It’d be tough to argue against Jim Nantz being the number-one voice in the NFL, and as the top voice, his words have the power to influence many.
Unfortunately, his views on the recent reports of Peyton Manning getting HGH delivered to his house in 2011 couldn’t be more skewed. During Sunday’s contest between the Chargers and Broncos, Nantz and his partner Phil Simms decided not to mention the story, which absolutely should’ve been a prominent subject for the game. Instead, Nantz called it a “non-story,” which is about as blasphemous of a statement one could make.
This quote from Jim Nantz to Mike Francesa Sunday about not discussing the Peyton Manning/HGH story is astonishing. pic.twitter.com/pYlK6TVmmQ
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) January 4, 2016
How could one say with a straight face that one of the best quarterbacks of all time allegedly receiving HGH is a “non-story”? Especially when we just spent about nine months talking about whether footballs were properly inflated.
Nantz’s remarks are disappointing. Not only because they’re, well, flat-out wrong. But because as such a prominent member of the media, Nantz has the power to speak to a large audience about an issue that actually matters. It wasn’t long ago that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell compared deflate-gate to performance-enhancing drugs, so why aren’t they getting the same treatment?
Unfortunately, it seems a story that should be a much bigger deal is being swept under the rug so the NFL can protect its “Golden Boy”.