‘One of Journalism’s More Incredible Crash-Outs’ — WNBA World Divided As Christine Brennan Objects to Column Criticizing Her Caitlin Clark Coverage
‘One of Journalism’s More Incredible Crash-Outs’ — WNBA World Divided As Christine Brennan Objects to Column Criticizing Her Caitlin Clark Coverage
Alex Kennedy Wed, October 14, 2026 at 6:07 AM UTC
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‘One of Journalism's More Incredible Crash-Outs' — WNBA World Divided As Christine Brennan Objects to Column Criticizing Her Caitlin Clark CoverageThe Indiana Fever didn’t get anywhere close to the WNBA Finals, but that doesn’t mean coverage of Caitlin Clark has come to a screeching halt. In fact, Defector recently wrote a column criticizing USA Today columnist Christine Brennan’s coverage of the Fever superstar, prompting the veteran sportswriter to express her displeasure with the piece.
The Indiana Fever didn’t get anywhere close to the WNBA Finals, but that doesn’t mean coverage of Caitlin Clark has come to a screeching halt.
In fact, Defector recently wrote a column criticizing USA Today columnist Christine Brennan’s coverage of the Fever superstar, prompting the veteran sportswriter to express her displeasure with the piece.
According to two Defector editors, Brennan asked for the headline to be changed on a piece titled “Christine Brennan Has Fully Lost It Over Caitlin Clark.”
Christine Brennan’s Calls With Defector Editors Draw Criticism From Media Members
The original column by Defector staff writer Giri Nathan ran on Wednesday and argued that Brennan has come to judge the entire WNBA through Clark and makes everything about the Fever star, whom she wrote a book about.
“If there’s a single throughline in her writing these days, it’s that the WNBA, on an institutional level, has failed to sufficiently respect Caitlin Clark,” Nathan wrote. “Her quest to fast-track Clark into the single, totalizing source of value for an entire league remains delusional and embarrassing.”
After Brennan spoke to Defector’s managing editor Samer Kalaf and editor-in-chief Tom Ley about the article and demanded a headline change, they wrote a follow-up piece detailing their email exchange and “baffling” phone calls with Brennan.
“There were times during Friday’s phone call in which I felt Brennan was telling me something about herself and waiting for me to be struck with awe or deference,” Kalaf wrote.
READ MORE:‘This Is Purely on the Dream’ — Analysts Set the Record Straight on Atlanta’s Arena Controversy As Angel Reese and Co. Gear Up for WNBA Finals
As Awful Announcing recapped, Brennan “repeatedly referenced Black sports figures who she had covered, including Colin Kaepernick, Brittney Griner, Maya Moore, and Dr. Harry Edwards, the sports sociologist who she has cited frequently of late.”
Ley spoke with Brennan for about 30 minutes Monday. He wrote that when he asked what the headline should say instead, she suggested: “Christine Brennan Writes A Whole Bunch Of Tweets We Don’t Like.” She also proposed an editor’s note saying that Defector had not meant to mock a journalist’s factual tweets or Edwards.
A number of media members reacted to the news of Brennan’s bizarre response to the article.
“This is going to go down in history as one of journalism’s more incredible crash-outs,” Glenn Clark, a play-by-play broadcaster and radio host, wrote on X. “A truly good and significant reporter choosing to just Taylor Swift-style ‘stan’ over a singular figure with nothing interesting or relevant to say about them. Almost unfathomable.”
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“The gift that keeps on giving for my lectures,” wrote Gregory Hampton Lee Jr., a visiting professor at Loyola and former NABJ president.
“She has the same [expletive] playbook for everyone who doesn’t agree. Something’s seriously wrong with her,” wrote award-winning sportswriter O.J. Spivey.
Brennan’s email, which Defector published, laid out her view. She wrote that she has covered the WNBA since it began in the late 1990s and fought hard for it to get attention from male-dominated media. “And then to witness the rudderless ‘leadership’ of Cathy Engelbert at this crucial moment… well, that’s why I continue to speak out.”
Engelbert, however, will retire at the end of the year.
Brennan has drawn criticism from peers before. Sarah Spain, a veteran commentator, accused her in a June video on LinkedIn of failing her duties as a journalist, arguing that Brennan writes about the WNBA as if every player shared one agenda.
Some people did come to Brennan’s defense after the story went viral.
“I had no clue who this was but then I saw that Tom Ley, Samer Paloof and Sarah Spain don’t like her and I am now immediately a fan,” one fan wrote.
Another user, who works in sports media, ripped Defector, arguing it has “no cultural or media influence whatsoever anymore.”
Defector, however, is keeping its headline. Ley wrote that he told Brennan he would not change it or add an editor’s note.
READ MORE:‘Either Way the League Loses’ — ESPN Legend Laments ‘Sad’ State of WNBA Finals As Arena Controversy Overshadows Angel Reese, Dream
He wrote that when she asked whether he was comfortable mocking a journalist of her tenure and Edwards, he said yes, though he did not think the column mocked Edwards.
She told him that answer was “very revealing.”
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.
Source: “AOL Sports”
