Caveat Emptor

I’m telling your right now. We need to be really careful buying some of this stuff. Real careful. More than ever.

It’s a rough time to be a sports writer. Papers and magazine are closing left and right, and websites are also laying off quite a bit.

I wouldn’t recommend journalism as a major. It’s not a growth industry at this time.

Gigs are hard to come back, and people are trying to hang on to their current jobs with white knuckles.

And perhaps some need to get scoops to hang on to certain jobs. The insiders need to make the sausage, and make a lot of it. You got to constantly come up with stuff.

There was a report on Bleacher Report yesterday on the Ryan Fitzpatrick contract imbroglio. I’m not going to mention the writer because I don’t want to get into a pissing contest.

Here it is . . .

“Now, I say this with great caution. Contract talks ebb and flow, like poop in a sewer system. But it seems that both sides are starting to realize something important: The power rests with neither of them. Fitzpatrick has little bargaining room, because no other team wants to pay him what he believes he’s worth. The Jets have no bargaining room, because they have Geno Smith.
“So, as often happens in these situations, everyone is starting to come to their senses.”

This report is getting a lot of play, getting quoted all over the internet.

I’m not sure why.

First of all, why blindly put faith in a report when there is no way to know the “sources” or the veracity of the report.

I personally think it wasn’t a scoop, but instead a “logical guess.”

I find it hard to believe he got this from either side.

I can’t assure you he got no guidance from the Jets on this one. Mike Maccagnan doesn’t roll that way. He doesn’t know these insiders. He thinks the ESPN guy is named “Adam Schecter.”

And agent Jimmy Sexton and company have piped down in recent weeks.

“I think the good thing about it is a lot of it has happened, discussions and everything, behind closed doors,” Fitzpatrick said. “We’ll keep it that way, and just try to get something worked out. I think both sides have done a good job at not necessarily airing grievances to the public.”

So who is telling this guy – “it seems that both sides are starting to realize something important: The power rests with neither of them” or “so, as often happens in these situations, everyone is starting to come to their senses?”

In my opinion, nobody.

I know the parties involved – the reporter and the two sides. I just don’t see it.

People can quote those story all they want.

I think it was basically cooked-up, “a logical guess.”

I do think this contract is worked up eventually, but I don’t buy this story.

When it comes to many of these scoops – Caveat Emptor. Let the buyer beware.

March 26, 2016

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