On Thursday, as the momentum was pointing toward quarterback Brett Favre unretiring for a second straight year and playing for a team other than the Packers for a second straight year, the report from Yahoo! Sports came out of the blue — Favre, according to Rick Schwartz, had told the Vikings that he’s not going to play for them in 2009, and Favre would be announcing his decision “soon.”
Despite being an “Internet report” from a guy who by all appearances had never reported anything about pro football on the Internet or elsewhere, the absence of contradictory evidence prompted the sports media to accept it as accurate.
For a day.
By Friday evening, multiple contradictory reports had emerged. Perhaps most importantly, Favre had not (and still has not) announced that he won’t be playing for the Vikings.
And so the folks from Yahoo! Sports likely are feeling a little nervous right now. We believe this because, for reasons neither known nor apparent, Assistant Managing Editor Mark Pesavento of Yahoo! Sports contacted me by e-mail today to defend Schwartz’s report.
“Despite the condescending and sarcastic way you (twice) dismissed our report on Favre, and having read what our competition is saying about the situation, I can tell you with 100% certainty that I stand behind Rick Schwartz’s story,” Pesavanto said.
But, see, the problem is that the report already is technically not 100 percent accurate. Schwartz said Favre was expected to explain his decision “soon.” It has been more than 48 hours, and counting.
“Soon,” in our view, has come and gone — especially since Favre has remained silent in the face of Friday’s reports from Jeremy Schaap of ESPN.com and Scott Hanson of NFL Network regarding the delivery of Favre’s shoulder X-rays to the Vikings.
But, still, Pesavento insists that Schwartz’s story is accurate.
“You may not have heard of Rick Schwartz (he’s a producer and on-air talent for us), but in this business, it’s who you know, and Rick happens to know the right person for this story,” Pesavento said. “Unfortunately, we had to give anonymity to protect his source, but trust me when I say this person would know. That way you can avoid having any more egg on your face when Schaap’s report is proven to be nothing more than the imaginings of Bus Cook.”
Um, Rick? Stridence might not be the best approach when your report already is wobbling like a table built by Michael Scott.
Hey, Schwartz may be right and, necessarily, Schaap and Hanson might be wrong. But the mere fact that Schwartz has tiptoed out of his bailiwick for a one-time story that wasn’t delegated to Jason Cole or Charles Robinson or Michael Silver tells us that Schwartz likely is comfortable with the possibility that the story won’t ultimately be corroborated by reality.
Meanwhile, Pesavento dropped some strong hints about Schwartz’s source.
If I were a real journalist, I might have to explore whether and to what extent Schwartz and Vikings owner Zygi Wilf had a pre-existing relationship.
And then the question, if I were a real journalist, would be whether Wilf was putting out flawed or incomplete information in the hopes that his team wouldn’t get pushed (by the fans and a coach desperate to win now) to sign a guy who prompted this reaction from Wilf less than three months ago: “No way.”
We suppose it’s also possible that Favre told the Vikings he couldn’t play because of his shoulder/arm injury, and the Vikings said in response, “Let us take a look at the films so we can confirm that rehab or rest would fix it.”
That would, in theory, harmonize the Thursday and Friday reports.
But if Schwartz has such an impeccable source, shouldn’t Schwartz be issuing a follow up that explains away the reports from Schaap and Hanson, guys who have an ongoing incentive to have a reputation for accuracy?
Anyway, it’s pretty clear to us that someone at Yahoo! Sports is feeling a little queasy about whether the report is accurate. Otherwise, the Assistant (to the) Managing Editor wouldn’t feel compelled to try to persuade the proprietor of a slapdick web site that vindication is in the offing.
Yahoo Editor Defends Favre Report
Posted by Mike Florio on May 9, 2009, 9:34 PM EDT
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22 Comments 
Latest Stories in: Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Rumor Mill, Top Stories
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Latest Stories in: Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Rumor Mill, Top Stories
22 Responses to “Yahoo Editor Defends Favre Report”
Florio, your condescending and sarcastic is exactly why i keep reading here. Too many damn people take themselves too seriously. Football is a game. Keep it real, homie.
As the Assistant to the Managing Editor, I am putting you on notice Mr. Florio!
- Mark Pesavento
“But, see, the problem is that the report already is technically not 100 percent accurate. Schwartz said Favre was expected to explain his decision “soon.” It has been more than 48 hours, and counting.
“Soon,” in our view, has come and gone”
That’s just YOUR view. Not Favre’s.
To Favre “soon” means “sometime before preseason begins….maybe.”
Enough with all the Brett Farve crap. Is there absolutely nothing else going on in the entire NFL.
Mike, take this how you like, but Favre isn’t the news. The news is the writers. It’s you becoming the news by reporting about nothing that is actually happening. Forty-eight hours isn’t “soon”? Maybe it is to Favre, who happens to be in his own non-football world. Maybe “soon” to him is a week. Or two. If he’s retired, why does he have to move fast? The frenetic pace is left for those who actually are news or for those who are becoming the news by speculating on nothing.
Eh, I think a lot of these guys are just making things up or taking any hint or rumor as fact and trying to outdo each other. The result is an awful lot of reporters, internet or otherwise who are running around like a bunch of monkeys and putting out reports about as intelligent as a bunch of real monkeys might manage.
okay kids, y’all get along now
The days since “slapdick” counter has gone from 1 to 0.
Maybe it is the guy Ric from NFLDraftBible and he is using an alias because nobody takes NFLDraftBible seriously anymore.
Beautiful work Mikey. Here’s hoping you never become an”real” journalist.
War Florio opening more cans of whoop ass in the future.
(and this idiot thinks he’s on the Jim Rome Show because he is a clone. Duh… Stupid!
that’s the only way we live and breathe. Unwar all the losers who can’t live with that)
Enough with the inferiority complex, Mike, Yahoo and Whitlock wouldn’t personally contact you with retorts to your writing if it was “just an internet report.”
However, in the past, you’ve used the security blanket that the news is what the source is saying; Yahoo is not breaking the story that Favre told them he plans to play. The writer has a source who says he will, and Yahoo stands by that.
If they get burned, they get burned, but in my opinion, Schwartz did what a journalist should do; farm sources, beat the streets and report the news s/he discovers. Who gives a rip if he hasn’t reported anything to this point? Pesavento is right, it’s who you know. “If *I* was a journalist,” there’s no way I’m letting Silver or Robinson use my source for that story. If that one source is Schwartz’s ticket in, then he’s going to use it. How does that speak negatively to his credibility?
Go ahead and split hairs over the definition of the word “soon,” but the fact you’re pulling that kind of a reaction to stoke the fire over this hissy fit of a feud is kind of lame.
Is it professional to air your “beef” about other “journalists” this way. Isn’t this something that should be handled between you and the douchenozzle that wrote this story?
I mean, does anyone else write stories just to specificly discredit yours?
on someone’s radio show in MN, someone commented that schwarz and wilf were related. which could explain his source for the info and why he’s never written any nfl pieces before. he got the hook-up
Maybe Robbie Bosco could be the new QB for the Vikings…he has great college bloodlines, he never did play for the Packers, so he ultimately left the fans hanging, much like Favre has done. They are probably roughly the same age too…go ahead ZW, sign Bosco.
Don’t you miss when TO was a Cowboy? Nobody ever talks about him anymore.
Hey Florio, how about you just avoid the whole thing then? Nope! Keep stealing the work of others and profiting off it, you pathetic leach.
catfight!!!! meowwwwwwww
Who seriously takes Yahoo(anything) seriously, they have stories about the presidents Hamburger choices…. Florio if you read this, take any shots you can at them.
How lame of you, Florio. You’ve built a website that thrives on posting information from unnamed sources — when you occasionally post original items. And then you hide behind those anonymous (or made up) sources when the info turns out to be wrong or is later contradicted. But you sure act all high and mighty when other writers cite an anonymous source.
And if you don’t like Yahoo Sports and [insert name of whatever major media source you're targeting today], stop reposting their work as news items on PFT and watch 90 percent of your content disappear. If mainstream journalists are so pitiful, why do you spend most of your time trolling their websites to prop up your own?
The Yahoo Sports story said that Favre would speak out soon. With it being Mother’s day this weekend and the story was broke toward the end of the week, the source might have meant the start of next week. Of course if the report about Favre planning to stay retired is true, it could just that Favre lied to the Vikings about his intentions. It seems Favre might not want to have a press conference to address this rumors. If Favre has planned all along to stay retired then he is getting some very bad PR advice. The second these rumors came out he should have addressed them. By not having a press conference to address these rumors it makes him look bad. Which is why I think there is some truth to the rumors.
Pesavente’s just miffed because you haven’t sent him an autographed copy of QBF yet.
Florio, if there was one outlet I wouldn’t get into a pissing match with, it would be Yahoo! You should know by now that “soon” to Favre means, as “soon” as the media stops talking about me for 48 hours and my ego needs to get my name back onto ESPN. While you and others in the media continue to stroke his need for attention, “soon” will just have to wait.