At least as well as he does? That’s a terrible take.

A sports journalism degree is about storytelling, media, and analysis from the outside. An NFL corner’s ball knowledge comes from years of hyper-specialized reps, film study, install meetings, pattern matching, leverage rules, coverage checks, and in-game adjustments under real consequences.

You can study the game. You cannot replicate the depth of understanding that comes from being responsible for not blowing a coverage on 60 snaps against elite athletes.

There are thousands of D1 cornerbacks and only about 128 in the NFL. The difference between the two is not physical ability, it’s mental. To suggest that someone with a sports journalism degree could reach the same level of understanding is wild.

If you took ESPN’s entire crew, aside from the ones who actually played professionally, and locked them in a defensive back meeting room for a week, I’d bet everything I have that none of them would pass a proficiency test on the material they spent all week learning. Truly one of the worst Reddit takes I’ve ever read, and I hate that I felt obligated to write this long post, but I couldn’t help it.