Buried deep in his long and detailed accusation of racial discrimination against the NFL, Jim Trotter makes another equally shocking and just as potentially damaging claim: He says the NFL told him not to report that the league wanted to resume the Bengals-Bills game after Damar Hamlin’s collapse.
In his suit, Trotter claims that the NFL “throttles content that is critical of the NFL.” To bolster the claim, Trotter details the process he went through to ascertain the league’s specific directives on whether last year’s game between the Bills and the Bengals should have been allowed to resume following Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s collapse from cardiac arrest.
Former NFL Media reporter Jim Trotter. (Cooper Neill/Getty Images)
In paragraph 161 of the suit, Trotter’s attorneys reveal what their client learned of the NFL’s intent following Hamlin’s collapse.
“In the days that followed, Mr. Trotter learned that the teams were in fact instructed that play would resume after a five-minute warm-up, explaining why the players had been doing so,” the suit states via Pro Football Talk. “This decision, Mr. Trotter and other reporters learned, came from the NFL league office not from the officials on the field.”
The following paragraph states, “This directive was uncovered by several reporters and was widely reported in the media in the days that followed. However, the NFL staunchly denied these claims, as reflected in the various articles. Mr. Trotter, for his part, investigated further. He received confirmation from multiple sources refuting the NFL’s version and its denial.”
The suit then details how Trotter attempted to learn the identity of the NFL official who said that play would resume.
Trotter “reached out to Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s Vice President of Communications, seeking comment from the NFL employee who, according to Mr. Trotter’s sources, informed the teams that they would resume play,” the complaint states. However, the suit claims that Trotter’s attempts were not successful. “Mr. McCarthy simply denied the allegations and refused to make the person available to Mr. Trotter,” the filing states.
According to the report, the alleged stonewalling from McCarthy did not deter Trotter.
“Mr. Trotter, being a tenacious reporter, pushed further that he needed to speak to the individual or at the very least needed a comment from that person,” the suit states. “Mr. McCarthy responded, knowing that Mr. Trotter was not ‘merely’ a journalist but also an NFL employee, ‘I will call your supervisor if you don’t let this go.’ Mr. Trotter responded that he was ‘fine with’ Mr. McCarthy calling his supervisor because he was doing his job.
Isaiah McKenzie, #6 of the Buffalo Bills, reacts to an injury sustained by Damar Hamlin #3, during the first quarter of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium on January 2, 2023, in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
“Soon after, Mr. Trotter received a text message from Mr. [Todd] Sperry. Mr. Sperry directed Mr. Trotter to ‘stand down’ in his reporting on the story. Mr. Trotter responded, ‘I thought it was our job as journalists to always pursue the truth. Is that not the case?’ Mr. Sperry never responded to Mr. Trotter’s text message — which speaks for itself.”
The complaint sums up the incident thusly.
“This entire incident makes it very clear that the NFL controls NFL Media, throttles content that is critical of the NFL and will not hesitate to silence employees who speak out regarding matters that are unfavorable to the league. While in this case, the matter involved the NFL’s handling of a sensitive incident involving a player injury, it was consistent with the resistance Mr. Trotter faced when speaking up regarding discrimination.”
It’s unclear what impact Trotter’s claims about the league’s handling of the Bengals-Bills game will have on his racial discrimination case. It would appear the story would not impact that particular aspect of his complaint. However, it could lead to the revelation of important information about how the league handled the Hamlin incident and the control it exerts over its media arm.