Over the last few weeks, slandering Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert has become an unfortunate cottage sub-industry that tells us a lot about what’s wrong with the business of sports talk disguised as analysis. Those who have decided that Herbert has not unlocked that mythical “next level” required of all “elite” quarterbacks would like us to know that they have gone beyond the highlight plays, and revealed the soft underbelly that tells us the truth.
At that moment, their analysis is not about Justin Herbert at all — it’s all about the guy making noise. When Emmanuel Acho insists that Herbert is just a “social media quarterback” (i.e., capable of a few highlight plays, and a whole bunch of meh around them), and when other, more respected analysts charry-pick stats without the benefit of tape to ostensibly bring us a deeper, greater, truth? You are now watching the World Series of Woolgathering, as opposed to anything relevant or true. Acho has now recorded a “Social Media Freestyle” to triple down on his alleged analysis… so again, this is just a few people attaching themselves to Herbert as if they were pilot fish. This isn’t legitimate analysis.
