Nick Wright lectures sports media on Twitter not being real life. Photo Credit: ‘First Things First’
By Sam Neumann on

Nick Wright chose a particularly inopportune time to lecture those in sports media about Twitter-driven journalism.

The Fox Sports host spent the week railing against reporters for asking coaches questions inspired by social media chatter. He even named two examples to make his point. Unfortunately for Wright, one of those examples was completely accurate.

“This is a message to all sports media out there: you have to remember, you’re given press access for a reason, and Twitter is not real life,” Wright said on Thursday’s First Things First. “So, we have had multiple instances recently where the tail has wagged the dog when it comes to press conferences.”

He was griping about questions to Kevin Stefanski regarding internet speculation that the Browns were sabotaging Shedeur Sanders. He was also annoyed about questions posed to Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst about trading for players of Micah Parsons’ quality. There was a lot of buzz about Parsons potentially wanting out of Dallas — and Green Bay being a suitable landing spot — after former Packers fullback John Kuhn tweeted “Micah Freaking Parsons” with no context.

“Then an actual reporter, thankfully, texts John Kuhn. He’s like, ‘I’m just trolling, boys. I’m just making stuff up.’ Doesn’t matter,” Wright said. “But then, a different actual reporter is like, ‘So, there was talk about Micah coming to the Packers’ to Brian Gutekunst and now it’s a real story.”

The problem is that Wright’s timing couldn’t have been worse.

Green Bay did, in fact, acquire Parsons in exchange for two first-round picks and Kenny Clark. As it turns out, the reporter following up on social media buzz wasn’t chasing meaningless social media noise, but following a lead that turned out to be real.

Wright’s broader point about X-driven questions isn’t wrong. The media coverage of Shedeur Sanders has been embarrassing, with reporters asking legitimate questions about a fourth-string quarterback’s roster spot and somehow turning it into national conspiracy theories. There’s definitely an issue with treating social media speculation as legitimate news without proper sourcing.

“Guys, we’re on the precipice of falling to the robots as is. The one thing we need to keep a grip on is what actual reality is,” Wright said. “If you’re one of the people that gets to ask coach a question, you’re deciding to ask him, ‘Well, my absolutely malfunctioning algorithm timeline to cause engagement is saying this is what people are talking about, this is what we’re gonna ask about.’ It’s a misuse of the resource.”

The Parsons story shows that sometimes what looks like social media buzz still — sometimes — has smoke behind it. X user @RickeyScoops (formerly @PrettyRickey213) has beaten NFL insiders time and time again to major scoops, and was right again about Parsons heading to Green Bay.

Wright isn’t wrong that Twitter can distort coverage. The Sanders saga proves that. But sometimes the algorithmic noise points to actual news. And this week, the blind squirrel found its nut, as X wasn’t fake news for once in its Elon Musk-owned era.

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