Anytime someone in sports media besmirches the Kansas City Chiefs’ good name, it’s like a bat signal for Nick Wright.
The FS1 personality and host of First Things First makes no secret about his Chiefs’ fandom; he wears his heart on his sleeve. And if that means he’s more angry on-air after a Chiefs win than a Chiefs loss — then so be it.
But what really gets under Wright’s skin is when anyone in the mainstream media dares suggest that the Chiefs are somehow beneficiaries of NFL rigging. As wild as it may sound, that narrative is alive and well, fed by a handful of questionable calls that have taken on a life of their own.
And as Wright gets to be “right again,” he appeared on The Dan Patrick Show on Tuesday and unleashed on the narratives that have followed the Chiefs throughout the playoffs.
“I’m angry. I’m angry about how last week got hijacked,” said Wright. “I’m angry at folks instead of just being like, ‘I’m sorry, I was wrong,’ creating a nonsense conspiracy. I’m angry at the way we cover football these days… The conspiracy stuff — mainstream media let the tail wag the dog, in that, ‘The internet’s talking about it, so I guess it’s the story.’ ‘I don’t know, man, MLFootball and Dov Kleiman got nine thousand retweets on this still-shot photo of a potential hold, so I guess it’s got to be the B-block today.'”
He was only just getting started.
“And then a Twitter account with 12 million followers says, ‘Relief is on the way, football fans,'” Wright said, taking a not-so-thinly veiled shot at Adam Schefter. “Relief is on the way? Finish the thought. If you’re going to put it out there, finish the thought. Relief from what? A rigged game. Is that what you’re saying?”
Patrick implored Wright why he thinks ESPN’s foremost NFL insider put that out there.
“Because everyone has had their brain rotted by an algorithm, and it’s like, ‘Man, this sure gets engagement.’ And I get why the faceless, nameless accounts do it,” he said. It’s literally how they make their living — I get it. I don’t respect it, but I understand it. I look at that, honestly, no different than folks that run into any scam that people run just to get by. So be it…
“I don’t understand why someone, who the $1,800 bucks a month you can make off Twitter engagement means nothing to them, why they would do that. And I really don’t like the hiding behind the, ‘Hey guys, I’m just presenting unbiased facts.’ There’s a trillion facts to choose from at any given time. But, if there were a conspiracy, Dan, on the internet that you murder people, and then, I tweeted, ‘Here’s a fact: there have been 78 murders in Connecticut in the year Dan Patrick moved to town.’ I’m not saying anything; it’s just a fact.”
Patrick asked Wright to put his Chiefs hat down for a second and attempt to be objective as they tried to solve the root of the issue here: Have the Chiefs gotten any favoritism?
“The data suggests not… Now, listen, it was a really bad look — and I will admit — when in the first half of the first playoff game, Patrick asked for a call, didn’t get it and then, the ref came over to the sidelines where he was sitting on the bench and seemingly apologized,” said Wright. “Oh, I’m sorry, that was Josh Allen, and nobody cared. No one had ever seen that happen in sports history. It happens with Josh Allen; nobody cares.
“Do I think that the NFL protects quarterbacks? [Tom] Brady got his knee blown out by Bernard Pollard; they changed the rules. Aaron Rodgers got his collarbone broken; they changed the rules. Do I think these star quarterbacks, do they get a better whistle than Will Levis? Of course. Do I think that the NFL is a very tough sport to officiate? Yes. Do I think that if you’re in standalone, close games, there are going to be a bunch of calls, and people are going to have issues with it?
“The idea that they get a more beneficial whistle than other teams, there’s no data to suggest it. And that’s why that cherry-picked data of roughing the passer penalties is so meaningless to me.”
And so is the idea that there is Chiefs fatigue in sports media, at least to Wright.
So, in Wright’s view, the real problem isn’t a conspiracy to favor the Chiefs or the fatigue that comes with their dominating the news cycle — it’s a media ecosystem more interested in sensationalism and engagement than in telling the full, honest story.