The Deep Compassion Of Adam Schefter
First off: RIP Dwayne Haskins. Just tragic news to see. I hope his family is okay. Taken far too soon. There isn’t a lot I knew about him prior to this happening, so I don’t have a lot I feel I can say, but I really hope his loved ones are doing alright and they make it through this.
Adam Schefter’s reputation has been slowly eroding over the years and the tragedy pushed him further into the hole. If you missed it, the tweet he made announcing the news honestly wasn’t awful by any stretch, but the inclusion of “struggling to catch on” was not the way to phrase a summary of a man’s career hours after he passed. Not as a professional reporter. It got a massive overblown backlash (because, you know, that’s twitter’s reason to exist) and he eventually apologized for it later. I still don’t think the tweet was that bad but considering Schefter’s had a bit of a history here and as stated before, his reputation has gone slowly downhill as he’s become more and more of an ESPN corporate stooge. He’s not Darren Rovell levels of clueless or Mike Florio levels of needlessly petty but he’s getting there.
The tweet did spark a larger conversation on how athletes are not viewed as people very often but as commodities and just as what they’ve accomplished on the field. That’s true, but I saw his tweet as a symptom of a different problem. The current news climate of needing to be “first”. To me Schefter was just trying to give a brief career summary of a football player and didn’t properly choose his words, because he was more concerned with breaking the news than anything else. Schefter has made his entire career out of being the first to break news. He’s a trusted mouthpiece for almost everyone. Breaking the news brings eyeballs to your employers so being first matters. If anything his dumb tweet probably brought ESPN even more traffic, because hate traffic is still traffic.
Being first is a fucking industry now. Schefter was a good reporter for a while because he was usually right (and still usually is). But you also got folks like Mike Florio of PFT who publishes basically any rumor he hears because a few of them are going to be right by chance, and now he’s got a media empire. All those rumors and stories PFT got wrong? Who cares. What matters is you got to it first, you got people talking. Media outlets literally compete in trying to be the first place to put a review of a movie or game up. First first first. It shouldn’t matter that you were the first to tweet the news about a man tragically dying. It’s depressing that it does. The news doesn’t change either way, and the faster you go the more likely you are to make a mistake.
It brings me a small amount of comfort because I’ll never have this problem. I’m perpetually late to the party! Take that, Schefter.
Wait, how did you make this comic and not reference the far more tone deaf idiocy of Gil Brandt a few hours later?
Gil Brandt was second, of course.
It was definitely an even worse take, but blends into the background of terrible takes that weren’t first.
He’s also got a way smaller audience
He was highlighting the callousness of Schefter’s tweet. What Brandt said was just straight up malice.
Reminds me of how Marty Schottenheimer’s death was reported by the Washington Post, talking about how his teams “wilted in the playoffs”.
It was either that or “Innovator of the Run-Run-Run-Punt offense.”
Is it bad that until I scrolled down to the title I assumed this was about Dan Snyder.
The saddest part about this from what I’ve heard was that Haskins was trying to redeem himself after his failed tenure on the Commanders; He was trying to be a better person and better teammate… I hope he makes it to football heaven
Also Fuck Dan Snyder, if he dies can you please draw what football hell looks like?
Art Modell, Bob Irsay, and George Preston Marshall will be there to greet him.
Don’t forget Hugh “I don’t want that n***** jew (referring to Doug Williams) representing my team” Culverhouse
Marge Schott will be pouring drinks.
If Art’s there, then so is Bud Adams
While I’m in full agreement that the “FIRST!” culture in news is a bad thing all around, I feel like what Florio/PFT does is not the same category as news. They literally title their section “news & rumors”, and when it comes to sports, the conjecture on what MIGHT happen is almost as fun as discussing what actually happened. So in that context I enjoy reading even the crazy stuff. But with actual *news*, I don’t want “first to publish” to be the criteria. For me, a story on PFT is different than one from the news side of ESPN or NFLN or wherever. It’s closer to sports talk radio, where I expect a lot of it to be rumor, hearsay, or opinion of the writer/speaker
(how it happened)
Adam Schefter: “I’m running a bit late for dinner with a GM. Can you make a statement in my name how I’m sad that Dwayne Haskins before his career had a chance to get going after his not-so-ideal start at Washington and that his death should serve as a reminder that we should cherish life?”
Overworked Underpaid Intern Who Was About to Quit Anyway: “I know exactly what to say it your name.”
Twitter is such a net negative to humanity, granted this first to post culture has been terrible years before Twitter was even a thing. I’d highly recommend the book “Trust Me, I’m Lying” to everyone to see how the news is made in the modern era. It’s worse than you think
This is a tough one.
On the one hand… a person has died, and regardless of circumstances, this was tragic. I was not a fan of Dwayne Haskins, the player, at all, but I empathize with loves ones who lost Dwayne Haskins, the human being. And it’s understandable to expect the first words from professionals to be more caring than: “He was living to die.”
On the other hand… while Schefter and Gil are first rate jackasses, Schefter’s original tweet wasn’t a pejorative, or unnecessarily cruel. It’s more or less an objective description of his short NFL career. He DID struggle, mightily. Pointing that very obvious fact out doesn’t make Dwayne less of a person, it just shows him for what he was – a flawed human, like the rest of us. If he said something insulting, like, “Just one in a long line of horrible, forgettable QBs drafted by Daniel Snyder,” then yea, let’s dogpile the motherf#$*er. It feels like Schefter is getting delayed punishment for the time he broke into a hospital, murdered 8 doctors, kicked an old man down a staircase, and stole JPP’s medical files.
I know these are public facing figures, but it seems to me that people are upset with things being said at all, and not necessarily who said them. So I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do in situations like this. How long of a moratorium should there have been before we can talk about the shadows in someone’s life when they die? Is it 24 hours? A week? A year? Or are we never allowed to mention that he was a bad NFL QB by most metrics, and Dwayne gets the post-mortem equivalent of a participation trophy and a pat on the head for trying?
” How long of a moratorium should there have been before we can talk about the shadows in someone’s life when they die?
I don’t know man, sometime between the first notification of his death and “literally any other time.”
I don’t think Schefter’s tweet was unnecessarily cruel either (especially after the Gil Brandt nonsense) but it wasn’t a necessary addition. His struggles have been well-documented and largely that’s how he’ll be remembered: A very good college QB who couldn’t cut it like so many others at the next level. I don’t think anyone’s trying to gloss over that. If you’re worried he’ll be memorialized like Sean Taylor without “earning it” I’d say you should chill for a week while it’s fresh and then wait to see if that actually becomes a problem, because I’m betting it won’t.
I think your last statement there shows you don’t really get it. Nobody’s handing out “participation trophies” and “pats on the head” a community is eulogizing a fucking 25 year old kid and expressing shock and disbelief at how quickly life can change and what a shame it is for a life to be lost so soon. How much more could he have become as a man, mentor, father, brother, in the remaining 60 years he had on this earth. Forgive us if how many interceptions he threw for the WFT isn’t the first thing people want to focus on.
I think all of the things you mentioned can be focused on AND still provide enough room to talk about the full picture, which would include on-the-field stuff. Nothing you talk about – the man, mentor, father, brother, etc. are removed, diminished, or pushed out of the picture if people also mention he had a rough go of it at the NFL level.
When my father passed away, my sister IMMEDIATELY forgot every bad thing he ever did. Her entire vision of him became this wholly inaccurate portrayal of a man who never did any wrong, never lost his temper, etc. And that’s her right, so I’m not going to criticize or take it away from her. But at the same time, it’s also my right to remember him as accurately as I can… warts, blemishes, and everything.
As I said before, as long as the shadows aren’t mentioned in a disrespectful or disparaging manner, I don’t see how accurately portraying Haskins – warts and all – takes away from him in ANY capacity as a human. If anything, I would argue it ADDS to it, because we’re focusing on all of him – not just the good things.
“How long of a moratorium should there have been before we can talk about the shadows in someone’s life when they die? Is it 24 hours? A week? A year? Or are we never allowed to mention that he was a bad NFL QB by most metrics, and Dwayne gets the post-mortem equivalent of a participation trophy and a pat on the head for trying?”
Wait until the body is buried or cremated before mentioning how Washington is a terrible environment and he overcame a dysfunctional organization to get another NFL job.
OMG the pearl clutching is so annoying at this point. Like yeah it was pretty tasteless of a tweet but it wasn’t some vile act that is unredeemable. Clown on him for being an idiot and be done with it already.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a great tweet, and it’s not what I would have done, but I honestly didn’t think it was super bad. He’s a football reporter, and that’s the truth of his football career. Many people probably forgot who he was, adding a brief refresher is ok.
Brandt’s comments about Haskins “Living to die” were truly awful though, because it was commenting on him as a human being in a deeply negative way rather than just saying he kinda sucked at football.
You finally pinpointed for me the problem I have with Mike Florio. As a Vikings fan, I’m used to plenty of criticism. I’m used to disappointment. I’m used to talking heads speak ill of the purple. For some reason, it’s a little different with Florio. It feels “petty”. It feels mean-spirited. It feels like he lingers just a little too long on talking points and then comes back and says “I’m just saying what I think, it’s just an opinion, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan”. I love his insight into legal issues in the league and player issues, but when it comes to actual analysis, it feels like he’s got a little vindictive streak and I can’t even begin to figure out why.
Because being a dick gets you clicks
While I agree that Schefter’s tweet on wasn’t that bad nor malicious on the surface, I get why there was such an intense backlash over it. That wasn’t the time for a career retrospective, and highlighting a dude’s struggles mere minutes after his death just comes off as callous at best. Was Schefter objectively wrong? No, but he could have worded that tweet basically any other way and not at all mentioned anything about his struggles in the NFL.
I do agree that this situation highlights how often people forget that these players are human beings though. It’s sad that much of the discourse after the news was, “what could have been had Haskins gone to another team?” To me, it’s a lot deeper than that. Forget football, this is a guy that had his whole life to do basically anything. He was 24. He could have started a business or found a new hobby. Hell he could have used his knowledge to help younger athletes reach the next level if he wanted to stay near the game. He could have done anything and he’ll never have those opportunities now because of what happened. It just seems off to immediately discuss his potential worth on the field right after his death, positive or negative. Schefter’s tweet was tone deaf but it’s basically a byproduct of this sort of mentality.
I didn’t lose any respect for Schefter based on his Haskins tweet, because I already lost all I had from him tweeting about God protecting Deshaun Watson from 25 conspiring women trying to ruin his life.