The Broncos’ crew got got by a completely bogus Micah Parsons quote.
No matter the topic of conversation – whether it be sports, politics, culture, or anything else imaginable – it has never been easier to be duped by a fake story. Just ask the Denver Broncos’ local broadcast crew.
The Broncos played host to the Arizona Cardinals in a preseason affair on Saturday night, and the local broadcast teed up a segment to discuss disgruntled Dallas Cowboys defensive end Micah Parsons.
It was veteran broadcaster Steve Levy, who calls preseason Broncos games, who introduced sideline reporter Cynthia Frelund to talk Parsons, particularly a statement the Dallas star recently made on his podcast.
The only issue is that the quote was completely made up.
Parsons hasn’t published a new episode of his podcast since January, well before his issues with the Cowboys materialized. That takes all of about three seconds of research to discover, but was something producers of the Cardinals-Broncos broadcast clearly elected to skip.
Broncos preseason analyst Ryan Harris pushing the envelope about how Parsons’ fake quote is a testament to how great Denver head coach Sean Payton makes things that much more awkward.
“Everybody gave Sean Payton some grief for saying he wants to win a Super Bowl,” Harris said during the segment. “How ’bout this? You got one of the best defensive ends saying the Broncos have a real chance at the Super Bowl. So, get mad at him, too.”
While quite literally everything about the segment is horrible, the biggest gut punch about the situation is that the fake quote from Parson initially made the rounds on social media on Aug. 13. The game was being broadcast on NFL Network as well, just for another insult to injury.
The Cardinals-Broncos game wasn’t played until Aug. 16, so the production staff sat on this quote for three full days without realizing it was completely bogus and ran with it during the middle of the game.
While many sports reporters and writers have gotten got on social media by a fake quote or report in recent years and re-posted something completely made up, putting together a full segment about a fake quote and running it during an NFL game is a new one.