Jed York, the owner of the San Francisco 49ers, was arrested in Ohio over the weekend. The owner of the 49ers was arrested in East Palestine, Ohio, on charges of suspicion to engage in prostitution. Charges were ultimately dropped to misdemeanor disorderly conduct as part of a plea agreement resolving the case, according to court records.
The 49ers are saying that “as this is a legal matter, which has been resolved, we will not be providing any further comment at this time.”
The NFL, meanwhile, said in a statement that the league is “aware of the matter which will be reviewed under the personal conduct policy.”
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If an NFL star was arrested for something like this, it would be massive, breaking news across ESPN, Fox Sports 1, etc.
However, while the major sports media companies did cover the story, they’re facing criticism for not going deep on it.
TV networks face scrutiny for coverage of York’s arrest
ESPN didn’t address it immediately, as Awful Announcing noted.
“In the two hours after the story initially broke, ESPN failed to address York’s arrest in any meaningful way. First Take did not mention the arrest, despite being on the air for over an hour after reports first surfaced. When Pat McAfee came on the air, he alluded to York’s arrest at the top of his show, but largely in jest. A subsequent segment with ESPN’s top NFL insider Adam Schefter included no discussion of the story, except for a brief tease that it happened before McAfee asked Schefter about a different 49ers storyline: George Kittle’s injury,” they wrote.
Other networks, meanwhile, didn’t do much with the story, either.
“Meanwhile, FS1 was stuck in a re-air of Wake Up Barstool during the first 90 minutes following the breaking news. When Colin Cowherd’s radio show came on, the FS1 host led with his planned monologue and briefly mentioned he’d discuss the news later in the show,” Awful Announcing added.
“CBS Sports HQ seemed to ignore the story entirely, instead running through the top NFL storylines of the day.”
The 49ers will have to address this in a deeper way at some point.
