Sam Darnold had his worst game on Monday as an NFL starting quarterback, throwing four interceptions and posting a putrid 3.6 passer rating in a 33-0 loss to the Patriots.
That was bad enough. But the league didn’t do Darnold any favors in the airing of his sideline comments about ghosts, and Le’Veon Bell couldn’t believe it.
Following Darnold’s second interception of the game, ESPN’s Monday Night Football telecast aired a mic’d up segment that showed Darnold saying that he was “seeing ghosts.” Darnold was crushed on Twitter for the remark, but evidently, the mic’d up segment wasn’t totally at ESPN’s discretion.
According to the New York Daily News, NFL Films approved the airing of the “ghosts” remark. Upon seeing the report, Bell tweeted that the league “screwed” Darnold over.
NFL Films puts together weekly highlights and in-season reviews with player sound. And with very few exceptions, nothing particularly controversial or noteworthy makes the final NFL Films videos. They mostly consist of generic sideline banter and some trash talk, but the league is ultra selective with its soundbites — and that’s by design.
By airing the “seeing ghosts” comment, the league was only going to make Darnold look bad and overmatched. It was done to embarrass Darnold, which explains why Bell was upset with the league.
