Christmas football also came with sports media beef.
on wednesday, ESPN's Adam Schefter A source close to the league reported that longtime NFL and college coach Pete Carroll is considering returning to the game.
“The Bears, Jets and Saints are looking for a head coach who can reset their culture,” Schefter wrote. “There are few coaches who are as effective at that as Carroll.”
There's no debating Carroll's effectiveness as a coach at the NCAA or professional level, but Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio seems willing to dispute Schefter's insider credentials.
“ESPN.com's Adam Schefter reports that Carroll wants to return,” Florio wrote. “Frankly, this means that Carroll's agent told Schefter this specifically in hopes of arousing public opinion and that Schefter would broadcast it to the world. That means Carroll's agent owes a huge debt to Schefter.
“That's how sausages are made.”
But Florio didn't stop there.
After Carroll was no longer able to perform in various NFL scenarios, he turned his attention back to Schefter.
“It's hard to blame Carole's representatives for trying to use the media to promote her story,” he continued. “That's the agent's job. But it's not the media's job to provide rewarding PR for coaching candidates.”
Despite a busy day of football and news, Schefter took some time to refute Florio's claims about sources, leaving little to the imagination.
“Everything you say here is 100 percent wrong,” the longtime ESPN newsbreaker wrote to X. “Keep guessing, Merry Christmas.”
This isn't the first time Schefter has felt the need to defend his reporting in recent weeks.
He chimed in with Fox Sports college basketball analyst and Wisconsin-Green Bay coach Doug Gottlieb regarding the emergence of Michael Vick as a candidate for Sacramento State's football coaching career (he later joined Norfolk (He was appointed to a state university).
“Jesus Shefty, please edit what the agent says… there is a 0.0% chance that Sac State has $50 million in NIL,” Gottlieb posted on X. “We have to raise money for the stadium, the coaches and the NIL. To say it's $50 million for the NIL is disingenuous.”
In addition to corroborating his own report, Schefter also criticized Gottlieb for his poor performance this season.
“And Jesus, Doug,” the ESPNer wrote. “We're at the bottom of the Horizon League after losing seven games in a row? I'm spending less time on social media and more time going to the gym.”
Schefter seems to be spending more time on these feuds lately, something his critics may want to consider in the future.
