The NFL legal tampering window is one of the sillier parts of the sports calendar, not only because of the oxymoron of “legal tampering” but also because the dollar figures reported by insiders are artificially inflated. In recent years, these insiders have added another absurd wrinkle into the March free agency cycle by constantly promoting agents while reporting on signings. At least one national sports host has had enough of the whole charade, as Nick Wright called the industry out Wednesday on FS1.
“This is just a public service message to all of our NFL insiders out there,” Wright said on his show First Things First. “We care so much more about accurate contract details than what agent got him the deal.”
On social media, where NFL insiders like Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport break news, their posts will often be capped off with a credit to the agent who did the deal.
“This last week, I’ve gotten a ton of, ‘as negotiated by,'” Wright said, “and what I haven’t gotten a lot of is, how much did he actually make?”
More to the point, Wright took NFL insiders to task for having their priorities all out of whack. He even questioned who they truly see as their audience, given that they appear to be more concerned with publicizing agents and agencies than delivering news to their readers and viewers.
NFL contracts and the salary cap are a minefield, with so much front-loading, back-loading, non-guarantees and signing bonuses that contracts are never actually what they seem. Wright believes insiders owe it to the audience to explain those details rather than giving a nice PR hit to their sources.
“Next free agency, can we just spend a little more time with, ‘Hey here’s the real money and the real guarantees,’ and a little less tips of the cap to the agents who are telling you?” Wright said. “I think it’s fair, I think it’s in service of the fans, which is who we all work for.”
While Wright is seizing on NFL reporters forming this annoying habit, it was arguably NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski who started this trend. By acknowledging where they got the news and openly lauding their sources while continually leaving out key details and interesting backstory, insiders are giving up the game of what their job actually is.
In many cases, these people have turned themselves into disposable human press releases. This NFL free agency cycle showed, as Wright correctly points out, that now they are not even hiding it.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.