In hindsight, this new piece of ESPN Clickbait by Seth Wickersham seems to be nothing more than a repackaging of an old story with a new twist: A Jimmy Garoppolo Trade.
Last week, ESPN reporter Seth Wickersham released a story titled “For Kraft, Brady and Belichick, is this the beginning of the end?” that attempted to shed light into current tensions between the Patriots’ Owner (Kraft), Head Coach (Belichick), and Quarterback (Brady). The report suggested that Bill Belichick was incensed that Bob Kraft stepped in and forced him to trade Jimmy Garoppolo, who Belichick believed to be the future Patriots QB, to the San Francisco 49ers back in October for a 2018 2nd round draft pick.
The report suggests that the feud between the three is so strong that this season might be the end of the Patriots’ dynasty that has seen the team win 5 Super Bowls, 7 AFC Championships, and 15 AFC East Division Championships.
Basically, the story reads like this: Kraft picked Brady over Belichick and Bill is mad.
Should you trust the source?
Ok, there are two parts here; Do you trust ESPN to write about the Patriots? Do you trust Seth Wickersham to write about the Patriots?
Let’s start with the self-proclaimed “worldwide leader,” ESPN. You don’t have to look very far to see the network’s historical coverage. Where do we begin? Let’s take a look at some of the recent years’ reporting.
DeflateGate Lies
The Patriots beat massacred the Colts in the AFC Championship Game by a score of 45-7. After the Colts directed the officials to switch out the “deflated” balls at the beginning of the 2nd half, Brady went 12-of-14 for 131 yards and two touchdowns. The Patriots outscored the Colts 28-0. While we don’t need to rehash the science behind why DeflateGate was a joke, or even that the league couldn’t prove that the balls were deflated in the first place, we should however, look at ESPN’s reporting.
After the game, Chris Mortensen tweeted that 11 of 12 balls were under-inflated by 2 lbs each.
Despite being proven false (only 1 of 12 was 2 lbs under), Mortensen failed to edit his story and decided to leave the tweet up. It took OVER A YEAR for the network to issue a correction, only after news outlets began criticizing the lack of journalistic integrity.
Meanwhile, ESPN pounded the fake story over and over during the weeks before (and even after) the Patriots Super Bowl 49 victory. While I understand that ratings are key and that the Patriots are the “evil empire” of the NFL, I would expect a news outlet to do a bit more research and a bit less clickbait.
Wait, SpyGate again? For real?
The four-letter-network decided to drop another falsehood during their summertime continuing coverage of DeflateGate. What’s better than one controversy? Answer: more than one. So of course, ESPN decided to do a full recap each Patriots’ cheating scandal. For fun, they even decided to make one up:
Hey @espn this didn’t happen. Just a little FYI. (h/t @mikewichter) pic.twitter.com/NcGAb9FJvw
— Feitelberg (@FeitsBarstool) August 19, 2015
Full Stop: We all know that SpyGate was another example of ESPN blowing a boring story out of proportion. In reality, the entire controversy was nothing more than a team misinterpreting a memo the league sent during the previous week. So why does ESPN continue talking about it? Ratings.
ESPN later apologized for the fake story but conveniently decided to air the news during the prime-time version of SportsCenter at 12am (video below). The damage was already done. The Patriots have been on the receiving end of irreparable damage done by ESPN’s clickbait. Year after the year, the talking heads in Bristol, CT decide it’s time to reintroduce the same stories that only became “stories” because they made them into stories. It’s maddening.
How about Seth Wickersham? What’s his history?
Seth has some legitimate sources. He’s produced some great articles. He’s known for doing a thorough job in his reporting, but that doesn’t mean he gets to skip out on ESPN’s mandated Patriots hit-pieces. That’s right, Wickersham was a co-author on another ESPN clickbait article about the Patriots’ scandals.
That’s not it though. Earlier this year, Belichick called Wickersham’s piece “Fake News” saying “As usual, I think a lot of comments that were in the article you’re referring to aren’t attributed to anybody — if I am not mistaken… I don’t think anybody said anything. This is just a general random opinion about I’m not sure exactly what.” He continued, saying “If we would like to talk about somebody that has an informed opinion about something, that’s one thing … I mean, otherwise we’re just talking about a lot of fake news here, just putting out a lot of things that are unattributable as usual. I’d say we get a lot of that.”
The story claimed that there’s a growing rift between Belichick and Brady because the quarterback’s personal trainer and TB12 co-founder, Alex Guerrero, was being restricted from certain team activities. It suggested that Tom Brady was furious.
Wickersham’s latest story comes with a disclaimer:
“The Patriots, in the only statement anyone associated with the team would make on the record for this story, responded to specific questions by saying that there are “several inaccuracies and multiple examples given that absolutely did not occur,” though they declined to go into detail.”
In hindsight, this new piece of ESPN clickbait by Seth Wickersham seems to be nothing more than a repackaging of an old story with a new twist: a Jimmy Garoppolo trade. In fact, once again, there are no official sources.
Forgive me, but I could do the same. My “sources” say this is another ESPN mandated hit-piece before yet another playoff run for the Foxboro-based franchise.
Is Bill Belichick Headed for the New York Giants?
Hot take: Belichick wins the Super Bowl for the 6th time with the Patriots, quits, takes the Giants job, rebuilds a team that’s got serious talent (the Giants 2017 season was packed with injuries) into a Super Bowl team, and then beats the Patriots in a “Brady vs. Belichick” Super Bowl 53 match-up. Boy would ESPN love that, huh? Imagine some of the ESPN clickbait that would follow: “Evil Bill vs. Evil Tom” or “Super Bowl 53: Cheater vs. Cheater” or maybe “Revenge of the Sith” (Note: Disney owns ESPN, so they could).
Nope. Not going to happen. The Giants just hired Dave Gettleman as their new GM. The team is interviewing Josh McDaniels (Patriots Offensive Coordinator), Matt Patricia (Patriots Defensive Coordinator), among others for their open Head Coach position. While they’d certainly jump at the chance of getting the NFL’s GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) Head Coach, there’s a lot that needs to happen.
First, they’d need to pull a reverse Belichick and fire their new GM days after they hired him, because you can be sure Bill won’t be taking a reduction in his role (currently Patriots Head Coach and GM). Second, he’d have to risk his legacy. Sure, Belichick wants to win without Brady, but at 65 years old, he’s definitely got plenty of time left. Heck, Connie Mack coached until he was 88. I don’t think Bill has to worry about Tom Brady playing until he’s 63. While no one expects Bill to coach into his 80’s, Brady realistically only has a maximum of 5 years left (caution: I’ve said this exact statement every year for the last 7 years). That leaves Belichick a full 10 seasons without Tom until he turns 80.
Sorry Giants fans, Bill unsurprisingly said he “absolutely” plans to return to the Patriots next year.
Patriots fans: Hasn’t it been funny to watch the same Giants fans who labeled Bill a cheater, salivate over the possibility of a reunion in 2018?
So what’s next?
Like usual, the Patriots are “On to Tennessee” as the Titans will visit Foxboro next weekend for the AFC Divisional Round. Expect Belichick and company to shun reporters’ questions as the team prepares a run to the Super Bowl for the 8th time in 18 years.
Do I buy that there’s tension? Yes. What team on earth is without it’s occasional disagreements? Do I buy the ESPN fodder that the dynasty is cracking. No.
Verdict: CLICKBAIT
