Despite ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter going on The Pat McAfee Show and firmly declaring that the New England Patriots and star CB Christian Gonzalez weren’t close to a contract extension, a contract extension was signed hours later. Amid hours of criticism over his wrong reporting, Schefter has addressed (and defended) what he’s said.
During his podcast on Tuesday, Schefter maintained that things were “strained” between Gonzalez and the Patriots. He said that Gonzalez was not satisfied with the active offer, which had stayed in place right up until the end, when the Patriots made a change to give him more money per year.
“It was strained enough at one point that there were conversations in the Patriots organization in recent days about whether or not they should pull the offer,” Schefter said. “This was not a simple deal to get done; we heard on August 25th, Christian Gonzalez complain about the offer. But the offer pretty much was the same until the end, when they upped the average per year and basically agreed to the deal while they were in the air.”
But that statement didn’t sit well with fans, who pointed out that Schefter stated point-blank that the sides weren’t close to a deal.
“Schefter trying to save face after telling us ‘they weren’t close’ – nice try,” one user said dismissively.
“Adam, I can’t remember a story that had more wrong than this Gonzalez story. It is comical [how] bad your intel was on this one,” wrote another.
“Why should we take anything you say seriously? You were comically and totally wrong on the Gonzalez negotiations,” a third wrote.
© Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Shattered Credibility?
The Gonzalez situation and a slew of other stories that ESPN has been playing catchup on has somewhat exposed that many of ESPN’s top insiders don’t have deeply embedded sources in organizations that give them intel nobody else is supposed to know.
Rather, ESPN’s insiders likely receive what is tantamount to press releases from agents and executives.
The good news for Schefter is that he only needs to break one mega story to redeem himself a bit. The bad news is that others journalists are doing everything in their power to compete with him for it.
