Mike McCarthy AI Slop Credit: Tom Pelissero
By Sean Keeley on

Honestly, given how fast they move, it’s shocking it’s taken this long for an insider to start churning out AI slop.

And perhaps even more shocking was that it wasn’t Adam Schefter who broke the seal.

NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero appears to have taken the plunge in recent days, coupling generative AI-created imagery with his breaking news posts on social media. Readers have noticed, and many of them aren’t pleased about it.

It’s unclear exactly when Pelissero started using them, but his Saturday X post confirming that John Harbaugh was the new head coach of the New York Giants included an image of the longtime Baltimore Ravens coach donning Giants gear, and appears to be AI-generated.

There wasn’t much debate on the origins of the Saturday evening image that shows new Atlanta Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski and President of Football Matt Ryan standing next to one another in matching Falcons hats and hoodies. The Falcons’ logo includes some accents that don’t match the actual logo.

The pièce de résistance, however, was Pelissero’s X post detailing Mike McCarthy’s familial connection to the Pittsburgh Steelers, whom he is scheduled to interview with for their head coaching position.

AI slop is marked by its lack of attention to detail and, in many cases, outright errors. That’s the case with this McCarthy image, which features a jacket with a misspelling of the team’s name (Steclers), an unreadable team name in the logo on his beanie, and a cigarette seemingly floating above McCarthy’s ear.

While AI has found its way into the mass culture, thanks to the relentless push by corporations and technology firms invested in it, many still oppose its use, especially in creative endeavors, and see generative AI as nothing more than a way to flood the internet with garbage.

Pelissero’s usage has received a fair bit of pushback and commentary from other media members and beyond.

There’s an understandible desire for insiders, who are often moving quickly and trying to beat one another to the punch, to do something like this to help them stand out from the crowd. But not only is it poor form to use AI-generated content that contains errors and incorrect information, but it also seems like a bad idea for an NFL Network employee to share AI-generated images with incorrect NFL logos and trademarks.

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

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