A look at bad aggregation, particularly on the NFL front. A look at bad aggregation, particularly on the NFL front.
NFLOriginalsBy Andrew Bucholtz on

We’re back again to examine more bad aggregation. This edition of the column will cover aggregation missteps (poor/no sourcing, misrepresentation, and more) from Oct. 5-13.

4. ML Football sends readers on a circuitous loop for Andre Cisco’s quote

A long-time sourcing issue has been people linking aggregation of quotes instead of an actual source of the original quote. This has even come up beyond news in areas such as political ads, including a national anti-Tommy Tuberville ad in 2020 citing a 2017 SB Nation piece for Tuberville’s infamous 1998 “They’d have to carry me out of here in a pine box” quote at Ole Miss (just before he left for Auburn). The latest case of this came from the ML Football account Sunday, with their relaying of a quote from Jacksonville Jaguars’ safety Andre Cisco:

The link in there is to “AhnFireDigital,” a site whose “mission is to keep sports fans across the globe tapped into their favorite teams,” and which talks up being the home of Heat Nation, Dolphin Nation, Lakers Daily, and Cavaliers Nation. (But not any local sites related to the Jaguars or their Sunday opponent, the Chicago Bears.) The piece in question there, from Jason Simpson, does provide a fair transcription of Cisco’s post-game quotes to an Action Sports Jax (CBS 47/Fox 30 in Jacksonville) reporter and embeds video of that from Ari Merov (@MySportsUpdate) with both a tag for the ActionSportsJax account and a specific link to the video:

So, no one else here particularly did anything wrong. (There’s an argument it would have been better for Simpson to embed the source news video rather than Meirov’s aggregation of it, but at least he embedded an aggregation with a fair citation and one that had more of a quote transcription than the original.)

But the MLFootball citation here requires viewers to go on quite the journey to find out which Jaguars player said this, what opponent he was speaking about, and what media outlet he said this to.

And it’s even more strange that this citation goes to an aggregation piece from a national site rather than a specific Jaguars-focused site, the original video, or even Meirov’s aggregation of it. This is far from the worst behavior in this space, but it is still less helpful for readers than it could have been with a better citation.

Rating: **

3. JPA Football doesn’t cite source for Eagles’ release of Devin White

All news comes from somewhere. Sometimes, that news is from teams rather than independent reporters, as with the Hall of Fame sports tweet, “Literally us, the Blue Jays.” That appears to be the case with the Philadelphia Eagles’ release of former Pro Bowl linebacker Devin White, which they posted at 4:26 p.m. ET on X Tuesday:

National NFL insiders Adam Schefter (ESPN) and Ian Rapoport (NFL Network) both reported that a minute later without citation, but that’s understandable; they presumably got that information from their well-proven sources rather than the Eagles’ Twitter feed. However, that’s more questionable for JPA Football, which has not yet proven to have NFL sources but yet posted this a minute after the Eagles’ announcement with a giant “Breaking” graphic and no source citation:

Maybe that account does have its own sources. But this wasn’t a news break, with it coming after the team announcement (and it’s notable that while both Schefter and Rapoport broke out their standard breaking news graphics, they didn’t use “Breaking” in the post body). And it’s interesting to see no source cited here when this account has generally been doing a better job in recent weeks of attributing where they get their information. It’s not the biggest deal, but this could have been better with a simple link to the Eagles’ post.

Rating: **

2. ESPN NFL comes under fire for uncited Jets’ year-over-year graphic

Statistical information can be complex for citation purposes, as theoretically, anyone can find information in publicly accessible databases. But finding particular information there still takes work, so you usually see credit for whoever dug up a specific factoid.

That didn’t happen with an @ESPNNFL tweet on the New York Jets’ equal points through Weeks 1-5 in 2023 and 2024, and Ian Hartitz (a contributor to Matthew Berry’s Fantasy Life who originally noted this) took exception, noting that even the “Dov Kleiman” account gave him credit:

Here’s that “Dov” credit, for reference:

It is conceivable that @ESPNNFL got this information from their own ESPN Stats & Info group, but that group is typically credited when they do that. And their tweet was a good 15 hours after Hartitz’s, and after his was passed around (usually with some form of credit, as with the “Dov” tweet there) by several large accounts.

This certainly seems to have come from him, and it’s not a good look for them not to credit him.

Rating: ****

1. NFL Rookie Watch uses “reportedly” three times with no source on Jayden Daniels’ facility time, while Barstool Sports also doesn’t cite a source

Reports do not just emerge magically out of thin air. Every report has a source, so it’s notable to consider when “reportedly” is used without a cited source. The NFL Rookie Watch account did that three times in a single Oct. 8 post about Jayden Daniels:

Reports of “This player shows up THIS early!” are questionable enough in their own right. There’s far from a proven correlation between facility arrival time and on-field success for players or coaches, and there have often been unfair criticisms of players or coaches based on the opposite tack, claiming they don’t show up sufficiently early ahead of their scheduled work hours. But beyond that, all of this needed a source.

And others discussing this also failed to provide a source, including Barstool Sports’ Macrodosing podcast:

That Oct. 10 podcast just cited “an article.” It’s unclear where specifically that was, but there was a Commanders.com article shortly before mentioning a 4 a.m. arrival time for Daniels. But the NFL Rookie Watch tweet was a day earlier, so this was “reportedly” out there before that. It’s not entirely clear where this first emerged, but one of the early mentions of it came in Oct. 6 press comments from Daniels’ Commanders’ teammate Frankie Luvu:

It can be debated whether it is important for Daniels to show up that early. But discussions of him showing up that early should include actual source citations, with those sources often providing context left out in the later aggregations.

Rating: ***** for both

Aggregator standings (these are bad): 

@_MLFootball: 27
@NFL_DovKleiman: 24
@SKProFootball: 15
@NFLRookieWatxh: 10
X/Grok: 10
@jasrifootball: 10
Barstool Sports: 9
@ESPNNFL: 5
@macrodosingpod/Barstool Sports: 5
@FansofCFB: 5
@TheDunkCentral: 5
Ben Verlander: 5
@BleacherReport: 5
@mymixtapez: 5
Colin Cowherd: 5
Redditor @thefortitude: 5
@GolazoAmerica: 5
@Spotify_Swift: 5
Fan Recap: 4
@GinoHard_: 3
@BR_OpenIce: 3
@theScore: 3
@ThePlayersTV: 3
@SleeperNFL: 3
@PHLEaglesNation: 3
@DiscussingFilm: 3
@CBSSportsGolazo: 3
@BR_Betting: 3
@SportsCenter: 2

Aggregation subject standings (these are not bad):

The San Francisco Chronicle: 10
Fox Sports: 6
Washington Commanders: 5
Colten Bartholomew/The Wisconsin State Journal: 5
@EthanHullihen: 5
@deionsandersjr on YouTube: 5
@TheABinKC: 5
@TheDunkCentral: 5
Kent Babb/The Washington Post: 5
Pat Brennan/The Cincinnati Enquirer: 5
AFP: 5
Reuters: 5
The U.S. Sun: 5
Mark Craig/The (Minneapolis) Star-Tribune: 5
Mike Florio/Pro Football Talk: 5
Susan Slusser/The San Francisco Chronicle: 5
Mike Silver/The San Francisco Chronicle: 5
Ian Hartitz: 4
Bucky Brooks/Fox Sports: 4
DenverSports.com: 4
TWSN: 4
Jake Fischer: 3
@uSTADIUM: 3
@bryceshockeylife on Instagram: 3
@morning_skate: 3
@AryePulli: 3
Big Play Slay: 3
The 25/10 Show: 3
Deadline: 3
Ryan Michael: 3
Tom Fornelli/CBS Sports: 3
Philadelphia Eagles: 2
@ActionSportsJax: 2
Kansas City Chiefs: 2
Ben Fischer/Sports Business Journal: 2
Jay Glazer/Fox Sports: 2
Natasha Dye/People: 2
Clarence Hill/The Fort Worth Star-Telegram: 2
@AZCardinals: 2

Thanks for reading This Week In Bad Aggregation! User submissions are always welcome via e-mail or Twitter.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz