SEATTLE, WA – OCTOBER 16: Wide receiver Julio Jones #11 of the Atlanta Falcons can’t make the catch on fourth down as cornerback Richard Sherman #25 of the Seattle Seahawks defends at CenturyLink Field on October 16, 2016 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

Sunday’s Atlanta Falcons-Seattle Seahawks game provoked a strong reaction from Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman after a Julio Jones touchdown against him, part of the battles that went on between the two all day. However, if you only caught this game through the highlights on Showtime’s Inside The NFL, you might think that Sherman was much more to blame.

A crucial late fourth-down play in the Seahawks’ 26-24 win saw Sherman commit a pass interference foul that wasn’t called and Jones commit an early hands to the face penalty that wasn’t called. As noted by HawkBlogger.com and spotlighted by ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio, though, Inside The NFL‘s Mic’d Up highlights of that game instead edited an earlier release from Jones into that play, one where he didn’t hit Sherman. Here’s the video:

And the actual start of that play:

https://twitter.com/EvanonHB/status/788062993636470784

As Florio writes, this is highly problematic:

Instead of footage showing Jones wallop Sherman at the line of scrimmage while facing press coverage, Inside the NFL used a clip of Jones beginning a pass route with a free release.

Whatever the reason and whether it was deliberate or not, the highlight was false. Which makes me wonder how often devices like that are used when preparing highlights of games.

The end result should make Seahawks fans upset, since focusing on the end of the play and not the beginning reinforces the notion that the Seahawks stole a win. Ideally, offsetting fouls would have been called — and the Falcons would have gotten another shot at fourth and 10.

Highlight editing isn’t something that’s discussed much, and editing it to this degree (swapping in the start of a completely different play) doesn’t seem to happen much, but this one is certainly concerning. It doesn’t look good for anyone involved, and it raises questions of if viewers can trust highlights.

[Pro Football Talk]

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About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.