ESPN’s Josina Anderson has taken a lot of criticism over the past two days for the way she handled the altercation during Thursday night’s Pittsburgh Steelers-Cleveland Browns game. Immediately after Garrett ripped Rudolph’s helmet off and smashed the quarterback in the head with it, Anderson took to Twitter to speculate that Rudolph must have said “something egregious” for Garrett to have reacted like that. She immediately deleted the tweet, and some interpreted it as Anderson hinting that Rudolph must have used a racial slur.
ESPN NFL reporter immediately Tweets defense of Myles Garrett, implies Mason Rudolph said something racist. Deletes it. pic.twitter.com/VPMluuq7E5
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) November 15, 2019
Anderson then sparked more controversy when she tweeted a photo from the brawl that some claimed shows Rudolph grabbing Garrett’s groin. There has been no indication from anyone involved that the QB did anything of the sort, but Anderson described it as a “non-consensual act” that was “beyond invasive, provoking and wrong.”
@JosinaAnderson IS THE WORST – Fox News should hire her pic.twitter.com/x8HOU0FVw0
— Billy Bisson (@BillyBisson) November 16, 2019
Anderson also deleted that tweet, and she issued an apology on Saturday morning.
Mistakes need to be owned, and I will own mine here. With the benefit of additional angles, it’s clear my tweet misinterpreted one of the photos taken during the brawl. That’s my fault, I apologize. My goal is to always be completely accurate and fair.
— ig: josinaanderson (@JosinaAnderson) November 16, 2019
As I noted, that tweet was a mistake, as such it’s removed from my timeline.
— ig: josinaanderson (@JosinaAnderson) November 16, 2019
We have been surprised by the amount of people who feel the need to focus on Rudolph’s role in instigating considering how far above and beyond dangerous and unnecessary Garrett’s reaction was. Even Garrett’s own teammates and organization did not even consider coming to his defense, which tells you all you need to know about the act. Anyone who uses a screenshot or photo from the incident to try to place blame on Rudolph is missing the point, and Anderson seems to realize she made a mistake in doing so.
