*In my best Q-Tip voice* Sports media rule #4080, sports reporters are shaaady.” Peep the shadow cast over Lynn Jones, a 20-year city reporter out of Jacksonville’s Free Press, for giving the Jacksonville Jaguars coach, Liam Cohen, some encouragement after the team lost a playoff heartbreaker to the Buffalo Bills last week.
Here’s the quote in full: “I just want to tell you congratulations on your success, young man. You hold your head up, all right? You guys have had a most magnificent season. You did a great job out there today. So you just hold your head up, OK?”
And… that was it. That’s all it took for sports media heads like Mark Long of the Associated Press and former ESPN journalist Jemele Hill to label Jones “embarrassing” and “unprofessional,” respectively. And wow… do we really need to scrape the bottom of the barrel just to have something to argue about on social media these days?
#DUUUVAL pic.twitter.com/2j94VSA965
— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) January 11, 2026
The controversy became far bigger than it needed to because, of course, Jones’ race and gender are what they are. Misogynoir is an integral part of the calculus.
But let’s just be real, we can look at this as a genuine sports story without discussing race or gender at all and still determine that Jones wasn’t really doing anything crazy. The logic is pretty simple.
Local sports reporters are often active fans of the teams they cover. While national journalists get the most of the shine on a daily basis, they rely on local reporting like Jones for insight into specific teams. More often than not, those beat writers root for their team’s success because they follow, interact with, and grow to understand the players, coaching staff, and management. This is nothing new, like, at all.
The inimitable Bob Ryan, one of the greatest sportswriters to ever do it, is an active Red Sox and Celtics fan. So is everyone’s favorite firebrand, Bill Simmons. Dan LeBatard of Meadowlark Media (a production house that Hill frequents quite often) is an active Miami sports fan.
If you cover a city for as long as Jones has, you end up wanting that city to experience all the good energy that sports can bring. Not to mention, the substance of what Jones said was true.
Last season, the Jaguars were a completely unserious and inconsistent outfit, finishing 8-9 when it was all said and done. Cohen righted the ship this season, leading the squad to 13 wins, the top seed in the division, and a playoff berth. They had a real shot against Buffalo and came up just short.
It is a season to be proud of.
And perhaps sensing the moment, Jones offered Cohen support rooted in seeing the bigger picture, witnessing the exuberant revival of a team that has underachieved for the previous three seasons. No one who commented on Jones’s statement has observed that team as closely, or for as many years as she has.
And that’s before we even consider that the Free Press is a Black publication, and that Jones is a stalwart reporter for the city’s Black community.
It’s interesting that such a statement would rile up so much negativity. Our social media feeds obviously thrive on it. (For her part, Hill did end up apologizing directly to Jones, which was a very good look).
But even more fascinating is that it was kindness that sparked it all. Kindness from a Black elder who has seen the ups and downs of a team’s journey. And while I wouldn’t go so far as to say she was mothering anyone, what she offered was a perspective that comes from wisdom and care.
And it’s honestly embarrassing that the media’s first response to this is to hate on her. I don’t know, y’all, it feels like the plot has been completely lost. Nowhere to be found.
Photo Credit: Instagram – Lynn Jones
