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ESPN NFL reporter Adam Schefter went viral on Thursday night for tweeting a highlight clip taken from a popular unaffiliated streaming website.
The clip itself was amusing—Jets wide receiver Malachi Corley chucked the ball backward inches before the end zone—but that’s not why Schefter’s sharing of it caught fire. The top left corner of the clip read “MethStreams.” The illegal streaming site, formerly known as CrackStreams, airs live games for free across a number of sports, from professional and college football and basketball to fighting and motor sports. That makes it a popular option for fans looking to save a few bucks amid the ever-fracturing world of sports rights, and led to a cacophony of excitement in Schefter’s comment section that the reporter, like them, doesn’t want to pay for all the different services needed to watch games.
Schefter—who makes $9 million a year—certainly can afford an Amazon Prime subscription to watch Thursday Night Football. A person familiar with the situation told Front Office Sports that Schefter was not illegally streaming the game and simply pulled the clip from another X/Twitter user.
Schefter and MethStreams did not immediately comment. ESPN declined to comment.
The post spotlights a widespread reality when it comes to sports media rights. To keep up with the NFL’s media packages this season, someone like Schefter who watches out-of-market games would need streaming services including Prime, Peacock, and Netflix on top of some combination of cable and/or NFL Sunday Ticket. Right now, the cheapest memberships for each service are $8.99/month for Prime Video, $7.99/month for Peacock, and $6.99/month for Netflix, and all of them have ads. Analysts believe Netflix could be raising its prices, especially for its ad-free tiers, ahead of its Christmas games.
Because of that, about a third of NFL fans illegally stream games, and about half said they’ve done it at least once, according to Oddspedia. Illegal streams are also a popular option for international fans who don’t have consistent access to games. Schefter may not use MethStreams himself, but scores of fans do.
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