ESPN loves to pretend they care about the safety of football players. Go back to late September when Tua suffered a serious concussion against the Bengals on Thursday Night Football. ESPN, and all of their talking heads, talked about player safety and what the league needs to do to protect the players from themselves. What a difference two months makes. This weekend the Dolphins travel to San Francisco to face the 49ers. It's a big game between an AFC and NFC Super Bowl contender. Apparently this is not enough for Bart Scott and Stephen A Smith as they predict a serious injury for Tua. They can't break down the X's and O's between one of the leagues best offenses in Miami and the leagues best defense in San Francisco. They need to resort to classless takes like the ones below.
There are plenty of great analysts that ESPN has. Dan Orlovsky, Luis Riddick, Troy Aikman, Field Yates, and the list goes on and on. Why ESPN insists on having Stephen A- who is a basketball guy- give takes on sports that he knows little to nothing about? Bart Scott was a player though. Why on earth would he think predicting a "Pat White" injury for one of the leagues best quarterbacks this season? Can he not give a breakdown of the 49ers defensive front vs the Fins O-Line? Apparently not. His over the top takes and ability to just be annoying has resulted in his afternoon radio show on ESPN to be moved to the New York market only. I could go on and on. But here are the videos where Bart Scott and Stephen A Smith predict a serious injury for Tua.
Bart Scott
For some context, Pat White's career was basically ended by Ryan Clark of the Pittsburgh Steelers on a hit that was questionable by today's standard. Bringing up Tua's durability is fair. I've been critical of Tua's availability going back to his second season with Alabama. But to say that is tasteless. But par for the course for Bart Scott.
Stephen A's Take
The discussion started off well. Stephen A brought up San Francisco's awesome defense. Perfectly reasonable take to bring up. Is he saying the 49ers are going to have a bounty-gate situation? Are the 49ers going into the game intentionally trying to injure Tua? Once again, Stephen A needs to stop talking about the NFL.
Here's a Good Breakdown
Kyler Murray Patrick Peterson Beef
There is less and less hate in sports these days. It's rare that we get stars that do not like each other, and make those feelings known. Baseball seems to be the one sports where bad blood is known to the public. Not so much in the NFL. That has changed this week with the Kyler Murray and Patrick Peterson beef. Peterson and Murray we're teammates in Arizona in 2019 and 2020. There was never anything out in the open about Peterson and Murray not liking each other while teammates. There wasn't even a hint of that through first season and a half since Peterson signed with the Vikings. They even played against each other in week 8. It was a 34-26 win for the Vikings. Murray threw 2 picks in that game, but neither was via Patrick Peterson.
The beef started on Peterson's podcast, All Things Covered, that aired on Wednesday, November 30th. Peterson said that "Kyler Murray don't care about nobody but Kyler Murray." These comments were made since reports have come out that the Kliff Kingsbury-Kyler Murray relationship was icy at the start of the season, but has since improved. Kyler Murray responded by saying Peterson should have called him to discuss the topic before spouting off on his podcast to get listeners. DeAndre Hopkins also weighed in, saying you shouldn't kick a man when he's down. How exactly Murray is down is still a mystery to me. He is playing poor. That's on him. But respect to D-Hop for sticking up for a teammate. It's a strange development in the NFL season, but I'm always here for a Kyler Murray Patrick Peterson beef. I just wish it happened before they played.
