Jim Trotter says The Athletic ‘watered-down’ his Nick Bosa column

Update: Jim Trotter tweeted that he should’ve referenced violating The Athletic’s journalistic standards rather than the New York Times.

Additionally, a spokesperson for The Athletic told Awful Announcing in a statement: “The New York Times standards played no role in this process. The story went through the normal editing process at The Athletic. We don’t publicly discuss our editorial decision making.”

Correction: I should have referred to it as a violation of The Athletic’s journalistic standards and not the journalistic standards of the NYT.

— Jim Trotter (@JimTrotter_NFL) October 29, 2024

The original story continues below.

It hasn’t even been two calendar days since Nick Bosa crashed his teammates’ postgame interview with a political statement, but it’s already taken on a life of its own.

Those critical of the San Francisco 49ers star — like Bomani Jones — have given life to the idea that if Bosa is so strong in his convictions about supporting Donald Trump, then perhaps he should speak up about it.

But when given an opportunity to do so, Bosa didn’t give much credence to his own opinion. And even though Bosa had little to say when given a prime opportunity to clarify his support for the Republican presidential nominee, others didn’t shy away from addressing it. While Bosa’s right to express his opinion and expand on it if he chose has been defended, questions inevitably surfaced.

These questions reflect how differently this has played out compared to a former 49ers player crucified by the league after making his own political statement and clarifying his stance. Of course, we’re referring to Colin Kaepernick, which The Athletic’s Jim Trotter expounded on in his Tuesday column:

“Bosa has every right to support whomever he chooses. As the saying goes, it’s a free country. But the display — and the intentionality behind it — was curious considering the NFL has gone to great lengths over the last eight years to stop players from making political expressions at games…

“The concern is whether the NFL might show it has a double standard when it comes to political expressions by players. Kaepernick gets blackballed for fighting for social justice, and Bosa gets, what? Ignored by the league and applauded by far-right supporters who otherwise demand that athletes, specifically Black athletes, stick to sports?”

Trotter’s opinions are strong, but according to the longtime journalist, they aren’t strong enough.

But, it wasn’t for a lack of trying, as Trotter took sharp aim at his own employer.

He took to X (formerly Twitter) and candidly shared that readers saw a “watered-down version” of his real, unadulterated thoughts. According to Trotter, he wasn’t given the freedom to “properly contextualize the significance and consequence of the moment” but instead told that doing so would violate The Athletic’s journalistic standards for sports and political commentary.

Full disclosure, this is the watered-down version of the original column. I was not allowed to properly, IMO, contextualize the significance and consequence of the moment because, I was told, I’d be in violation of the NYT’s journalistic standards regarding sports and political…

— Jim Trotter (@JimTrotter_NFL) October 29, 2024

Trotter said he fought for his words to be published as is but doesn’t own the New York Times or The Athletic. Instead, subscribers to The Athletic are left with what the author calls a “watered-down version,” a column that would’ve seemingly taken Bosa and the National Football League — to task even further than he initially did.

Trotter joined The Athletic after the NFL Network didn’t renew his contract just weeks after he questioned Roger Goodell over diversity issues within the league’s media. The longtime reporter/columnist recently settled a racial discrimination lawsuit against the league regarding his departure.

Just over a year ago, Trotter praised the freedom and support he had expected from the Times-owned outlet.

“I no longer have to worry about my words being watered down or silenced altogether,” he said at the time.

Now, that same freedom and support seem as elusive as ever.

[Jim Trotter]