Schefter in the days since has not followed up publicly on the Kraft reportESPN IMAGES
Adam Schefter's latest big story has "mysteriously disappeared from ESPN" after he said on air last week that Robert Kraft's name was "not the biggest" to be involved in the South Florida prostitution sting operation, according to Andrew Marchand of the N.Y. POST. After the Kraft news broke Friday, Schefter went on "SportsCenter" and said, "I'm told that Robert Kraft is not the biggest name involved down there." But Schefter has since gone "silent." Marchand: "No tweets. No follow-ups. No nothing." ESPN "gave it the silent treatment from TV to dot-com," and the claim was "not added to its online news story." There are "problems with Schefter's story, and it seems apparent ESPN's editors realized it in the aftermath, which is why they acted as if it didn't exist." This report "continued a bad trend for Schefter." He may be the "best transaction merchant in the whole NFL insider game, but when he steps outside of his signing-and-firing sweet spots the last few months, the results have been uninspiring." Schefter also reported recently that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "might interview to be the Browns’ head coach," but there was "nothing to it" (N.Y. POST, 2/27).
GREAT EXPECTATIONS: In Philadelphia, Rob Tornoe cited a source as saying that Schefter's comments on Kraft were "not added to the news story or shared on Twitter because the information wasn't being reported through the network's news desk." Schefter himself "seemed to walk back his comments a bit later in the day Friday during an appearance on WEEI in Boston." The N.Y. Times' Kevin Draper tweeted that he could not believe ESPN let Schefter "go to air with such thinly sourced junk" (PHILLY.com, 2/26). WEEI.com's Alex Reimer wrote Schefter "never speaks out of line when it comes to talking about the league's owners and coaches." He should "apply the same standards when discussing news stories that matter outside of the gridiron" (WEEI.com, 2/26).
