The Draw Play

I was debating heavily on whether or not to touch on this story for a bunch of reasons.

1. Matt Miller just suffered a horrific, life-altering accident. Felt bad to kick him while he’s down, even if the internet has turned on him
2. This is not quite football news but football-adjacent media drama
3. I had a small but extremely positive personal experience with Miller

However, it doesn’t appear to be going away, and this is such a weird situation. I’ve got somewhat complicated feelings, and I figured it would be better to let them out than stew on them.

For those out of the loop, Matt Miller is an ESPN draft guy, formerly of Bleacher Report. You might recognize him as a Day 3 talking head guy, and he’s been a respected writer, scout, and draft pundit for a long time. He revealed that he was in a horrible car accident a couple weeks ago that resulted in the amputation of his arm. He started a GoFundMe for medical bill assistance – then things got weird.

It felt odd that a ESPN TV personality would need a GoFundMe. America has a horrible health care system but ESPN employees (more accurately, Disney employees) should be pretty well covered, and since Matt Miller appears on TV, he should be relatively well compensated. We don’t know the details to his coverage or salary, nor the details to his medical needs, so him getting bowled over by our garbage system is not out of the realm of possibility, but it still felt off.

That peculiar oddness of the GoFundMe brought to light some old grievances and accusations of scamming. Awful Announcing has a very good summary of all the stories here, and I suggest you read that if interested, as I’d rather not just make a wiki summary of that report. Shortest answer: Miller ran a lot of fantasy leagues for charity as well as professional advice courses, but seemed to never pay out on time, if at all, and his charity itself is in question.

Now the sports internet has largely turned on Miller; his co-workers and colleagues have gone silent about it all. I do not know if any of this stuff is true. I do not play fantasy, I have had no experience with any of this. It did not help Miller’s reputation when a couple days ago the dash-cam footage of Miller’s accident was revealed, and it shows him clearly at fault, veering carelessly into the oncoming lane. Probably on his phone. Don’t text and drive, kids.

Miller is currently on leave, rehabbing and adjusting to his new normal. He’s also under investigation by the Missouri Attorney General. He may have lost more than just an arm, he may end up losing his career.

All of this has given me really conflicted emotions, because I really liked and respected Miller.

When I was starting out in my first years, 2014, just a nobody with a few thousand Twitter followers, Miller somehow found me (no idea how) and requested a caricature he could use as his Twitter avatar. He was still at Bleacher Report at the time. I made his cartoon. If you are familiar with Miller, you might even remember it:

He paid me extra, more than I requested, on time, and tweeted it out with credit. Since he had around 100k followers, this was some of the highest visibility I had ever gotten. I got a lot of business and a lot of contacts and growth from it, and he was never shy about sending people my way when anyone asked where he got his avatar, which he used for more than a year. I can directly point to the Miller cartoon as one of my “bumps” that made me who I am now, which gave me communication with people I respect, and made it possible for me to make at least a little money from this. He could have exploited me but he didn’t; this was early 2014, when I would still do stuff for exposure because when you are that small, exposure does genuinely help, and you don’t have the option to turn people away so easily. He was a big account, I would have done it for free, but he asked what he owed and he delivered a little extra on top. I cannot hate Miller because of that. I have retained a soft spot for him, even if we have not communicated since.

But his being good to me personally isn’t really a defense. If anything, it makes the accusations feel even more frustrating and disappointing. I don’t know Miller, but I know from my personal experience that Miller is capable of being better than this. I’ve seen how gracious and generous he can be with little effort, so that same guy being a scammer just…it really sucks. If I’ve seen the best of him, everyone else deserves to see it too, but it’s up to him to actually deliver. I hope he is able to do so and make amends for the people he has wronged.