Before I get started on tonight’s hate, I’d like to reflect back on last night’s. I talked a lot of shit about the NFL & racism, and felt that was justified.

Well, don’t I just feel like an asshole because, in a press release & press conference seemingly designed to torpedo my journalistic endeavours, Roger Goodell came out and announced he had solved racism. Or, at least, admitted that maybe – just maybe – they may have a little more work to do on the topic. On Saturday he tweeted out this,

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to all clubs this morning regarding coaching diversity and admitted “the results have been unacceptable.” pic.twitter.com/Hyhwu0mEJY

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 5, 2022

and in no way was a response to the Brian Flores lawsuit that dropped on the first day of “Black History Month”. Then, his “State of the League” address on Wednesday afternoon touched on the need to “look at everything we’re doing today, reevaluate that, everything from looking at the Rooney Rule and what changes should be made with that, or should it be removed, as some people have suggested.”

My humblest of apologies, dear sir. I did not realize I was condemning a clearly penitent & sorrowful man.

Of course, when you ask for are forced to take questions after publishing such a letter & giving such a press conference, one shouldn’t be surprised that hard ones might get asked by people who aren’t your puppets or lackeys,

The NFL says diversity, equity and inclusion are part of its core principles. The numbers say otherwise, so I asked @nflcommish about it. 👇🏾 pic.twitter.com/IJYl7EGdN0

— Jim Trotter (@JimTrotter_NFL) February 9, 2022

which is an excellent segue to tonight’s topic,

Media Whores

In what seems like a routine occurrence, at least one day of Hate Week each year seems to be dedicated to the rim job artists that populate the various sports departments at the NFL’s “broadcast partners”. There’s a reason that hashtags like, “Peter King Lives on his Knees” & “Shut up Mike Florio” exist in the [DFO] database. Most recently, in 2021, through the fog of war hydromorphone, I laid out why the NFL Network fluffers at “Good Morning Football” are the worst. (And since Nate Burleson left the show, they’ve not unexpectedly degraded.)

This year, in light of the recent Brian Flores case, I’ve decided to turn my attention to two of the league’s most egregious lickspittles – Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport.

But honestly? They’re the same fucking guy. Both are excellent at what they “do”, which is produce reams of information about the NFL, most of which is glad-handing that serves to drown out the bad bits they – or, more likely, their colleagues – might be forced to report on. They are not expected to be the ones to unearth the scandal; they are the ones expected to minimize the scandal for their millions of followers.

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Rapoport is clearly in the worse position, working for the NFL Network and NFL.com. He can’t afford to pull a Ken Rosenthal and criticize his commissioner the way Rosenthal went after Rob Manfred. Rosenthal was a respected journalist before he went to the MLB Network. All Schefter did before moving to 345 Park Avenue was cover the Patriots for three years from 2009-12. One bad word about Roger Goodell sends him back to covering Bill Belichick full-time.

This is what necessitates his constant feeding of the machine. I counted – for the week of January 31 – February 4, he had an average of 25 tweets and 15 retweets per day. All of which are the type of hard-hitting pieces you’d expect from a man eager to keep his job.

From @GMFB: A look at how the #Jaguars arrived at Doug Pederson as their head coach, plus the #Saints add #Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy to their head coaching list. pic.twitter.com/fdlQIztCUg

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 4, 2022

^{The corporate synergy just drips from the screen.}

That’s not to say that he doesn’t report the negative. Credibility demands he report the uncomfortable news,

Former #Dolphins coach Brian Flores has retained counsel and filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL. The details: pic.twitter.com/MRuP6O6YcA

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 1, 2022

but that doesn’t mean he has to be happy about it. And don’t expect any personal opinions on any topic! Where he does mention anything beyond the text of the message, it’s just stock comments or retweets from people far braver than him.

From Flores 👇👇👇 https://t.co/WiGxuI4skb

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 1, 2022

Every time something negative comes out,

he immediately follows up with covering fire, like a good soldier is supposed to. And the first second he could, it was right on to a change of topic. For example – the Flores lawsuit dropped the afternoon of February 1st,

Commanders it is. https://t.co/AKEKH2rlit

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 2, 2022

so the good news the League wants people to know better come bright, early, and fast. 5:13AM? That’s barely more than twelve hours since the Flores suit dropped, and he’s making sure that the first thing most people see in the AM is a definitive change of topic. That’s some pretty good ball cupping by Rapoport. Mind you, he is kind of an expert in the area,

given that he was suspended for two weeks in 2020 for promoting “the perfect tool for your family jewels” without clearance from his bosses at NFL.com. Given that these exist,

I don’t think keeping your zone tight is all that bad a look. Indeed, given that he’s already a corporate shill, what was the greater crime – being a pitchman, or pitching a non-NFL sponsor?

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Adam Schefter, meanwhile, has a little more latitude since he’s not a direct employee of the League, just one from one of their “broadcast partners”, albeit the one that usually gets the shittiest game of the week. He reports the news,

NFL statement on Brian Flores’ lawsuit: pic.twitter.com/LaJVJuw3gS

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 1, 2022

and provides most follow-up material on the topic.

Broncos’ statement today on Brian Flores’ lawsuit: pic.twitter.com/IFVBNhQLgq

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 1, 2022

But it doesn’t help when he blatantly helps Goodell carry the water,

In the last line of the memo that Roger Goodell sent to all teams this morning regarding diversity and inclusion, he wrote, “There is much work to do”. https://t.co/pMJWF5lwBO

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 5, 2022

^{The difference between opinion & observation can be razor-thin or canyon-esque.}

At least by working for ESPN, Schefter tries to play both sides,

After the Texans announced they hired Lovie Smith today, Brian Flores’ attorneys released this statement: pic.twitter.com/3njAv54YC5

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 8, 2022

What doesn’t help his image was also being tied up in the release of Bruce Allen’s emails. Many of us heard the story – in 2011, he sent a rough version of a story he was working on the [Redacteds] GM Bruce Allen, allowing him to edit the piece to best tell the version of the story he wanted to get out. The general reaction? I’ll let Jimmy Traina of si.com spell it out:

I never considered Schefter some hardcore journalist who was doing investigative work. He mainly breaks news about signings, trades, hirings and firings. That’s not meant to be an insult. Schefter does it better than anyone in the NFL. But the news he breaks is mostly transactional. It has been obvious for decades that, he gets that information from agents and front-office people around the league.

No one denies that Schefter is neither Woodward nor Bernstein. My objection is that people still treat him like a competent journalist, instead of a walking, talking message board for information people want to get out. He gets scoops because people give him information they want released. People pick their nose harder than he digs for scoops. When people bring him in as an “NFL expert”, they should tell the people they are broadcasting this to just what kind of shill he is.

So no one should be surprised that neither of them had anything concrete to add to the discourse about the Flores lawsuit. It takes #Content to feed the machine, and these two need that in order to survive. It’s like if a shark stopped swimming it’ll die. Heaven forbid they actually take a stand on something. My God – even Peter King felt emboldened to take a run at the League:

How, exactly, could the NFL know the claims by Flores are “without merit” two hours after the suit emerged? https://t.co/tic1LAXo8t

— Peter King (@peter_king) February 1, 2022

Just 24 hours ago, the claims were "without merit."
I don't buy a word the NFL says about this case. https://t.co/HC2bqBn93q

— Peter King (@peter_king) February 3, 2022

When the “Wizard of Wichita” feels compelled to break from the narrative, you must really be in the wrong. I guess that’s why he’s no longer on “Sunday Night Football”. And while he might not have access to the same dining companions he once did,

he still has enough connections to make his job worthwhile.

If a man this spineless can suddenly grow a pair, what does that say about the integrity of Schefter & Rapoport that they dare not risk offending the League?

Oh, and in case you were wondering about Florio?

Tony Khan, son of Jaguars owner Shad Khan, files to run for Congress in Florida. https://t.co/4FvWgu5ub1

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) February 10, 2022

The fact checking standard for @ProFootballTalk reporting is far lower than that of @AEW’s roving reporter @tonyschiavone24. I’m definitely not running for Congress; this filing is faker than Eddie Gilbert’s apology to Tommy Rich in 1984. PFT sources as trustworthy as @The_MJF. https://t.co/HPdU53GrfY

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) February 10, 2022

NFL media everyone – throw pudding at the wall, and see if Terry Bradshaw licks it off.

Tonight’s sports:

• Olympics: (CBC schedule)
  • Alpine Skiing:
    • Women’s Super G Final – 7:00PM
  • Cross Country Skiing
    • Men’s 15km Classic Final – 11:00PM
  • Hockey
    • Men’s Preliminary:
      • Denmark vs ROC – 8:10PM
      • Czech Republic vs Switzerland – 12:30AM
    • Women’s Quarterfinal:
      • USA vs. Czech Republic – 8:10PM
  • Curling:
    • Women’s Round Robin #3 – 10:00PM
• NHL:
  • Hurricanes at Bruins – 7:00PM | Sportsnet360
• NBA: it was trade deadline day today, and a bunch of guys got moved
  • Nets at Wizards – 7:30PM | TNT
  • Raptors at Rockets – 8:00PM | Sportsnet1
  • Bucks at Suns – 10:00PM | TNT
• NCAA:
  • Iowa at Maryland – 7:00PM | ESPN2
  • Purdue at Michigan – 9:00PM | ESPN
  • Arizona at Washington State – 9:00PM | FS1
  • Stanford at Oregon – 9:00PM | ESPN2
  • Arizona State at Washington – 11:00PM | FS1
• NFL:
  • The NFL Honors – 9:00PM | ABC / TSN3
    • Hosted by Keegan-Michael Key

Before I conclude, I’d like to thank everyone for bearing with me. It was a tad presumptuous to request that I take over for the last four days, because there’s clearly enough hate to go around. But since Low Commander & I were part of the genesis behind “Hate Week”, I wanted to come back & contribute to the site in some small way I knew how. This week has also shown me that I made the right decision to step away, because I could barely keep up with this commitment. I don’t want to do more unless I can actually commit to that more, but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss being here.

Enjoy the game Sunday, and I’ll see you around.