Shams Charania Tips First Two NFL Draft Picks, Gets One Wrong, Goes Twitter

The NFL prefers that the many insiders who cover their sport do not tip any of the draft picks on Twitter. So they don’t. Shams Charania, The Athletic’s NBA insider, made no such promises to keep quiet, so he tweeted the first two picks moments before commissioner Roger Goodell was able to announce them on television. And then something funny happened.

Charania tweeted that the Arizona Cardinals, picking third, were taking Alabama’s Will Anderson Jr.

Around the same time, Adam Schefter showed up on ESPN shouting about how the Cardinals had traded the pick to the Houston Texans. At the same time, Ian Rapoport was on NFL Network announcing the same trade. Both NFL insiders used the cryptic term, “top defensive player on the board,” refusing to name names.

Houston did take Anderson, but Shams’ perfect game was over. He had to give credit to Rapoport, calling him the “insider of insiders.”

Rapoport had tweeted the trade a minute before Shams tweeted the Cardinals were making the pick.

The question is, what happened to Charania? He nailed the first two picks and has the third pick right, but had the wrong team. He seemed pretty plugged in for the event and then disappeared after a single misstep. He did not tweet about picks four or five or the trade of the sixth pick. We will continue to monitor the situation.

UPDATE: It has been three hours. Charania has not tweeted since 8:33pm Eastern. He did not have a single tweet after missing on the third pick.