Nick Wright accuses Dan Orlovsky of being quick to criticize sports media but unwilling to call out "sacred cow(s)" NFL quarterbacks." Edit by Liam McGuire, Comeback Media.
By Sam Neumann on

Sports media is fully in its professional wrestling era.

The line between what’s real and performative can get blurred pretty quickly.

There’s Bill Simmons and Nick Wright throwing playful jabs at one another. And then, there’s Wright throwing some sharper shots at ESPN personalities, particularly Dan Orlovsky, someone he’s recently made a habit of antagonizing.

Wright and Orlovsky have clashed before — most notably over Wright calling Josh Allen “overrated.” More recently, Wright took a not-so-thinly-veiled swipe at Orlovsly, suggesting that certain media members who weren’t as good as Sam Darnold during their playing career are often the first to defend him.

And now? Orlovsky is back in Wright’s crosshairs.

“Orlovsky is so comfortable criticizing people in his current profession — sports media — and would never dare criticize people in his former profession — NFL quarterbacks,” Wright said during a spot on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. “We’ve gone too far, so if I have to add some balance to the universe, so be it.”

“Everyone likes Dan; I’m sure he’s nice,” the First Things First star added.

But…

“Keep that same energy — it’s so amazing. There’s so much courage to criticize folks who do what he currently does,” Wright continued. “And has said to Shannon [Sharpe] on television, ‘It’s not my job to criticize a quarterback who was better than me.’ Huh? Really? Well, I hope you have a lot of Will Levis topics coming because…”

Don’t get Wright mistaken; he’s not here to attack Orlovsky’s character. He spoke glowingly about what he’s heard secondhand about the ESPN NFL analyst, claiming that mutual friends and colleagues “adore” Orlovsky.

However, Wright does have an issue with what he sees as Orlovsky’s hypocrisy — especially his avoidance of criticism for “sacred cows” like Allen and Lamar Jackson, among other elite NFL quarterbacks.

“As the kids say on Twitter, ‘The noticers are noticing,’ and maybe I’m just noticing,” said Wright.

And Orlovsky took notice of Wright’s criticism but sidestepped the hypocrisy angle.

Instead, he replied to Wright’s original point: “Yea[h], this just isn’t accurate. It’s a made-up thing and there is proof and evidence of me being ‘critical’ of the very best QBs in the NFL.”

“And what I said in the moment that Nick references is ‘It’s not my job to go on TV and say this player is absolutely awful,'” he added.

Orlovsky takes a lot of heat for his quarterback criticism — or lack thereof. Cris Carter, a former panelist on Wright’s FTF, once said Orlovsky shouldn’t be on TV if he’s unwilling to criticize Aaron Rodgers.

It’s not just Rodgers, even though Shannon Sharpe essentially accused him of “carrying water” for the embattled New York Jets quarterback. Since then, Orlovsky has repeatedly doubled, even tripled, down on his stance: ESPN isn’t paying him to bash quarterbacks like Allen. They’re paying him for nuanced analysis.

He didn’t say it explicitly, but he knows what his colleagues, like Stephen A. Smith, can get away with — flashing hot takes without any real substance. Orlovsky, on the other hand, sees his role as adding color and depth, not stirring up unnecessary controversy by saying, “Insert quarterback sucks.”

But for those like Wright, Orlovsky’s reluctance to go after the “sacred cows” of the NFL — Allen, Rodgers, Jackson — makes him appear too quarterback-friendly, akin to Seth Greenberg defending college coaches on air.

That’s not to say Orlovsky’s a quarterback shill; he’d strongly push back on that notion.

However, Wright clearly struggles to reconcile his respect for Orlovsky with how he approaches his job. It’s not about analysis but about what he’s willing to touch and, more importantly, what he’s willing to avoid.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann