The day began with ESPN bizarrely overstating a report from one of the NFL’s most popular reporters.
It ended with ESPN whizzing all over a report from one of its most respected.
At the top of the SportsCenter that following Monday night’s Panthers-Giants preseason game, Mark Schelerth passed along, in somewhat passionate fashion, a vehement denial from Raiders coach Tom Cable regarding the report that he sucker punched defensive assistant Randy Hanson.
Newcomer (and PFT friend — at least until “they” get to him) Adam Schefter then gave the denial some external credibility, explaining that his own information confirms that nothing happened — other than a “heated discussion.” (That said, Schefter acknowledged generally the reports of a punch being thrown.)
The import? ESPN is saying that Nancy Gay of FanHouse, a longtime reporter of the San Francisco Chronicle and one of only two women who cast ballots for admission to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is flat out wrong.
On Monday morning, NationalFootballPost.com reported that something happened to Hanson, which sent him to the hospital and resulted in a police report being filed, with Hanson reluctant to identify who had hit him. Then, Gay made the surprising disclosure, citing multiple sources, that Cable had been the assailant.
So it’s odd that ESPN would both disregard and flat-out contradict these reports. In fact, Schefter suggested that the team might take action against Hanson, for reasons that at this point are simply not clear to us.
The one sure thing? Given Schefter’s reporting on this specific issue, it’s unlikely that Raiders owner Al Davis will be dusting off the “false rumor monger” moniker.
Any truth to the rumor that we was the guy who suggested drafting Mike Mitchell in the 2nd round?
Cable should punch out Jamarcus
Wait. If Cable didn’t punch him out, what about the report of the team chanting “Cable, Bumaye”?
This is a wild story.
Why am I not suprised that Nancy Gay is at the center of this. I am suprised that Kawakami is not involved in it. He might be tomorrow though in saying that it was infact Cable’s mother who broke his jaw.
The truth will eventually come out.
Florio, Dude , You need to let the whole Napoleon complex go. Well for 1 you guys are not the respectable so I don’t blame espn for not recognizing anything you report, and 2 no one wants to hear about it. Just stick to your unfunny TMZ style shtick, Know your Role, and shut your mouth. Let the big boys handle the serious work.
The ESPN guys are full of crap on this one…what a bunch of apologists they are with Schlereth leading the charge by saying it would galvanize the team and staff, etc….they’ll always take the sides of the players and coaches because they are in bed with the NFL and don’t want to insure the wrath of the league…you know Cable hit the guy; people just don’t pull this out of the air…as someone said, where there’s smoke, there’s fire…I saw Cable being interviewed this evening and after a couple of questions about it, some Raiders PR hack pulled him away and said something like “he’s already answered that question”…Like most people, I don’t know the facts, but it sounds very, very fishy to me.
man your hate for espn is just so funny
I wonder who won the Football game(s) tonight?
Profootballdigress.com
Is it too technical to say that he saw it coming? If he dared him to hit him then it’s not a “sucker punch” is it?
Two hits,
Fist to face
Face to floor
He shouldn’t have gone to the hospital. Couldn’t the team doc patch up his vagina?
Never listen to ESPN. They only put out and report what they want to put out whether or not if they think its false or not. Need we look back any further than the Ben Roethlisberger story? “Memo to ALL ESPN employees: Do not talk about or report the case about/on Ben Roethlisberger.” Just call them BSPN. Full of BS
uhh, if the guy went to the hospital, something physical happened. Standard denials by everyone that you would see in a domestic situation to keep the state out of it.
Next level of denial is “accident” as in “yeah officer, my wife who hates me and wants to divorce me shot me in the groin but it was an accident. I swear. Please don’t arrest her and make things worse.”
This is why Gay now “reports” (ahem)
for FanHouse.
Just in case anyone thought ESPN had any credibility left, their being a mouthpiece for Al Davis’s lies should leave no doubt.
ESPN MEETING, hey guys listen up, today were going to bash on the Raiders again. Asshole stands up, i heard Tom Cable got into an arguement with another coach, lets report that he sucker punched him without doing any research. Sounds good, but keep a tight lid on the one rape case that involves that fat QB Ben Rothlisberger, instead lets call out Jamarcus Russell being fat. Good meeting guys, HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE!
Nancy Gay starting lies and bad rumors about the Raiders is about as old as Kenny Stabler……come on people.
Nancy Gays father is Hitler and her mother is Leona Helmsley of course she is pissed off. She is upset because Al Davis wont talk to the media and she is high and mighty and should always have her calls returned. Get over it!!!
Florio is obviously blind to what menopause is capable of so he printed her crap I bet he regrets it now.
Look People Cable was a lineman he is big and mean and could hurt that twerp Hanson. Hanson is a 100lbs lighter than Cable and is a computer geek, he wouldn’t stand a snow balls chance in hell against Cable in a fight.
If you turds are Sheepish enough to actually believe that Cable had to sucker punch a guy as big as Pee Wee Herman then your no smarter than a box of rocks.
Al Davis had no trouble slandering a former head coach, so why not trash a lowly assistant?
Long live Al Davis !!!
Comedy and dysfunction rule in Oakland.
I hate this unnamed sources stuff, it all seems so completely biased. A news agency wants to portray a situation in a particular way — we all have seen that this is the case for many so-called news agencies including ones which claim to be “fair and balanced” (what a joke) — and they make up stuff hiding behind “unnamed sources.”
Ridiculous. Even if there is no bias it presents the appearance of bias.
Someone should keep track of these sorts of reports and much later keep a scorecard, rating individual reporters (and agencies) with their accuracy on this stuff.
ESPN can’t do anything right. The “big boys” as they were cllaed in one of the posts tend to focus more on sponsorship and what stories will get them the highest ratings. They tend to lose sight of the things that matter. All they care about is MIcahel Vick and Brett Favre. They don’t even care about the cowboys anymore.
As Bill Murray, as “Jeff”, said in Tootsie, “That is one *nutty* hospital”.
Replace “hospital” with “football team”- notice I didn’t say “NFL team”.
Nancy Gay strikes again. Worse than Gay though are those who run with what she says.
Despicable.
If the Raiders become any more dysfunctional, they will be moved to the UFL. If the guy has a broken jaw, then something happened. If Cable hit him, he should be arrested just like any other citizen. Given the California courts protection of worker rights, there should be a sizeable law suit on the horizon.
Dude, he just said ‘gay’, tell me you got that on camera.
Hey, Raider B, you do realize it is ESPN that is siding with you in this case, right? I guess you do not want to get facts in the way of your nonsensical rant.
Hate, Hate, and more Hate coming from ESPN. I’m glad Florio and some of these other news outlets finally started exposing their bias. They won’t report the Rothlesburger scandal (which sounded like b.s. anyway) but they are all over The Raiders without confirming anything. They can back-track all they want. The fact is, everyone saw the ESPN double standard and bias reporting that The Raider Nation has been complaining about for years.
Hrmmm… how can I put this?
ESPN sucks.
No question that Nancy Gay is a tool. Still, much like a stopped clock being right twice a day, I think in this case it probably was Cable that clocked this guy. He’s a mole for Davis and I bet that Cable had enough. Unlike the dainty Kiffin, Cable strikes me a someone that won’t take a lot of crap from someone like Hanson.
“The day began with ESPN bizarrely overstating a report from one of the NFL’s most popular reporters.”
PFT can definately judge when a report is bizarrely overstated, in fact no one else is as highly qualified as PFT in this aspect.
Yea Schefter and Schlerth are lying TO SUPPORT the Raiders LOL.
Gee , that would be a surprise that BSPN would report anything negative about the Raiders. And of all their tools they have , it is even more shocking that Schlerth had anthing negative to say. That is a first..
BSPN, official raider hater network! (lets not forget the biggest bus driver of them all and that is Lombardi….Go Greyhound!
Nancy Gay….rhymes with runt.