Rick Maese on Adam Schefter

[3_Octave_Fart]

I'm wondering why Schefter and La Canfora both left high-paying positions as NFL Network's scoops guys in a span of about three years.

Schefter got a huge raise to do so. He also had a non-compete so he had to sit on the sidelines for six months. Not sure if LaCanfora had to do the same.

Rappoport is NFLN's scoop guy these days and does an incredible job.

When Fart was a kid it was Fred Edelstein at ESPN. That guy fell off the map.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I'm wondering why Schefter and La Canfora both left high-paying positions as NFL Network's scoops guys in a span of about three years.

Schefter got a huge raise to do so. He also had a non-compete so he had to sit on the sidelines for six months. Not sure if LaCanfora had to do the same.

Rappoport is NFLN's scoop guy these days and does an incredible job.

When Fart was a kid it was Fred Edelstein at ESPN. That guy fell off the map.

Going to prison for fraud can have that effect on a person.

 

[joe king]

I'm wondering why Schefter and La Canfora both left high-paying positions as NFL Network's scoops guys in a span of about three years.

Schefter got a huge raise to do so. He also had a non-compete so he had to sit on the sidelines for six months. Not sure if LaCanfora had to do the same.

Rappoport is NFLN's scoop guy these days and does an incredible job.

When Fart was a kid it was Fred Edelstein at ESPN. That guy fell off the map.

Going to prison for fraud can have that effect on a person.

Edelstein was just as big a fraud as a reporter. When I first started covering the league, I inherited a subscription to his newsletter from my predecessor. It was horrendous -- maybe a third of his "news" reports turned out to be accurate. When the subscription ran out, one of his people called me to try to get me to renew and I told her he's going to have to bat better than .333 for me to pay for that dreck.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/sports/job-feds-fred-edelstein-cashed-nfl-scams-article-1.919166

Edelstein was an unemployed sports writer in 1983 when, with a few thousand dollars and an old typewriter, he began the Pro Football Insider. He had been inspired a decade earlier as a student at Penn State by left-wing journalist I.F. Stone, who published an iconoclastic newsletter with influence far beyond its small circulation. Edelstein soon developed a network of sources other reporters could only dream about, and it was common knowledge around the league that several owners, including DeBartolo, Jones and Bowlen, and agents Parker, Peter Schaffer and Leigh Steinberg, were regular sources. In 1988, Edelstein joined ESPN as a football analyst, a gig that lasted until 1992. He jumped to the now-defunct Prime Sports Network in '95, where he played host to his own NFL show. The TV exposure boosted his cache around the league - as well as his circulation. Edelstein, always ambitious, told friends he'd start making real money once he began producing his own football show, which he planned to sell to a cable network.

 

[playthrough]

I'm wondering why Schefter and La Canfora both left high-paying positions as NFL Network's scoops guys in a span of about three years.

Schefter got a huge raise to do so. He also had a non-compete so he had to sit on the sidelines for six months. Not sure if LaCanfora had to do the same.

Rappoport is NFLN's scoop guy these days and does an incredible job.

Wonder if he took a vacation then.

 

[mustangj17]

Deadspin just linked us and it wasn't because someone had a dong shot or a DUI! A good day.

 

[mustangj17]

Deadspin just linked us and it wasn't because someone had a dong shot or a DUI! A good day.

http://deadspin.com/adam-schefter-was-once-pranked-into-reporting-john-el-1631171533

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Deadspin just linked us and it wasn't because someone had a dong shot or a DUI! A good day.

http://deadspin.com/adam-schefter-was-once-pranked-into-reporting-john-el-1631171533

That's awesome.

 

[MileHigh]

Behave yourselves if we have company hovering around.

 

[Songbird]

I think Reali is going to judge you on that post. But not mute you.

 

[MileHigh]

If you didn't click on the Deadspin story, here's the Westword story from 1997 when it happened.

http://www.westword.com/1997-09-25/news/off-limits/full/

This was before my time there, but someone who was at the Rocky at the time it happened has told me previously -- the prank is quite legendary, obviously -- that no one from the Rocky was involved in the prank -- and this person has always been a total straight shooter with me.

 

[YankeeFan]

Behave yourselves if we have company hovering around.

ISIS Timeout everybody!

 

[DeskMonkey1]

I fully understand how a situation like that can take a bite out of a reporter's credibility but, really, was that the worse thing they could have said about Elway?

 

[boundforboston]

Did whoever did that lost their job?

 

[Pancamo]

He lives with a woman who lost her husband and father of her child in a blink of an eye and he doesn't take time to smell the roses?

Schefter is great but he is a selfish fool. Life is too short to worry about what kicker the Chiefs signed today.

 

[playthrough]

I fully understand how a situation like that can take a bite out of a reporter's credibility but, really, was that the worse thing they could have said about Elway?

Of course not, but you're not going to get something really awful published as a throw-in at the end of a notebook. As a prank, that's pretty good.

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

He lives with a woman who lost her husband and father of her child in a blink of an eye and he doesn't take time to smell the roses?

Schefter is great but he is a selfish fool. Life is too short to worry about what kicker the Chiefs signed today.

This, to me, is an incredibly unfair comment. We're not in his shoes. What if he feels a tremendous sense of obligation to take care of them (considering their history) and it makes his drive almost pathological? Or, what if he's one of those guys who says, "Look, I'm going to go hard until a certain age, take care of the financial situation, and then retire?"

I have a close friend who -- as he grew up -- watched his father's business collapse twice. They were forced out of their homes on both occasions as the bank foreclosed on them. It shaped who he is. Would his wife like it if he spent more time at home, or had less of a preoccupation with work? Absolutely. But he told her he is determined not to let that happen to him, that, first and foremost, he's going to provide a stable environment for his family so they grow in peace.

She accepts that and is very thankful their children get that. Maybe Schefter is the same way.

 

[boundforboston]

He could also work from home a lot, spending time with his wife and child while answering calls, sending texts or whatever.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Did whoever did that lost their job?

They never caught the culprit. I've asked the two people who were rumored to have done it if they did it and one of them said, "I knew about it, but I didn't do it." and the other denied knowing anything about it, and for what it's worth, nobody believed him.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

This was before the day of emailing stories in. My understanding was that all you needed was a code to file the story, so it would be a lot easier to do this back in 1997 then it would be now.

I think the belief was that someone from the Rocky did it with direction from someone at The Post.