Kendall Lamm Didn’t Say What the Internet Says He Said

Former Miami Dolphins and current Philadelphia Eagles Offensive Tackle Kendall Lamm recently did an interview with ESPN in which he commented on the difference between the culture in Miami and Philadelphia. 

“I understand why the Eagles reached two Super Bowls in three years: players are never late, never toxic, and after every practice, the room spends 15 minutes sharing personal struggles to stay mentally sharp – something I never got with the Dolphins.”

The quote is a damning one in regards to the type of environment being fostered in Miami, at least it would be if he had said it. Lamm addressed the article in a post on his Instagram. 

“So I keep getting sent this article, apparently that someone has said that I slammed Dolphins culture and all that stuff,” Lamm said. “One I don’t remember talking to anyone or any reporter about anything that we really dealt with in Miami with the Dolphins. Two I was never raised that way to sit there and comment on certain things as far as culture and everything else within a locker room. Three I have no animosity or no ill will or bad intentions towards Miami or anybody down there whatsoever, I enjoyed my time in Miami and it will be near and dear to me forever. So when it comes to this article that I’m being sent or this article that’s been published unless I just completely forgot doing this I had to be misconstrued or taken out of context because I have nothing but the utmost respect for everyone in Miami and the people in Miami know that.” 

So, where did the quote come from? Kyle Crabbs the host of Locked on Dolphins traced it back to a website called fanhub.cafex.biz a site that looks legit at first glance but upon further investigation seems to likely be heavily using A.I. to generate their articles. There are no writers credited to any of the pieces and they claim that players have been traded or signed to teams they actually haven’t been. 

For instance, on the front page, it says that the Jets have traded Breece Hall to the Kansas City Chiefs, citing NFL Network, but they don’t provide a link to the source. From what I can tell there have been rumors from NFL Insider Josina Anderson about Hall’s availability and some writers have proposed the idea of the Chiefs making a trade.

However, that’s no different than one of our writers speculating about the Dolphins signing a free agent. It certainly doesn’t indicate a trade has happened, and a human would be able to recognize that. 

We live in a time where information is instantly available, and the pressure to be first to break a story or provide your thoughts on it is more important than ever. We are no longer bound by TV schedules or morning paper deadlines. In the age of the internet, if you aren’t giving your take on a story immediately, you’re already behind. I think that pressure caused many sites, including industry giants like Sports Illustrated, to jump the gun on writing about Lamm’s comments. Once a few larger sites report on it, then it will cause a cascading effect as other sites take the quote at face value. It is a reminder that we must do our due diligence about sourcing news; it is more important than ever to find the primary source for a story, now that less reputable sites can generate articles without even having to hire writers. 

What made this particular quote so juicy was that it seemed believable. Dolphins fans have come to accept that the culture in Miami may be a leading factor in the lack of success the team has experienced over the past few seasons.

I’ve even written pieces maligning the culture that has been built during the McDaniel era. When Vic Fangio left and complained about players not buying in then proceeded to win a Super Bowl with the Eagles, which provided fans with even more ammo for their complaints. The Eagles are representative of what Dolphins fans want Miami to be: consistently competitive and disciplined.

So, when a player leaves the Dolphins for the Eagles and supposedly points out the differences in culture, we all believed it was true because we felt like this was the case to begin with. I’m not excusing anyone for reporting on the story without fact checking, but I can understand why it happened, and I’m thankful that a situation like this came about to remind us sports writers that if a quote seems too perfect, sometimes it is.