00:00Okay, the story that has dominated social media this past week and really the sports cycle has been this Diana
00:07Rossini from The Athletic and also The New York Times, which owns The Athletic, and also this Mike Rabel story.
00:15Journalism and the credibility, once again, of the National Football League is put online here.
00:20Well, let's take a look at it. Journalism took a hit because at the end of the day, Diana Rossini
00:26is now being accused of having a relationship with the head football coach of the New England Patriots.
00:32And on the other hand, you got a married head football coach that is having a relationship with a head
00:38writer and one of the most elite writers in the National Football League and Diana Rossini.
00:43By the way, for the record, I respect her work. Her stories have been elite. She's one of the top
00:49sports writers, and she might just be the top women's sports writer in the entire country when it comes to
00:55covering a National Football League.
00:57These pictures that were posted by the New York Post also is something that for me as a person that
01:04works in our business, obviously, you're going to talk about journalistic integrity.
01:09But on the other hand, you also have the National Football League's head coach.
01:13Now, integrity when it comes to the NFL, you've got a quarterback that's sitting in Cleveland right now that has
01:18over 32 sexual misconduct cases against him.
01:22What happened in the NFL? The National Football League gave that guy a raise.
01:26They guaranteed over $230 million.
01:28So when it comes to integrity of the National Football League and it comes to integrity of their coaches, this
01:35goes down to standard stereotype that people have about the National Football League.
01:39Do you really think they care about integrity when it comes to right and wrong?
01:43Of course not. It's all about cash registers.
01:46Diana Rossini, on the other hand, she's a respected journalist, and she has hurt her reputation.
01:53I'll throw some people out at you here.
01:54Joy Taylor, another person is Rachel Nichols.
01:58What happened to those folks once these stories came out that had some type of connection when it comes to
02:04what we just saw with Diana Rossini being in a relationship with Mike Vrabel?
02:08You saw what happened to their careers.
02:11Obviously, Diana Rossini could be looked at as, are you influencing a narrative?
02:17Here, I'll throw this out at you.
02:19She voted on the Coach of the Year Award for Mike Vrabel.
02:23She also voted on the Player of the Year for Drake May.
02:27So at the end of the day, are you influencing votes when it comes to Player of the Year and
02:32head coaching?
02:33When you've got that kind of say and you've got that kind of power when it comes to awards.
02:38By the way, do you know if you win an NFL MVP award in your contract?
02:43That could be as much as a $2 million bonus if you make that incentive.
02:48Plus, it makes your coaching staff look great that you're coaching the Assistant Coach of the Year and Josh McDaniels,
02:55who she also votes for.
02:56And on top of that, there's also a narrative that she's one of the front riders when it comes to
03:01this A.J. Brown story and A.J. going to New England.
03:05The word is, two is in threes that New England wants to only offer, and Howie Roseman, the general manager
03:11of the Eagles, wants a one and a two.
03:14There was a story that just came out in Los Angeles with Les Snead, the general manager of the Rams,
03:20saying that there was a deal potentially out there for A.J. Brown, where Devontae Adams would be sent to
03:26Philadelphia.
03:27Could this be, and again, this is all speculation, like everything else is, a lot of words came out that
03:34one of the reasons that the Rams hedged on that was because they were starting to hear about a knee
03:40injury that A.J. Brown had suffered when he came out of college at Ole Miss.
03:44And this was starting to pop up.
03:46Was that a conversation to diminish the market?
03:49Can a rider influence a story?
03:53Do you believe that Mel Kuyper, when he puts out his draft rankings, do you think Mel Kuyper influences whether
04:01or not a guy's a fifth-rounder or a third-rounder because he's their lead analyst?
04:06Go back in the history of Mel Kuyper and look at how Mel Kuyper has been looked at with an
04:12agent by the name of Gary Ricard back in the day, and the DOJ and the FBI were investigating before
04:17Gary Ricard passed away.
04:19Talking about bonuses, talking about inflating a guy's draft value.
04:25What happens when you inflate a guy's draft value?
04:28That agent makes more on a signing bonus.
04:32And again, all of this was alleged.
04:34That investigation went away after Gary Ricard died.
04:38So my question would be, can sports writers influence a narrative?
04:42Absolutely.
04:43And I'm not saying in any way that Diana Rossini is sitting here influencing what Howie Roseman and what Elliott
04:50Wolfe, the executive vice president of the Patriots, are going to do.
04:54That's not where I'm going here.
04:56Because those guys are not going to be influenced in Liars Month as we're getting closer to the NFL draft.
05:01Journalistic integrity was put on and in the bullseye this week.
05:05And you got the NFL again, once again, with a coach that, again, with questionable motives here, two hours away
05:13from the owners' meetings, you go to a resort, and a head writer for the New York Times, and a
05:20head football coach that was just in the Super Bowl, and you put those two together, all I'm saying here
05:27is this.
05:28I mean, that's not a good look for the NFL and for journalism.
05:34Diana Rossini is one of the most respected writers that we have in our business.
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