It’s been a wild week for notable football head coaches retiring or ending longtime runs with their teams. Nick Saban called it a career at Alabama, Pete Carroll’s 14-year run with the Seattle Seahawks came to an end, and Bill Belichick’s legendary New England Patriots era is over.
One longtime coach that some have assumed will retire once his season is over is Andy Reid. The two-time Super Bowl-winning head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs is getting up there and doesn’t have too much left to prove. We’ll see what happens once KC’s season is officially over but, for now, he remains in the employ of the Chiefs.
These days, it’s pretty easy for fake social media accounts to fool people, including those in the media. This Friday alone, we saw a fake report about Caleb Williams making the rounds on X/Twitter, and a lot of football folks fell for it.
Turns out, there was also a fake Adam Schefter report circulating on Facebook about Reid’s retirement. We know this because Chris “Mad Dog” Russo fell for it and announced it at the end of his Friday show on Sirius XM.
https://twitter.com/BackAftaThis/status/1745950725270593892
“Adam Schefter just reported this. Now, I don’t know if this…we gotta double-check it…that Andy Reid has announced his retirement from the NFL and Matt Nagy will be the interim coach of the Chiefs during the postseason,” said Russo. “Wow.”
Now, the idea that Reid would retire BEFORE the Chiefs’ playoff game should have tipped Mad Dog off, but he got caught up in the moment. And as soon as he went off the air, we’re guessing someone let him that Adam Schefter did not, in fact, make such a report.
https://twitter.com/MadDogUnleashed/status/1745949035427409953
“Well that’s the last time I get my NFL News from FaceBook,” wrote Russo on X/Twitter. “Yes, I got had. Can you blame me after all the news this week? Next time I’ll trust my producer before going rogue with breaking news!”
Russo said it himself, “We gotta double-check it.” Good advice for next time.
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.