Yesterday Patriots quarterback Tom Brady appeared on the Boston radio station WEEI and criticized ESPN for its coverage of the Spygate story. According to Brady, ESPN creates controversies because "they've got to fill the air," and "They just say the craziest things."
Those comments, which have received a good deal of attention, came about 11 minutes into Brady's interview. But today on ESPN's NFL Live, anchor Trey Wingo and analyst Mark Schlereth pointed out another comment that got significantly less attention: At the start of the WEEI interview, one of the hosts of the show asked Brady, "Did you watch any of this today on television?"
Brady answered, "Honestly, I didn't see a second of it, to tell you the truth, and I haven't heard much about it. "
So whatever Brady's objections to ESPN are, they're not based on any knowledge of what ESPN reported on Tuesday because Brady doesn't know what ESPN reported on Tuesday. That makes it hard to take his critique of ESPN's coverage seriously.
Said Schlereth of Brady's criticism, "I don't really care about that." Wingo added that ESPN made an issue of the story yesterday only after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell deemed the story worthy of a lengthy press conference.
"This isn't something we brought up," Wingo said.
Also, let's be honest: It's not like Brady actually wants fair, evenhanded reporting. What he wants is members of the media to gush over him. Many members of the sports media do just that, and most fans I know find such gushing infuriating. So if Brady is angry about the way ESPN is covering this story, maybe that's a good thing.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-14-2008 @ 5:45PM
Scott said...
Yeah I can't imagine what he might be doing instead of watching ESPN. I know he's having trouble with girls.
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5-14-2008 @ 10:12PM
jpq1999 said...
My Carnac prediction for 2008 and beyond: the Pats are going downhill from here. While they will continue to be a good team, I just feel like the Super Bowl loss took the air out of their balloon. Brady will never approach a season like last year again, and the other AFC teams will catch up to the Pats. I look for 11-5 record, win one playoff game, and out. Still a good season, but not what they did last year.
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5-14-2008 @ 11:36PM
jsharpe0047 said...
They were one win away from having no where to go but down last year so ya I think we can lower our expectations for this year. Duh????
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5-15-2008 @ 7:14PM
joe wallace said...
His quotes were "Slamming?" ???????
Saying that a media outlet is primarily interested in ratings is somewhow a slam? LOL.
But this is how it works. The bloggers call it slamming, then all talk about it as a slam, without even reading it. Now we know that Brady SLAMMED ESPN, because, well, we heard it somewhere.
And this was EXACTLY what brady was talking about.
We no longer have journalism, we have RUMOUR and SENSATIONALISM. "If it bleeds, it leads."
We all know this, but then, let's all go back and actually read the quotes, and see if what he is saying isn't accurate. And, more importantly, if this was the insult some people make it out to be. But hey, innocuous comments are not good for business, right?
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5-16-2008 @ 12:09PM
Mr. Kafka said...
The day I get my ethics from "stink" is the day I fade away....come on now!!!
Brady didn`t have to watch it all...who could??? This whole story has been continued on either a mistake or a lie, I know the war may give this idea credence, however its not a good way to operate.
Espn should know better and should be able to take some critisism on this.
Lets be honest: maybe Brady doesn`t want to be "gushed" about so much as not lied about. There is a difference MDS.............isn`t there???
Ask stink and get back to me.
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