The behavior of shock-jock sports journalists is ruining the credibility of sports journalism.

Fox Sports 1 analyst Nick Wright, for example, is “outwright” wrong about anything and everything he says, and he knows it too. He defends his egregious statements for clicks and retweets. I am almost speechless when it comes to what this man says about any sport anywhere.  His recent defense of the Kansas City Chiefs was particularly horrendous.

Wright defended the Chiefs by saying that the offensive offsides flag that lost the Chiefs the game should not have been called. You heard me right. This so-called “analyst” said that the flag shouldn’t have been thrown. You could pull any guy off the street who has a sliver of football knowledge and he would know that it was a pentalty that deserved a flag. How does this man even have a platform? Defending a team because they lost to a penalty is the lowest of lows. 

Another example of this shock-jock reporting is Kendrick Perkins. He brings nothing to the table outside of his former NBA player status.  It is hard for me to even tune into ESPN anymore when Kendrick Perkins is on there because he says the most egregious things out of anybody. An example of this was during last year’s MVP race for the NBA. He claimed MVP voters had a racial bias towards Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic. Not even Stephen A. Smith says things this crazy. I don’t even know how Perkins has a job. That libel completely derailed Jokic’s MVP campaign. 

 As a high schooler with a passion for sports journalism, I believe that these so-called “analysts” are just enablers for the average Joe sports fan who doesn’t know anything about sports. They are a bad influence on aspiring sports journalists, and we should not look up to them.