SI

New York Times Writer Publicly Expresses Frustration With Edits to Nick Bosa Column

The Athletic’s Jim Trotter wasn’t pleased that a recent column was ‘watered down.’

Jimmy Traina

Bosa (back right) has received plenty of attention for the stunt he pulled on ‘Sunday Night Football.’
Bosa (back right) has received plenty of attention for the stunt he pulled on ‘Sunday Night Football.’ / NBC Sports

1. During NBC’s postgame show Sunday night after the Niners beat the Cowboys, reporter Melissa Stark was interviewing Brock Purdy, George Kittle and Isaac Guerendo.

At one point, Nick Bosa quickly ran into the picture, pointed at his Make America Great Again hat and ran off.

During the postgame press conference, Bosa was asked about crashing the NBC interview while wearing the hat, but he refused to speak about it.

The Athletic’s Jim Trotter then wrote a column about the incident and the NFL’s non-response to Bosa’s actions.

Now, I know at this very moment some of you are reading this, you’re ready to pounce and start screaming “woke” or “liberal” or “fake news media.”

But I just gave you all this information to set up what I really want to address.

After The Athletic posted the column, Trotter promoted it on his Twitter account, but added an eye-opening note. According to Trotter, the piece was “watered down" and he wasn’t allowed to write what he really wanted to write.

As someone who writes a column, I can tell you what Trotter is really saying. The Athletic heavily edited the column, he fought against those edits, lost, and Trotter isn’t pleased with the end result.

What fascinates me about this saga doesn’t have to do with Bosa and what he did.

As a writer (and I use that term loosely), I just want to give props to Trotter for calling out his own company. Every single one of us who writes hates to get edited. We especially hate to get heavily edited.

It takes a lot of guts to tell your readers that the work you presented was not actually what you want to present. Trotter will probably get scolded by someone at The Athletic, because no company likes getting called out publicly.

But good for Trotter for doing what so many writers have wanted to do so many times in their careers.

2. If you follow the Watt brothers on social media, you know they are very tight. JJ is always championing T.J.

JJ Watt also keeps receipts for his brother. After T.J. sealed the Steelers' 26-18 win with a strip sack fumble recovery against the Giants on Monday night, JJ pounced.

3. Steelers wide receiver George Pickens paid tribute to Randy “Macho Man” Savage during Monday’s game.

4. The only people more upset than Yankees fans about what’s happened in the World Series are those with Fox. A four-game sweep would be a killer for the network, which experienced good ratings for Games 1 and 2, but would end up with another year of disappointing ratings if the series ends in a sweep.

5. Here is this week’s edition of the best weekly segment on sports TV: Bad Beats.

6. The latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with CBS’s James Brown.

The longtime NFL Today host talks about life before broadcasting, when he attended Harvard University and tried out for the Atlanta Hawks, and what happened when he didn't make the team.

Brown then goes into his broadcasting career and discusses his decision to leave Fox's pregame show to join CBS, what he expects to get out of NFL Today each week, the changes at NFL Today this season with Phil Simms and Boomer Esiason out and Matt Ryan in, what his typical Sunday is like each week and his biggest broadcasting flub, which was an epic 1-2 punch when he did play-by-play.

Following Brown, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week’s topics include the Dodgers-Yankees World Series, a terrible gambling beat, the NFL trade deadline falling on Election Day and a review of the movie Saturday Night.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: There’s only one man who can save the Yankees at this point.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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