Media Beef: Jeff Pearlman and Jason La Canfora Tweet At Each Other
Jeff Pearlman and Jason La Canfora have thoughts. The two longtime sportswriters had a public spat on Twitter on Wednesday after Pearlman took offense to "some serious clickbait bulls--t" on the Sports Illustrated feed and tweeted about after midnight on the East Coast. The SI article in question, which was published last week, aggregates something La Canfora said in a radio appearance on June 30th.
This is some serious clickbait bullshit from @NoahStrackbein and @SInow. First, a small headline beneath a story sends you to a REPORT!!!! ... that Deshaun Watson will never play for Browns! Whoa! I need to read that! So you click ... [1] pic.twitter.com/qCmtkxnO7M
— Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman) July 6, 2022
Pearlman was hoping for something more solid instead of a story "reporting on something someone named Jason La Canfora theorized." Pearlman, who has apparently never heard of the longtime NFL reporter, was not convinced by his Twitter bio and said as much while tagging La Canfora, whose resume lists The Detroit Free Press, Washington Post, NFL.com and CBS Sports, where he also appeared on CBS's weekly pregame show, The NFL Today.
Then you look to see who Jason is. And he's this dude— @JasonLaCanfora. I'm sure he's a nice guy, a decent guy. But NOTHING in his bio suggests even a morsel of insider knowledge. [3] pic.twitter.com/h0o76xnzBU
— Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman) July 6, 2022
This morning La Canfora, who is apparently on vacation at the beach, woke up to Pearlman's tweets and responded before realizing he had previously muted the New York Times-bestselling author of Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s. La Canfora suggested Pearlman use Google in the future to "prevent you from looking like a complete jackass."
I was asked about Watson during radio interview. You should actually listen to it for context since you are suddenly interested in my opinions. Guarantee you havent. Then consider why someone even thought said opinion was noteworthy. And where are all my "hot take" tweets on it?
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) July 6, 2022
Try google, or ask George Solomon, Emilio Garcia-Ruiz or Gene Myers or Sean McManus about their level of trust when I do report on something. Maybe consider what you thought you were accomplishing by coming at me at all. Kinda clouty! Feels hot-takey. Surely you can do better
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) July 6, 2022
Sorry for delayed response. You were muted. Not sure why I did it, or when I did it, but my instincts were pretty good. Back to the beach. Back to mute button. Be well
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) July 6, 2022
If you're wondering why La Canfora might have Pearlman blocked, a search of both their Twitter handles reveals a bunch of replies to the two of them in tweets about politics from the months before and after the 2016 Presidential Election, as well as a few in the summer of 2020. Whether La Canfora was retweeting or replying, only Pearlman's original tweets remain.
UPDATE: Pearlman responded later on Wednesday.
Was anything I said here even slightly wrong? https://t.co/SlIsrXABow
— Jeff Pearlman (@jeffpearlman) July 6, 2022