The NFL coaching roulette started spinning pretty wildly yesterday, with DeMeco Ryans is headed to the Texans now that san francisco’s season is over, what’s gone Sean Payton’s path to Denver is open. Although that path was a two-way street, given the draft picks the Broncos had to send back to New Orleans for the pleasure of Payton’s company and their desire to for now/burn their present and future to ashes.
Today, following the NFL media requires a little more media literacy than it used to, which is clearly not the strength of this country. “Insiders” are mostly just megaphones and amplifiers for GMs or agents and what they want in the bloodstream. They don’t really “break” things anymore so much as they serve the purpose of those they supposedly report on. So an NFL fan, if so inclined, must not only read everything that is reported or rumored, but also who those reports and rumors serve. It is not only about the news, but also about who the news benefits.
Adam Schefter, Ian Rapoport weigh in
After Payton was hired by the Broncos, Ian Rapoport tweeted that the Broncos went back to Ryans to offer him their head coaching job that very day. When he stayed with the Texans — now that says a lot about the Broncos and Russell Wilson — then they went back to Payton.
Now, Rapoport isn’t above this slush either, but when we focus solely on this report of the Broncos throwing themselves and most of their underwear at Ryans, one has to see who would want that out there. Maybe the Texans’ front office, maybe the Ryans, just to make it seem to Texans fans that they really pulled off a coup here. But with the Broncos in such a mess, this isn’t so hard to believe.
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Of course, Schefter he was only too willing to do… well, we can guess that’s the Broncos’ offer.
Only 13 minutes passed between the two tweets, but it’s easy to see exactly who would want the information Schefter is pumping out. The Broncos definitely don’t want to look like the idiots they probably are, so they’d be quick to throw out the “We know exactly what we’re doing!” as soon as possible. And where can an organization turn to get its message across the half-assed social media pile-up? Boss baby!
It’s easy enough for anyone to pick this up, given the Broncos’ recent run to get Jim Harbaugh of Michigan after he said he wasn’t leaving Ann Arbor. They didn’t really want to hire Payton, they just did. But they can’t look like they’re just settling for what they can find, and there’s only one avenue for team propaganda these days.
In the words of The Dude, “It’s like Lenin said..you look for the person who will benefit and you..uh, uh… you know what I’m trying to say.”
Great week for MLB coverage
Just days after MLB faced the fact that half of its teams will lose their local television contracts thanks to Diamond Sports Group’s four-legged broadcast, comes news that YouTube TV is shutting down the MLB Network. But MLB wasn’t really interested in how many people actually watch their games, that’s the networks problem.
YouTube TV has around five million subscribers, which is a number you’d think MBL would be interested in keeping available for viewing on its own station. MLB Network has a few games a week on the channel, if they get around local blackout rules (which may be going away anyway). Through TBS, MLB Network, ESPN and FOX, baseball fans who didn’t have the Extra Innings package or MLB.TV could get a fair helping of out-of-market games and stay up to date on what was happening. Maybe this is part of MLB’s plan if they are indeed absorbing Sinclair is left an orphan after being declared bankruptattract more people to MLB.tv, especially if the blackout rules are lifted.
However, MLB is not really in place for viewers who could easily access their product. On the other hand, prediction is not really their thing.