Both ESPN and NFL Network reported Tom Brady was "headed to the Buccaneers" only about 10 hours after his "shocking daybreak announcement" yesterday that he was not returning to the Patriots next season, according to John Kryk of the TORONTO SUN. The Brady news "accelerated quickly -- in a matter of minutes" -- after a report by NFL Network's Jim Trotter indicated the Chargers were "out of the running already." Trotter tweeted, "I’m told the Brady camp has led the Chargers to believe he is going to stay back east because of family considerations.” Trotter's report echoed what Fox Sports' Colin Cowherd had said earlier, that Brady will sign today with the Buccaneers. A Boston radio station later "echoed that report." Then, in early evening, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport tweeted the following on the heels of Trotter’s report, that with the Chargers “out of the running,” the Bucs “are the only known team to make an offer." Then Rapoport tweeted it actually was happening (TORONTO SUN, 3/18).
NET ROUNDUP: ESPN’s daytime programming yesterday did what it does best, covering a breaking news story all day long from every angle, including interviews with many of Brady’s former teammates, like Tedy Bruschi, Randy Moss, Damien Woody and Rob Ninkovich. The net's studio shows finally had a trending topic that had nothing to do with coronavirus, and one could not look at ESPN and not see images of Brady or Patriots coach Bill Belichick the entire day. Meanwhile, given all of yesterday's free agent moves, NFL Network also was in live programming mode, focused on Brady. NFL Net put its programming out with a skeleton staff -- it has seen a 50-75% reduction in staff required to physically come into its L.A. and New Jersey-based studios. Other sports networks, like FS1 and NBCSN, are not set up to deliver news and stayed with taped programming. Yesterday afternoon, as ESPN and NFL Net were all-Brady-all-the-time, FS1 was airing replays of XFL games, NBCSN was showing motorsports replays and CBSSN was showing replays of college basketball. All three networks had bottom line crawls that mentioned the Brady news (John Ourand, SBJ UNPACKS).
HEARD IT HERE FIRST: In N.Y., Andrew Marchand credits ESPN's Adam Schefter for having the Brady scoop first during a broadcast of "Monday Night Countdown" in October. Marchand: "Schefter even mentioned the possibility of Brady’s departure as far back as August, but the Countdown spot put the news in the forefront" (N.Y. POST, 3/18).
