Two Bills suspended for spitting, but the story is Stephen A. Smith's timing
The NFL suspended C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Sam Franklin Jr. within days of each other over separate spitting incidents during a Week 6 Raiders game. The two outlets covering this tell almost entirely different stories: Fox News focuses on Franklin's denial and the video he posted to Instagram showing Raiders lineman Delmar Glaze appearing to strike him first; Yahoo Sports leads with Stephen A. Smith calling for Gardner-Johnson's suspension the same day the NFL issued it. The surface story is discipline. The actual story is too thin to analyze.
Bills players suspended over alleged spitting incident; Stephen A. Smith reacts
2 sources · hover a dot to see coverage
What happened
During the Buffalo Bills' Week 6 game against the Las Vegas Raiders, two Bills players were alleged to have spat at opponents. Safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson was suspended by the NFL, and safety Sam Franklin Jr. subsequently received a second suspension. Franklin denied the allegation on Instagram and posted video appearing to show Raiders player Delmar Glaze striking him during the incident. Franklin is appealing his ban. ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith publicly called for Gardner-Johnson's suspension on the day the NFL issued it. Two outlets covered this story, from different angles, and neither account overlaps enough to reconstruct a complete picture of either incident.
Fox News led with Franklin's denial and the video he says exonerates him
Fox News, via its Outkick vertical, focused on Sam Franklin Jr.'s side of the story: his Instagram denial, his appeal of the suspension, and the video he posted showing Delmar Glaze appearing to hit him. That framing puts the NFL's discipline in question rather than treating it as settled. Gardner-Johnson's suspension appears only as context. The piece does not include any NFL statement on the evidence underlying either ban.
Yahoo Sports made Stephen A. Smith the story, not the players
Yahoo Sports structured its coverage around Stephen A. Smith's on-air call for Gardner-Johnson's suspension and the fact that the NFL acted the same day. Franklin's suspension, the more contested of the two, is not mentioned. The piece treats Smith's commentary as the news event, which is a defensible editorial choice only if Smith's influence on the league's timeline is actually established. It isn't, here.
What one side told you that the other didn't
Neither outlet covered both suspensions in the same piece.
Two players on the same team were suspended for the same type of alleged conduct in the same game, and no outlet in this coverage set reported both incidents together. Fox News covered Franklin's appeal and ignored Gardner-Johnson's suspension. Yahoo Sports covered Gardner-Johnson through the lens of Smith's commentary and ignored Franklin entirely. A reader following either outlet has half the disciplinary picture.
The Raiders player in the video has no coverage at all.
Franklin's Instagram video shows Delmar Glaze, a Raiders offensive lineman, appearing to strike Franklin before or during the alleged spitting incident. If that video is accurate, it is relevant to whether Franklin's suspension holds on appeal. Neither outlet reported on Glaze's conduct, whether the NFL reviewed it, or whether any discipline was considered. The video is cited as a fact in one headline and disappears entirely from the other.
What to watch
Franklin's appeal is pending. If the NFL upholds the suspension, Fox News and Outkick are likely to revisit the Glaze video as evidence the league ignored exculpatory footage. If the suspension is reduced or overturned, that outcome reframes the original discipline as hasty — and the Gardner-Johnson suspension, issued the same week, gets pulled back into the story. Watch for a ruling before the Bills' Week 8 game.
See how outlets across the political spectrum framed this differently — and what each side left out.