The Sunday “notes” column is a standby of sports pages across the country and Greg Bedard of the Boston Globe writes one of the best of them.
There are brief items on a variety of different topics from around the league, some of which give deeper background on things reported elsewhere and some of which break new information to the general public. It seemed that Bedard had done just that this Sunday when he wrote about Joe Banner’s reaction to the Eagles’ decision to give wide receiver DeSean Jackson a five-year, $47 million deal.
Bedard wrote that Banner was “laughing” about the stories revealing Jackson’s spending on his rap label because he had his power to negotiate contracts usurped by the decision to sign Jackson. Bedard wrote that Banner “never would have done that deal.” It was an interesting nugget that played into the existing narrative about Banner losing a power struggle in Philly to General Manager Howie Roseman and coach Andy Reid. As such, it picked up some play over the course of the day.
Problem is, Bedard wasn’t actually passing along insight gleaned from Banner or someone else close to the negotiations. It was simply Bedard’s opinion, something that he should have made a bit clearer given the certainty Bedard expressed while writing about Banner. Bedard cleared that up with a tweet late on Sunday, shortly before calling it a slow news day in Philly if his column generated that much interest.
That’s not particularly fair since Bedard deemed it interesting enough to put in the column in the first place and since it seemed to give some insight into the way the Eagles front office will operate moving forward. It’s not Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, but it is firmly in a neighborhood of great interest to those that follow the Eagles.
That group will likely have equal interest in a response from Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who wrote Monday that “Banner would have done that team-friendly deal and advised Howie Roseman in the negotiations” that led to the final agreement. That should wrap this up once and for all, especially since Banner’s opinion on the matter doesn’t matter all that much.
Roseman and Reid are the guys running the show now and the success or failure of the Jackson extension will go directly on their shoulders whether Banner holds onto his honorary adviser title or moves on to other pursuits.