Pittsburgh Steelers beat writer Mark Kaboly has had quite a day creating some good content for social media.
The veteran reporter, who was attending the NFL’s annual meetings in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, on Monday morning, has already made headlines for a question he asked Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin about wide receiver DK Metcalf’s candy bar habits, to which Tomlin replied, “He wears it a little differently than you.”
But now, perhaps an even funnier video of Kaboly is making the rounds.
Kaboly, who was seated next to Tomlin during the coach’s media availability, was caught in 4K clearly disinterested in an answer the Steelers’ coach was giving about quarterback Mason Rudolph, who the team re-signed in free agency after a year in Tennessee. In fact, many thought Kaboly was falling asleep during the answer. See for yourself:
Mike Tomlin on Mason Rudolph in 2023: “The way he smiled in the face of adversity and delivered for us was significant.” pic.twitter.com/vfo1Y8qwde
— Mike DeFabo (@MikeDeFabo) March 31, 2025
Ironically, the video was captured by another Pittsburgh Steelers beat writer, Mike DeFabo, who essentially replaced Kaboly at The Athletic last year after a round of layoffs. (DeFabo was brought on in 2022, and The Athletic employed two Steelers beat writers until Kaboly was let go in 2024.)
Naturally, Kaboly wasn’t going to stand for these bogus allegations by keyboard warriors that he was asleep, so he took to his podcast later on Monday to provide an explanation.
“So there’s about a hundred thousand people around, it’s really a tiny area, like, inside one of those makeshift tents,” Kaboly began. “I get there early, pluck my rear end right next to [Tomlin], ’cause I don’t wanna, because there’s cameras all in front of him. And everybody’s there and, you have to understand, no matter where you sit at that point, somebody’s going to have a camera potentially on you. And it just happened to be DeFabo. Yeah, wink wink nod nod.
“I was not sleeping, it was just another one of the answers I’ve heard for, like, a hundred times. Right before that, you gotta understand, I said to somebody next to me…I said, ‘I gotta be very aware of my facial reactions when I’m this close to him. And there we go.”
Kaboly didn’t heed his own advice. And now, he’s been subjected to the full onslaught of internet memery, including by the legendary ArtButMakeItSports.
Slapende Silenus vastgebonden, by Michel Natalis, 1632-33 https://t.co/aWOoQTD4TY pic.twitter.com/72H68j8S8V
— ArtButMakeItSports (@ArtButSports) March 31, 2025
It’s safe to say that Mark Kaboly will try and be more aware of his facial expressions at future press conferences.
