It’s the week before Thanksgiving, you’re just punching the clock until it’s time to take that 5 day weekend, so we’ve got a Grab Bag of random topics here on this episode. LETS GO!
-As we pretend to be members of the local sports media I think it’d be crazy to start the show without touching on breaking news from one of the biggest names in town with Kirk Minihane officially headed to Radio.com
-The NFL took a hard gulp and swallowed their pride moving the Mexico City game back to the states.
Did you see this quote from Kyrie Irving all but putting out a job offer in Carmelo Anthony’s locker?
The disaster that is the Miami Marlins Park. I even had a Marlins fan chirping me on Twitter about it — “They’re not seats, they’re standing room”
Fantasy football update – Big Z held onto the hand grenade that was Le’Veon Bell which has now exploded in his palm.
All that and more on this episode of The 300s Podcast!
Pro Football Talk – We posted an item earlier today regarding a report from WEEI that the Patriots will be trading tight end Rob Gronkowski in the coming weeks. The report, which was being picked up by other websites, appeared in a single tweet that had no equivocation of any kind. It was clear, it was plain, and it was getting noticed. And it was all some sort of time-delayed April Fool’s Day gag, apparently. Chris Curtis of WEEI called me a little while ago to explain that it was a joke. I’m still scanning the tweet for the setup, the reinforcement, and/or the payoff. That is a humorous anecdote. I can’t wait to tell that one at parties and other social gatherings. I told Curtis I’m not happy about any of this. Needless to say, nothing WEEI ever reports again will be taken seriously in this space. It’s hard enough to keep people up to date on everything that’s happening in the NFL without people throwing gratuitous and unfunny hurdles in our path.
Nothing like a little sports media beef to get you through a Tuesday afternoon. Pro Football Talk is absolutely bullshit that they got hoodwinked by an April Fools joke from WEEI. WEEI’s Kirk and Callahan show tweeted out that one of their guys was reporting Rob Gronkowski would be traded in the next couple of weeks.
Breaking: @KenLairdWEEI is reporting that Gronk is going to be traded in the next couple weeks.
Now if you ever listen to Kirk and Callahan you know they like to screw with people, especially those in the media. So while its not a particularly hilarious joke, April Fools jokes aren’t really meant to be funny. They’re meant to pull one over on people and make them look stupid.
So for PFT to get so pissed off seems like a little much. I understand the frustration of posting something on your website that ultimately turns out to have zero truth to it, but you should probably also be checking sources to confirm before posting a story OR just run it with the disclaimer that WEEI is saying this but you can’t confirm or dispute it. Problem solved.
You gotta be extra vigilant on April Fools Day or sometimes you get hoodwinked on Twitter and risk taking the L like me.
So the internet is ablaze today with a hot take from Ron Borges that was shot out of the sky before I even got to my desk this morning. Literally. I was driving in listening to Kirk Minihane just DESTROY Ron Borges and I was wondering if it was just for past indiscretions (ya know like plagiarism) or if he did something else. Fired up a quick Twitter search while I was driving, I was in bumper to bumper traffic relax Mom, and whats the first thing I see? Ron Borges’ colleagues in the media openly mocking him for a fabricated rumor about Tom Brady planning to hold out for a new contract.
And on and on it goes.
All this before 9 AM. A couple of quick phone calls from guys like Tom E. Curran and they had already shot so many holes in the story that it wouldn’t get past the editor at a student newspaper. Yet somehow the Boston Fucking Herald ran with it.
Sure it was already taken off the website, but the newspapers (the paper versions all you old bastards absolutely have to have) were already on the stacks.
Pretty damning evidence for ya boy Ron. And thats before we even get into the details of *how* he reported this story. Again, according to Kirk and Callahan, basically some random guy got Borges’ phone number and started texting him pretending to be Tom Brady’s agent Don Yee.
Eventually fake-Don Yee tipped off Borges about the disgruntled Tom Brady and how he planned to hold out for Jimmy G type money and skip OTA’s. Huge right? So rather than picking up the phone and asking someone, anyone, for any kind of supporting evidence or even hearsay…rather than do any of that, Borges runs it for a front page column.
How does that get past an editor?
“Who’d you talk to, Ron? Some guy who’s identity you haven’t actually verified just texted you out of the blue with huge news? Print. That. Shit.”
Never rely on one source and never plagiarize. Those are the cardinal rules of journalism. Trust me, I have a degree in big-J Journalism. And Ron Borges has now broken both of them.
I’m not here to call for anyone’s job, but if we’re being honest, I’m calling for Ron Borges job. It’s one thing to write thinly veiled hit pieces and describe the team you cover with so much disdain for 30 years, its another to print something defamatory as fact because fucking Johnny from Weymouth sent you a text at 1 AM like its last call at the Harp.
When you become the real life Ron Burgundy, just reporting whatever you’re told, its time to go.
What a bunch of goddamn hypocrites the NFL is. To quote Brand New, “The Devil and God are raging inside me.” I was listening to WEEI this morning and Kirk Minihane was asking why aren’t Patriots fans more fired up about this bullshit from the league and let me tell you, I’m getting there. But I think people are just beat down. You can’t fight city hall.
All the shit the Patriots went through over the past 2 years, citing process, citing pretense, citing SCIENCE, as for why DeflateGate was much ado about nothing. And it didn’t matter, the NFL crushed us. ESPN crushed us. Mark Brunell was crying on SportsCenter for christ’s sake.
When in reality the appropriate response to what allegedly happened is exactly what we witnessed yesterday. A complaint from a team reported by Jay Glazer, a little rumbling on Twitter and then the NFL promptly stamping it out saying nothing to see here. No misinformation. No leaving the team to twist in the wind while false reports pile up. No ESPN roundtables. So I think people are absolutely pissed, we just could not be less surprised. And I think thats what takes a lot of venom out of people.
But its shit like this that drives me absolutely bananas.
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I’m sure this was said tongue in cheek, but thats the exact issue. He’s joking about it and nobody cares. Remember how Brady denied any wrongdoing and he got DESTROYED by everyone. Now Mike Tomlin refuses to comment on it, saying theres nothing to it. And no one bats an eye. And don’t give me the “he’s got no prior incidents” response. Does anybody remember this?
I doubt it. And thats why people aren’t calling up yelling and screaming on the radio. Because the Patriots were screwed and the PSI of balls was never the issue.
Rooney. Mara. Jones. Just wait guys, sooner or later one of these shit storms will blow up on you…and there will be no one left to speak for you. In the meantime, the Patriots will keep rolling on the way to Super Bowl title number 5; one for the thumb.
The 300s 