Stefon Diggs Responds To Notion He Generally Mistreats People
Stefon Diggs was bound to feel some kind of way after a Buffalo Bills reporter was caught on a hot mic before a press conference negatively portraying the Bills wide receiver's character.
And today we've got the Diggs response.
So allow me to step out of the way and give the floor to Stefon Diggs, who took to X (formerly Twitter) to give his thoughts on Maddy Glab's gaffe before a Wednesday press conference:
Stefon Diggs Reacts To Narrative
You should know that wasn't how Glab described Diggs might interact with her. As she and other reporters were awaiting a Diggs press conference, Glab said:
"There’s no control over Stefon Diggs. Dude’s gonna do what he wants to do. He’ll look in my face and say, ‘F you.’ That’s how he treats everybody."
This is indeed, as Diggs said, an attack on the player's character.
And Diggs, in his fourth season with the Bills, disagrees that's how it is between himself and other people. And especially between himself and the reporter.
Bills Diggs Offers Measured Response
And this is where I'm impressed with Diggs and his response.
Not that he cares, probably, but I believe this is a perfectly measured answer to the narrative he's a petulant person who blows off people, including the reporter, and is otherwise uncontrollable.
And now the painful part, at least for me.
Diggs Makes Good Point About Media
He ain't wrong.
The truth is members of the media are very much flawed people, as are the athletes they cover. So they make mistakes, as Glab did.
I'm guilty too, I admit. I've never done this, but I've made other mistakes, I'm not proud to say.
The errors are luckily coming in much wider gaps now because I'm older and, yes, wiser. So it's been years since I stepped into something.
But that's not true with much of the media today.
When I started covering the NFL, I was 27 years old. And I was the youngest guy on the beat.
Today reporters covering teams are often much younger than that. Newspapers, you see, want to keep costs down so they hire young people right out of college or close to that and put them on prime beats.
Same with websites not named OutKick. OutKick hired me, a grizzled vet of 33 NFL seasons, to cover the league. And, yes, that experience costs more.
But that experience often helps keep me and my employer out of trouble. A younger, less experienced and mature reporter will step right in it, so to speak.
Bills Need Week To Improve
Years ago this is a conversation that would have been had between the two people involved. Maybe between them and a club public relations person.
There would have been an apology by the reporter. The player probably would have accepted. And we would have been unaware there was ever an issue.
But it being a social media age, the apology from Glab was public. The response from Diggs is obviously public.
Both are on social media.
And if there is a distraction from all this, everyone knows about it.
Look, I want to say this episode won't be a distraction that derails a football team. The Buffalo Bills are stronger than that.
But it is now Thursday and this is another issue they're dealing with in a growing litany of issues this week.
Eventually the week needs to be about football. Exclusively about football.