Aggregation missteps this time around included misidentification and misunderstanding. Aggregation missteps this time around included misidentification and misunderstanding.

We’re back again to examine more bad aggregation. This week’s column will cover aggregation missteps (poor/no sourcing, misrepresentation, and more) from Sept. 27-Oct. 4.

4. JPA Football doesn’t cite a source on Patrick Mahomes quote

Many of the NFL aggregator quotes are seemingly doing better at citing sources with at least an account tag these days, but there are still some cases where that’s missing. One came from JPA Football on a Patrick Mahomes quote about his inadvertent injury-causing hit on teammate Rashee Rice after an interception:


This quote was from a press conference Thursday, so the account isn’t ripping off anyone’s exclusive. But it would still be appropriate to link the source video or a writeup of it (many of which did provide a video link) so readers could get fuller context. Even a “told reporters” would be a useful step to indicate where this is actually coming from. It certainly wasn’t from comments directly to the JPA Football account.

Rating: **

3. NBA Central doesn’t follow up on “Jonathan Wall” post

Jake Fischer (formerly of Yahoo, next destination still to be announced) was involved in quite a story Friday, reporting that “Jonathan Wall” had been named as the GM of the Washington Wizards’ G-League affiliate, the Capital City Go-Go. But, as Fischer noted in even his initial tweet here, it was far from clear from the start that this was former Wizards’ player John Wall:

And, as Fischer noted less than an hour later, it was indeed a different person:


But aggregator accounts, including NBA Central, picked up Fischer’s initial tweet, but not the follow-up:

It’s always worth a note of what’s actually going on, and that certainly would have been helpful here.

Rating: ***

2. “Dov Kleiman” still doesn’t know where Bucky Brooks works

Tagging someone’s account is nice, but it’s also important to accurately cite who they are. When it comes to Bucky Brooks, the former NFL player who works for NFL Media/NFL Network and also Fox Sports, the “Dov Kleiman” account (speaking of people where we don’t really know who they are), seems to keep thinking that he works for ESPN, despite the very obvious Fox Sports on the graphic in question:

𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲: ESPN’s Bucky Brooks Top 10 teams so far this season.

Thoughts? 🤔 https://t.co/xvm4BTFDBe pic.twitter.com/6NIYBcwCMk

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) October 2, 2024

At least he did tag Brooks. But still…

Rating: ****

1. “Fans of CFB” suggests the sport’s “in a bad place” over…an injury sitout

There’s been a lot of recent discussion about NIL payments and players sitting out if they didn’t get what they were promised or hoped for. That’s been particularly noted around UNLV QB Matthew Sluka, but it’s also come up with other players, even when they and media have stated that money is not the issue. The latest case of that came from poor aggregation of a Wisconsin State Journal story from Colten Bartholomew on Badgers’ running back Chez Mellusi stepping away from the team, with some, including the @FansOfCFB account, assuming that was over money:

But even the initial story made it clear this wasn’t a financial dispute. And Bartholomew, in a follow-up post the night before the @FansOfCFB tweet, noted that he’d added more context still to the story, and took aim at people who aggregated the initial story and jumped to conclusions without reading it:

There are certainly cases like Sluka’s where there can be discussion about NIL, pay, and the state of college football. But this wasn’t one, and wouldn’t have been one with better aggregation of the initial story.

Rating: *****

Aggregator standings (these are bad): 

@_MLFootball: 25
@NFL_DovKleiman: 24
@SKProFootball: 15
X/Grok: 10
@jasrifootball: 7
@FansofCFB: 5
@TheDunkCentral: 5
Ben Verlander: 5
@BleacherReport: 5
@mymixtapez: 5
@NFLRookieWatxh: 5
Colin Cowherd: 5
Redditor @thefortitude: 5
@GolazoAmerica: 5
@Spotify_Swift: 5
Barstool Sports: 4
Fan Recap: 4
@GinoHard_: 3
@BR_OpenIce: 3
@theScore: 3
@ThePlayersTV: 3
@SleeperNFL: 3
@PHLEaglesNation: 3
@DiscussingFilm: 3
@CBSSportsGolazo: 3
@BR_Betting: 3
@SportsCenter: 2

Aggregation subject standings (these are not bad):

The San Francisco Chronicle: 10
Fox Sports: 6
Colten Bartholomew/The Wisconsin State Journal: 5
@EthanHullihen: 5
@deionsandersjr on YouTube: 5
@TheABinKC: 5
@TheDunkCentral: 5
Kent Babb/The Washington Post: 5
Pat Brennan/The Cincinnati Enquirer: 5
AFP: 5
Reuters: 5
The U.S. Sun: 5
Mark Craig/The (Minneapolis) Star-Tribune: 5
Mike Florio/Pro Football Talk: 5
Susan Slusser/The San Francisco Chronicle: 5
Mike Silver/The San Francisco Chronicle: 5
Bucky Brooks/Fox Sports: 4
DenverSports.com: 4
TWSN: 4
Jake Fischer: 3
@uSTADIUM: 3
@bryceshockeylife on Instagram: 3
@morning_skate: 3
@AryePulli: 3
Big Play Slay: 3
The 25/10 Show: 3
Deadline: 3
Ryan Michael: 3
Tom Fornelli/CBS Sports: 3
The Kansas City Chiefs: 2
Ben Fischer/Sports Business Journal: 2
Jay Glazer/Fox Sports: 2
Natasha Dye/People: 2
Clarence Hill/The Fort Worth Star-Telegram: 2
@AZCardinals: 2

Thanks for reading This Week In Bad Aggregation! User submissions are always welcome via e-mail or Twitter.

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.