ESPN’s Adam Schefter is widely known as an NFL shill. He rarely, if ever, criticizes the league and has even fed from the same trough as the entity he supposedly covers objectively.
Sure, some of this is a product of ESPN’s way-too-cozy relationship with all the major sports league, vis-a-vis massive broadcasting contracts. But it also always partly seemed like Schefter’s blind eye to all the lousy things the NFL has done through the years directly related to protecting his elaborate pipeline of scoops.
It took the threat of hundreds of thousands of people dying during a pandemic to do it, but Schefter finally, last night, when discussing the NFL’s insistence on holding their upcoming draft, nipped at the greedy hand that has tossed him Milk Bones all these years:
“They are determined to put this on while there is carnage in the streets,” said Schefter during a segment with Scott Van Pelt on Sportscenter.
To understand how stunning this turn of events is, one need look no further than Van Pelt’s jaw dangling in his own lap. He so clearly has no idea how to react to his colleague hurling rocks at the gravy train. The awkwardness is wonderful to watch, but it’s sad that this mild outburst would qualify as controversial. Though, it likely will as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has desperately tried to stop any actual concern for human life from getting in the way of the draft moving forward. So it would be surprising — and refreshing — if Schefter doesn’t scale down his criticism in the coming days.
It’s something to keep an eye on.