of people on Twitter determined it was a “snubbing,” so then all the websites blindly did their own posting and aggregating and, BOOM, “Josh Allen Gets Snubbed” is sold to you as fact.
Some sites tried to cover their asses by saying, “Josh Allen Appears to Get Snubbed” or “Did Josh Allen Get Snubbed?” This is their way of getting a headline out there with the words “Josh Allen” and “snubbed” even though they know nothing noteworthy happened.
Gervase explained what happened after he saw he was getting backlash for the “snubbing.”
Allen “liked” Gervase’s tweet, and now everyone will move on because Allen and Gervase "cleared things up." But Allen and Gervase shouldn't have had to clear anything up. They literally had nothing to clear up!
But this will happen again. And it’s pathetic.
2. Speaking of Josh Allen, this is how you get the NFL season started.
According to Allen’s teammate Devin Singletary, Allen added insult to injury by laughing while he delivered the stiff arm.
3. Iga Świątek defeated Aryna Sabalenka in the U.S. Open quarterfinals, 3–6, 6–1, 6–4, on Thursday. One of the keys to Świątek’s win, according to her, was, well, I’ll use a tennis term here: dropping a deuce.
4. The Yankees are having some sort of Derek Jeter Night on Friday. I know every non-Yankees fan reading this is rolling their eyes right now, but stick with me here. Whether you care about Jeter, you will enjoy this video of the Hall of Famer talking to his young daughter about the upcoming experience.
5. Remember that whole dust-up between Joc Pederson and Tommy Pham when Pham slapped Pederson over some fantasy football nonsense? Well, with the NFL season starting, the Brewers decided to troll the Giants outfielder during Thursday’s game.
6. This week’s SI Media Podcast features a conversation with play-by-play legend Al Michaels.
The new voice of Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video talks about working with Kirk Herbstreit, what the challenges are for Prime Video getting into the NFL business, why it wouldn’t make sense for Amazon to reinvent the wheel and the Thursday-night schedule.
Michaels also shares his thoughts on how Tom Brady will do as a broadcaster, talks about what Aaron Rodgers is like, reveals the criticism that bothers him and reminisces about his early days in broadcasting.
Following the interview with Michaels, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins Jimmy for the weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, Jimmy shares his thoughts on legalized gambling websites, Sal talks about a big mistake he made when he recently attended a Mets game and the guys give a best bet for Week 1 in the NFL.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 56th birthday to Adam Sandler.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
