NFL free agency is currently at a fever pitch with news spreading like wildfire, so it’s somewhat understandable when a media outlet gets part of a story wrong. However, when you are the self-proclaimed ‘Worldwide Leader In Sports’ like ESPN, there’s simply zero excuse for what occurred today.
This afternoon, the folks in Bristol reported that defensive end Olivier Vernon (who had his transition tag removed by the Miami Dolphins and has since signed with the New York Giants) spurned Miami to join the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Not only did they report it as factual news, but they even brought good ole’ Adam Schefter — who probably hasn’t slept in four days at minimum — on television to discuss the transaction.
The only problem is that what they (for reasons unknown) thought was the official Twitter account of Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer was actually a dummy account.
#Dolphins DE Oliver Vernon headed north to Jacksonville for 4yrs 75.5 mil.
— chaps (@UncleChaps) March 9, 2016
Oh man I was just informed of some hijinks, shenanigans, tomfoolery regarding a fake Glaze account and the ripple effect. Takin it all in
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) March 9, 2016
Damn I finally get credit from ESPN and it’s not even from my real account??? Damn, so close. I kid… but only bc it’s funny
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) March 9, 2016
ESPN was forced to bring Schefter back on the air to make the public aware of their gargantuan error.
ESPN duped by Ole Chaps. RT @KennyDucey: .@unclechaps is on the board pic.twitter.com/Rt8l8Fg8cH
— Andy Dufresne (@theunzippedfly) March 9, 2016
Clearly, Schefter and co. foolishly use just one Twitter source on hectic days because the sooner a story gets out, the better it is for ratings. Whether or not what they are reporting has any validity to it has become irrelevant nowadays.
