See? It never gets old.
Yesterday the media jumped on reports of text messages indicating that Brett Favre was retiring.
Today ESPN reports that he told Ed Werder he never sent those alleged text messages and that he’d play if he felt he was healthy enough to do so (I tend to believe that there were text messages of some sort and that they were either subterfuge or that the media misinterpreted them or blew them out of proportion, but I have no evidence to support the hunch).
And Deadspin reports that as a New York Jet two seasons ago, Favre text-messaged pictures of his … unit to a female employee of the team.
The soap opera never gets old.
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Okay, it’s ridiculously old and it has been for a couple years now. But it never goes away. So when we wrote the post yesterday indicating that he was “retiring … maybe,” it was with full expectation that this was just the beginning. Others felt the same way.
I’m a little surprised the second chapter of this year’s “Will he or won’t he” book happened this quickly. But the truth is we don’t know if Favre will play or not and we won’t know if he will play or not until the season starts and we see who is starting at quarterback for the Vikings.
And even then, if Favre doesn’t start the season I think there is a good chance that if the team gets off to a slow start he’s cajoled into returning.
As we wrote yesterday, the only certainty with Favre is the uncertainty. That’s what you sign up for when he joins the team. And I think it’s going to be around for another year or three.
Cheers.
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Isn’t this at least as much of a media issue as it is a Favre issue?
From what I can tell, Shiancoe was the source. He told a Star Tribune reporter about the alleged texts and the story ran. It wasn’t until yesterday evening that the ST cited Shiancoe as the source, and noted that he had not personally received any messages at all. By that point, every player and official on the team said they hadn’t received anything from Favre. Other Minnesota media were, by then, questioning the story.
No other media source had the balls to call BS on the story from the start. Sure, everybody commented that “this wasn’t the end”, given Favre’s indecision. That’s not the same as holding the story to be fake. It was assumed the sourceless story was true.
Absolutely it’s a media issue. And a 24 hour news cycle issue. It’s more important now to tweet the story first or to get the most sensational headline out first than it is to make sure the story is solid.
I don’t doubt someone got a text from Favre. Some media outlets are reporting that the text said “this is it.”
If that’s the strength of whatever source or media member used to start this soap opera in motion again it’s a pretty big indictment on a number of folks.
What I do not quite understand is the competing media outlets.
The ST took a misunderstood text message reported to them third hand and made a story of it. Crappy stuff, but I get the idea that they want to scoop everyone else. They can just keep re-writing the online story (which they did) until it becomes “Favre changes his mind”.
Once the story first ran, the other news organizations have “lost”. Somebody else has the story first. Parroting it doesn’t really get them too much. On the other hand, if WCCO had come out at 11:00AM with “Favre not retiring, ST full of crap” that would have been a big win for them.