Albert Breer does the MMQB column at Sports Illustrated, and he recently spoke with Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera.

Rivera is immunocompromised as a cancer patient, and so he’s been one of the most vocal NFL personalities when it comes to advocating for the COVID-19 vaccine. In a fascinating discussion with Breer, Rivera unloaded on the misinformation surrounding the vax in this passage from the article:

“I had a player come to me when we first got back and we’re getting ready to go to camp,” Rivera said. “He came to me, and he had a big smile and said, Hey coach, just got my second vaccine. I said, Right on. He said, Had to, mama, new baby, got to, coach, gotta be careful for others. I said, That’s great, plus with that variant … He looked at me and said, What variant? I said, You know, the new delta variant, you know about that?”

The player in question had no idea. Rivera asked if the player watches the news. The player said no, and raised his phone to say, “I get all my information from here.” Which, right there in the moment, Rivera recognized as the problem.

“Gen Z is relying on this,” said Rivera, now holding up his phone. “And you got some, quite frankly, f—— a——-, that are putting a bunch of misinformation out there, leading people to die. That’s frustrating to me, that these people are allowed to have a platform. And then, one specific news agency, every time they have someone on, I’m not a doctor, but the vaccines don’t work. Or, I’m not an epidemiologist, but vaccines are going to give you a third nipple and make you sterile. Come on. That, to me? That should not be allowed.”

Rivera is right; there’s a ton of bullshit floating around out there. There’s been bullshit clouding journalism for years now, because all you have to do is say, “that’s fake news” and people will believe it. Or they say “I do my own research,” which amounts to scrolling Facebook and reading some crap that 22 year old Russian hacker came up with.

And then on the other side, you have supposedly reputable media outlets dropping the ball and giving people a reason to distrust them in the first place (looking at you, Jim “I made myself the story” Acosta). Just do your damn job. The media scene is so bad right now, probably the worst it’s ever been. The only outlet you can really trust is Crossing Broad.

But anyway, good on Rivera for speaking his mind. He seems like a no-nonsense kind of dude, definitely more respectable than Joe Judge or Jason Garrett or the doofuses in Dallas. We will cheer for Ron Rivera when his team plays the Cowboys and Giants, but not the Eagles. Hopefully Jordan Mailata puts Chase Young on his ass and Quez Watkins goes for 122 yards and a pair of scores. Go Birds.