Colin Cowherd was on the Deion Sanders hype train in September. But even he raised an eyebrow at Sports Illustrated naming the Colorado Buffaloes’ football coach its Sportsperson of the Year.
Thursday morning, the magazine revealed Sanders was its Sportsperson of the Year for 2023. That was a seemingly curious choice, considering his Buffaloes were really only compelling for three weeks of the year and finished 4-8.
Is Sports Illustrated bestowing Sanders with the honor just the product of a publication trying to sell magazines off one of college football’s most recognizable personalities? Or was it AI failure?
“Sports Illustrated – or one of their computers – wrote a story.”
Boom. Roasted. pic.twitter.com/DPYlMFO7qF— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 30, 2023
“Sports Illustrated names Deion Sanders Sportsperson of the Year,” Cowherd said on his Thursday radio show. “So all the Deion haters, they don’t like that at all. I just say, ‘First of all, it’s probably AI-generated. It probably wasn’t even written by a human.’ Or it’s the LIBERAL media.”
No, Cowherd doesn’t really believe Prime winning the award is the fault of artificial intelligence or the liberal media. But the Fox Sports Radio host appeared to relish taking the opportunity to chide Sports Illustrated over accusations from earlier this week that they had published AI-generated content.
Cowherd made it clear that while he wouldn’t have joined the AI sportswriters, liberal media, unbiased humans, or whoever it was in voting for Sanders as Sportsperson of the Year, he admitted Colorado was a “fascinating story” earlier this year.
“Deion Sanders, in September, literally changed network television ratings,” Cowherd explained. “Sports Illustrated – or one of their computers – wrote a story and selected him…the sportswriters who are people actually, voted Deion Sanders Sportsperson of the Year.”
That’s not exactly how the AI-generated content was allegedly published by SI, but let Cowherd finish his routine. Cowherd proceeded to state that if this was just an effort by Sports Illustrated to select someone with name recognition who would garner attention for the award, they’re going to lose credibility. Although, it might be too late for that.
“Sports Illustrated got busted the other day for AI articles, so maybe they lost a lot of their credibility to begin with,” Cowherd griped. “You’re using fake people, it’s not great.”
In the wake of the allegations that they published AI-generated stories, SI has since refuted the claims by stating the articles in question were licensed content from an external, third-party company which allowed its writers to use pseudo names. But try selling that to Colin Cowherd.
[The Herd]
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com