1. ESPN’s Adam Schefter can’t even go a few weeks now without getting himself in trouble.
Schefter’s latest controversy came Saturday, when he sent out this tweet regarding the death of former Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins:
“Dwayne Haskins, a standout at Ohio State before struggling to catch on with Washington and Pittsburgh in the NFL, died this morning when he got hit by a car in South Florida, per his agent Cedric Saunders. Haskins would have turned 25 years old on May 3.”
Naturally, people couldn’t understand why the insider felt the need to mention that Haskins “struggled” during his NFL career in a tweet reporting his death. Social media ripped him; he deleted the tweet and sent out a reworded tweet with no apology.
On Monday, Schefter finally offered an apology—on his podcast. The portion of the podcast with the apology was tweeted by Schefter for all his followers to hear. Now, a cynic, or just a keen media observer, would say that it feels like Schefter is using the controversy to generate some extra downloads and listens for his podcast. Why wasn’t there an apology on Saturday? Or Sunday? Why didn’t he apologize on Twitter, which is where this all occurred?
Schefter might say the podcast allowed him to go deeper with his apology, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do the 240-character Twitter apology AND go in-depth about the crass and heartless tweet on your podcast.
But screwing up and then trying to clean up the mess afterward definitely seems to be a pattern for Schefter.
There was the revelation that Schefter sent a column to Washington president Bruce Allen for an edit:
“Please let me know if you see anything that should be added, changed, tweaked,” Schefter wrote. “Thanks, Mr. Editor, for that and the trust. Plan to file this to espn about 6 am ….”
There was Schefter acting like a PR person for Vikings running back Dalvin Cook during a domestic abuse case:
“Minnesota Vikings’ RB Dalvin Cook is the victim of domestic abuse and extortion–there’s pending litigation, according to his agent Zac Hiller,” was the tweet Schefter sent out to his nearly 10 million followers.
And there was Schefter going to bat for Deshaun Watson:
Interestingly, Schefter did apologize for this one on Twitter and not his podcast.
But none of this matters because ESPN just re-signed Schefter to a deal that pays him $9 million a year. He is untouchable. He can basically do whatever he wants.
And ESPN shelled out all that cash for Schefter after he gave the network a year filled with controversies.
2. On the opposite end of the apology spectrum, Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm did a mea culpa at his locker after Philly’s 5-4 win against the Mets during which he was caught mouthing, “I hate this f---ing place” after getting booed by the home crowd amid a three-error game.
This was a smart way to try and win back some of the angry Phillies faithful.
3. The Rays had to call on outfielder Brett Phillips to toss two innings in their 13–2 blowout loss against the A’s on Monday night. During his appearance on the mound, Phillips made the greatest catch a pitcher has ever made. But does it really count, since he’s not a pitcher?
4. Sixers guard Matisse Thybulle is going to miss his team's playoff games in Toronto because he's not fully vaccinated. Thybulle has gotten one vaccine shot, but not a second. Stephen A. Smith has thoughts on this, so click that play button below for vintage Stephen A.
5. Even with Tiger Woods not in contention Sunday (and the media refusing to tell you Tiger was stinking up the joint), the Masters put up big ratings.
6. This week's SI Media Podcast features a conversation with Adnan Virk of the MLB Network and the NHL Network.
Topics covered include the start of the Major League Baseball season and my issues with MLB’s exclusive streaming deals, Tiger Woods playing in the Masters, what we’d like to see Elon Musk change at Twitter, HBO’s Winning Time, East Coast bias, Bill Raftery, Mike Trout, Chris Russo’s renaissance, Jim Miller’s excellent HBO book, the death of Seinfeld‘s Estelle Harris and much more.
Virk, who hosts the Cinephile podcast, also had very strong opinions on the Will Smith–Chris Rock Oscars controversy and what the Academy Awards got wrong.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
