The Cleveland Browns quarterback battle is one of the top stories in the 2025 NFL preseason, with Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, and Shedeur Sanders competing for jobs. The competition between the rookies, Gabriel (third-round pick) and Sanders (fifth-round pick), in particular been a huge storyline and discussion point.
Naturally, that will lead to the radio shows, debate shows, and social media personalities offering various takes and narratives on the subject, but it’s unfortunate — and frankly disappointing — when such tactics carry over to official league outlets.
On Saturday, the official NFL X, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok accounts shared a clip of an interview between Gabriel and Browns TV reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala (who is also a reporter for CBS Sports) on the sideline after his preseason debut.
The video — along with the graphic, caption accompanying the social media posts — showed Gabriel telling Kinkhabwala, “There’s entertainers and there’s competitors… my job is to compete.”
“There’s entertainers and there’s competitors… my job is to compete.”@_dillongabriel_ is focused in. pic.twitter.com/FyjcztPPlF
— NFL (@NFL) August 16, 2025
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That led to social media users making the leap to conclude that Gabriel was taking a shot at Sanders. But the full context of the question and answer were not shared by the NFL and numerous other major outlets.
Prior to those Gabriel comments, Kinkhabwala asked him, “You gave us some fabulous wisdom on how you tune out the noise and you don’t let it infiltrate yourself; will you share that with everybody at home?”
Here’s the question leading up to it for proper context…
Browns QB Dillon Gabriel was asked by Aditi Kinkhabwala, “You gave us some fabulous wisdom on how you tune out the noise and you don’t let it infiltrate yourself; will you share that with everybody at home?” #NFL https://t.co/saZD2XxgDY pic.twitter.com/XhCSlaDWlu
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 16, 2025
Kinkhabwala responded to the NFL X post of the clip, writing, “Let’s PLEASE not take this out of context”
Let’s PLEASE not take this out of context. I was so impressed with how sagely – and sincerely – Dillon Gabriel talked previously about tuning out distractions. He told us there are entertainers (hot take artists) and there are competitors (he and his fellow QBs) and he doesn’t… https://t.co/SuNFUFT1Zu
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) August 16, 2025
“Let’s PLEASE not take this out of context. I was so impressed with how sagely – and sincerely – Dillon Gabriel talked previously about tuning out distractions. He told us there are entertainers (hot take artists) and there are competitors (he and his fellow QBs) and he doesn’t “ever want to get those lines twisted.” I therefore asked him to share his (wise) approach to keeping the external noise from, as he said, ‘infiltrating,’ with the people watching.
This is as humble and respectful a young man as there is. Don’t malign him by assuming something that isn’t there.”
NFL insider Albert Breer of The MMQB and Amazon also called out the NFL official X account posting the clip without necessary context.
It’s kind of unfortunate that the NFL’s official account is tweeting this out without the actual question—which was how Gabriel and the QBs are trying to make sure the outside noise doesn’t infiltrate what’s going on internally.
It wasn’t a shot at Shedeur. https://t.co/dSvMtLbIAD
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) August 16, 2025
“It’s kind of unfortunate that the NFL’s official account is tweeting this out without the actual question—which was how Gabriel and the QBs are trying to make sure the outside noise doesn’t infiltrate what’s going on internally,” Breer posted to X. “It wasn’t a shot at Shedeur.”
After the game, Gabriel made it clear that he was referring to the media as “entertainers.”
#Browns Dillon Gabriel clarifies he meant the media are the entertainers and he’s a competitor and that he wasn’t taking a shot at Shedeur Sanders: “I’m all about the team” pic.twitter.com/I4EVCVmmxR
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) August 16, 2025
“Entertainers are you all,” Gabriel said. “Competitor, that’s what I am, and all my teammates. We both have jobs to do.”
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.